How to Make Money Without a Degree
Gone are the days when you needed a piece of paper to secure your income! A degree is no longer the automatic route to getting a job or earning money, especially in today’s flexible world, where side-hustle culture and entrepreneurship are growing fast.
In this article, we’ll consider how to make money without a degree, covering different options for career paths, side gigs, and enterprise opportunities.
Whether you’re looking to just earn some extra cash or create a meaningful income stream as an alternative to a traditional degree-path job, we’ll cover the ideas, tips, and pitfalls you need to know.
Let’s go!
Why Consider How to Make Money Without College?
For years, we’ve been told that a college degree is the essential path to a good job and a healthy income. But in reality, over 60% of American adults don’t have a degree.
With the average cost of attending college now standing at $38,270 per student per year, many people are looking at alternatives. After all, no one wants to start their career with a huge pile of student debt.
So let’s look at some real-world ways to make money without a degree, and consider the skills and strategies available to begin your project.
Which People Ask How To Make Money With No Degree?
Some common types of people looking for ways to earn money without college include:
- Young people who are considering alternatives to traditional education because they don’t want the debt of college, distrust the longevity of many traditional careers (particularly with the introduction of AI disrupting many industries), and have an entrepreneurial mindset and skills base.
- At-home parents who might have prioritized a family, and now want to explore earning options that don’t require college expenses or time investment.
- People who want to switch careers or explore new opportunities without going to college.
How to Make Money With No Degree Through Mindset
OK, we’re not saying that it’s possible to simply manifest money! Even if you had a solid degree from a good university, you’d still need to put in the work!
But mindset is crucial for rethinking success and considering the different ways possible to make money without a degree using your skills, effort, drive, and time, especially in today’s rapidly changing economy.
For example:
- Rethink what success means to you. Maybe you want the flexibility of a digitized portfolio career and multiple income streams, rather than a traditional employed job.
- Ask what value you’re able to offer, rather than focusing on traditional credentials.
- Consider what problems you can solve for other people. This is the ultimate key to all kinds of income generation. A degree is a traditional way of quantifying your value through proven academic study in a certain field. But today, it’s easy to demonstrate your value by directly solving problems for customers with money to spend.
- Develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Many people build rewarding businesses by thinking differently and putting customer needs first, rather than waiting for someone to give them a job.
How To Make Good Money Without A Degree
To find ways to make good money without a degree, consider:
What does “good money” mean to you?
Are you prepared to forgo high earnings initially to build your own income streams? (If so, this unlocks a world of potential business building.)
Where do your strengths lie?
For example, if you’re practical, head to a trade school or find a union apprenticeship to earn up to $100k a year over time with experience. Good plumbers, electricians, builders, welders, and HVAC technicians are always needed.
If you’re good at technology, teach yourself skills in IT support, cybersecurity, web development, or QA testing through Google Certification or Codecademy. Salaries in these fields start at around $50k, but you don’t necessarily need a degree for them.
If sales is your forte, work on the arts of communication, self-motivation, and persuasion to enjoy an attractive performance-based income of over $100k a year in areas such as real estate, B2B sales, or insurance sales.
Do you know what’s out there?
Think outside the box when considering how to make money without a degree. For example, get specialist certification in CDL truck driving to enjoy high demand for your skills and up to $60k or more a year in earnings.
How to Make Money Without College By Building Other Income Streams
Another popular route to earning income without a degree is to build multiple income streams that replace the need for a traditional full-time, employed job.
This kind of gig and side hustle economy is building, driven by interests such as digital nomad lifestyles and the FIRE movement. (Financial Independence, Retire Early.)
Rather than waiting for someone to give you a job in return for a college degree, you hustle and build up a range of income streams to give you the earnings, development, flexibility, and career interest that you want.
The beauty of this approach is that it makes you resilient and flexible. If you lose one income stream, lean on the others and take steps to rebuild. This offers a degree of security that traditional employment doesn’t (as anyone who’s ever been made redundant from a ‘safe and solid’ job will tell you).
16 Interesting Ways To Make Money Without A Degree
With this approach to building multiple income streams in mind, these are all some of our favorite ways to make money without a degree.
Some are fast and easy, and others require more time, investment, and skills development. See which ones take your fancy and use them as inspiration to start your own research.
Easy Earners: Beginner Level / Quick Cash
1. Play games on fun cash apps
Earn $5 a day by playing games on apps such as Scrambly, Mistplay, Swagbucks Live, and InboxDollars. These won’t replace your income, but they’re a great way to earn extra money in your spare time. Stack up your fun cash apps and store them in a folder to check regularly for new work.
2. Do surveys
Earn up to $3+ per survey on sites such as Prolific, Prime Opinion, Ipsos iSay, and SurveyJunkie. Again, these are quick, fun, and easy, and they require no skills. They’re a great way to earn a little extra between jobs.
Quirky Earners: Fun Jobs That Earn More
3. Pose as an art model
If you’re not shy, earn $20 to $100 each hour as a life model. Look for opportunities at your local art school or college, or contact community-based art classes.
Also, search online for art model jobs. Most of these are quick earners, and you’ll get paid after the session.
4. Get paid to stand in line
No, really. Earn $25-$35 per hour by waiting in line for other people. Some companies or people pay for this when they’re short on time.
Sign up at Taskrabbit, Same Ole Line Dudes, and InLine4You, and search for link sitter jobs.
Digital Business Ideas
5. Work as a freelancer
Earn $50-$100+ an hour for freelance services in areas such as graphic design, virtual assistance, writing, and editing. Build a profile on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and Toptal.
For best results, build your portfolio as soon as possible and consider working in a niche area to build specialist skills.
6. Get into Dropshipping or eCommerce
Earn from $100 – $10,000+ per month by dropshipping or building an e-commerce business. Good platforms to look at include Shopify, WooCommerce, AliExpress, Oberlo, and Etsy.
You’ll need a business idea and a model that works, so invest in your business knowledge and understanding of the eCommerce world for success.
7. Become a Local search specialist
Earn up to $300 – $2,000 a month per client as a local search optimization specialist. Develop skills in Google My Business to begin working in this relatively underserved area. Good tools include BrightLocal, Google Business Profile, and Whitespark.
This is a growth area, so target local services businesses that don’t have time to learn how to do it themselves.
8. Create content
Earn $100 – $5,000+ a month as a content creator. Blog, make videos, or create your own newsletters on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Patreon.
Monetize your audience with ad revenue, brand deals, paid content, and affiliate marketing over time. This is a slow burner that will take time, effort, and skill to grow, but it’s highly scalable once you achieve traction.
9. Get into affiliate marketing
Earn up to $10,000+ a month over time as an affiliate marketer. You’ll promote other brands’ products via your blog, email, YouTube, or TikTok to your own audience.
Use tools like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or ClickBank and focus on a niche. Build trust to engage your audience and seek to solve their specific problems. Again, this is a business that will grow over time, but it’s lucrative.
Passive Income Opportunities
10. Invest (cautiously)
Earn interest and benefit from growth with stocks, crypto, ETFs, and strategies such as flipping and day trading. Look at Robinhood, Fundrise, and BiggerPockets. Only ever invest what you’re happy to risk, and learn everything possible about your chosen area.
11. Rent what you own
Earn $50 – $1,000 a month by renting space on your car with Wrapify. Other ways to earn passive income by renting what you already own include Turo to rent your car, Neighbor to rent storage space, and Airbnb if you have a spare room (or house!)
12. Build an Online Directory
Earn up to $5,000 a month over time with a profitable online directory in a high-growth niche. Build it with quality content and reviews, optimize it heavily, and treat it as a business.
Good growth areas for a directory include women’s midlife products, boomer lifestyle products, longevity services, and cybersecurity software.
This is a long-play with the potential to become a profitable passive earner over time. Build your directory on WordPress or Brilliant Directories.
Gig Economy Jobs
13. Work as a driver
Earn $15 – $30 per hour as a driver with Uber. The gig economy is booming, and your digital device allows you to quickly access customers and employers alike. Look at platforms such as DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Amazon Flex, and Instacart.
Start quickly for rapid traction and work a flexible schedule. Just remember to factor in the wear and tear on your transport and track expenses and mileage for tax write-offs.
14. Become a tasker
Earn $20 – $60 an hour as a tasker doing everyday jobs such as furniture assembly, lawn mowing, junk removal, moving help, and basic DIY.
Sign up at TaskRabbit, Thumbtack, or Handy and stand out with quick responses, excellent reviews, and a specialized set of services that customers want.
15. Flip and resell goods
Earn $100 – $5,000+ a month as a furniture flipper. This is a surprisingly good income earner over time. Find items such as furniture and quality clothes on clearance racks, thrift stores, return pallets, and garage sales, and niche down as you learn what sells and what doesn’t.
Sell items on Poshmark, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Mercari. To charge more, consider developing skills in furniture restoration or customization!
Physical Businesses
16. Set up a local service business
Earn up to $150 per hour, with a community-based physical business. With the focus on digital business opportunities, it’s very easy to forget the power of local service businesses. In fact, one of the best ways to make money without a degree is to set up your own local service business.
As an example, you could start up a lawn care business, shovel snow in winter or put up Christmas lights, detail cars, remove junk, pressure wash driveways, or sit pets on Rover. Create a website and use Google Business for local search.
Advertise on local community boards, in Facebook groups, and using your network. Flyers are also effective. Focus on offering superb service and gathering excellent reviews to build your reputation and attract repeat and referral work.
How to Make Money Without a Degree? Get Other Certifications!
Trade and professional qualifications are just as (if not more) useful than a traditional degree. To build skills and validate them, consider investing in affordable courses and accredited training.
- For example, in digital fields, look at Google Career Certificates or Meta Certifications, plus courses on Coursera and CompTIA.
- In trade fields, look at community college for short-term programs in trade industries, healthcare, beauty, and other industries, where work without a degree is readily available.
Avoid These Pitfalls to Make Money Without a Degree
It’s exciting to know how many opportunities there are to earn money without a college degree, but with every opportunity, there’s a pitfall to avoid. With that in mind, follow these tips:
- Watch out for scams, as these are rife on the internet. Practice online safety.
- Don’t buy expensive online courses from content creators that promise “get rich quick” schemes.
- Avoid multilevel marketing (MLM) schemes, which have a high dropout rate and invariably fail to live up to expectations, due to their structure.
- Analysis paralysis! Rather than getting stuck in your research phase, start with some easy and fast earners (such as playing games on Scrambly for fast cash or completing academic surveys on Prolific between “real work”) and build upward!
Top Tips for Long-Term Success
These tips will help maximize your no-degree money-making projects:
How to Make Money with No Degree: Concluding Thoughts
There are plenty of ways to make money without a degree, especially if you invest in yourself, work hard, remain flexible, and stack up your earning opportunities.
A degree isn’t a guarantee of success. The real attributes that will help you earn money in 2025 are skills, mindset, a flexible attitude, and action. Combine these for the best results!
Which way to make money with no degree will you try first?
