I have many goals. In the way of some of these goals are loans. In particularly student loans. If I pay the minimum of $350 per month, my last payment is scheduled for August of 2019. I hate paying student loans. I've hated it since I first started doing it. I used to complain about. I don't anymore, unless you count simply talking about it as complaining. Instead I've decided to do what I can to try and pay off these loans faster.
As a result, I've dived into a few different ways to earn extra money. Extra money that can be used to pay off my student loans quicker. Some of these ideas, such as UBER have been wise decisions. UBER, when I have had the time to do it, has allowed me an extra $150-$300 a week to help towards my loans and other unexpected expenses.
Not all journeys for extra cash have been pleasant. Some of them have been the exact opposite.
When I was living in Iowa City, I did a multitude of different jobs to earn money. The dumbest one I ever ventured into was when I took a job delivering papers for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. It was $60, to deliver papers on Wednesday morning. When I asked the guy how long it'd take me, he said it'd take me about 4 hours. The equivalent of $15 an hour. It sounded great to me.
I went in at 4:30 a.m. that morning, a half hour early, to pick up the papers. They were put in bundles. I was told that I would have to cut the bundles, roll up the newspapers and place them into baggies. That alone took me 3 hours. There were too many papers for my pickup, so I called my friend Chief and asked to borrow his Cherokee to deliver the papers.
It took me till 10:00 p.m. to deliver all of the papers. It took me 15 and a half hours in all. I averaged $3.87 an hour. If you count that I had to fill up Chief's tank for $25, then I only averaged $2.25 an hour. I talked to other people who had delivered papers, and asked them if I was doing something wrong. They informed me that I wasn't. It took them between 12 and 17 hours to do deliver all the papers too.
"Why do you think there is an advertisement in the paper for the job all the time?" One of them said to me making a good point.
Here it is nearly 5 years later, and the Iowa City Press Citizen still has weekly advertisements for the job.
I ended up calling my boss at 11:00 p.m. and letting him know that I would not be back the next Wednesday. I went back to driving Cab on Wednesday nights, and searching for other opportunities. Yet, I asked myself then and I continue to ask myself today a few questions.
Is $2.25 an hour better than nothing? Yes, it is.
Yet, is $2.25 better than what someone would earn on welfare? No, it isn't.
Is $2.25 an hour better than what one would collect through unemployment? No, it isn't.
And I wonder sometimes if that's the answer to a question hat I hear asked a lot. People say all the time, "I don't get why there are so many people on welfare or collecting unemployment checks when there are so many jobs available?"
The conclusion many people want to have us all believe, is that it is because people are lazy and they don't want to work. In some cases, I don't doubt that is the answer.
Yet, how many of these so called available "jobs" are like the paper delivery job that I did for the Cedar Rapids Gazette? Who's the dummy when you can collect a welfare check that equals the equivalent of $10 an hour or you can work for 15 1/2 hours per day for less money?
It's not the only time, I've experienced situations to ask me such questions.
About two months ago, I was approached by a gentleman who had heard from an acquaintance of mine that I enjoyed driving. He asked me if I would be interested in working for him, for a company called Professional Transportation Incorporated.
At first I told him that I wasn't interested because I had many other commitments. Iowa One Call gets really busy January, February and March. I have commitments as a writer to takedownwrestle.com and UBER-ing has been very good to me on the weekends.
"I could really use you on Sundays." He said to me.
I told him that I liked to UBER on Sunday mornings and afternoons and then I took care of laundry, bill paying and a few other chores on Sunday nights.
"Ah don't worry." He said to me, "Come on at 4:45 a.m., take a few morning rides for me and you'll be home by 2:00 p.m."
He told me that I'd average between $75 and $125 every Sunday. I figured an average of $10.71 to $17.85 an hour wasn't too bad. In UBER I usually average between $4.25 and $11.75 an hour driving for about 6 to 8 hours on Sundays.
I figured it was worth the chance.
Boy was I WRONG.
The first Sunday, I got my first ride at 11:00 a.m. I was told that all I would be doing was taking a crew from the Des Moines rail yard to the Nevada rail yard. I ended up going from Des Moines to Nevada, to Boone, back to Nevada, back to Boone, and then to Avon Lake. I didn't get back to the Des Moines yard until 11:00 p.m.
Do you know what I made in 12 hours of working? $56. Yes, $56. I averaged $4.60 an hour.
Don't ask me what possessed me to go back and do it again.
I called my boss and told him that I wasn't happy about being told I'd be done by 2:00 p.m. and then not being let go till 11:00 p.m.
He told me that nothing like that would happen again and to please stay on, because without me, they would be short someone on Sunday.
I came back. This time my job started at 9:00 a.m. I was told to go to Beech, Iowa and pick up a crew and take them to Kansas City. We were supposed to leave at 9:00, and arrive at 12:00. We didn't leave until 12:30. We got to Kansas City at 3:30. I got home at 6:30.
I haven't been paid for the job yet, but I'm anxious to see what I averaged for 9 1/2 hours worth of work. If I only made $56 for 12 hours worth of work, I'm going to imagine that this could be as bad as $40. We'll see.
I can make $56 in UBER working 5 hours on a good day, and if it isn't a good day, I end my day sooner. That's the beauty of UBER. If it's a good day, I'll drive and drive and drive. If it's a bad day, I drive around for an hour. If I haven't had a ride in an hour, I go home. I don't need to waste 9 to 12 hours of my life, when I could be doing more productive things.
It leads me to continue to wonder if all these "available jobs" are like C.R. Gazette delivery and P.T.I.
Jobs that are more hassle than they are worth. Jobs that you'd be better off collecting unemployment or welfare checks.
Is that a fair question to ask?
I think so.
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