Ever since a few months ago when my interest in personal finance was piqued, I have been looking for ways to add a second income to my income stream. I work a steady 8-5 job, so my options are somewhat limited, but there is still a lot out there. I’ve been reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad (good inspiration with mediocre advice) and The 4-Hour Work Week (mediocre advice from an abrasive questionable author) for ideas, and have been brainstorming on my own. Here’s what I have thought of (and, in some cases, dismissed) so far:

• Real Estate: I think that real estate is a solid idea for a second income stream. At the moment, I am mostly considering buying a multi-unit house which I would live in and rent out the other units. It seems as though this might serve as a nice step in-between renting and owning my own house. Of course it has downsides, mostly in terms of dealing with tenants. For now though, any action I would take with real estate is in the future: I simply don’t have the capital right now to invest in anything.
• Consulting: I really like the concept of consulting. For me, that would be with computer science as I have a decade of experience and a few degrees in it. I have enjoyed my experiences with it in the past, the startup costs are close to nothing, and I could charge a very nice hourly fee for any work I do. The first step, however, is the one that requires the most effort: Marketing. I know from the past that while a lot of people need this service, it’s not always easy to reach them. I got a book from the library called Guerilla Marketing that may help give me some cheap ideas for spreading the word, if I decide to pursue this.
• Investing: So far, this is going great. I am having a blast researching and monitoring the six stocks I own (Apple, BE Aerospace, Crocs, Gamestop, Jones Soda, and Loopnet). Unfortunately, as with real estate, I am limited by my capital. Right now I am trying to prioritize my emergency savings, and I know that it would be more responsible to save at least 60% of this money in a low-risk account (like an online bank) since I plan to use it within five years. I also decided not to make use of Prosper.com.
• Online Poker: I know, I know. Gambling? However, I made a nice chunk of change a year ago by combining poker bonuses at various online casinos (free $200 for playing, say, ten hours of poker) with winning at the actual game, which was fairly easy to do when playing against most online players. However, I soon found out that due to recent federal regulations it’s nearly impossible to deposit money into most online casinos. Scratch that.
• Credit Card Arbitrage: I just posted my thoughts on this at Advanced Personal Finance: “I have to agree. That interest would be nice, but it just seems like a lot of work and a lot of risk, albeit for a decent return. Really my main concern is with the FICO score. Those calculations are so mysterious that it seems impossible to accurately quantify how much a $50,000 outstanding bonus affects your score. Also, I’m just too worried I would do that and then have something come up (like a new car) where I needed a good score. In the end I might just pay that interest I gained back by having a higher interest rate on a loan.”
• eBay: I am going to make a more detailed post on my experiences with this either today or tomorrow, but I am not sure if I have the knack to find profitable items to sell online. I even tried signing up for Salehoo, which links buyers with wholesalers, but have yet to find anything which would make me a profit. I have sold about $100 of old video games so far though, which is at least a start.
• Super Secret Business Idea: I had an epiphany in the shower this weekend on a business idea, based on some products my wife and I sold about a year ago. I thought of a possible way to mass market these products, and it’s really quite exciting. However there are still several issues that I need to think about more before fully committing to this.