Australians struggling with a cost-of-living crisis are turning to lucrative side jobs to pay the bills and earn up to an extra $48,000 a year.
Brittany Davidson, a 27-year-old mother from Canberra, has been making extra money by finding rental properties for wealthy investors, doing mystery shopping for big corporations and even writing eulogies.
The qualified baker and pastry chef has been offering jobs on Airtasker for the past six years and charges up to $250 an hour.
“I really believe your earnings can be unlimited – it all depends on how much effort you want to put in and how much time you want to dedicate,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
The single mother can earn $4,000 in a good month if she can find time between raising her five-year-old son and caring for her grandmother.
“The reason I work this way is because I have other things that take priority,” he said.
‘I took advantage of what I could do as a single mother and housewife in the early days; it was right after my son was born.’
She is among nearly a million Australians working multiple jobs to pay the bills.
Brittany Davidson, a 27-year-old single mother from Canberra, has been making extra money by finding rental properties for the wealthy, doing mystery shopping and even writing eulogies for funerals (pictured left with her soon-to-be-six-year-old son).
Ms. Davidson’s most lucrative job is finding rental properties for wealthy investors, which can involve spending just 15 minutes visiting a home to see if it’s a good fit for her clients.
“Some of these are rental inspections, I represent real estate investors who have corporate jobs and can’t make it to all the inspections,” Ms. Davidson said.
‘I communicate with real estate agents and ask questions on behalf of my client.
‘Some people look to buy investments from out of state – when you’re working for more corporate and high-end clients, they tend to pay a little bit more than someone who’s in a different financial position and can’t afford to splurge as much on things like that.
‘I’ve had doctors who have moved from other places to practice in Canberra.’
Ms Davidson also makes money by working undercover in stores as a mystery shopper, providing feedback on customer service, presentation and hygiene for gas stations, pharmacies and food outlets.
‘I just walk in and act the same way I would if I were walking through any other store – you just have to pay close attention to detail and be a little more observant.
‘Each person looking for someone to be a mystery shopper will have different things they want to focus on: if they have a promotion going on, they want to know if staff are selling more products from that promotion; or they have others who are looking at food safety and handling.’
Employment agencies recruit mystery shoppers either by posting jobs on Airtasker or by placing ads on career sites.
“The company has its own portfolio of businesses on whose behalf it conducts mystery shopping and it can be a very diverse portfolio,” Ms Davidson said.
“It’s not really just one thing. You’re not working directly for any company, you’re working with a middleman.”
Then there are the eulogy writing jobs for a bereaved person before a funeral, which Ms Davidson also finds on Airtasker.
Australians struggling with a cost of living crisis are turning to lucrative side jobs to pay their bills, potentially earning an extra $48,000 a year.
“Generally speaking, I’ll try to have a brief conversation with the person who’s looking for someone to complete the job to see whether or not we can build a good relationship,” he said.
‘You have to be able to communicate pretty well with the person you’re writing on behalf of – talk about what kind of things you want to highlight and what you really want to honour in that person.’
Frank Hoyt, a 40-year-old mobile hail repairer, can also potentially earn up to an extra $4,000 a month by bidding on Airtasker to paint or plaster houses, either in Brisbane or on the road as he travels around Australia.
The married father of two repairs cars as part of a mobile body and paint shop in bad weather, having worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle, Rockhampton and Gympie.
But when time permits, he can earn up to $500 a day bidding on room painting or interior wall plastering jobs as he and his wife try to save $150,000 for a 20 per cent mortgage deposit in Brisbane.
Frank Hoyt, a 40-year-old bodyworker, can also earn up to $4,000 a month by bidding on Airtasker for house painting or plastering jobs, either in Brisbane or on the road as he travels around Australia.
“With the extra work, I’m managing to get to where I need to be and get a house,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr. Hoyt hopes to find something with a backyard for $750,000, but that is a challenge in a city where median home prices over the past year have risen 15 percent to just under $1 million.
The millennial worker said life was much tougher for his generation.
“It’s not easy. My parents and my in-laws, when they talk about buying a house, these guys had one job and they stuck to it and they lived pretty well: they had a nice car, a house and they were paying it off,” he said.
‘I feel like it’s very difficult to do what they’ve done and I feel like there are more opportunities to get a job now, but trying to have a home of our own is becoming more and more distant from us.’
In March, 6.7 percent of the workforce or 974,000 people were working in multiple jobs, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
Unemployment remains low at 4.1 per cent, but the inflation rate of 3.8 per cent is well above the Reserve Bank’s 2 to 3 per cent target, prompting more people to work harder to cope with the cost of living shock.
