DON'T FEAR THE SIDE HUSTLE
I know the idea of a side hustle sucks. We should all be paid living wages and know that one full time job can cover rent (or mortgage), expenses, and give us a little left over every month for investing and saving. But then the corporations would report less growth! Can’t have that, can we?
So, here are a few quick side hustles ideas. When we think side hustle, we think drive for Lyft or DoorDash. But I’m gonna guess, especially in big cities, this isn’t all that lucrative unless it’s your full time job. I know people who use dog walking apps like Rover, where the app takes 20%. OR, you could do what I did in high school and put up signs in your neighborhood with those old fashion pull tabs or hell, throw a QR code on the flyer.
A few weeks ago I saw a guy in the alley of my building detailing a car. There was a line of 5 cars behind him, so naturally I went over and asked what he charged.
“A wash and vac is $79 and a four hour detail is $179,” he said.
If we assume he was doing one detail and 5 wash and vacs, he made $574 in one day. A lot of work, but even once or twice a month and bam, he’s pulling in an awful lot of extra money he can use to invest.
If he did this once a month at 20 years old and invested the $574 every month into an S&P 500 index fund, here’s what he’d have in 30 years, by the time he was 50:
Not bad!
But I get it, some people don’t wanna be washing and vacuuming cars. You could also buy a power washer. They’re around $199, toss in some soap, put up some flyers in your neighborhood and offer to power wash driveways, decks, and siding for $100-$200 depending on what you do. If you find their kid’s bike in the yard, filthy and covered in mud, wash it too and don’t charge extra. They’ll notice.
Can’t afford a $200 power washer? Go on Amazon, snag this pooper scooper. Put up flyers saying you’ll swing by every Saturday, clean out their backyard for $20. Do 10 houses, that’s $200. Now you can afford the power washer. Suddenly you’ve got yourself a little business with all sorts of services and you have a pretty solid list of clients.
You do poop clean up, you power wash driveways, you detail cars. You can pick and choose what you wanna do and when you wanna do it.
Suddenly you’re generating a couple of extra bucks you didn’t think you could generate.
