I’m So Excited

I know I’m posting twice in one day.  And this really has little to do with personal finance but I have to tell someone.  Actually, I did talk about tutoring students for the SAT here.

I just found out that one of the students that I tutored for the SAT had a 360 point increase in his score.  This was just for the Critical Reading/Math sections.  If you include his writing score his total score went up more than 400 points.

I am so excited.  All of my students have improved but none have improved this much.  Needless to say his mother is thrilled and has been telling everyone to call me.

The bills are paid -Maybe part-time job

The bills are paid and I have about 13 more days before we get paid again.  So I have the next two weeks to sit back and think about paying bills.  I think this is the worst time in trying to pay something off.  I can’t wait to get my next car statement in the mail so I can pay the bill.

This would be the perfect incentive to get a part-time job where more paychecks would be coming in.  I use to sell on eBay but I just don’t like doing that.  I have also tutored for years but have never charged.  Now, I have the opportunity to tutor 6 high school students for the SAT.   What I teach are mostly strategies and specific math techniques. The students usually increase their scores by 200+ points.  Right now I have a student who increased his score so significantly that his test is being reviewed.  This of course has given a little bit of demand for my services.

So, I need to decide if I feel comfortable charging.  I know everyone else charges and parents expect to pay.  Tutoring the 6 students I would make $1800 in a six week period.   I would work about 10 hours a week.  There is another guy who does this and he charges $100 an hour.  My price works out to about $50 for 1.5 hours.  There are some differences in the other person and myself.  One is that he is more than an hour away.  The other is that he has a business and this is all he does so his price is justified.  In the past I would have just tutored and not taken any money but the parents are expecting to pay and I could put that money on the car.    I could actually tutor a total of twelve students from January to May.  This could be a potential $3600 for the car.    The ones that I tutor for free I would continue not charging but any new students would be asked to pay.  The six students that are currently requesting my service are expecting to pay.   

Have you ever volunteered a service and then began asking to be paid?  is this just an example of Dave Ramsey’s philosphy that good things happen when you are doing the right things with your money?

Oh yeah – Everything is not perfect.  I bought chips yesterday.  Went into the store and came out with only chips – NO DIET COKE.