Counting your pennies will not make your pennies grow. Only increasing your income will increase your income. This may seem like a radical idea at first, but look around you and you will find everyone understands this fundamental truth.

Teenagers take summer jobs to earn extra pocket money. Housewives run home-based businesses on eBay / Amazon / Etsy to supplement the household income. People with full time jobs work part-time jobs before or after their main gig. Some people buy property and get rental income out of it. Those who are an authority on a given subject write books and earn royalty on book sales. The ultra-wealthy get dividend income from their stock market investments. None of these people belong in the HN bubble.

Read any number of HN discussions on side-projects and you will see a wealth of ideas being put into action:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=sideprojects&sort=byPopularity...

@vinceguidry is right. Invest in yourself and enjoy the payback in increased income.