4 Best Ways to Earn while in College!

Well, if you search on YouTube, “How to make money as a teenager?”, “How to make money while in college?” or “Best Side Hustles for Teenagers”, you’ll find a whole lot of videos on these topics. A lot of people are talking about it. There is ambiguity and a high degree of uncertainty among students regarding their career. This has resulted in students looking for different sources of income. But, a lot of people are still pessimistic about exploring multiple fields of study. They rather believe in specializing in a particular field. They are a firm believer of the popular old adage, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” 

But this isn’t completely true. You’d be surprised to know that this adage was completely different than what you’ve always been told. Well, this is the problem with our habit of shortening things. We don’t tend to understand their original intention anymore. The complete saying was originally, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” It was formerly intended as a compliment. The phrase means that 'a generalist is often better than a specialist'. One should be versatile and adept at many things. Did that surprise you?!

There’s a very powerful saying by Morgan Housel in his book, The Psychology of Money:

A good rule of thumb for a lot of things in life is that everything that can break will eventually break. So, if many things rely on one thing working, and that thing breaks, you are counting the days to catastrophe. That’s a single point of failure.

The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.

Check out this episode of The Pomp Podcast with host Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano and guest, Morgan Housel to know more about Morgan and his bestselling book, The Psychology of Money:

As a college student, you’re free from any obligations. You aren’t required to pay your bills; you don’t have to earn for your family. And most importantly, the biggest asset that you possess right now, is TIME. You’ve plenty of time, to learn, to explore, to experiment. Although, one might not have any obligations at this stage of life, but long-term financial planning is something that should begin at the earliest. And long-term planning is harder than it seems because people’s goals and desires change over time. So, starting to earn from a very early age, and being able to manage finances on your own will get you a long way in the money game.

So, let’s begin with all the ways you can earn money while in college. These are genuine proven ways, that I personally use/have used at some point of time.

1. Content Writing

I am a content writer, and I’ve worked with different firms and communities over the last two years and I can vouch for the fact that this is something which will never go out of fashion. Businesses and influencers have constant requirement for content. And the great thing about content writing is, every business in every industry needs content for its blog, articles, website and social media. Be it it, e-commerce, sports or fashion. So, you don’t need specialized skillset in order to become a content writer, unlike one needs to know coding for developing a website. You can write about anything that intrigues you. All you need is thorough knowledge on the topic and you need to be aware about all that’s happening in the particular industry.

You can work as a Freelance Content Writer. There are many such websites like UpWork, Fiverr. Or you can do internships on Content Writing. A lot of companies are hiring content writers.

2. Internships

Internships are a great way to earn some extra money. Not only that, but you get first-hand experience of working with corporates before you apply for placements, and it gives you a distinct advantage over the other candidates who will be in contention for the same position during your placements. It offers an invaluable chance to network and build crucial professional connections before even graduating. The more people you meet in the professional world, the higher your chances to grow as a professional. 

3. Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is the present, and the future. People nowadays have significant online presence, and businesses have grabbed the opportunity to create a niche for their product and this is where the concept of Digital Marketing comes in. Now, let me clear out something. It is NOT A SHORTCUT TO EARN MONEY as viewed by most people these days. It is challenging and constantly evolving. Just couple of years back, Digital Marketing meant only Search Engine Optimization, Google Ads and Blogs. But today, it has a plethora of opportunities, ranging from Website building and designing to Advertising and Campaigning, Social Media Marketing, Brand Marketing and Email and SMS Marketing. You can either start your own Digital Marketing Agency or you can work for different firms or clients as a freelancer or as an intern. Businesses are constantly in the lookout for Digital Marketers on LinkedIn. So, make sure you have a solid and updated profile on LinkedIn.

4. Investing in Stock Market

Now this is my favourite way of earning money, and this is something which a lot of people don’t usually speak about. Until most people start investing, either they’ve reached an age where it becomes rationally impossible to take the risk of investing in equity or their investments don’t get the time to compound and produce enormous returns. Starting early is the key to big returns in the stock market. You need to learn a lot of things before you start investing. You need to learn about stock picking, you need to know about the different methodologies used to analyze companies, above all, you need to understand how the stock market works. The best way to learn about Stock Market is by reading books. You can read the books of Peter Lynch: Learn to Earn and One Up on Wall Street. Also, a must read if you’re serious about starting your investing journey, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. For those of you who haven’t heard about Ben Graham, he was the Guru of Warren Buffet, the greatest Value Investor of all time. It’s a great book, but it focuses a bit on the technical aspects of Stock Market, which might not be very clear to you if you’re a complete beginner. So, I’d suggest you to first read Peter Lynch books and then read The Intelligent Investor.

Starting early is the key to big returns in the Stock Market. Start small, but start early.

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What can you suggest that will help students earn some money? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!