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Why Side Hustle?

Becoming financially independent can be a daunting proposition.  We are rarely taught about financial literacy in school, but it is probably the most important life-long skill that you can have.  No one wants to be stuck working your entire life.  The two biggest factors for increasing your net worth and getting ready for retirement are yearly salary and savings rate. Savings rate can be increased with frugality and intentional spending (something for another blog post), but if you are unhappy with your yearly salary you can only increase it by finding a new job or with a side hustle.

Teachers seem to be hit especially hard because their wages have lagged behind those of other professionals.  This factor was highlighted in Time Magazine in September of 2018.  It also was a major reason for the numerous protests that happened around the country last school year. Personally, I know numerous teachers who have their own side hustles and second jobs.  Some even run their own businesses. Unfortunately, for some, side hustling or second jobs is a necessity.  For those who want to be financially independent, it may be a good choice to turbo-boost your savings!  If you are a teacher and want to increase your savings, it makes sense to do it in the education field!

Enter VIPKid

VIPKID is an online Educational platform that allows children in China to learn English from North American teachers, all from the comfort of their own homes.  Currently, 300,000 students and 30,000 teachers use VIPKID. In order to teach with VIPKID, you must: 1. Have a Bachelor’s degree of any kind 2. Be eligible to work in the US or Canada 3. Have one year experience teaching or other educational activity (homeschool, tutoring, educational mentoring)

That means while it suits teachers, other non-teachers can also benefit from teaching with VIPKID.

How it works

VIPKID works on a flipped classroom model. The students will learn the material independently and then have a 30-minute lesson from the teacher.  Teaching with VIPKID is a lot like making a Skype call but you also have an interactive presentation as well.

The good thing about VIPKID is that it takes away all of the things that teachers grumble about the most: lesson planning and grading.  The lessons are created by a curriculum team which means that you just need to focus on teaching!

The Benefits

Teachers working with VIPKID make $7-9 per 30-minute lesson.  You also receive up to $1 per lesson as a Participation Incentive (for showing up on time an delivering the lesson according to schedule).  You can also receive another $1 per lesson as a Finished Class Incentive based on the number of lessons you complete each month.  This equates to anything from $14-22 per hour. Another major benefit is flexibility.  You can teach when you want to.  There are obvious peak times (6-10pm Bejing time and 9am-10pm on weekends), but it really is up to you. Another benefit is that it can be done anywhere.  This factor really opens up the idea of being a digital nomad and living anywhere in the world! So if you want to move to Europe, go ahead! At least you can still make some money!

 The Process

The process is a bit laborious, but perhaps that is the way that VIPKID ensures quality.  Every teacher must give a demonstration lesson.  You will be given a powerpoint ahead of time to prepare for the lesson.  During this lesson, VIPKID will determine your salary (from $7-9 per lesson). There are loads of videos on Youtube to help you through the interview process from experts so go ahead and check those out. There is also a rubric that they use to grade your performance.

Summary

I think that VIPKID has a lot of promise.  The best thing is the flexibility.  I like the idea of not just relying on my 9-5 job as a source of income.  It is nice to have the flexibility to work as much as you want and wherever you want. Teachers also have some flexibility with having their summers off (mostly), and VIPKID could work as an alternative income stream.  It sure beats teaching summer school! Or worse, working at Walmart!