<prompt> Human: Hello all!I have been a lurker on this sub for a few months now and I love to see the great advice that is given out here! One thing I constantly hear about is making money online. I am currently enlisted in the army and was wondering how I can make a money in my free time. I am looking for different options. Some people told me to apply to companies that provide customer service and allow you to work from home like Alorica, but I need something that can kind of work around my schedule. My work day usually ends at about 4 pm and im free for the rest of the day, I also get weekends off. The only thing that worries me about applying for something like online customer service is sometimes in the army we leave for upwards of a month straight and in that time i dont have access to a computer. I have explored many options but I would like some personal experience from someone who maybe has done this before. Some people I work with say they make decent money trading penny stocks but O have heard a lot of negative things about penny stocks and I am just unsure if its right for me. Thanks!  <response>: Im going to give you a couple bits of advice here that maybe arent what youre looking for, but you should probably hear. First off, Im a veteran myself so Im somewhat familiar with your situation. First, I suggest you dont worry too much about working some chump change at home gig while youre serving. If youre looking for short-term financial gain, you should focus on getting promoted. In the Marines at least, one could speed up his or her promotion times by doing formal military training or just spending your time learning and prepping for meritorious boards, squaring away your uniform etc. Second, if youre interested in long term financial gain, enroll in college and start getting your gen-ed classes out of the way now. The more classes you finish the better, that means you can get out of the military, finish college faster and get started in a career faster. Depending on what you study the difference in income will be pretty massive between going to school on the GI bill and working. I made around 18k in college between the GI bill and pell grants, and I made 67k right out of college. So two years using those figures has an opportunity cost of 49k a year. Pretty much, getting a year of school done in the military is worth 49k per year assuming you study something useful. I seriously doubt you will find any side gig that can compare to that sort of value. Bottom line is, unless you owe money to a loan shark, or are supporting an addiction, there are much more profitable uses of your time in the Army. If Im assuming too much and you are in fact supporting a family member or have some other financial burden, the Army has a plethora of resources to help service members and their families, just talk to your chain of command. Good luck and hooah. 