Hi Ces,
Thank you for visiting the Community Tool Box and for your inquiry to Ask an Advisor. I must say that yours is a most unique, challenging, and admittedly somewhat perplexing question. That's not a bad thing, its just somewhat of a head scratcher, but in a good way. Unfortunately, this is not an area within the purview of Ask an Advisor or within my expertise. However, it seems to me, from my own experience dealing with finances, given that you paid cash for the vehicle and have no debt you should ask yourself which enterprise will yield the greatest return on your investment: steady, but less income or more, but unpredictable income? If it was me, I'd use it as your husband uses it to ensure a regular income, but hire it out on occasion for supplemental income. Hiring it out as the sole source of income to me seems to be a risky proposition because there's no guarantee that you'll be able to hire it out consistently enough to generate a steady stream of income, unless you know something about your market that I don't know. In the end, it boils down to how risk averse or risk tolerant you are: there is more financial risk in only hiring out the vehicle, but there is a potential for greater reward, whereas there is less risk, but there is a potential for less reward as the vehicle is currently used. So, these are the things I would think about and take into consideration if I were in your position. We have a resource here in the Community Tool Box that I'll share with you now that might offer you some insight: Chapter 43. Managing Finances. To get to this chapter, go to our home page and look for the "Learn a Skill (how-to information)" in the upper left hand corner of the page and click it on, then click on Table of Contents. Scroll down to the section entitled "Generating, Managing, and Sustaining Financial Resources - Information on writing grants, preparing an annual budget, and planning for financial sustainability." I'm not sure how much help Chapter 43 will be, but it's really the only resource we have that touches on financial management, which really is at the heart of your question. Personally, when it comes to finances I'm risk averse so I would likely hire it out on occasion as supplemental income, not my sole income. Anyway, thank you for visiting the Community Tool Box and Ask an Advisor, and for your unique and challenging question. If you have further questions or just can't find the answer you're looking for please don't hesitate to visit us again so that we can work with you to reach a solution. Be well and all the best to you.
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