“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It’s unlikely to be the first time you’ve read this quote, but who originally said it? Confucius? Mark Twain? The internet can’t seem to decide.
Anyway, the pace of life is so hectic these days, it can be hard to imagine there are even such things as low-stress jobs. Surely the best-case scenario is a job you can just ‘put up with’ while you chase your real passions outside of work hours?
However, your job can have a big impact on your well-being. This article details various low-stress jobs that pay well — and, for each role, how you would be able to transition into it with ease.
What makes a job stressful?
This is not an entirely straightforward question to answer, as different people inevitably have different stressors.
However, you are likely to find a job stressful if it comes with:
🏃♂️ Unrealistic expectations: In any role, you are going to have goals you need to work toward — but what if the goalposts seem to keep shifting?
⚠️ Job instability: There’s arguably no such thing as a 100% secure job. Some jobs, though, can be under much greater threat than others, e.g. if the company is financially flailing.
🔥 High stakes: You can take a lot of pride in having a job that literally saves lives, like firefighting or nursing. However, knowing what dire consequences await if you make mistakes can bring on a lot of stress.
😡 A toxic environment: Are you constantly arguing with your workmates? Is your manager unsympathetic when you air genuine grievances about the workplace?
What else counts as stressful can depend on the individual. For example, while an introvert might not be brilliantly suited to a customer-facing role, a ‘people person’ could thrive in it.
Which jobs are ‘low-stress’?
Again, it bears emphasis that different people are bound to value different things in a job. With that said, low-stress jobs tend to have the following in common:
⏳ Sensible deadlines: Ideally, you want a job where, with every assignment, you can plan well ahead in advance. That way, you will be able to give the project your all.
🌍 Important cause: You can derive immense satisfaction from pursuing a cause you value highly. For example, if you care passionately about combating climate change, you can sell eco-friendly products.
😊 Pleasant atmosphere: Work in an office? You want to get on well with your co-workers. Don’t think a traditional, highly sociable office environment is for you? Consider one of these work-at-home business ideas.
🕒 Flexible hours: This is another common perk of working from home. It also lets you more easily carve out time in your schedule to devote to stress-busting activities. These can include physical exercise and catching up with family.
Why look for low-stress jobs that pay well?
Debilitating worry can obviously set in if you are continually struggling to put food on the table. However, there are other reasons for you to seek low-stress, high-paying jobs:
📈 Better productivity: When you enjoy doing a job, you are also going to enjoy seeking new ways to do it more efficiently. Consequently, then, you are likely to deliver better end results.
🌀 Avoid falling into a downward spiral: Left unchecked, chronic stress can lead to other issues, such as anxiety, grumpiness, and strained interpersonal relationships. So, switching to a more calming career can help you to nip such problems in the bud.
💪 Improved physical health: With a job that keeps stress at bay, you can also avoid developing physical ailments that spill over into your personal life. Staying in a stressful job can inflict you with headaches, insomnia, and high blood pressure.
Fortunately, technological advances have enabled many people to do away with what used to be routinely inconvenient aspects of work.
For example, when working from home, you don’t have to contend with a daily commute. What if you do need to commute? Using a laptop or smartphone on public transport, you can get some work done there before arriving at the office.
10 low-stress jobs
Have a look at the following examples and see if any catch your eye. Many of the suggestions below are low-stress jobs that pay well without a degree.
1. Craft artist
Enjoy making craft items in your spare time? The best crafts to sell online include earrings, soap, candles, candy, and bookmarks. Some more ambitious items you can create include:
🖼️ Art prints: Looking to make money as a digital artist? Showcase your aesthetic wizardry with prints of it! You don’t even need to do the printing yourself when you use a ‘print on demand’ service.
🖍️ Adult coloring books: For adults, coloring in has been shown to have a meditative effect. So, imagine how soothing it can be to create these books, too. You can make the designs as simple or as elaborate as you want and sell them as digital downloads.
♻️ Eco-friendly products: These can owe their green credentials to how they are made or the purpose they serve. For example, tote bags can reduce your customers’ reliance on single-use plastic, while other products can comprise recycled or upcycled materials.
🔑 How to get started
For many craft artists, the go-to option is to sell on Etsy. However, Whop, Big Cartel, and IndieMade are among the many Etsy alternatives for selling crafts online.
One way to sell crafts is to sell digital downloads of designs the customer would print off, such as for art, planners, or workbooks.
Though it’s possible to sell digital downloads on Etsy, it can be more financially appealing to do so on Whop. One big reason why is that Whop, unlike Etsy, does not charge any setup fees.
Here’s a closer look at the cost of selling on Etsy — and why the ‘obvious’ place to sell crafts might not be the most cost-effective.
💰 Earning potential
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual pay for craft artists sat at $36,600 in May 2023.
2. Dropshipper
When looking to sell physical products under a traditional ecommerce business model, you must personally buy or make the products you want to stock.
The stocking process itself isn’t always straightforward, either. You need to find suitable space to store the items before you sell them. When you do sell them, you need to wrap them up in delivery packaging — an added expense (in both time and money).
If you’re reluctant to take on all these responsibilities, you might want to pivot to dropshipping. With this approach, you have a digital storefront but the actual products are stocked and delivered by a supplier on your behalf.
Here, you are still the one selling the products. It’s just up to the supplier to send them to your customers’ doorsteps. No inventory, no shipping, no stress.
🔑 How to get started
Sign up with a reliable dropshipping platform like Modalyst. Alternatives include Spocket and Zendrop.
If you struggle with any aspect of dropshipping, help is at close hand. One of the best-known dropshippers, Jordan Bown, runs the community group Jordan’s Library, where you can receive direct live coaching.
Check out the best dropshipping courses and communities.
💰 Earning potential
The monthly earnings can range from $100 to more than $100,000. This is a very broad spectrum, as there is a lot of strategy involved in making sure you:
- Partner and negotiate with the right suppliers
- Sell the right products at the right time
- Build an attractive brand for your online store
You can tip the odds more in your favor by researching profitable dropshipping business ideas. Good examples of products you can dropship to help yourself maximize your financial takings include books, jewelry, furniture, and art.
3. Amazon FBA seller
If you’re considering dropshipping, you might also be enticed by the ‘Fulfillment by Amazon’ platform (also known as Amazon FBA). This works similarly, in that Amazon is responsible for packing and shipping products sold under your name.
However, as using Amazon FBA incurs hefty fees, you might want to save it for when you’ve got a lot more money in the bank.
Carefully weigh up the pros and cons of Amazon FBA vs dropshipping.
🔑 How to get started
Formally register yourself as a business and set up a business bank account. To get an Amazon FBA account, visit sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon, click the orange Sign Up button, and follow the on-screen instructions.
For more detail on what this signup process entails, read Whop’s beginners guide on how to start selling with Amazon FBA.
💰 Earning potential
As with dropshipping, how much you earn with Amazon FBA will depend on a myriad of factors.
However, there are Amazon FBA courses and communities that can help you to make $10,000 a month on the platform. The Amazon FBA Success Network whop places a particular focus on how to optimize earnings.
Ultimately, even when selling through Amazon FBA, you are still running your own online business. For this reason, you shouldn’t overlook ecommerce courses and communities teaching how to hone your skills in product sourcing, digital marketing, and data analysis. These can all play crucial parts in your monetary success.
4. Graphic designer
This job provides a convenient outlet for creativity, whether you’re designing logos, packaging, stickers, letterheads, business cards… the list goes on.
Doing this work freelance would give you the freedom to set your own hours. Imagine finishing a project in the morning, swimming in the local pool for an hour, and feeling all refreshed as you recommence your work.
🔑 How to get started
Your chances of getting graphic design work are going to depend largely on you developing hands-on expertise and showing how you have beneficially applied it.
So, learn how to use such graphic design tools as Canva and VistaCreate. Also check out resources aimed at graphic design novices and professionals — think along the lines of the ebooks from LeXXi Graphic Design Station…
Once you’ve created quite a few graphic design elements you are especially proud of, put them in an online portfolio. You can then highlight it when advertising your services on freelancing websites like Behance and 99designs.
💰 Earning potential
One key incentive to design graphics is how easily you would be able to do it anywhere you have the right gear. In fact, it’s one of the most lucrative remote jobs for digital nomads, as the average annual salary for graphic designers is $58K to $97K.
5. Personal trainer
Are you often at the gym? Love that feel-good rush you always get after working out? Imagine how elated you could become when physical exercise is crucial to your job, rather than just something you squeeze into your spare time.
Hate the idea of being tied to a desk for hours on end? A desk is unlikely to be the kind of workout equipment you wield when teaching fitness classes. Instead, you can introduce clients to dumbbells, resistance bands, and how to use them to sculpt muscle.
🔑 How to get started
If you lack the specialist knowledge you would need to excel as a personal trainer, you can change that by joining fitness communities on Whop. Discipline Dynasty covers many different bases with its workout programs and meal plans, while Gym Guardians is for those who never skip leg day.
In the U.S., you don’t technically need any formal training to become a personal trainer. Nonetheless, you are strongly encouraged to obtain certification from a respected organisation like the American Council on Exercise (ACE) or International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).
Though personal trainers can provide personalized guidance in such places as gyms and hospitals, another option is to sell fitness programs online. The different types of digital content you could offer include workout videos, pre-recorded classes, and meal plans.
💰 Earning potential
From college students to stay-at-home moms, a wide range of people can adapt to working as personal trainers. They can bring in impressive pay, too.
On an hourly basis, you can make as much as $100 from one-on-one sessions and $25 per person from group sessions. The average annual salary for personal trainers is about $49,000 to $52,000.
6. Web developer
Are you adept at picking up new languages? When you know programming ones like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you can create attractive websites and software.
It’s one of the best online jobs for students, especially as other students could need some expert help with setting up websites of their own.
In many instances, a web developer can work from their own home or a quiet, peaceful office. It’s also among the most exciting low-stress jobs that pay well without a degree.
🔑 How to get started
Learn how to make the most of website-building platforms like Framer and Webflow. You can also deepen your understanding of programming languages. Look at job vacancies for web developers to see which of these languages employers demand most often.
Whatever challenges you come across on the coding side, don’t hesitate to consult the Ali Programming whop, where 24/7 support is available.
If you are still at college, you could offer coursemates great-value deals on your web development services. Another idea is to look far beyond the university campus by creating a profile on a freelance marketplace like Freelancer.
💰 Earning potential
When working as a web developer for the first time, your yearly earnings can be anywhere from $20,000 to $112,000.
Where your own financial takings fall on this scale can depend on whether you’re a ‘front-end’ or ‘full-stack’ developer. The former deals only with the user-facing side of websites, whereas the latter handles that and the server side. Hence, they can command a higher salary as well.
7. Mathematician
It’s fair to say that many people find mathematical equations fiendishly difficult. However, this is great news if you are adept at them, as this prized ability would help to keep you in a job.
This is no small boon when you consider that job security can contribute significantly to job satisfaction. Mathematicians are in demand across a wide range of business sectors, from engineering to scientific research, as well as the federal government.
Mathematics is also one of the best jobs for people with social anxiety, as you will be mainly working alone in an office setting.
🔑 How to get started
If you are still in high school but hoping to study math at college, Ritesh Verma’s SAT Math Crash Course could be of interest. With its quizzes and videos, this course can help you secure that coveted place on a bachelor’s program.
The degree you gain as a result could be enough to land you some mathematics jobs. Typically, though, you are likely to need a master’s degree in the same subject as a bare minimum.
Math is also one of those subjects you can enjoy learning casually in your leisure time. British mathematician Hannah Fry, who you might know from her Bloomberg Originals series The Future With Hannah Fry, shares tidbits of knowledge on her socials.
💰 Earning potential
As of January 26, 2025, the average annual salary for a mathematician in the United States was $105,095, according to the job website Indeed. However, it is worth noting that this is just based on a small sample of 40 salary reports. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there were about 34,800 mathematicians in the United States as recently as 2023.
8. SEO writer
Writing for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes is both an art and a science. It’s an art in that you are ultimately trying to persuade the reader to do something, like make a purchase.
However, it’s also a science in that it’s about pushing Google’s buttons, too. You want to scatter carefully selected keywords throughout the text, but not so heavily that it looks spammy. You need to know the latest changes Google has made to its algorithm and how you ought to adjust your SEO strategies accordingly.
When it comes to the differing remits of SEO copywriters and SEO content writers, there can admittedly be a lot of overlap. However, the former write more commercially oriented text, such as for ads and product listings, while the latter lean more toward informative blogging for business.
🔑 How to get started
There’s no shortage of writing courses out there, many of which focused on a particular writing specialism. So, you can easily find a course teaching the kind of SEO writing you want to do. The options include this Copywriting Crash Course…
Once you’ve sharpened your writing skills, build a portfolio of clippings. You can get these by writing on a voluntary basis, such as for a charity or perhaps a friend who owns a business. Alternatively, you can start your own blog.
You can monetize this blog by posting affiliate links to products you discuss within the content. When someone uses the link to buy the product, you will get paid a commission.
With the Whop affiliate scheme, you can even make money from referring people to whops. For example, if you are writing an article about how to save on vacation costs, you could link to the Travel Like a Pro course.
As a registered creator on Whop, you could scroll down on Travel Like a Pro’s Discover page and tap Add to my affiliates dashboard. You would then be able to visit the dashboard, copy the affiliate link, and paste it into your blog article.
Do research into the best affiliate marketing courses and communities — and how you can learn from the best affiliates.
Through these means, you can build a name for yourself in SEO writing. So, when applying for jobs or advertising freelance services (such as on Fiverr or Upwork), you will be offering a more attractive deal.
💰 Earning potential
‘SEO copywriter’ and ‘SEO content writer’ are low-stress, high-paying jobs. They both allow you to inject a large amount of creativity into your work, making it wonderfully therapeutic.
On top of that, they are among the best ecommerce jobs you can get. In the United States, the average yearly salary is $67,708 for an ecommerce copywriter and $67,027 for a content writer, according to Glassdoor.
9. Virtual assistant (VA)
A virtual assistant essentially combines various online jobs into one. That’s because VAs fulfill many little duties on behalf of entrepreneurs and professionals. This work can entail scheduling appointments, replying to emails, making phone calls, and inputting data (to reel off just a few examples).
Many of these tasks can relieve stress even when undertaken as standalone jobs. Data entry, for example, is repetitive and requires little social interaction. This predictability makes it one of the best jobs for people with anxiety, a condition caused by fears about the future.
🔑 How to get started
By studying this Virtual Assistant course on Whop, you can learn many dos and don’ts of VAing. Once you’ve gained experience and collected some testimonials (such as from family and friends if you help them out), look for VA job vacancies.
You could find them on job sites, such as Indeed and LinkedIn, or join a platform — like Wing or Prialto — connecting businesses to VAs.
💰 Earning potential
In the United States, what can you realistically expect in an hourly rate? According to Indeed data, about $27.15 — but it could potentially reach as high as $43.65.
One way of enlarging your pay is to find a VA niche, like email marketing or translating documents. On the other hand, you could target specific demographics, like women running small businesses.
10. Social media manager
As soon as your workday comes to an end, you probably hop onto social media to check in with other people. So, imagine how much fun you could have spending hours on social media as part of your work.
As a social media manager, you’ll help a brand (or, if working freelance, multiple brands) to develop and maintain their social media presence. In practice, this means creating and scheduling posts, interacting with followers, and weaving all this activity into a wider social media strategy.
Does this sound like a lot of plates to spin? You can keep on top of it all with social media management apps. Notable names in this field include Hootsuite and Sprout Social.
🔑 How to get started
Look for online courses on social media marketing. With Timeless Diamond Membership, you can “shine like a diamond” (as Rihanna would doubtless put it) on TikTok and YouTube.
You might have to manage a brand’s social media as a volunteer or intern to get experience that would land you paid work. When you are ready to apply for paid work, you can do so on job boards, employers’ own websites, and freelance platforms like Fiverr.
💰 Earning potential
At the time of writing, the job website Indeed cites $60,787 as the average salary for a social media manager in the United States.
What if you want to become a social media manager on a freelance basis? Initially, you might be able to charge about $15 to $50 per hour. With several years of experience under your belt, you can hike your hourly rate to more than $100.
The least stressful jobs are often the most flexible
What many low-stress jobs have in common is that they don’t adhere to a rigid 9-5 schedule. Those are the kind of hours your parents may have worked, but since then, various factors have fuelled the rise of the ‘creator economy’.
These days, you are at much greater liberty to work as and when you personally please. You just need to make sure you’re earning enough to pay the bills.
You don’t even need to be tied to a specific location to thrive as a creator. There’s no boring routine trek to the office every weekday morning. As long as you’ve got a computer (or at least a smartphone) and internet connectivity, you’re all set.
Explore low-stress, high-paying jobs with Whop
With many low-stress jobs, your chances of getting them to depend more on practical, industry-relevant know-how than formal qualifications.
You don’t have to look far to learn how to transition into a new, more relaxing career. Just start by exploring Whop, a multifaceted platform hosting a vast range of vibrant communities and useful digital products.
Find your tribe here on Whop, and develop the skills you need to set foot on a fulfilling new job path. And if you're ready to launch your own online business, you can do that with Whop too!
Discover your path to a low-stress, high-paying career – sign up with Whop today and connect with the tools, communities, and resources you need to succeed.
