As most of you know, I have had many side jobs (they are all a part of my business now and I am self-employed). I didn’t think my side jobs would eventually become my full-time job.
But these side jobs did become my full-time job, and I’ve never been happier.
My side hustles completely changed my life and when I think about how everything turned out, I can’t help but think about how lucky I am.
My life is completely different from what I thought it would be like just a few years ago.
In the beginning, I really wanted a side job after I received my undergraduate degrees (I had a break of around 8 months, I believe, before I started my MBA), and I also even thought about getting a side job while I was working full-time and taking MBA classes full-time. W did not think me starting a side job was the best idea though, because he thought that I really needed a break from everything.
He was right. I think taking a part-time offline job would have been too stressful.
So, instead of looking for a more “real” part-time job where I would physically go in every single day, I eventually expanded what I was doing online and looked for positions online. I knew that writing and offering other online services was something that I really enjoyed, so it felt more like a fun hobby.
I found many online jobs and everything just happened from there!
Even though I always had many side jobs, most of my friends do not make any sort of money on the side. It must be a personal finance blogger/reader thing! I’m not sure why this is. There are plenty of positives for having a side job.
1. I had a lot of student loans.
I knew that if I only had my day job, then paying off my student loans would take a very long time. I can’t remember exactly (I try to push all student loan memories out of my mind!), but I believe my monthly payments would have been around $500 per month if I would have paid them just “normally.”
Paying $500 a month for like 10 years?
Hmmm… That was not something that I wanted.
I had and still have friends who pay the minimum payments (some are over $1,000 each month!) and don’t really try any harder to make any extra money to pay them off quicker. I didn’t want that to be me. I knew I could pay them off more quickly than the schedule.
I made a student loan payoff plan and paid off all of my student loans within one year after I graduated with my Finance MBA. Without my side jobs, I really do not think this would have been possible.
Yes, I could have paid extra each month, but not at the same magnitude.
2. We were struggling.
Yes, we always had shelter and we never went without food, but we weren’t doing the greatest. We weren’t saving money and I was racking up student loans even though we were both working full-time.
3. We wanted to travel.
With the amount of money that we were making and the level of expenses that we had, traveling just didn’t really seem possible. With side income, we were able to apply this extra money towards traveling. This was great because we didn’t feel horrible going on a vacation!
It was paid for by extra bonus money.
4. We wanted to save money.
Making side income allowed us to save a good amount of money. We were able to be less reliant on each form of income because we were able to save over 50% of our income each month.
We were able to save a large emergency fund, save for repairs, save for retirement, save for vacation and so on.
5. We didn’t want to feel stuck.
One very large positive of having side income is that if something came up, we had a fairly large buffer in our cash flow each month so it didn’t seem like the end of the world.
This is significantly different to how it was before we made any amount in side income. If something broke, we definitely freaked out.
6. We were fairly frugal but didn’t want to cut any of our expenses.
The only other way was to earn more.
Yes, we probably could have cut our expenses a little more, but not enough to where it would have really mattered. We’ve always been kind of frugal.
So, we knew that we had to make more money in order to actually make a change in our lives.
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Why do you make extra money? Why do you not? Would extra money change your life? How would an extra $500 each month change your life?
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I really want to make an extra money for me to save more but sometimes I can feel that my daughter really needs an extra attention and I don’t want that time will come she will ask me how much is my hourly rate.
Great post! I wanted to have a side income to augment the income I get from my full time job, so that I can save more for my retirement.
Yes, extra income makes it easier to save for retirement 🙂
You definitely need to weigh the value between your family and making money. For me, if it came between the two then I would definitely choose family 🙂
I can see that you have worked very hard to get to where you are today. Thanks for providing me with inspiration on blogging!
Thank you Liz!
I make side income because it gives my family’s budget that little extra “boost” while we’re paying off our credit card debt. Once that debt is paid off in February, it will be used to play catchup with our retirement accounts. When I started blogging that side income started small, but over the years it’s grown into a significant part of our budget – no where near the amount needed to allow me to quit my day job (nor would I want to), but I never thought I could take it as far as I have. 🙂
All great reasons Travis 🙂
I used to make side income but now it’s my real job income since I work from home. I don’t know if that changes anything, really, but it does motivate me more since it’s no longer “extra” money!
Yes, same here! I definitely have more motivation since I am more reliant on it.
I wanted to have a side income to augment the income I get from my full time job, so that I can save more for my retirement.
My business started as a small side hustle and it’s now the way I earn my ‘main’ income. I’m always looking at new ways to earn money though and love it when it works. We can save more for the future and enjoy life.
Yes, same here!
When I first started I had very similar motivations as you. I have student debt that I want to knock out. I want a large emergency fund. I want to travel. Most of all, though, I want to build a business. I have been focusing on my blog because it’s a business that can be run from anywhere and ultimately can be sold to an investor.
Yes, I definitely want to build my business 🙂
My side jobs have definitely helped me reach my goals. Travelling being one of them, they’ve enabled me to still save up for and buy a house, have a comfortable amount in my savings and retirement accounts, buy a car and pay off the loan shortly, and travel to boot. It’s awesome!
Sounds awesome!
I want to make extra money to travel and to buy a home. I just hit $500 in extra income this month and while it’s a small number, it’s really shown me that there are so many possibilities out there.
Good job!
Looking back it’s easy to see why you were motivated to make income on the side. I do it for some of the same reasons – to be able to travel when we want and be able to save more money. There are many possibilities out there in terms of making money on the side, you just have to look for it and be willing to put in the work to get it.
Saving more money is definitely a positive!
When I started blogging, I didn’t really envision making consistent income and the first year I didn’t make anything! However, after that, I’ve consistently made a few hundred a month. I know I could ramp it up, but I really can’t until I’m finished with my second credential (in 2015!) Then I can spend the time I do homework on blogging. 😉
I don’t think I made any money blogging for a while. It wasn’t my goal so I didn’t look further into it at first. That changed quickly!
We make extra money because I’ve always seen that working a job (or two, or three) never really helps solve the money/time issue. We’ve been working hard to build our business because I don’t want to have to constantly stress about money the way my parents did when I was growing up. An extra $500 each month right now would help us restock our emergency fund as well as allow us to invest even more into our business to help it grow faster.
Yes, you are right!
I think another great thing about that sort of side income is that you’re so much more aware of it than of a paycheck. It’s not just a set amount that appears in your bank account each month no matter what.
You know exactly how much work – from marketing to follow-up – went into each dollar you earned. So you appreciate spending it a lot more!
Yes, exactly!
I’m motivated to make money from my side hustles so that I can save more and travel extensively. I’ve finally started to make some money and I hope next month will be my first $500 month. That in itself is motivation, and remembering my goals makes me want to throw everything into overdrive to make my dreams happen!
Good luck next month 🙂
I’ve been trying for two years to make side income without much success. I’ve been on care.com and sittercity for babysitting, pet sitting and house cleaning and have gotten nothing out of it so far. I take surveys for minimal amounts of rewards, have gotten about $150 in the past two years. I made about $20 sewing patches on Navy uniforms but that’s obviously not a reliable source of side income either. I’m still working on finding my niche in the side income world and would love to make $500 extra every month to throw at my student loans!
Good luck Kasey!