Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
I&#x27;ve been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I have high problem solving competence in general, but most modern technology stacks people are regularly using seem to be past my time. I&#x27;m willing to put some work into correcting the difference, however due to the circumstances I&#x27;m in, it would really have to quickly and effectively pay off. It can&#x27;t be a &quot;maybe useful&quot; kind of scenario.<p>I&#x27;ve come into a situation, largely due to how awful the rent situation is in the United States, where I pretty desperately need to maximize the amount I can earn under disability (which is around $1200 a month) without losing it.<p>I have 8-10 years of overall experience, and regularly program as a hobby, but I have not been employed for years.<p>The last job I worked I primarily wrote python scripts for automating things like data entry into a CMS and other basic front-end web development features using older technology.<p>What can I do to actually be able to get some side income in the software space here in 2023? I&#x27;ve talked with a couple companies in my situation and the answers usually are along the lines of &quot;well we can just hire a new graduate with up-to-date experience and they can work 40 hours a week for us no problem.&quot;<p>I&#x27;m in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I&#x27;m not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe.<p>---<p>edit:
I&#x27;ve already reduced expenses pretty much as much as I reasonably can do of course.<p>I&#x27;ve explored other options already as well. For things like Fiverr or being hired contract-wise on websites they seem to be races to the bottom so if I&#x27;m trying to earn $1200 a month I&#x27;m really having to work quite a lot harder and more hours than I&#x27;m really currently able to do.<p>I have some applications I&#x27;ve written that generated some interest, however if I want to make any decent money off them I would have to put an extraordinarily large amount of effort into marketing and post-release diligence which may well be past what I&#x27;m currently capable of doing.<p>I do tutor students as well intermittenly but it doesn&#x27;t get me very much.<p>I&#x27;ve written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver.<p>It seems like finding other leads in that regard is really my only option.