Assuming you don't already... Could you make $50K/year from home? What would you do?
 

If you couldn't perform your current job/profession any more and were in a position that you HAD to work from home, what would you do to net $50K/year?

I would teach technical classes(Microsoft/Cisco networking products) via the internet.

Or gay porn. I haven't quite made up my mind.

You'd make more money with gay porn. ;)

and thats no joke!!! I have a few friends that run gay porn sites and let me tell you, big loads of cash! :(

I work from home but I spend a lot of time travelling between client sites.
It's not what I expected and you can get "cabin fever" at times.

write...(gay porn)

I do better than that and do work from home. The only problem I have with it is that I'd never be able to replace this gravy train of a job if I lost it. I have zero tolerance for the BS my wife deals with in her office. I'm removed from and immune to it all now and that means I'm totally spoiled. I'm riding my bike to LA in a week for work, will expense the mileage and live well. When I get back home, I'll work in my underwear, cook what I want for lunch, take naps and still git er done. My Blackberry is glued to me, but I can live with that.

Let's say not officially, but good aptitude for sales.

I guess the other important parameter is that you would not be a W2 employee.

Virtually everyone I know that's still in a "corporate america" IT dept. has been working from home for years.

I must be the exception.

I can do most of my job from home, but when the $h!t hits the fan, it's nice to be able to get everyone in one room, come up with a plan of action, and disperse to get it done. It would take much longer to have that kind of meeting over the phone/internet.

Chris, I never did either, but I was primarily referring to folks I know from my career in banking (mega-banks). With data centers and departments scatterered all over the US, when they began working from home, it was really no different from when they went into the office. I was always on call, 24x7x365, so there were many times that I got that 3 am phone call for an issue several states away or overseas. I never wanted to "work from home" on a regular basis however...it was much easier to forget about "stuff" on the drive home :).

KC,

That bolsters my theory that most "mega-banks" are still running the legacy back-end systems of the dozens of banks they have acquired over the years. I saw some evidence of this when I tried to close my dad's checking account with BofA. It also tells me that their IT infrastructure is overcomplicated and operating in a diseconomy of scale. I further assume that back-end systems have not been consolidated because of the significant one-time costs (despite the huge potential for reoccuring savings), and because they will just acquire another bank next year and have to do it all over again...

Feck... I make $43K, commute, and put up with BS all day...

If I could make $50K working from home I'd think I had died and gone to heaven.

YMMV

Yes, you are indeed correct. Fact is, they couldn't consolidate systems even if they wanted too...the expertise to do so has long been gone (although they do in fact consolidate data centers, etc.) I haven't been in banking IT for 15 years, but began in the "rodeo" you refer to (first with what is now BofA, and later with the now defunct Wachovia (half of Wells-Fargo). Yep, they are still too big too fail, but the irony is that attempting to "break them up" would be an utter fustercluck too. Deregulation of banking that began in the mid-80s has proven to me that we certainly don't want to go down that same path with the Insurance industry. The powers that be at the top brought this mess on, and convinced the regulatory agencies that it was a "good" thing back when Reagan was in office...hindsight proves otherwise imo. Sorry to get off topic and PARFY :)...

Not likely you would make that kind of money even if you didn't. Ask me how I know.

50K in commissions from sales at home seems unlikely to me.

Now all the exceptions will speak.

Crap. How do you afford to live in CA on $43k?

I make $80k and live in central Illinois where I bought a 4-bedroom, 3400 sq. ft. house for $219k this year. (I say this to give you an idea of the cost of living, which I assume is much cheaper than anywhere in CA). I presently can't afford a P-car and feel like I'm just squeezing by. I feel like I'd need to earn $150k a year to live in the same house, have my wife not work, and be able to afford a decent P-car.

43K is not impossible to live on. 1500 rent, low car payment and there's plenty enough for a good solid life. Don't bring in the p-car hobby though.

See my sig... can't even keep a 944 running.

I bought in real estate early... $180K mortgage on a (now) $490K house... two houses on the lot and I rent the front house out... hate being a landlord but it help make ends meet.

That sounds reasonable.

I was just thinking that if I made $43k a year, at my current tax rate, after withholdings and benefits, that would leave me about $1600 a month in take-home pay.

My ex makes $200K+ a year working from home. You can too - just need a phd from a top science department, a jd from a top law school, and the ability to make nice between engineers and the uspto.