Why have a side hustle? The biggest reason is that inflation made it almost impossible to live on just one stream of income. These days, people are working two jobs just to make ends meet, not even to grow wealth. It’s more important than ever to diversify your income stream.
The good old days of retiring on just your company salary alone is over. In the 1950’s, people could feed an entire family through a job without going to college. These days, that’s not possible. You need even more income to sustain yourself and build wealth at the same time.
Inflation is accelerating at too fast of a pace in order to sustain ourselves. The good news is that there are multiple income opportunities in order to build a side hustle these days. The bad news is that you have to have multiple incomes. A $100k salary doesn’t go as far as it used to.
It physically hurts to live a life during a period of hyperinflation. I never thought I would experience something like this in my life. As a result of high inflation, I’ve been working overdrive into working on side hustles on my free time during the weekend. Even after coming home from work.
Why have a side hustle? There are many reasons but the biggest reason is that’s how you stay afloat during these times. I am very serious about my financial future and I am willing to put in the work today in order to live a life of luxury tomorrow.
Your family’s financial future depends on it.
Why Have a Side Hustle?
One reason why you should have a side hustle is so you can SMASH that social share button on the side and post to your favorite social media! The more people who understand how much side hustles are important, the better off your friends will be.
So with that said, let’s go over the reasons to have a side hustle.
1) Why Have a Side Hustle? You Diversify Your Income
Employment in the United States is “at-will”. In legal terms, that means your employer can get rid of you with the snap of their fingers and you can get rid of your employer with the snap of your finger. Which is fair. However, what is oppressive is that employers generally frown upon side hustles.
While companies can diversify their income sources by having multiple employees, you can’t diversify your income source by having multiple income sources. That’s oppressive and one of the reasons why you should have a side hustle. When companies lose employees, they don’t grow as big.
However, they still survive.
They have other employees to cover you in the meantime, anyway. When you lose your 9-5 income and it’s your only income source, you can’t feed your family. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to diversify your income sources so you can rely on something else if things go bad.
2) Less Dependency on Your Employer
The one who is dependent is the one who is afraid. There’s a reason why Amazon chose to create their own products after their marketplace sellers became successful on their platform. There’s a reason why tech companies are creating their own semiconductor chips to control their production line.
Dependency is poison. There’s a reason why financial independence is marketed heavily among employees. Financial independence isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. It’s scary to realize that if your company lets you go today, you might not even have money to put food on the table tomorrow.
Why have a side hustle? At least if you started traction on another side hustle already, then you don’t have to start a side hustle out of desperation. You can start when you don’t need to have a side hustle. That’s the best time to start one. It may take years before starting a profitable side hustle.
3) You Don’t Need Permission to Get a Raise
When you produce 5x more at your side hustle, you get paid 5x more. When you produce 5x more at your 9-5, you get a 3% raise at the end of the year. That’s the difference between a side hustle and your job. You get paid based on your results and not on your effort.
The upside is much higher at a side hustle than at a 9-5. The flip side is, the risk is much higher. There’s a chance that you might not even have a customer to produce 5x more for. You may be wondering for years before you get that big break and even then you may not even get that big break.
Customers are more fickle than your employer and they will get rid of you faster than your customers.
Why have a side hustle? You get to realize both upside AND safety when you start a side hustle while having a good job already. That way, you can take your time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. There’s no need to rush and you can easily take your time with it.
4) You Work on Your Own Time
There’s always a schedule involved with a 9-5. You have to wake up on the company’s time and leave on their time. Some company cultures are so good that they allow you to start work whenever. However, it’s more common for a job to start around 8 or 9 am and you leave work when the work gets finished.
With a side hustle, there’s no set schedule. You might’ve worked hard on the side hustle already on the weekend and you want to take a break during the weekdays. Why have a side hustle? The flexibility that comes with a side hustle is much better than a full time job.
I love my blog because I don’t have to start work at 10am on the weekend. I can start working at 2pm if I wanted to, as long as I get the work done. On top of which, the side hustle work is work that I love doing so it doesn’t even feel like work at all. That’s winning both ways.
There’s no need to ask permission to take the day off, either. It’s all based on your motivation.
5) Extra Income is Always Good
Why have a side hustle? Who can complain about extra money? On top of which, some side hustles are so passive that it’s extra income while doing literally nothing extra. Instead of getting paid 26 times per year, you can get paid more than 26 times per year. There are side hustles that pay daily.
Having more money in the bank at the end of every month is a good thing. Everyone could use a little extra cash at the end of every month, no matter how much you already have today. It’s security for your family. You’re securing your family’s future which is a very good thing.
Relaxing during the weekends is a good thing when you need to relax. However, if you are looking for more things to do and make money at the same time during the weekend, then it’s not a bad idea to start a side hustle and make a little extra money every day, week, or month.
The opportunities are endless.
6) Why Have a Side Hustle? Inflation is Running Rampant
These days, if you go out with 3 people, the bill is $100 per night, easy. Inflation made food that much more expensive. Food is something that is necessary for survival, too. High inflation is the reason why you need more income these days.
Why have a side hustle? You just never know if inflation is going to get even worse than it already has. Even if you have a high income, people are still feeling it. More than a third of Americans making over $250,000 say they are living paycheck to paycheck.
That’s a lot. If a million dollars doesn’t buy as much stuff as it used to, $250,000 certainly doesn’t buy as much stuff as it used to as well. Not to mention the 65% of those making more than $100,000 are very concerned about inflation. It’s a nationwide problem that needs to be solved.
Instead of depending on the government to fix it, we depend on ourselves to prepare for their mistakes.
7) Reach Financial Independence Faster
Why have a side hustle? If your goal is to be financially independent, a noble goal, you should start a side hustle. There are many people who received nothing in return for their side hustle even after starting it 2 years ago. Some people took longer than 2 years to do well with a side hustle.
However, after 3 – 5 years of consistent effort, that’s when they got there. That’s when they started generating six figures of income from their side hustle, alone. Let alone their 9-5 income. Can you imagine making six figures from your side hustle alone and have 9-5 income on top?
Your side hustle income doesn’t stop growing from there and neither does your 9-5 income. Financial independence becomes that much faster and easier once you have both a side hustle income and 9-5 income. It turbocharges your money into success.
Reaching the financially comfortable number of $624,000 becomes easier with a side hustle.
8) Diversify Your Skillset
I am a finance person. There is no way that I will ever learn how to do search engine optimization (SEO) because that’s a marketing venture. However, I learned how to do SEO. How? By reading a bunch of books and enrolling in college classes? No.
By actually starting a side hustle. On top of SEO, I also learned how to manage social media.
Twitter has been my main source of building my brand. I’m diversifying my skillset even beyond finance and moving further into other areas of the business as well. Why have a side hustle? It increases the level of specialized skillset that you might not have if you specialized in just one job.
You can’t increase your skillset through a 9-5 but you can definitely increase your skillset by having side hustles. Side hustles will help you level up better than by going through college. You’re not learning just by reading a bunch of books. You are learning through hands-on learning.
That’s the best part.
Why Have a Side Hustle? It Matters More than Ever
These days, it’s more important than ever to have a side hustle. It’s not good to work 50% more just to get a 3% raise. When you produce 50% more value, you should get paid 50% more. Some side hustles pay you 100% more for 50% more value. It’s not about the hours you put in.
It’s about the value you provide to others. The more value you provide to others, the more others are willing to pay you. That’s how great side hustles are. It may take years and years before it finally becomes lucrative enough to be happy with the income. However, the wait is worth it.
I’m putting in two years of work for my side hustle while getting pretty much nothing in return for it. However, the part that keeps me going is because of how much I love the side hustle. I love producing content that helps other people’s financial lives better.
Talking about money and helping other people’s financial lives better is a huge passion of mine.
Therefore, it keeps me going and I will never give up on my content creation efforts. One day it may never pay off and that’s completely OK. As long as it helped others along the way, that’s what I can ask for! Even with a great 9-5, I don’t want to stop putting in effort in order to build my income streams.
Why have a side hustle? One day, you might be surprised at just how far you’ve come. You might also be surprised at just how much further you can go from there. The benefits that come with side hustle is well worth the sacrifices you are making for it.
The reward is well worth the effort.
Why Have a Side Hustle? Shortlist
- Diversify your income
- Less dependency on your employer
- You don’t need permission to get a raise
- You work on your own time
- Extra income is always good
- Inflation is running rampant
- Reach financial independence faster
- Diversify your skillset
I had another reason to develop side hustles. I recognized that I might retire early but still want to consult. My day job paid me way more than I needed so I didn’t actually start my side gigs until I retired but I planned them. I set up retainers with my consulting clients, got the professional certifications I needed to be an expert witness and so when I walked away from full time work I was able to earn enough working eight hours a day to support the family and leave our investments untouched. But I had prepared for years, it would have been impossible to pull it off without the planning. So in addition to the excellent ideas you listed I would suggest that they also give you a way to do a little part time work in retirement on your own terms!
Whoa, no way, you need certifications to be an expert witness?! I didn’t know that.
I would not think you would be a side hustle kind of person because of how much you advocate for 9-5’s. I honestly shifted my mindset towards 9-5s because of you and I’m so glad I did because I now hold a job I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world!
But with all that said.. Nothing wrong with a little extra cash!