Australians facing a cost of living crisis are turning to lucrative side jobs to pay their bills, earning up to $48,000 extra a year.
Brittany Davidson, a 27-year-old mother from Canberra, makes extra money by finding rental properties for wealthy investors, mystery shopping for major corporations and even writing eulogies at funerals.
The certified baker and pastry chef has been responding to jobs through Airtasker for the past six years, charging up to $250 an hour.
“I really think you can earn an infinite amount of money. It really depends on how much effort you want to put into it and how much time you want to put into it,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
The single mother can earn $4,000 in a good month by taking time off from raising her five-year-old son and caring for her grandmother.
“I work this way because I have other things that take priority,” she said.
‘In the early days, right after my son was born, I took advantage of what I could do at home as a single parent.’
She is one of almost a million Australians who work multiple jobs to pay the bills.
Brittany Davidson, a 27-year-old single mother from Canberra, makes extra money by finding rental properties for the wealthy, mystery shopping and even writing obituaries (she’s pictured left with her soon-to-be six-year-old son).
Ms. Davidson’s most lucrative job is finding rental properties for wealthy investors, where she can take as little as 15 minutes to tour a home to see if it’s right for her clients.
“Some of them are rental inspections. I represent real estate investors who work for a large company and can’t be present for all the inspections,” Ms. Davidson said.
‘I maintain contact with the brokers and ask questions on behalf of my clients.
“Some people want to make investments outside of the state. When you’re working for those corporate and high-end clients, they’re usually going to pay a little bit more than someone who’s in a different financial position and can’t spend as much money on those things.
‘I’ve had doctors move from elsewhere to Canberra to practice their field.’
Ms Davidson also earns money by working undercover as a mystery shopper in stores, providing feedback on customer service, presentation and hygiene at petrol stations, pharmacies and restaurants.
“I just go in and act like I would if I was walking around in any other store. You just have to pay close attention to detail and pay a little more attention.”
“Anyone looking for a mystery shopper wants to look for different things. For example, if they have a promotion going on, they want to know if the staff is promoting that promotion. Others look at things like food safety and food processing.”
Employment agencies recruit mystery shoppers by posting vacancies on Airtasker or advertising on career sites.
“The company has a portfolio of companies that they do mystery shopping for and that can be a very diverse portfolio,” Davidson said.
“It’s really not one thing. You’re not working directly for a company, you’re working as an intermediary.”
Then there are the jobs where she writes eulogies for someone who is grieving, prior to a funeral. Ms Davidson also finds these jobs on Airtasker.
Australians struggling with a cost-of-living crisis are turning to lucrative side jobs to pay their bills – and could potentially earn an extra $48,000 a year
“I usually try to have a quick chat with the person who is looking for someone to do the job first, to see if we can build a rapport,” she said.
‘You have to be able to communicate well with the person you are writing on behalf of. Tell what he or she wants to focus on and what he or she really wants to emphasize in that person.’
Frank Hoyt, a 40-year-old mobile hail repairman, can also potentially earn an extra $4,000 a month by bidding on Airtasker to paint or render houses in Brisbane or while travelling around Australia.
The married father of two daughters repairs cars in a mobile body shop when the weather is bad. He has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle, Rockhampton and Gympie.
But if he has enough time, he can earn up to $500 a day doing odd jobs like painting bedrooms or plastering interior walls. He and his wife are trying to save $150,000 for a 20 percent mortgage in Brisbane.
Frank Hoyt, a 40-year-old sheet metal worker, can also potentially earn up to $4,000 a month – in his case by bidding on Airtasker for work painting or plastering houses in Brisbane or on the road as he travels around Australia
“The extra work will help me achieve my goal of buying a house,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr. Hoyt hopes to find something with a backyard for $750,000, but that’s a challenge in a city where average home prices have risen 15 percent in the past year to just under $1 million.
The traditional millennial man said life was a lot harder 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 that they held down and they were doing pretty well — they had a nice car, they had a house and they were paying it off,” he said.
‘I find it very difficult to do what they have done and I feel like there are more opportunities now to find work, but it seems like it is becoming more and more remote for us to buy a house.’
In March, 6.7 percent of the working population, or 974,000 people, held multiple jobs, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.
Unemployment is still low at 4.1 percent, but inflation at 3.8 percent is well above the Reserve Bank’s target of 2 to 3 percent, meaning more people will have to work extra hours to cope with the cost of living crisis.
