If you are a student and starting to manage your own finance, here is an email I received from a reader you might be interested in. She is hardworking and she manages to partly support her living expenses while still in school.
photo credit: Paul. B
Hi KC,
I’ve read most of the money tips and the links you sent me, but I can’t really get it cause I don’t have a proper income yet..
Let me take this opportunity to tell you about myself,
I’m a student who has been a ‘money lover’ since I was young. I hate losing money but will be thrill if I earn money, even if it’s only 20cents.I’m neither poor nor rich, I just want to achieve a goal of earning more money than anyone else in my same age, so that I get to reduce my father’s pressure, he’s been working very hard to earn money for my sisters overseas and my mom & me in the other hand. I like to earn money for myself too, when I earn money I feel like I didn’t loss anything but got something for free, silly huh ?
I’ve been trying to save as much money as I can and earn as much as I can — as a student.
To Save Money
– I quit tuition classes cause I think it’s wasting my time and money, I do revision myself and bought revision books which are much cheaper than tuition class.– I go to the barber shop only once or twice a year, and cut my own hair when I needed to (school rules:short hair) cause I think what they did to my hair is not worth the price ….
– I don’t have a cellphone (yet) cause I don’t think it’s necessary … I think I could save at least RM 10-20 per month because of this..
To Earn Money
– when I was in primary school I rent my comic books for RM0.50 per day to earn some vitagen money (haha..)– I made a deal with my friend that I will help him make a Kemahiran Hidup project (sewing cloth) for RM 30
– I sold 2 insects which were needed for the science experiment, RM 1 per insect, the original price is RM0.10 per insect.
– My classmates wanted to make a class T-shirt so I volunteered to do it, I T-shirt was originally RM 16 but I sold it for RM20 … I sold about 39 of them … It was my biggest ‘EARN’
I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done or achieved, I’m not trying to make myself poor or anything… I just love what I do ~
but I still think what I earned or saved was not enough, so I’ve been thinking a way to earn money … I just don’t know how.
I wanted to do a part-time job but because of the problem of the location , transportation and time, it’s really hard for me to earn more money in this kind of situation ..Is there any way I could earn money as a student ? and not affect my studies at the same time ??
Chin
My response to her:
I think yours is a great example of a student who are money savvy and independent. This will inspire other students who read your story.
My advice is that as a student, you can certainly earn and you learn. Some skills are very important such as communication skill and people skills. These skills including marketing skill that most rich people have.
So I would recommend that you take part time jobs that can give you exposure to brush up your people skill.
Good luck!
KCLau
Do you have any advice for this hardworking students? Please post it in the comment section below.
9 replies to "What can a student do to make more money?"
I understand how she feels because I am a student myself. Studying in a private uni is not easy – the huge amount tuition fees, maintenance fees etc makes me feel bad for draining my father’s bank account :((( So i’m constantly trying to work part time and save cost by bringing own food n stuff..
Recently, my friend introduced me to this Brand Ambassador program thingy by ZALORA (i’m a fashion lover n love online shopping very much) and apparently they have this referral program where you get instant cash back when you introduce a new customer. 50% of the first purchase and 10% for the subsequent purchase. I was a bit passive at the beginning but after i invited my friends, i can see my extra allowance growing (yay). I earned about RM300 for the first month. It’s quite easy for me, as a student because i dont have to sacrifice my study time to work part time else where and RM300 is alot for a student to spend on food & petrol.. SO yeah.. ANd you can build your own network, learn soft skills – how to market your idea/ improve communication skills and so on. If you’re hardworking, you can earn up to RM1000!
So yeah, hope this helps :) cheers Here’s the link :www.zalora.com.my/brand-ambassador-program/
To all people who are keen to get part time income at the same time improve your communication and people skills, Pls email to me if u are interested to know the supply and trading business. Thanks!
Direct Selling ^^
In my opinion, everyone have their own “unique” responsibility during each age category, if you are a student, try to focus your responsibility on getting your study to the best! It’s good to have the mindset of earning money, but if you are trying too hard to learn this few cents, at the end it is like what the Chinese idiom said: ???? (meaning paying 100% of effort just to get 50% of returns?). Don’t let other things to diverse your focusing if you should be studying well. Like a baby, if he’s in the age of learning how to walk, then focus teaching him to walk well, not to run yet!
Sharpen your basic at your age category and you will soon go far and fly high.
I admire her “money loving” spirit and trying to find all ways to earn to reduce her parent commitment.I can understand fully as i was in such situation when i was in my secondary school. It is good that you have explored into personal finance at a younger age.
I am not sure how old is she. I guess she is in secondary school or college? I My advice would be:
i) Build your knowledge & interest , find your passion besides study. Many students do not know what they want when they graduate. It would be great if you know what you want immediately u graduate instead of waste your youth to explore. Read and explore by reading, surfing & communicating with people.
ii) Soft skills – I agreed with KC and 8th voyage of building some soft skills like interpersonal & marketing skills. These are essential when u join the working life. Selling home made cookies for some housewives during festive season is also good money. If you are good at art or knitting, u can also make and sell. I used to give tuition, sell stationery, cookies (made by my mom), and necklace to my teachers, school friends and relatives. Don’t forget, friends have friends & relatives, teachers too have their own family network. Look around at the people around you and think about your skills. U will be able to find something they need where u can earn enough to survive.
If she is a college student, you may try:
iii) Part time job
There is a part time job website available in malaysia. you can try to explore. However, please becareful, make sure it is a legitimate job
– http://asiaparttime.com/
iv) Online selling – I suggest you should explore some online selling/e-commerce area where you can learn to build a website and sell something online/blogging to monetize your website. It does not really cost a lot to build one. However, not all website are making money & give you a promise income immediately. It may take you a lot of efforts and time on this. It takes time too to earn from the website. Find your interest & passion on it as there are too many and too much information on the web.
I would also like to share a story of a 21 year old student – Alex Tew -who try to earn USD 1mil by using pixel advertising concept through his website called the Milliondollar Homepage. His intention is to pay for his degree studies in UK. It is a simple business model but I feel it is not really a sustainable business for long term. However, he achieved his objective that is to pay for his tuition fees & earn $1mil. That is more than enough for it. Conclusion: You can earn if you are creative, possess skills and most importantly – knowledge.
By all means, find out about scholarship by government, PTPTN and private companies. I think the government is more lenient in offering study loan compare to my generation. No harm trying. I think KC too have suggested one of it.
Lastly, do what you should do at the right age. Focus on your studies first, do not neglect your studies now. U may find difficult to study again at a later age. It may be too late for you to catch up your studies at a later age. The world is changing, getting competitive day by days. Time is of essence. I am sure you do not wish to loose the chance of earning money when you have equipped yourself with all the skills & knowlege.
This is a great advice from Phyllis. I did hire someone from Asiaparttime to complete some works for me in the past.
Yes focus on “learning and earning” is the ultimate way but I would say learning has the higher priority at younger age. For example, if you earn the money without growing your personal skills, I would recommend not too unless really no choice.
To be frank, I did agree with some of Chin’s points, but disagree at some of Chin’s points. Since she wasn’t asking for comments on her way of doing things, I shall not comment about it since it might be just my personal opinions.
I think 8th Voyager’s reply is informative and helpful but I have my own opinions to add on.
By referring to the question, how could she earn money as a student and not affecting your studies, I would advise her focus on her studies and focus on hunting down information on scholarships, but be aware of the conditions that required for you to get the scholarship. To take a few as example, a JPA scholarship holder in UKM will be actually getting around RM6-8k per year, excluding the fees that you need to pay since JPA would pay it. With free time she gets during semester breaks, and probably the free time she has in between classes, she is probably making herself that RM6-8k like a passive income for a few years, and if she is hardworking enough, with those free time she could earn even more money. The downside would be she will be bonded to JPA. Another scholarship, Kuok’s Foundation, I heard to have around RM10k per year but it is not easy to get, same goes with JPA. So, first option, scholarships.
Second option is probably quite similar to The 8th Voyager’s reply, would be to monetize her skills, it depends on herself and what she can do to make money, or find what she would like to do and find a method to monetize it and remember that do involve in anything illegal or immoral that will destroy the society. However, this might affect her studies since it requires time and effort. Probably, she can try to ask around the places accessible to her for a part time job as well, such as commercial places around schools or her house, etc.
Thirdly, if she is probably searching for passive income that does not generate that much income but requires less time and effort, commercial blogging, etc. would be a good choice. I am not well informed in e-commerce, thus, I cannot offer much advise on this. But, I do have some friends running online shops selling clothes or blogging to earn some extra money while schooling although their academics aren’t great but they always weren’t that great in academics anyway. There might some other ways similar to this, but unfortunately that is all I know.
Hope this helps. Cheers.
Don’t try to make money for the sack of making money only. You can think of something that you can gain more besides the money.
Example: teaching tuition, or if you have learned some skillset such as swimming, piano, violin, taekwando, … you can also get yourself qualified and teach the subject. When you teach, you will learn something new, and that is good for you as a student.
Another example: writing, drawing, photographing, etc. and sell for royalty. Make your hobby to be fun as well as profitable. Along the process, you will brush up your skill to a higher level.
Yet another example, if you know how to bake, sew, cook, … also can produce something at home and sell your kemahiran.