Ask HN: Do you have a second income?
We rent a corner of our lot to T-Mobile for a cell phone tower - it pays about $1200 a month.
So far it seems like a great deal to us - the maintenance people are super stealthy and never bother us, and the previous homeowner built a very nice-looking fence around the equipment that matches the house and makes it easy to just not notice that anything is there. The tower itself is on a telephone/power pole for lines that run alongside the property anyway, so that's also not an eyesore.
We bought the house with the tower & lease already in place, so unfortunately I've got no idea how they set this up; I'd definitely do it again in a future home if I could.
FWIW, I used to process contracts for such leases in 2010 and that’s a pretty low payment. Typically these things paid $2-4k/month (not inflation adjusted). That said, these were all in suburban or urban areas, and if it’s easy enough to move it to your neighbor’s pole you might not have much negotiating power, but you might be able to get more from them if the lease expires while you still own the house.
How does one start something like this, or is it a matter of luck of having land that the cell phone company reaches out to you wanting to put a tower on?
Out of curiosity, how long is the term on the lease?
The current lease is for 10 years, but that was renegotiated from a prior lease that I'm not sure what the terms were.
Yes. I’m not extraordinary by any means and my income was relatively modest compared to a lot of my programming colleagues. Just a saver at heart and someone who likes investing.
- dividends from publicly traded companies ~$30k per year
- investment properties net of expenses ~40k per year
- software side projects ~ 70k per year
I still work full time as I feel financial wealth can be fleeting if not tended to properly and prudently.
Didn’t expect to post a follow up, so literally threw away the password.
Instead of answering your questions directly, I’ll speak broadly about this as I think it’s more useful.
- You need to start off with a job. A decent paying job. This sets the tone, if you will, for anything else you do. If your job isn’t paying you well, learn the skills you need to get a better paying job and apply to those places. Ideally you do this the younger you are, but regardless of age this is the first step.
- if you are not single, make sure your significant other is willing to live “poor” even though you have money. This is more of a mindset than anything else. Approach this like you would as if you’re starting a business. When my SO and I got married, I explained we can be successful financially if we work as a team. By doing so, anything we do as we are doing it with a shared goal.
- forget about the FIRE lifestyle. Investing to get dividend so one doesn’t have to work anymore is not great because it doesn’t account enough for unexpected circumstances. Keep working, save diligently and invest. One day you’ll wake up with enough money and realize you now have the option to quit, but it’ll be on your own terms.
- if you start a side business (software or otherwise), make sure it can run itself. Don’t make it an overly big project. Wordpress plugins, slack apps, that sort of thing. I’ve built like 20 projects or so. Most of them flip. 1-2 bring in most of the revenue, but I have half a dozen that brings in several hundred a month. Copy ideas, but don’t plagiarize. Keep development time to less than a month and launch.
- stocks. Buy safe and boring stocks for 95% of your portfolio. Ignore it. Stick with etf. The other 5% be speculative.
Good luck. It’s just a lot of small steps and hard work.
If you have a good paying job, that’s probably the hardest part. It’s the cornerstone to ensure enough stability for you to save and invest for the future.
What amount is a good paying job nowadays?
Whatever covers your living expenses after taxes and saving at least 20% for retirement.
I'm curious about your approach to software side projects that's been so successful. I'd appreciate answers to any of the below that you feel comfortable sharing:
- How many have you built? (Either in net terms or per year/month). How many do you still maintain?
- Is that level of income based on 1 or 2 big wins, or is it dozens of smaller-netting projects that don't take much maintenance?
- What kinds of projects? Apps, websites, services?
- Are there any guides/websites that you found particularly helpful in discovering an exploitable niche, or learning the necessary marketing/etc?
How to start? I have 401k funds that aren't performing as expected and would love some advice on how to mimic you. Thanks for your help (private or public).
I do web/mobile development for marketing agencies who don't have the budget/workload for a full-time developer. I'm typically handed a set of Adobe Illustrator files and it's my job to use those to build working websites/apps.
My first project was for $800 in early 2013. The last three years have brought in an average of ~$55K per year. I have several subcontractors who can help out when the workload gets too much, but 80%+ of the work is done by one person (me).
A few years back I started offering "maintenance plans" on the websites (which basically entails updating the WordPress core/plugins and giving them a few hours per month for enhancement requests). These are remarkably "sticky" and most clients have continued maintenance for 3+ years.
The self-employment taxes are brutal, but it's still worth it.
if you don’t mind, what’s pricing like on the maintenance plans?
For my more popular plan I charge the agency $2,800/year and they markup to $3,500. I offer another plan that includes only WP updates (no enhancement requests) for $1,000/year.
Pre-covid I was a fire-fighter paramedic with a 24 hours on /48 hours off schedule making almost $60K. On the 2 days off and a few hours here and there on shift I worked as a remote programmer for a company which got me between $20 - $30K extra a year. I did that for 2 1/2 years.
In June of this year I left the fire department for a full time remote programming job. I could have kept the part time job but decided to finally just work a single job.
I'll share this with my son who wants to pursue an EMT career while I've insisted to become a programmer like me. :eyeroll: LOL
Index funds throw about $50k/y in dividends. It’s a small comfort knowing that if (or when) I burn out from my job I’ll have enough passive income to survive in a non-high cost of living area.
Written content in the form of literature reviews of academic subjects, sold as Kindle booklets... a sort of subscription-for-life service, fully reliant on the Amazon infrastructure for back end, payments and so on. After a booklet is updated, purchasers get the new version for free.
I consult for blockchain / cryptocurrency firms as well as traditional firms that want to add services for this industry, such as auditors and tax professionals. The additional side income has been glorious, and has allowed me to buy a lot of toys without my wife strangling me.
Yeah alot of people don’t realize that even chat room moderation for crypto firms is super lucrative
People are too busy asking why instead of how
I'm a moderator of a popular crypto subreddit. Is there someplace that I apply, or do they reach out only if they're interested in me?
Every project that gets featured on your subreddit has needs of a community manager on their telegram and discord and will pay.
Your identity will get associated with failed projects, just make a new one as you’ll get paid in crypto. Companies just want baby sitters, not clout.
> People are too busy asking why instead of how
What does that mean? Asking why what instead of how what?
"Why would anyone use <blockchain>? Stupid." vs. "How can I sell services to people who are clearly using <blockchain>?"
Bingo
I do freelance writing. It is good for a couple thousand a year.
If you don’t mind, what sort of writing?
How did you get into this?
Tech writing. The plurality of it is for Stack Overflow's blog actually. You just write a pitch and send it.
https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/01/27/blog-contributor-guide...
Just got my self a part time job being a TA at a coding bootcamp. Its not great money (6.5k) for 6 months. But it's part time and fully remote
I don't but really want the security of multiple income streams. Any advice would be much appreciated .
Yes. I have two. Haven’t we all?! I feel like the meme.