Here on The Drunk Millionaire, I often discuss the notion of “side-hustle” to help (1) pay off debt quicker, (2) become wealthy, and (3) to diversify income streams.
Ever since I was quite young, I had a knack for making money. This started as early as elementary school where I hosted raffle drawings to Jr. High where I did lawn care and corn detasseling, through college where I had many side hustle income streams. I would like to dedicate this page towards helping you make extra money.
TIME
First, you need to determine how much spare time you can devote to side-hustle. It’s obviously important to remain fully devoted to your primary income source (and benefit source), however many have a lot of personal time that is wasted every day. For example, the average American watches 5 hours of TV a day (or 35 hours a week)!
If you spent that time delivering pizzas, you could bring home an extra $1,800 per month, or $21,600 per year.
One neat (and free) online tool that I recommend people use to determine how much their spare time is worth can be found here.
Once you determine that you have extra time that you could use for a side-hustle, you can then apply for, create, or build your own side-hustle.
Note: While side-hustles can be a part-time venture, often many venues provide passive income, or even turn into a full-time career.
IDEAS
- Start a blog. Blogging is not new, but people are starting to make some serious coin creating blogs. The benefit of blog is that you can find something you’re passionate about and create content at very little cost. You can create your own blog here with our easy-to-use tutorial.
- Food Service. As mentioned above, serving pizzas can give you that extra “OOMPH” to beat down debt and give your life freedom. Being a server at a sit-down restaurant can also earn you a small fortune. My wife paid her way through college working at Buffalo Wild Wings. An alternative ideas would be to open a food truck. One local success story is Pandamonium Doughnuts.
- Landscaping/Yard-work. This is another low cost venture. Check out Craigslist or local bulletin boards for people (typically older) who need a hand pulling weeds, mowing, or raking leaves in the fall. In college I had a whole network of people who paid me $20/hr to do yard-work. I had a Honda Civic, so believe me, you don’t need a truck. You could also print out fliers and hang them on potential patron’s doors.
- Drive for Uber or Lyft. Uber just opened in my town this year and I’ve heard several success stories about making extra cash. You have the benefit of working whenever you want. Click here to join Uber and start making extra money.
- Teach. Many people substitute teach for extra cash. Another option would be to tutor. If you have a skill (piano, Spanish, line dancing, calculus, etc.) you can put it to work by teaching others how to do it. You can also set your own prices. I had friends in college to charged up to $50/hr tutoring various college classes. You can also make money creating lesson plans and selling them here.
- Extra Job. Even if it’s minimum wage, an extra source of income can be a great tool for your financial success. Keep in mind that this can be a temporary situation to impact your future for the better.
There are many ways to make extra (side-hustle) income and the ones listed above were just some ideas. Hopefully you’ve gained motivation! Now it’s time to get to work.