How Students Can Make Money Anytime: Effective Work That Isn’t Glamorous

I want to start off by saying that what wholeheartedly paid for my schooling without debt (undergrad, that is) was having skills. This is a broad claim and may seem lame, but I have learned that skills are the same as assets—similar to having equity or some other form of an asset. This is because if you think about going to school at all, you're not just getting a piece of paper; you're gaining skills that put you in a position to do a job that others may not be able to do (skills = assets).

Now JH, what are you going on about? Well, I'll tell you. In the past 2.5 weeks, I was able to make a gross amount of over $12,000 using just my hands and YouTube. This is not something that everyone can do, but most people can do it. It's not a trick, hack, or glamorous method. What I did was a simple full attic renovation. A friend and I were able to get two different jobs from people who knew we were skilled, which allowed us to generate a considerable amount of money in a short amount of time. The cool thing is that AI could not have done this, and probably will not be able to do something like it for a very long time.

In a landscape with so many options, the YouTube rabbit hole of get-rich-quick schemes, and the crazy job market we're experiencing, there is one thing that no one can take away from you: skills that require you to work with your hands.

The General Rule of Thumb

Learn how to do drywall. It sucks, but it is a problem that even tradespeople struggle with. I am a carpenter, and I do not like doing drywall (it's also annoying to finish), but it is definitely something that people subcontract out, and others will gladly pay not to deal with it. This is a perfect service for students to advertise in the market. You can do it after school in people's homes.

Here is a resource I used to finish the attic renovation drywall (because I had no idea how to do it before the job): https://www.youtube.com/@HomeRenoVisionDIY/shorts

In conclusion, the point I am trying to make is simply that if you want to make money and pay for your schooling without having to make payments later, acquiring a skill can help you considerably when you do not have money to purchase assets.