3 Great Stay-at-Home Jobs

There are many benefits to working from home: There’s no commute, the hours are flexible, and you can even do your job in your pajamas. However, some jobs are better suited for a home office than others. Plus, there are plenty of work-at-home scams lurking about, so you need to be careful.

To find the best work-at-home jobs, we searched for occupations with good hourly wages and promising growth prospects. We then sought out actual companies that hire home-based workers for legitimate work-at-home positions. Here are some of the top jobs we found.

Virtual Assistant

Let’s start with virtual assistant. Do you have a passion for organization as well as administrative experience? If so, this job is for you. Virtual assistants do everything a traditional assistant might do, like scheduling appointments, managing digital files, preparing presentations and making travel plans, but on a contract basis. That means you can take on multiple clients. Average pay is $15 per hour, and you’ll need at least a high school degree.

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Online Tutor

Expertise in a particular subject, a computer and a bit of patience are what it takes to break into online tutoring. There are a couple of options here. For one, you can consult web sites like InstaEDU.com and Tutor.com to be connected with students virtually. You’ll be hired on a freelance basis. Or, check out GetEducated.com, which lists remote job postings at community colleges, libraries and universities. In this scenario you’ll likely be hired and paid as a part-time employee. Average pay is $15 per hour, and you’ll be required to have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Translator

It turns out your high school teacher was right; it pays to be bilingual. A number of firms hire multilingual people as translators to freelance translations of business documents, consumer Web sites, computer software and academic papers. You can earn an average of $24 per hour, and bachelor’s degrees are preferred. Pay and employment prospects improve if you speak in-demand languages such as Chinese and Japanese. Top experienced translators who can handle complex projects can rake in six-figure pay annually.

If these positions don't fit your skills, check out seven more work-at-home jobs that might.