Collaborative post
When you’re on maternity leave, it’s only natural to want to do everything you can for your beautiful newborn baby. While the UK offers decent levels of maternity pay, you might still need a little extra income to help with additional purchases.This is where you may want to look at quick and potentially easy ways to boost your finances.
Thanks to good internet access and speeds in most of the UK, there are plenty of different ways people from all walks of life can make some extra cash. Let’s take a look at some of the easier options and a slightly harder one that, when you dedicate the required time to it, can significantly improve income.
Sell old clothes, phones etc
Most people will have unused clothes and gadgets either shoved to the back of their wardrobe never to see the light of day again, or at the back of a drawer. These things can easily be resold, so you might as well take advantage of them!
Sort through your old clothes, jewellery and electronics, and look at selling any items that you no longer need. There are lots of different platforms on which you can sell your stuff, like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Depop and many more. You can experiment with different ones to see where you get the most interest.
Look into forex
This is the option that needs more work, but there are opportunities to make significantly more money if you dedicate sufficient time to it.
You could look at a demo account to see if Forex (foreign exchange trading) is something that interests you. The demo account will help you understand the basics, and then there are tools like MT5 (MetaTrader 5) that can help you analyse and examine trends in the market. This isn’t for everyone, but if it’s something you think could be worth the time investment then it’s worth a look. Do bear in mind that trading financial products carries a degree of risk and that losses can exceed the initial investment.
Online surveys
The amount you’re able to make from doing online surveys isn’t huge, but it’s an easy and accessible way to make some additional money. There are plenty of areas online where you can look to complete these surveys, with some better than others depending on location.
You could also sign up with local market research agencies to take part in other forms of paid research such as focus groups and mystery shopping.
Blogging
Blogging is a common route people go down to boost their income. It can look appealing as the initial investment required is low, the hours are flexible, and there’s potential to make money by reviewing products and hosting adverts.
Having said that, it can take some time to get your blog to a level where it is making money on a regular basis. If you’re happy to play the long game and make sure your site is regularly updated, blogging can eventually become a full-time job which provides a steady income.
Hopefully these ways to make money while on maternity leave have helped you start to think about how you can generate some additional income in a way that fits around you and your family. Do you have any suggestions for boosting income while on maternity leave?
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