Also, (serious not a joke) you can earn quite a bit with tf2 trading.
I know you stated you want to do something else than play tf2 all day, but even with a few nights / week you can earn quite a lot.
I was really into trading for only like 2 weeks, spend a few nights doing trades and made a profit of around 350€.
It doesn't really seem like working since you are just behind your computer and doing tf2 stuff anyways.
I have some steam friends who have made into triple digit numbers by steam trading.
it just requires knowledge of value, clever trading skills and common knowledge:
if something is too good to be true it's probably not
(i've had a french 15 y old try to buy my whole backpack for 300€, turns out he was using his moms paypal)