45 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month [in 2023]

how to make an extra 500 dollars per month

Congratulations! Just by asking the question – how to make an extra $500 a month? – you are among a select few looking to improve their financial position and achieve financial freedom.

There are many ways to make an extra 500 dollars a month (or $200 a month, or $1,000 a month). But if you’re anything like me, you get stuck in the idea phase.

Taking action and actually committing to doing something is the hard part.

As the saying goes, there are a million ways to make a million dollars, but without focusing on one thing you’ll never get there.

Here are some of my favorite ideas on how to make an extra $500 a month.

But wait!!! Before You Read Further…

You have to promise me one thing before you keep reading…

Commit to taking action TODAY!

Even if that’s just signing up for a survey app to make a few dollars while you watch Netflix later tonight. Or narrowing the list down to one idea, and writing out a few bullet points on the steps you need to take to get started.

I am super passionate about side hustles as a way to build wealth for your family (it’s how we built over $1M in net worth in 5 years). But I wasted too much time thinking,  and not enough time doing. 

If I can help you avoid my mistakes, you’ll be way ahead of the game and build wealth that much faster.

Table of Contents

45 WAYS TO MAKE AN EXTRA $500 A MONTH

Looking for a few quick wins to make money fast?

Here are a couple of legit apps that pay you money just for signing up:

1. Become a Virtual Assistant and Make Extra Money

Income Potential: $25 – $50+ per hour
Skills Needed: Not much to get started except a willingness to learn and follow directions. You can make more if you have specialized skills.

This is a broad category with lots of options to specialize in. If you don’t know where to start on your side hustle journey, I’d recommend at least trying out being a virtual assistant to see if it’s something you like.

So what does a virtual assistant do? Business owners are always in need of good people who can help them with their email, marketing, financials, creative design, etc. If you have any kind of talent or skill, you can probably find someone willing to pay for it!

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Email management
  2. Data entry
  3. Social media management
  4. Customer service
  5. Editing/proofreading content
  6. Creating graphics
  7. Online marketing

The possibilities are truly endless. Gina Horkey over at Horkey Handbook built her VA business to six figures and now teaches others how to do the same. If you’re interested in having a flexible side hustle where you can work from anywhere, I highly recommend you check out her content.

Here is her list of over 150 services you can offer as a virtual assistant! I can guarantee you’ll find 2 or 3 things on that list you can start your business off with.


2. Work from Home as a Virtual Bookkeeper

Income Potential: $60-80+ per hour
Skills Needed: No degree or experience required to get started, but you do need to be comfortable with numbers.

Becoming a bookkeeper from home is one of my favorite side hustle ideas (or even full-time business ideas). If you like numbers and the zen of a balanced bank account, starting your own virtual bookkeeping business may be for you. To make an extra $500 a month you would only need one or two clients!

There are so many small business owners out there who are great with big ideas and big vision, but need someone to help them keep their books in order and make sure they are making a profit. You can step in and be their right-hand business partner and CFO.

FURTHER READING: How My Bookkeeping Side Hustle Allowed Me to Quit My Job and Make $75/Hour From Home

The best thing about bookkeeping is you can work from home with flexible hours, and there are very few startup costs. If you niche down to serving a certain type of business (say online businesses, or real estate investors) you can charge $60-80 per hour or even more.

Oh and did I mention that bookkeeping doesn’t require a degree or any certification?

If you want to learn more about whether bookkeeping would be a good fit for you and how to go about learning the skills you need to be a great bookkeeper, I highly recommend my friend Ben’s FREE training series:

Click here for a series of free training videos on how to start your own bookkeeping business!


how to make extra money with surveys

3. Share Your Opinion While Watching Nextflix for Extra Cash

Income Potential: $100 – $500 per month
Skills Needed: None, other than a little free time and an opinion.

If you’re really not sure where to get started and have struggled to take action in the past, I would recommend starting with online surveys.

You will not get rich overnight by taking surveys, but there is zero barrier to entry, and you can fill out surveys in the little bits of spare time you would normally waste during the day.

There are two sites I wholeheartedly recommend for anyone looking to start taking online surveys: Survey Junkie and Swagbucks. They are both legit, have been in business a long time, and have paid out millions to their users.

RELATED: The 2 Best Online Survey Sites That Pay Cash (And Why I Don’t Recommend All the Rest)

There are other legit survey sites out there, but also a lot of scams. If you’re just getting started, these are the two I absolutely recommend.

make an extra $500 with survey junkie

Survey Junkie – This is my favorite survey company, and also one of the largest. There are always surveys available, which is a problem with some of the other survey companies.

With Survey Junkie, you earn points for each survey you complete. You can then convert your points to cash directly in your PayPal account, or trade them in for gift cards. They even give you points just for signing up and filling out your profile.

Sign up to start making money with Survey Junkie today

swagbucks logo earn extra money

Swagbucks – I like Swagbucks because there are a ton of different ways to earn points. They also offer surveys, but you can also make money by watching videos, playing games, or even browsing the web.

As you earn points (“swagbucks”), you can redeem them for gift cards or cash in your PayPal account. Right now they are also giving you a free $5 just for signing up for an account!

Sign up for Swagbucks and get your FREE $5 bonus

If you’re looking for a few more ways to earn more money through surveys, these are good options as well:

  • MyPoints [$5 bonus] – Get paid for giving your opinion. Plus get a $5 bonus after taking 5 surveys! (Rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot)
  • InboxDollars [$5 bonus] – Take surveys, surf the web, and watch videos for extra cash. Get a free $5 when you sign up! (Rated 4/5 on Trustpilot)
  • Branded Surveys [100 point bonus] – Take surveys from your phone. They have paid out over $27M to members so far. (Rated 4.3/5 on Trustpilot)

The key to making money with surveys is to sign up for a few different apps and actively participate. Some offers are better than others. But typically the more you complete, the better your chances of being offered well-paying surveys.


4. Make Money on the Side Tutoring

Income Potential: $15 – $100+ per hour
Skills Needed: Subject knowledge in whatever you’re teaching, or the ability to learn.

In college, I worked at the math department’s “help desk” where we provided tutoring and homework help to anyone who came in. I also did some private tutoring and made a decent hourly wage ($20 an hour back in 2005 or so). It was a good learning experience for me (I tend to learn better when I have to teach it to someone else), and I got some much-needed spending money out of it.

If you enjoy teaching others and have a little bit of inner nerd (that’s me!), tutoring can be a great way to earn some extra cash. You can tutor in almost any subject you can think of – math, science, computer/software skills, reading, English, etc.

The more specialized your skill set, the more you can potentially charge. For example, I recently ran across a guy who makes $100-160 per hour tutoring standardized tests like the GRE or LSAT!

But you don’t have to become an entrepreneur and start your own tutoring business to make an extra $500 a month. There are plenty of opportunities locally and online. You can post ads on Craigslist or Facebook, or apply to work with one of the many online tutoring companies like Wyzant or Tutor.com. You could even go down to your local schools and see if you can get on a list of recommended tutors if parents are looking for extra help for their kids.


5. Make an Extra $500 With Cash Back Apps and Credit Card Rewards

Income Potential: $500 – $2,000 per year
Skills Needed: None, just good credit if you want to collect credit card sign up bonuses

I have a goal every year to make $500 from cash back apps and $1,000 from credit card sign-up bonuses (not including the actual cash back from credit card purchases).

While this is not life-changing money, it’s a noticeable amount. It takes almost no effort on my part, so it’s basically passive income (my favorite kind of income).

CASH BACK APPS

So how do cash back apps work? You basically link a credit card for local shopping or use their portal for online shopping you were going to do anyway and earn anywhere from 1 – 20% cash back without having to think about it (I average around 2-5% back normally). This is in addition to any cash back your credit card gives you!

For more detail into my cash back app strategy, I lay out everything here: The Best Cash Back Apps I Use to Make $500 Per Year

The short version is, there are 3 apps I have on my phone that I recommend everyone should have to make passive income:

ebates logo make money cash back appEbates (Rakuten) – By far the biggest and most diverse player in the cash back app space, Ebates offers cash back at hundreds of online retailers. Since my family buys almost everything online these days, we always get a few percent back just by shopping through Ebates. They send me a deposit to my PayPal account once per quarter 🙂

Sign up with Ebates now and get a $10 bonus

drop app logo how to make extra moneyDrop – This is another app I love because I just link my credit card and it adds points to my account when I do my normal shopping at stores like Target, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, etc. (ok let’s be honest, my wife is usually the one earning these points).

The cool thing about Drop is that they also have other in-app offers you can sign up for to get extra points. For example, I just signed up for an offer that will pay me $50 for creating a savings/investment account with SoFi Wealth, a newer player in the robo-advisor space. I love making money for trying out new apps that help me save money – win win for me!

Sign up with Drop to start earning cash back (and get a $5 bonus!)

dosh app logoDosh – This is a great companion app for Drop and Ebates. Where Ebates lets your earn cashback for online shopping, and Drop lets your earn money for everyday retail shopping, Dosh adds in a lot of local restaurants and other retailers that aren’t on Drop.

And just like Drop, all you have to do is link your credit card and wait for the points to hit your account. I never even think about the app until I get a notification that I got some free money after going out to eat with the family or picking up something at the pharmacy.

Sign up with Dosh to get your $5 bonus and earn cash back on local shopping

CREDIT CARD BONUSES

Credit card sign-up bonuses are another gold mine to earn free money for minimal work. I wholeheartedly recommend this strategy with a couple caveats:

  1. This will only work if you have good to excellent credit
  2. DO NOT use this strategy if you are not responsibly using your credit cards by paying the balance in full every month

No amount of credit card rewards are worth it if you are paying late fees or exorbitant interest rates.

To make this work (to qualify for the best cards), you need to have and maintain a good credit score. I like to use Credit Karma to keep track of my credit score for free.

If I had to recommend one card to get started, it would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred. For more details on how my family makes money with credit card rewards, here is much more on the subject:

FURTHER READING: How We Made $2,000 Last Year With Credit Card Rewards

chase sapphire preferred card image e1574202070401 - 45 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month [in 2023]Chase Sapphire Preferred – This card offers a $800 bonus (in the form of 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, which are actually worth more like $1,000 or more if you use it toward travel) just for signing up and spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. It does have a $95 per year fee , but many ongoing benefits as well.

When I first discovered credit card rewards, both my wife and I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and added 100,000 points to our balance which more than covered our trip home for our family of 4 for Christmas!

See if you qualify for the 80,000 point bonus with the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card


6. Selling on eBay to Make Extra Money

Income Potential: $500 – $10,000+ per month
Skills Needed: An eye for a good deal at garage sales/thrift stores

I first saw the potential of this side hustle when I interviewed one of my friends Nathan. He shops garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores looking for bargains and resells them on eBay.

When I interviewed him he was making around $300 a month, but he’s now consistently up to $600 per month selling on eBay!

I was skeptical at first because I thought it required a lot of specialized knowledge to find good deals, but Nathan has a great system for finding deals and sticks to things that he knows sell well on eBay so he doesn’t have to be an expert on everything. The more I’ve learned, the more I think this may be the perfect way to make an extra $500 a month or more for the average person who can only spend a few hours a week on their side hustle.

To learn more, here are some free training videos to get you started and make your first $100.


7. How to Make Money as a Handyman / Landscaper

Income Potential: $15 – $40+  per hour
Skills Needed: Good with your hands and small home projects, or willing to do manual labor for money 🙂

While everyone wants to make money online these days from the comfort of their couch, there are a lot of opportunities to make extra money out there in the real world if you’re willing to actually put in a little effort.

One of the easiest ways to make a solid income (you could certainly make $200 a month, $500 a month, or more without much effort) is to offer your services as a handyman on small house projects.

If you don’t have a single handy bone in your body (like me), then you can mow lawns, clean out gutters, or wash windows. If you have more skills you can charge more for other house projects like fixing a gate, installing a ceiling fan, or even putting together furniture. This could be an easy way to make $50 fast.

Finding work might be the easiest part of this side hustle. Post on your neighborhood Facebook page, Craigslist, or just go knock on your neighbor’s doors. Almost everyone I know is always looking for a reliable handyman they can call on when needed. There are also “gig economy” platforms like TaskRabbit that connect people with skills with those that need help.


make an extra 500 a month with real estate

8. Earn Extra Income with Real Estate

Income Potential: Unlimited
Skills Needed: Hustle and the ability to learn basic sales skills

You knew this was coming. I can’t write an article on making extra money without talking about the main way my family has increased our net worth to what it is now.

There are so many paths to making an extra $500 a month (or way more) in real estate, there’s no way I can talk about them all here. But here’s a list of the ways we’ve made money and some of the prerequisites:

  1. House hacking – Want to live for free? Buying a single family house and renting out the extra bedrooms, or buying a 2-4 unit property and living in one unit and renting the others is a great way to earn an extra income each month. This is real estate investing with training wheels, and is a great place to get started if you’ve never considered getting into real estate.
  2. Buy rental properties – If you have the capital to invest in a down payment, you can buy rental properties that produce income every month. We aim for a 10% cash on cash return and about $300 per month cash flow after all expenses. With a little creativity, you can even learn to invest in real estate with little or no money!
  3. Become a real estate agent – My wife got her real estate license originally to save us money on our own transactions, but now she is a very part-time agent (10 hours or so a month) for friends, family and referrals and makes $15-20k per year after paying all the dues and fees to keep up her license.
  4. House flipping – If you really want to get actively involved, you can scour the market for great deals that need work, fix them up, and sell for a profit. While we prefer rental properties, we won’t pass up a good deal on a flip and usually end up doing 1 per year or so for a nice profit.
  5. Crowdfunding – The most passive of all the options if you have the cash to invest. We’ve started investing in crowdfunded commercial real estate deals for additional passive income and to diversify our portfolio.

If you’re looking to buy your first rental property, I recommend checking out Roofstock, the only online platform I’ve found dedicated to helping buyers find cash-flowing rental properties.

If actively managing real estate isn’t your cup of tea, but you want to earn passive income, there are two crowdfunding platforms I personally use and recommend:

How to Get Started in Real Estate Crowdfunding

If you’re brand new to real estate and don’t have a lot of money to invest, I would recommend starting small. Two platforms I like are Groundfloor and Fundrise. If you want a little more information on how to start investing in real estate with as little as $10, I wrote a comparison of Groundfloor vs. Fundrise and detailed my own personal returns from each.

GROUNDFLOOR Logo NoBackground e1557848673704 - 45 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month [in 2023]Groundfloor – Groundfloor allows you to participate in loans backed by real estate (as little as $10 per loan). I’ve personally gotten an annualized return of 12.5% over the past couple of years across all the various loans I helped to fund.

While that is certainly no guarantee of future results, I do think that real estate is one of the safer ways to invest in debt because you have a hard asset behind the loan (unlike with peer to peer lending where the only thing you have is a credit score and a promise to pay).

Invest in real estate loans with Groundfloor for as little as $10 (and get a FREE $10 sign up bonus!)

fundrise logo make extra moneyFundrise – Fundrise lets you invest in a diversified portfolio of real estate with as little as $500. Because it is a private fund and your money is tied up for 3+ years (unlike a public REIT) the returns tend to be higher, and the low minimum makes it a good introduction to crowdfunding.

Our own personal Fundrise portfolio is highly diversified across equity and debt deals, and in different geographic locations. I like that Fundrise gives you details on all of the individual properties you are invested in through the fund.

Start investing in real estate with only $500 with Fundrise

To learn more about our real estate investing journey, start here:


9. Earn Extra Income Blogging

Income Potential: $500 – $10,000+ per month
Skills Needed: Have an opinion and a willingness to learn new things

I am always skeptical of the bloggers who tell you how much money they make by selling courses about blogging. It can seem a bit like a pyramid scheme.

But there are real bloggers out there making extra money without a course to sell you. In fact, I am one of them.

As a brand new blogger who knew absolutely nothing, I made a little over $2,000 my first year of blogging.

In my second year, I made over $35,000!

Blogging is not as easy as the gurus make it sound, but it’s also not rocket science. It takes hard work, patience, and the willingness to keep trying new things.

It’s not a quick payoff, but after a year or two of blogging, it is certainly doable to make $500 a month on the side, and possibly way more.

FURTHER READING: How This Blogger Makes Over $400K Per Year


10. Freelance Writing Your Way to an Extra 500 a Month

Income Potential: $500 – $5,000+ per month
Skills Needed: Attention to detail, research and writing skills

If starting your own blog isn’t your thing, but you enjoy writing, an excellent side hustle to consider is becoming a freelance writer.

There is a huge demand for content out there from bloggers and other businesses looking to establish a web presence.

In my own blogging niche of personal finance, people pay anywhere from 10 – 25 cents per word. For a 1,000 word article, that translates to $100 – $250 in your pocket.

If you can write just a few articles per month, you can make an extra 500 a month – and then continue to scale from there.

For ways to get started in freelance writing and how to find work, check out the full article:

5 of the Best Freelance Writing Jobs You Should Try Today

make extra money with food delivery


11. Make Money on the Side Delivering Food

Income Potential: $15 – $30 per hour
Skills Needed: A driver’s license and reliable transportation

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware of the many choices in food delivery. Uber Eats, Postmates, GrubHub, DoorDash…

Well all of them rely on the gig economy to offer their services. They need reliable drivers to deliver food to customers.

If you have extra time during the day (especially at lunch or dinner), you can earn an extra $500 a month in just 5 to 10 hours a week!

FURTHER READING: 9 of the Best Delivery Apps Available Now

how to make an extra 500 a month (7 easy ways to make $500 per month)

Make $500 a Month Online

Want to make extra money from home with your computer? If you can master these skills, you can do it!

12. Social media manager

Most business owners didn’t go into business to manage their Facebook page. You can help them out by maintaining their social media presence.

13. Affiliate marketing

This goes hand in hand with blogging, but you don’t have to have a blog to be an affiliate marketer. If you have a good size social media following, you can earn money by recommending products or services to your audience.

14. Build websites

You don’t have to be a master programmer to build websites these days. Learn how to create simple 1-3 page websites, and you can market yourself to local businesses looking to establish a web presence.

15. Video editing

Video is becoming more and more popular for content creators. And someone needs to edit all that video. If you have to tools and software necessary, you can advertise your services and easily make $500 a month or more on the side.

16. SEO consulting

Everyone’s looking to increase their Google rankings. If you know the basics of good SEO, you can help businesses, blogs, and other content creators make it to Page 1. This service is in huge demand, so if you do good work, the referrals (and cash) will keep rolling in.

17. Online ad management

Know how to run a Facebook ad campaign? Millions of local businesses would love to tap into your knowledge and increase their visibility online.

18. Publish an eBook

If you have a particular field of expertise, you can make extra money by writing and publishing an eBook to help others become successful as well. Once it’s published, this can be a great passive income generator.

19. Create an online course

Similar to writing an eBook, you can also make an online course to teach others. For example, if you’re knowledgeable in a particular software tool, an online course with screen-sharing videos and walk-throughs would be a great product to sell.

20. Drop shipping

There’s still money to be made selling physical products online. Drop shipping is a popular way to go because you don’t have to store any physical inventory. The sky is the limit on how much money you can make. I did an interview with someone who built their Amazon drop shipping business up to over $400k!

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Make Extra Money with Your Creativity

Are you creative or enjoy artistic hobbies? First – I envy you. There are no creative bones in my body. But second, you can turn that creativity into cash with these ideas!

21. Woodworking

We recently bought some cedar window shutters from a woodworker on Etsy. We were able to specify the style and size we wanted, and he made them in his shop and shipped them to us. They turned out great! If you love woodworking, consider doing custom pieces for others to make an extra 500 a month or more with your hobby.

22. Make home-made jewelry

Lots of people are looking for unique, hand-crafted jewelry. Whether you set up shop online or sell through local stores, this can be a great way to make some extra cash.

23. Photography

If you have an eye for a great photo opportunity, you can start a side hustle as a photographer. Most photographers I know charge $500+ for a single session so this would be a great side gig to make extra money.

best brokerage accounts feature - 45 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month [in 2023]

How to Make an Extra $500 Using Your Current Skills

Everyone has a unique skill set that they are good at and enjoy doing. Use your skills to help others and make some money on the side.

24. Personal trainer

Do you enjoy working out? Put those skills to use and become a personal trainer to help others achieve physical fitness. This is a great side hustle to do on evenings and weekends.

25. Referee on the weekends

Football, soccer, basketball, baseball – there are literally thousands of games being played every weekend. And every one of those games requires referees. You can easily make $20-30 an hour as a referee. Line up back-to-back games on weekends and rake in some extra spending money.

26. Event planner

Are you the go-to party planner in your friend group? You can use those skills to help other plan and manage events. While most people think of a wedding planner, you can specialize in other events like office parties, conferences, or even birthday parties.

27. DJ at events

If you have the equipment and the passion for it, offer your DJ services at events. If you book just a couple events a month, you could earn an extra $500 a month easily.

28. Resume writer

Lots of people need help writing resumes or tweaking their LinkedIn profiles. Put your skills to use helping others find a job, and get paid in the process!

29. Interior design

Got an eye for design and a Pinterest board full of home decor? Help others make their HGTV dreams a reality.

30. Home organization

Sometimes good design = good organization. Help people de-clutter their home or office as a side hustle to make some extra $$$.

31. Fix stuff

Are you good at watching YouTube videos to fix your car, your computer, or other stuff around the house? Put your talents to good use and help others fix their stuff (and keep it out of a landfill).

32. Tax preparation

Similar to starting a bookkeeping business (#2 on the list), if you have the accounting skills, you can also help others prepare their taxes. While it’s not a year round business, you can make a lot of money quickly during the busy tax season.

33. Become a consultant

While “consultant” is a very broad term, it really just means offering your knowledge and expertise to others for a fee. Think about what you are good at or enjoy doing, and offer advice on how others can do the same.

34. Teach English

There’s a growing worldwide demand to learn English. You don’t have to be a literary genius to teach English, you just have to know the language and enjoy helping others learn. There are lots of platforms out there that allow you to teach online, such as VIPKid.

35. Volunteer for overtime at your job

Probably not the most exciting idea on the list, but sometimes the best place to look for extra income is where you’re already making a decent salary. See if there are overtime opportunities where you work, maybe even in a different department.

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Make an Extra $500 Near Me

There are lots of ways to earn extra cash in your own neighborhood. Here are a few simple ideas.

36. Car detailing

Everybody loves a clean car, but it’s one of those tasks that gets shoved to the back burner. You can become the go-to guy or gal in your neighborhood to clean cars and make some extra cash in your free time.

37. Babysit

As a parent to young kids, finding a local and reliable babysitter is difficult! If you are good with kids and have time in the evenings or on weekends, there will always be a huge demand for babysitting services. In my area, you can make anywhere from $10-20 an hour depending on how many kids and your skill level.

38. Dogsit

When people go out of town, they need someone to watch their pets. Often they would rather let someone local watch their pet rather than putting them in a kennel. You can also offer dog walking services to busy professionals during the week if you have spare time during the day.

39. Housesit

You can also check in on people’s houses while they’re away. Collect the mail, water the plants, etc. Whether you’re just stopping by a few times a week or getting paid to stay there, it can be an easy way to make extra money on the side.

40. Clean pools

While this job is somewhat seasonal, you can combine it with other home services on the list. Set up a pool cleaning route and make $100+ per pool!

41. Mow lawns

Mowing lawns is the quintessential summer job for kids. But you don’t have to be a kid to turn this into a side hustle and make $500 a month or more. If you can mow 4-5 yards a week at $30 each, you will easily hit your goal.

42. Rake leaves

Starting to see a pattern? There are lots of home and yard maintenance items that homeowners would gladly pay someone else to do. When the leaves start falling, you can be the one to bag them up. Charge by the hour or by the bag.

43. Wash windows

Another great home service to offer is window washing. With a few basic supplies, you can get windows looking sparkling clean and make some extra money in the process.

44. Clean gutters

Who wants to get up on the roof and clean their gutters? Almost no one! But it’s not that hard to do, and people will pay good money so they don’t have to. Use this to your advantage on your quest to making $500 a month or more.

45. Paint house numbers on curbs

I learned about this one from someone offering this service in my neighborhood. They charged $20 to paint our house number on the curb. It probably took them all of 10 minutes to actually do it. You just need some spray paint and a stencil. If you can find multiple customers on the same street you can easily make a few hundred dollars in a day.


Take Action TODAY to Make an Extra $500 a Month

Remember your promise at the beginning? Sure, it’s important to do your research and find some side hustle options that appeal to you. But if one of these ideas resonates with you, then take action and start earning extra money now!

There are lots of options out there and I could spend another 5,000 words talking about them. But these are my favorite ways that I think almost anyone can get started making an extra $500 a month.

Here’s a condensed list of the top 7 ideas to help you take action today!

7 Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month

  1. Become a virtual assistant – Here’s a list of over 150 services you can offer as a virtual assistant. With good pay and extremely flexible hours, this is one of my highest recommended side hustles to earn an extra $200 a month – $1,000 a month without putting in many hours.
  2. Work from home as a virtual bookkeeper If I didn’t start a blog, this is the business I would be doing right now. You can earn $60-100 per hour helping other business owners keep track of their finances from the comfort of your couch.
  3. Take online surveys for extra cash – This is the easiest one on the list to get started right now. I recommend signing up with Survey Junkie and Swagbucks. You can be making money within a few minutes of signing up. The downside is you can’t scale it up like some of the other side hustles on the list.
  4. Tutoring – Whether local or online, there are many opportunities to tutor in any subject you can think of. And with the ability to make $20 – $100+ an hour, it won’t take too many students to make a good side income.
  5. Cash back apps and credit card rewards – While not a traditional “side hustle”, it’s an easy way to make an extra $500 – $2,000 a year without much effort if you have good credit history.
  6. Selling on eBay – If you enjoy thrifting and the art of finding good deals, flipping on eBay for a profit is a good way to earn extra income every month without putting in a ton of time.
  7. Handyman/landscaping – If you enjoy working with your hands or are willing to do basic manual labor, it’s extremely easy to find work just by talking to friends and neighbors. With the right skills you can make upwards of $40 per hour, meaning you can make an extra $500 just by taking on a project or two per week.
  8. Real estate – If you have the time to dedicate to learning, real estate offers almost unlimited income potential. While you have to put in work at the beginning, it gets more and more passive over time. If you want to skip all the work and you want to put extra money to work making more money for you, a good way to get started is with Groundfloor (minimum $10 investment) or Fundrise (minimum $500 investment).

LOOKING FOR MORE WAYS TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY?

I’ve got you covered! Check out these other incredible ideas to make money on the side.

13 Genius Ideas to Make $200 in One Day (How to make money fast)

20+ Under the Table Jobs That Pay Cash Now (My favorite side hustles that pay quick cash)

3 Apps That Pay Me $500 for Doing Nothing (The best cash back apps I use regularly)

The Only 2 Survey Sites You Need to Make Extra Money (How to maximize your income when taking online surveys)

20 Ways to Make $20 Fast (Great for making quick cash)

How do you make extra money every month, or how do you plan to get started? Let me know in the comments!

Andrew Herrig is a finance expert and money nerd and the founder of Wealthy Nickel, where he writes about personal finance, side hustles, and entrepreneurship. As an avid real estate investor and owner of multiple businesses, he has a passion for helping others build wealth and shares his own family’s journey on his blog.

Andrew holds a Masters of Science in Economics from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has worked as a financial analyst and accountant in many aspects of the financial world.

Andrew’s expert financial advice has been featured on CNBC, Entrepreneur, Fox News, GOBankingRates, MSN, and more.

6 thoughts on “45 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month [in 2023]”

  1. Have you ever looked into selling tradelines? I just read about it today and thought it looked like a pretty promising idea. Figured you might have some insights into it since you’re so passionate about generating extra income. Cheers!

    Reply
  2. You could set up and run a class on Classient.com for kids or adults in your neighborhood. Hitting $500 a month would be easy with just a few regulars. In the case of younger children a “class” could be simply watching kids and keeping them entertained for a few hours (group baby-sitting). So no formal teaching experience is required.

    Reply
  3. I’m someone who does love a good side hustle. Out of all of the things I’ve tried, real estate is the clear winner. I’ve had luck on eBay and craigslist but it was never consistent. Real estate rental income is easily my favorite because some days I forget I even own rentals and then boom – money right into my checking account.

    Side hustles are awesome, aren’t they?

    Reply
  4. There are some exceptional viable ideas listed here. It just involves taking an introspective view of yourself and deciding what you want to pursue as a goal. After which, consistently try and never give up.

    Reply

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