This ‘lazy’ woman works 20 hrs a week, makes whopping $279,000! Know how

Making a lot of money without putting in long hour is what dreams are made of. However, for some, this dream has actually come true. Meet Bernadette Joy, who says she is incredibly lazy, but makes a whopping amount of money without having to work unheard of hours. In fact, she says she finds enough time to do a lot of other things she wanted to. Joy earned as much as $279,000 a year, which is way above the average salary.

So, what is the secret to Joy’s being able to fatten up her wallet by working unheard-of hours, and that too on a sustainable basis? The tip is that you should get your money hustle going. What can that be? Something that you actually like doing, are experienced in, learning how to manage time, and hone it into a product that others will find relatable or even profitable and that too “without working all the time”.

In fact, time management plays a big role in it and is somewhat similar to what entrepreneur Mark Cuban has revealed. CNBC Make it quotes Cuban as saying, “I never, ever thought in terms of money.” He then added, “I always thought in terms of time. That’s always been my driving motivation: How can I control my own destiny? How can I control my own time?”

For Joy, it all started in 2019, when she was running a business that was growing. This success also meant she had to devote more and more time to it. Unwilling to make those kind of commitments, she shut down the business.

Instead, she looked at turning her podcast, into a money-generating tool. The side hustle that she has honed to perfection is as a money coach. And it did not start as an idea for a side hustle. She was just describing, in a podcast, what she and her husband were going through while paying off mortgages – student loans and housing.

She dubbed the podcast as “Crush Your Money Goals”. What she banked on, according to CNBC Make It, were her own experience in paying off the loans as well as her education – Psychology and Business degrees from Boston University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.

The success was virtually instant and she made as much as $279,000 in 2023. And the working days consist of just three (Mondays to Wednesdays), stretching over just 20 hours. The reason for such few working hours? “I’m incredibly lazy … I don’t want to work all the time,” Joy, 39, said on a CNBC Mate It panel.

Having said that, Joy also adds that these 20 hours are very intense and focused. There is no getting away from that.