As of March 2, 2017, I have been without full-time employment. Rather than to seek another employer to offer me the 9-5 grind, I have spent the better part of the last four months exploring ways that I can break free of the rat race and generate income by "side hustling" it. The paradigms are shifting on how one can make a living in the modern world, and I am lured by the idea of being both location-independent and self-determining in how I sustain myself and my family.
One way that I have generated a fair amount of income is by "flipping" gift cards and merchandise credit. It turns out that there are a lot of people who receive unwanted gift cards or who have unused merchandise credit that they want to unload for cash. I get to be a participant in the beauty of the free market when I offer these individuals the cash that they value more than the full balance of the gift card. I then sell those cards through [Raise Marketplace] (http://geta.raise.com/jroberts) as a bulk seller, where I can set my own prices. The buyer of the card (i.e. the end user) wins because he/she still gets a discount on an intended purchase, Raise gets their cut, and I have successfully made 20-30% on my initial investment. Within 48 hours, the payment for the cards shows up in my Paypal account. Thanks to living in a major metropolitan area, I have come close to matching my previous income almost every month from this alone.
However, I am discovering an important truth: one need not limit oneself to a single income stream. In addition to my part-time employment (a second job I already had before quitting my full-time gig), I have made money by tutoring on WyzAnt, and I am exploring options through Fiverr, Amazon FBA, and other sites where I would be working as a contractor, with no ceiling on what I can make as long as I hustle enough.
That is the wonderful thing about the P2P, decentralized economy we live in now. As long as the government doesn't overly meddle in transactions by two consenting adults, I am free to pay for a ride from anyone with my Uber app, to stay in someone's home thanks to Airbnb, or even to share my car or someone else's car through services like Turo. I can customize my own life, both as a consumer and as a provider of my talents and services, without the time and exorbitant expense of setting up my own brick-and-mortor business or even my own website. I am my own boss, entering into partnerships with those who will connect my talents, goods, and services with those who will pay me to provide them. I can work as much as I want (or as much as I need to), and not work when it is convenient for me not to do so. It is very liberating, and at the same time sobering to take charge of one's own destiny like that, rather than to rely on a regular wage or salary under the thumb of an employer who holds your fate in its hands.
My ideal would be never to be "employed" again. Let's see how that pans out!