I am 34 and I still live at home. I pay rent. I work for Grubhub and Ubereats. While I earn decent money, I know this won't ever let me live on my own. What are the best certifications/skills I can get to start freelancing?
34 and I don't have a money making skill. Advice please.
byu/Responsible-Net8594 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Responsible-Net8594
19 Comments
You need to figure out what you’d like to do, and then from there figure out what education, training, and/or certs are needed. Your question is far too broad.
Aquire skills people are willing to pay for. What fields are hiring in your area?
When helping unstuck family members we took them to a few local colleges and asked what programs they recommended to single moms. You don’t have to be a single mom to ask. This will (hopefully) kick the recruiter out of money making mode (where they sell their most high profit degrees) and into a mode where they recommended the shorter educational paths to fastest employment. In our area it’s largely dental hygienist- always hiring and a decent pay check. Steady work good for getting on your feet fast.
You need to stop thinking about freelancing and start thinking about getting a job. Working for an employer may not be all fun and games, but it provides a paycheck and sometimes benefits.
No one can make that list for you.
1. I would first start with a list of things that will pay an acceptable living
2. Ask: Do I have the resources to get the education/training done? Maybe your parents would let you move in? How much money will I need? Narrow it down by which are yes’
3. Whiddle that down to one or two options (Plan A and Plan B) that you could see yourself doing without being miserable. Think: Could I stand the negatives of these long-term? Obviously, you need to “want” to do it. But work always sucks to some degree. Otherwise no one would pay you.
“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” is a great book to check out
Look at community colleges in your area. There’s often trade skill programs, certifications, and guidance for what to pursue. I’ve done uni’s and grad school and still took classes at the local community college after my PhD. CC’s have some of the best education and advice out there imo.
Companies are even offering paid training to unskilled workers (semiconductor suppliers and electricians in my area). You might start at $18/hr but there will be a path to earn wayyy more if you stick to it. If I had to start over this would be my plan.
Skills are what you learn on the job. So if you’ve not worked a lot of jobs, you need to start there.
Work fast food, and work up to being a shift manager. Work retail. Be a dish washer. You’re going to have to start at entry level and work up. Call centers would probably hire you.
I started these jobs at 15, so by the time I was 20 I had a long track record of being able to handle money, deal with customers, show up on time, learn new processes. So it was easier to apply to a job that wasn’t entry level.
But you shot yourself in the foot by avoiding entry level jobs, because you don’t have that track record. So now you’re going to have to start at the bottom like everyone else. Show you can keep a job, follow instructions, get along with coworkers, work well with customers.
Honestly, I would just pick a low skill job and work it. At some point, you’ll be able to either get promoted or transfer to a better paying job in the same field. For instance, you could get a janitor job at an office, hospital, or school (day and night shifts available), or even a low/entry level help desk/customer support role (this would offer a possible path into tech if you start at the right company).
The key is to pick something and genuinely work hard at it.
The trades. Walk into every plumbing, electrician, hvac, masonry shop you can find. We ALWAYS need laborers.
Get into trade school. It’s too late for college if you don’t know what you’d major in by this point.
Look into AWS, azure and gcp certs. Couple that with AI infrastructure in those public cloud providers.
Most of the certs are very affordable and once the job market picks back up, it’s a good place to start for an internship or associate level role.
Research FinOps after you get the ground work from the above. This is still a growing industry.
It’s new, so experience is more about courses and certs vs experience in the field. That will come later.
Going the finance exam route and getting an office job like in insurance isn’t bad look up SIE exam and other insurance certificates you can usually find all of the finance certs grouped together
Some answers say get skills. Sure. But what you really need to do is decide what you want to do. Because you’ll be doing your job 40 hours a week for the rest of your life. So if you enjoy doing it, you’ll be far happier than if you don’t. For example, suppose you hate cooking, then going into restaurants is a really bad idea. Whereas if you love cooking, then you should do it. The grateful dead used to say, do what you love, the money will follow. Which is true but what it means is what you love to do will lead to your being good at it which leads to being paid for it.
Are you reasonably in-shape, motivated, and willing/able to do 8+ weeks basic training away from home? Talk with military recruiters about a reserve enlistment. They provide dozens of job types/training, you do 2 weeks yearly, 1 weekend a month. Just throwing an option out. Good luck.
Go learn a trade. Start at your local community college or trade school.
You just need idea and to download Claude code and start making stuff your imagine is the limit. Keep asking question keep drilling AI until you understand then it’s smooth sail from them
> to start freelancing?
You. Already. Are. Freelancing.
>I am 34 and I still live at home.
Everyone lives at home….
You need to give yourself a reality check, realize you aren’t going anywhere by doing nothing, and go see what you need to get a full time job. Go find an actual path you want to do, and stick to it.
Question, do you have any diagnosed conditions?
If you are reasonably in shape or willing to put in the work the quickest way to living on your own is the military. I joined around your age. I was recovering for losing my job at the time and was going on almost 4 years without any new prospects. Happen upon an old friend that joined when he was 18 and told me to just try and join at the time if I wanted to do something new. There are waivers for a lot things to get you in, if you have a spotty record and for age. One of the best things I did to get me back on track.
“Freelancing” isn’t a job, it’s a work model. People freelance doing all kinds of things.
However, freelancing tends to be *more work* than a traditional job, because you’re effectively running your own business on top of doing whatever it is you’re actually getting paid to do. If you don’t like finance/spreadsheets, hunting down clients, writing your own contracts, etc., you won’t like freelancing.
What did you want to do when you were in high school? or younger? Think back to what gave you hope and joy and excitement, and start there. It might be a bit late to become an astronaut or a ballet dancer, but you might be able to find something adjacent to an old dream that would give you satisfaction *and* a paycheck.
Go into the trades. Brick layer that was working on my property pays guys 25$ for general labor, then once you can lay brick you start at 45$