Medical transcription is one of the most flexible and in-demand side hustles. Therefore, being a great option when you are considering how to earn extra money! When working as a medical transcriptionist, not only can you work from the comfort of your home, you can also decide when you would like to work. Therefore, this gives you more control over your personal schedule, without having to negotiate work terms and conditions.

Unlike other side hustle ideas where your jobs come and go, Medical Transcription offers a consistent and steady flow of work. The role of a medical transcriptionist is to listen to audio files from doctors and convert them into written documents, which then become part of the patient’s medical record. Therefore, you would play an important role in the healthcare industry.

Some of the other benefits of medical transcription being a side hustle are:

Do you love being active and living a healthy lifestyle? If so, another option when considering how to earn extra money is by becoming a fitness instructor! It’s a great way to earn an income for sharing your healthy lifestyle and helping others!

As a fitness instructor, you have the option to book classes or clients around when it suits you, especially if you’re looking for a side hustle to boost your earning potential. As a result, you get more job satisfaction and enjoyment out of your work. There are many different areas you can choose from in this field. Some examples are:

Do you enjoy writing and creating content? If you’re considering how to earn extra money, you might want to look into blogging. The best part about having your own blog is that you can choose when you write and also choose the style and content that you write about.

In fact, there are many things you can write about!

• You can write newsletters or articles for magazines or newspapers on different topics such as travel, recipes, and recent news events.
• In addition, you can give yourself the freedom to write your own content! This provides you with the opportunity to write about topics that you’re really passionate about and educate others.

Even though this is a side hustle, you can still pick up as much work as you like! In addition, you can use social media platforms to market yourself. Usually, a blogger is one of those jobs where you don’t have to be qualified or hold a degree. Therefore, if you enjoy writing, becoming a blogger can be one of the most creative side hustles!

Uber has changed the way we get around. Gone are the days of hailing cabs and waiting impatiently, with now our ride only being a matter of clicks away on a smartphone app.

Therefore, if you’re considering how to earn extra money and you have a clean driving record, you can earn extra cash driving around your city! Driving for Uber offers a flexible schedule, allowing you to make money driving at any time and any day of the year!

If you’re wondering how to earn extra money and you enjoy writing, becoming a freelance writer might be a great secondary job to consider! As a freelance writer, you would be self-employed, which means that you can write for multiple companies. This allows you to expand your horizons.

Also, as a freelance writer, you have the chance to share your opinion with others. You could write reviews on books, restaurants, fashion, movies – the list is endless! You could also write on different topics such as travel, recipes, and recent news events. Lastly, you can give yourself the freedom to write your own content. All you need to do is to create your own website and start writing. This provides you with the opportunity to write about topics that you’re really passionate about and educate others.

If you are creative, love art, and have a passion for design, you may want to consider becoming a graphic designer. Graphic designers work in a variety of industries, therefore, it is for anyone considering how to earn extra money. In fact, there is a lot of growth in this line of work to increase your earning potential. As graphic design often is very deadline-driven, they usually work after hours. This would be one of the perfect side hustles.

As a graphic designer, you can create many visual items for businesses. These items may include posters, logos, product packaging, brochures, and book covers. Also, most graphic designers work as freelancers. This means they can work for many companies at a time, and also work their own hours, therefore being one of the more flexible side hustle ideas. This provides you with control of the volume of work you take on.

If you’ve always enjoyed taking photos, but haven’t yet pursued a career as a photographer, now may be the time! It might be just the casual side job you are looking for, when debating how to earn extra money! You could still work your primary job, and do photography as a side hustle. For example, you could take photos at birthdays, weddings, and corporate events outside your normal work hours. However, as a photographer it’s important to identify your niche so you can differentiate yourself from others.

If you don’t have experience, but think this may be something you would like to pursue, you can start by taking photos of your garden, your neighbourhood, and your friends and family. Once you have enough photos, you can create a portfolio of your best work to attract clients.

If you enjoy keeping things in order, and have experience in accounting, your skills are in demand! Therefore, if you’re looking into how to earn extra money, a bookkeeper may be the right job for you!

Bookkeepers perform many different clerical duties. These may involve answering the payroll, processing transactions, and financial reporting – just to name a few. In fact, a lot of organisations outsource their bookkeepers. This means you can control your work volume by doing bookkeeping for different companies.

If you enjoy writing, blogging is a great career option if you are on parent leave. The best part about having your own blog is that you have the choice of the style and content that you write.

In fact, there are many things you can write about!

• Firstly, while on parent leave, you could write content for a website specifically for parents and cover topics on motherhood. This is so you can share your experience with other parents out there.
• Secondly, you can write newsletters or articles for magazines or newspapers on different topics such as travel, recipes, and recent news events.
• Lastly, you can give yourself the freedom to write your own content! This provides you with the opportunity to write about topics that you’re really passionate about and educate others.

Given that you are on parent leave, you can pick up as much work as you like! In addition, you can use social media platforms to market yourself. Usually, a blogger is one of those jobs where you don’t have to be qualified or hold a degree. Therefore, if you enjoy writing, becoming a blogger while on parent leave is a great path to take!

In your life before going on parent leave, were you a teacher, psychologist, nurse, personal trainer, or financial consultant? If you still love your work but are unable to work regular office hours, you can still consider remaining in your current industry. This is by becoming an online consultant.

However, with the increase in technology in today’s society, you can communicate with clients online or over the phone. In fact, you can have clients from all around the world! This way, you can still remain in your profession, but also have the flexibility to work your own hours to suit your new family.

We all enjoy coming together to celebrate big moments, whether this is for a birthday, wedding, baby shower, or graduation. However, planning these events can be stressful. It may even cause sleepless nights worrying about the success of your event. Therefore, having someone there to help organise your event makes it a convenient option and reduces stress.

If you have a flare for design and enjoy being organised, event planning may be a pathway for you to take while on parent leave!  You don’t necessarily have to be present at these events, as you can organise everything you need from home. Additionally, you can even choose your work hours around your family.

Being on parent leave, you can really market yourself with the use of social media. This may be through showcasing images of events you have organised in the past or taking some sample images of ideas that you have. This can build your client base! You might find you want to target families with children who would be organising family events or people who work full-time and may not necessarily have a lot of time to organise an event.

If you enjoy being organised and have a good eye for detail, data entry could be a job you can do while on parent leave. It involves taking data provided by a company and entering it into a system or spreadsheet. It also may include resolving inconsistent information and filling in the blanks for incomplete documents. For example, you could be entering payroll items into a system for employers, and compiling lists of customer interactions for businesses.

Data entry is one of those typing jobs that usually don’t require you to have a qualification.  However, there are skills that you may be expected to have in order to perform this role efficiently. These may include:

• Good computer skills
Attention to detail
• Understand grammar and punctuation
• Good time management

These common admin tasks can be done from your own home, which means you can still be there for your family, but also earn an extra income too.

In this day and age, many businesses have their operating hours open 24/7 to assist customers. This would be a great job opportunity if you are on parent leave. As a lot of businesses operate entirely online, there is a growing demand for call centre representatives. The best part about these online careers is that you can work from the comfort of your own home.

Call centre representatives may have a range of tasks, involving:

• Assisting customer enquiries
• Processing orders and refunds
• Computer admin tasks

Becoming a call centre representative provides flexibility of working your own hours while on parent leave. This means you can structure your work around your family. In addition, it provides greater customer satisfaction by being able to call at any time, as well as reducing the overhead costs for the company.

If staying at home with your children full-time is out of the question, how about part-time? You could speak to your employer and negotiate cutting down to part-time hours. Alternatively, you could set a different schedule to only work a few days a week, but work longer hours. Otherwise, there are many jobs out there that offer a flexible work schedule, so you can cut down hours using child care services.

You and your spouse could also coordinate work times to reduce the need for childcare. For example, if you work 7am-3pm, and your spouse works the standard 9am-5pm, you may only require childcare 8:30am -3: 30pm, which would be a significant daily saving.

If you find that you have little-no flexibility in your work schedule that you require a traditional care environment, a in-home child care services might be an option for you. In home-child care services are considerably much cheaper than a childcare centre.

Research is very important when considering in-home child care services to make sure that you find the best environment that works for both you and your child. Important things to look for are:

• Happy children and a caring caregiver
• A clean and safe setting
• Check and confirm that they meet the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations 
• Check and confirm they have Government approval
• Ask for their qualification.

If you have access to family members or friends nearby, such as grandparents, aunties, and uncles, they may be able to help reduce the cost of child care services. Ask them if they would be willing to look after your children while you’re at work.

Even this can’t be a full-time arrangement, if they are able to do it a couple of days a week, this would be able to reduce hours of child care services, therefore, saving you money. You may want to consider paying them or pay for any transport and food costs for each child, that the family member may encounter during the day.

Alternatively, you may know other parents who are also looking for child care services. If so, you could organise a nanny to watch both sets of children. This way you can share a nanny with friends or neighbours. With hiring the one nanny, you would be sharing the costs. Therefore, you could be saving more than half than what you’re spending now!

Au pairs are international students who are looking to live in Australia for a year, or so. They are usually employed by a family for a cultural exchange while living in the family’s home. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, an au pair’s duties may include:

• assist parents with child care services (but aren’t sole carers)
• assist with general household tasks, not related to children
• complete light household duties related to children, such as folding and tidying up.

Au pair’s may also look after school-aged children anywhere between 15 to 30 hours a week.

In Australia, childcare experience with references, as well as a police check, and working with children’s check may be requirements for an au pair. In addition, they are not covered by an award, however, they are entitled to the national minimum wage and the National Employment Standards. This usually works out to be cheaper than a nanny. As they would be living with you and your family, they would be able to provide more flexibility, compared to childcare.

If none of the above are viable options, it’s important that you register for the current Child Care Subsidy.

What are are the new changes?

New changes to the Child Care Subsidy, commenced on the 2nd of July, 2018. These new changes by the Australian government are in place to assist families financially.

The level of subsidy that a family can receive, will be based on three factors. There are: combined family income, activity test, and service type.

Combined family income

The graph below shows the percentage of fees for child care services that the government will contribute, based on a family’s combined annual income:

Activity Test

The subsidised amount of child care services that families have access to per fortnight, is determined by a three-step activity test.

Activities may involve, but are not limited to: paid work, unpaid work in the family business, training courses to increase skills/employability, volunteering, actively setting up a business and actively looking for work.

The government will subdise families by hours, according to the hours of activity performed:

• 8-16 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 36 hours per fortnight of subsidised care
• 16-48 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 72 hours per fortnight of subsidised care
• More than 48 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 100 hours per fortnight of subsidised care

The type of child care service that your child attends, will determine the maximum hourly rate the government will subsidise.

Petrol is an expensive need for Australian drivers. Over the past couple of months, the prices of petrol have noticeably increased in multiple Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Additionally, economists are predicting that prices will remain high for quite some time. We do have some tips below on how you can reduce the amount you spend on petrol, which will help your budgeting process!

•  Fill up on the cheapest days: According to the Savings Guide, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to buy petrol, where in contrast, Sundays and Mondays are the most expensive days. 
•  Top up before you run empty: Getting petrol is one of the those time-consuming things we only want to do when necessary, therefore, most drivers tend to fill up their car just before they run out of petrol. However, the downside to this approach that you have no choice but to pay what the price is on that particular day. Instead, try making a habit of topping up when you see the prices drop. 
•  Download a petrol-tracking app: You can use your smartphone to find the best petrol prices nearby. These apps also allow you to to select your preferred petrol type and the brand, while providing you with updates!

Online shopping and credit cards make it very easy to spend money these days. Some people find it hard to have self-control when purchasing things they want, rather than need. Therefore, limiting your impulse purchases is one of the most important tips to implement into your budgeting process.

If there is something that you really want, Canstar suggest that you give yourself some time, as the urge of wanting it may pass. Another way to avoid impulse buying is to calculate the hours of work it takes to earn the purchase price of the item. This will help you save money!

You will find that there are some financial institutions out there who will try to charge you a lot of fees, making it hard to save money. Therefore, it’s important to have a look around to find ones that don’t. This can be one of the easiest tips to put

into your budgeting process. Changing banks may seem like a hard process, however, it is very straight forward! When researching your options, have a look to see what banks offer basic accounts with:

• No withdrawal fees (from other ATMs)
• Free monthly statements
• No minimum deposit amounts
• No overdrawn fees

A small fee may not seem much at the time, however, over a longer period this would work out to be hundreds of dollars that you could be saving!

Buying a home is an exciting, yet expensive, investment! However, as this is one the largest debts you will ever have, you want to make sure you are getting the best value. One of our main tips is to search the market for what the best loan rates are with the lowest interest.

If you already have a mortgage, you can look into refinancing your loan. First of all, look at what other options are available out there. Once you have done this and you have written them down, give your existing lender a call. See if they can negotiate a rate that is closer to what their competitors are offering. If they are willing to negotiate, that’s great news for you! If not, you may need to go to a mortgage broker and find out how much it will cost to switch lenders. You can even use a Refinancing Calculator to help you. More often than not, with the fees associated with switching, you would still be saving thousands by making the switch.

In Australia, the average standard variable rate is currently 4.49% p.a. Therefore, according to Canstar, if you can get a home loan of 3.49% p.a., you could potentially save yourself around $280/month on a $500,000 loan!

What are are the new changes?

New changes to the Child Care Subsidy, commenced on the 2nd of July, 2018. These new changes by the Australian government are in place to assist families financially.

The level of subsidy that a family can receive, will be based on three factors. There are: combined family income, activity test, and service type.

Combined family income

The graph below shows the percentage of daycare fees that the government will contribute, based on a family’s combined annual income:

Activity Test

The subsidised amount of childcare that families have access to per fortnight, is determined by a three-step activity test.

Activities may involve, but are not limited to: paid work, unpaid work in the family business, training courses to increase skills/employability, volunteering, actively setting up a business and actively looking for work.

The government will subdise families by hours, according to the hours of activity performed:

• 8-16 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 36 hours per fortnight of subsidised care
• 16-48 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 72 hours per fortnight of subsidised care
• More than 48 hours per fortnight are eligible to receive 100 hours per fortnight of subsidised care

The type of daycare service that your child attends, will determine the maximum hourly rate the government will subsidise.

If staying at home with your children full-time is out of the question, how about part-time? You could speak to your employer and negotiate cutting down to part-time hours. Alternatively, you could set a different schedule to only work a few days a week, but work longer hours. Otherwise, there are many jobs out there that offer a flexible work schedule, so you can cut down the daycare hours.

You and your spouse could also coordinate work times to reduce the need for daycare. For example, if you work 7am-3pm, and your spouse works the standard 9am-5pm, you may only require daycare 8:30am -3: 30pm, which would be a significant daily saving.

If you have access to family members or friends nearby, such as grandparents, aunties, and uncles, they may be able to help reduce the cost of daycare. Ask them if they would be willing to look after your children while you’re at work.

Even this can’t be a full-time arrangement, if they are able to do it a couple of days a week, this would be able to reduce daycare hours, therefore, saving you money. You may want to consider paying them or pay for any transport and food costs for each child, that the family member may encounter during the day.

Alternatively, you may know other parents who are also looking for daycare. If so, you could organise a nanny to watch both sets of children. This way you can share a nanny with friends or neighbours. With hiring the one nanny, you would be sharing the costs. Therefore, you could be saving more than half than what you’re spending now!

Au pairs are international students who are looking to live in Australia for a year, or so. They are usually employed by a family for a cultural exchange while living in the family’s home. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, an au pair’s duties may include:

• assist parents with daycare (but aren’t sole carers)
• assist with general household tasks, not related to children
• complete light household duties related to children, such as folding and tidying up.

Au pair’s may also look after school-aged children anywhere between 15 to 30 hours a week.

In Australia, daycare experience with references, as well as a police check, and working with children’s check may be requirements for an au pair. In addition, they are not covered by an award, however, they are entitled to the national minimum wage and the National Employment Standards. This usually works out to be cheaper than a nanny. As they would be living with you and your family, they would be able to provide more flexibility, compared to daycare.