How to Make Money in Your Pajamas

This article may contain references to some of our advertising partners. Should you click on these links, we may be compensated. For more about our advertising policies, read our full disclosure statement here.

The following is a guest post by Pauline Paquin, who you probably know from Reach Financial Independence.  Pauline has just launched Make Money Your Way to help readers diversify their sources of income with real estate, investing, entrepreneurship and online endeavors. Born and raised in Paris, Pauline writes about how she has been traveling the world for the past 10 years, while trying to build wealth and achieve financial independence.  She also writes about  how to make money and how you can follow your  dreams and reach your goals too. You can follow Pauline on Twitter @MoneyYourWay.

Pretty high up on the list of things I loathe is routine. And having to wake  up at a time your body clock did not set. Or having to go to work. Even worse is going to work during winter when it is still dark outside.  How unnatural is that? So when I was still employed, my absolute dream job was something you could do at any  time, in your PJs if you fancied. Here is a list of money-making ideas for the  office averse:

Freelancing

There are a lot of jobs you can find online that don’t actually require you to get  out of your favorite pair of PJs. Freelancing covers a wide spectrum of  activities, from web design to translation to freelance writing or even being a personal assistant. Yes, some people are ready to pay you to save them time and book their flights and hotels or schedule meetings on their behalf.

You learn how to make money tutoring struggling students from the comfort of your home  just by using Skype or another live chat system. You can even use screen sharing so that the students feel like they are having a hands-on experience.Using the same strategy, you can teach your  native language or a music instrument over the world wide web.

I have found most of my freelancing jobs by referral.  After I left my last  job, I stayed in touch with some happy customers and did some freelancing for them, translating their website or consulting on their day to day operations.  When you know a business you do not need to visit them every time they have a  job for you. I have managed my company’s accounting while living in another country, and filed the tax returns online instead of queuing up at the tax office. With freelancing, you are basically creating your own job. In the morning, you can be editing a video and by afternoon you might be something else. The hours are also the ones you want to put in. I have an assistant who works 20 hours a week. You could  pick up a similar gig to have a stable source of income, or look for smaller but  better paying contracts.

Blogging

It is not easy to make money blogging.  My first blog, Reach Financial Independence, took about 6 months  to consistently generate over $2,000 a month, an income level I would consider worth pursuing as a replacement of a $30-$50K paying job. Why? Because you save a lot of money just by not going to work. Daycare, work clothes, gas and a second car  to commute, are things that you no longer have to pay for.  But you have to “work” for free to allow your blog or website to pick up for at least a few months. The advantage of blogging is you only report to yourself.  Your success will be a determined entirely by your efforts. So you could start working on your  blog at night or on weekends until the online income reaches a level where you feel like you can finally quit your day job. Unlike a freelancing project, you do not have deadlines.  You can take a month off and then put in 80 hour weeks.  It really is all up to you.

Home craft projects

If you are crafty, you can try to turn your passion into a source of income.  Whether it’s quilting, making homemade jams, or sewing custom made clothes for newborn, you can spend your time making those objects from home.  After your goods are made, you can try to market your stuff online. Marketplaces like Etsy and Ebay make it really easy for you to find customers all over the country. If you  prefer to leave your PJs once in a while, you can sell your goods at your local fair or your regional farmer’s market.

Home daycare

You may have to throw on a robe when the parents come over to drop their kids off.  Or, you may have to wear normal pants when you take kids to the park.  However, running a home day care does involve a lot of perks.  First, you can take  care of your own kid(s), and save a lot of money on daycare costs. Or, you can choose to have just watch one more kid, to even out the cost of raising yours without being overwhelmed by half a dozen mouths screaming for food at the same time. It is also a job that is generally in high demand since people need someone to watch their kids while they’re at work.

If you enjoy staying home or simply making some extra money after your day  job, visit Make Money Your Way for more money making ideas!

Have you ever worked from home? What did you  do? Did you work in your pajamas?

Similar Posts

Disclaimer: Comments, responses, and other user-generated content is not provided or commissioned by this site or our advertisers. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by this website or our advertisers. It is not the responsibility of our advertisers or this website to ensure that all comments and/or questions are answered. Club Thrifty has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Club Thrifty and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

40 Comments

  1. I work from home occasionally for my current job and it can definitely be pretty nice. With my wife and son home too though it can also be filled with plenty of distractions. I think for some people it can be great while others might prefer the traditional office. Setting things up so you actually have a choice is great though.

    1. I would only be able to freelance or work for myself from home. With a day job it is too easy to do nothing!

  2. That photo is classic! I really enjoy working from home but I am glad you mention several options for people to make money from home. I don’t think I could do the daycare though. Online requires time, effort, and discipline and most quit before they make money and others just don’t know how to make it. 6 months is a short time if you look at the bigger picture and once you are doing it you have confidence to do other things aw well.

    1. Sure, the more you do, the more you achieve. Getting the time management right at first is pretty hard.

  3. My blog brings in some side money in addition to my blog, and I’ve done some spreadsheet work that could be done entirely from home. I would love to work from home full-time, especially if I can do it working for myself.

    1. I would try to do it for myself too, having a boss to report to, who thinks you do nothing all day is complicated.

  4. This is great info, I’d love to generate enough side income to cover my monthly expenses. My wife and I always planned to transition into FI with part time work. The goal is to make that part time work as flexible as possible so we can travel for a few months at a time. Consider me a new reader of Make Money Your Way!

  5. I am working on growing my writing and my blog. It would be nice to be able to work in my pajamas. But what is most appealing to me is working for myself. And, in the online income world the money you make is really limitless. It all depends on how much effort you are willing to put in.

    1. true, if you put in a good effort you can make great money.

  6. Love this post. I cannot wait until I can start working from home!

  7. Pajamas rule. The leaders of the world should wear pajamas to work. It would be a happier place. But seriously, wearing pajamas all day has been my favorite thing about taking this year off. Right behind no alarm clock.

  8. Great stuff Pauline! Perhaps you have already talked about this on your blog, but I would be interested in learning the steps you took in those six months to generate $2,000 of blog income per month. Was that only from advertising on your site?

    1. Yes, that is advertising income and commissions from the ad network I run around RFI. I am sharing details on MMYW!

  9. Great post Pauline,
    Some good points you bring up about not having to pay for day care, clothes, petrol or a vehicle for that matter if you don’t need one if you work from home as a freelancer. You really would need to run the numbers and include all the extras that you would pay for if you went out to work every day.

    1. Yes, going to work is expensive. My colleagues used to make fun of me because I charged every little expense while traveling for work back to my boss. They said “oh, it’s only $5” and were too lazy to fill the expense sheet. They missed on $5 back and also worked for nothing for the boss so they could earn those $5!

  10. Pauline! How nice to see you on CT! Tammy and I are moving toward this as quickly as we can. I would not mind working in my PJs from a hotel room either. Just as good or better than home!

    We blog, but I have begun Skyping guitar lessons too! It’s actually better in may cases than meeting in person. One advantage is never having to worry about sharing scores/documents or making copies. It is all done online. Really little ones would be tough, so I only teach adults or very intelligent teens online. Student halitosis is no longer an issue either.

    1. haha I can imagine the 6 year old moving out of the camera scope all the time! That is a great idea CJ, and you don’t have to spend time going to their place, nor them to yours.

  11. Although I have worked from home before, I rarely work at home. I used to visit clients, but did support via telephone from home occasionally. When I am off during the summer, I work at home and enjoy the freedom of starting or stopping whenever I wished.

    1. I love that too, and feel more productive working when I actually want to do something than 9 to 5.

  12. These are great tips. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be in my pajamas for my full-time job, but you never know. I wouldn’t mind getting into freelancing on the side, though. That would be a decent way to make some extra cash.

    1. Freelancing is great, you set your hours when your other job is not too busy and can leave it for a while if you have other things to do.

  13. Pauline,

    Can you elaborate more on how you were able to build your Reach Financial Independence blog up to a revenue of $2,000 per month? I’m curious on your advice for accomplishing something similar.

    Thanks,

    1. I am going to track and compare progress on Make Money Your Way, on RFI income is a mix of adsense, affiliate and private advertising, it was just about building up the stats so advertisers start to notice the blog.

  14. Haha, I think if you run a day care unless it’s just for your own children you need to be professional and change out of your pajamas, but I get what you mean 🙂 You gotta be comfortable if you’re chasing children around all day! Blogging is also a great way to start.

  15. It only took you 6 months to make $2,000/mo with blogging?! I’ve been blogging for that long and only make about 20the cents a month, Haha. Nice job.

  16. Great post Pauline, and you’re right, blogging is NOT easy. I love it though and so glad to be apart of this community. I could not do a home daycare. I love my child but don’t know I could handle a bunch of them haha.

  17. Wow, you are my hero Pauline! I want to make money online like you. 🙂

  18. Freelancing is the most sure fire way to make money. It’s absolutely reliable and open source marketplace for everyone.

  19. I often work in my PJ’s, that’s the best perk of being a freelancer who don’t have to report anywhere most of the time. So did you make 2k AFTER you monetized or right from the birth of RFI? I’m not even close to that an I’ve been monetized since Feb! I’d love to generate 2k a month so that’s why I always look forward to your blogs to show me how. 🙂

  20. There really are a lot of benefits of working from home. One is that it makes you save a lot of money, as you mention in this post, by not commuting/paying for gas, work clothes, and food.

  21. Yup, that’s how you do it. Making money in your pajamas is the best way to make money, in my opinion (only defeated by “making money while sipping a Mojito on a sunny beach”). I am a professional blogger for close to 6 years now and I already have some pajamas that look a bit more “formal” for when I expect…. unexpected guests :))

  22. Really useful article Pauline! Freelancing is the way to go without a doubt. Set your own hours, only report to yourself, and you get to pursue something you’re passionate about. What could be better than that.

  23. Spectacular pair of pajamas in that pic!

    I’ve done freelancing from home before, but I think there’s a lot of room for growth as I have some comfortable pajamas! *grin*

  24. I’d probably not do it myself since our apartment is so small, but I’ve thought about home daycare in the past. If you have 2-3 kids you could make pretty good money (really good money here in the NYC area. I have friends paying thousands of dollars a month for daycare!).

  25. I agree that it’s a great idea to try and make money without leaving home. Outside of passive income, this is the best income to make.

  26. Good article,

    I like blogging, but it is not so easy. These days it is very hard to rank high and start driving traffic. You need a lot of time and money to make money …

    1. Hey Jim,
      Thanks for your comment. I’d agree with you somewhat, but I money doesn’t have much to do with it. I see people who start blogging on an extremely small budget and are successful all the time.
      You’re right though, blogging isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work to get your blog up and running. However, it isn’t impossible. I see new people come and go all the time. Most of them quit because it’s too hard. Some don’t give up, and they are the people who succeed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.