The following is a contribution from Jon at Penny Thots. If you’d like to contribute to Wise Dollar, please contact us.
Earning as much as you possibly can is a great way to get ahead financially. The problem that arises is when you are maxed out in terms of earnings potential or worse, you simply cannot get a raise?because the company you work for is not giving them out.
In either of these cases, what do you do? While you can look for another job, there is a better option ? moonlight on the side for extra income. Below you will see the reasons why this is your best option.
Why Start Moonlighting
You Control The Income Stream
The first reason why you should start moonlighting (commonly called side hustles in today?s lingo) is because you control the income stream. What does this mean? You are no longer tied to an employer for income. You are the employer. As a result of this, you can control how much or how little you work and in turn, how much or how little you earn.
Maybe you just want to do something on the side to make $100 extra a month. Nothing is stopping you. On the other hand, maybe you want to make an extra $500 a month. Again, nothing is stopping you from doing this except for yourself.
You Do Something You Love
In many cases, people start a side hustle, doing something they love. In fact, many times they don?t even start it as a way to make extra money. They just enjoy it so much they do it as a hobby and then they figure out a way to make money from it.
So, if you are interested in making some money on the side, make sure you first sit down and figure out the things you love to do. From there, you can figure out if there are ways to make money from any of them.
You Control The Growth
This was touched in the first point, but I want to dive deeper into it here. Maybe you might find that you really enjoy the side hustle so much that you want to turn it into a full-time income and leave your job. You have the power to do that. You just have to figure out how.
Taken one step further, maybe you take your now side hustle full-time but want to scale back for retirement or maybe to start a family. In either case, you have the power to do so. You can decide how much you want to grow the side business or not grow it.
For me, I was blogging part-time for a number of years. I enjoyed my day job, but ended up getting laid off. It was a blessing in disguise because it gave me the kick I needed to turn my blogging into a full-time job. It was something I wanted to do, but just never had the courage to do so.
You Allow For Financial Freedom
When you start bringing in extra income, the feeling is awesome. For me, the extra money from my side hustle went right into boosting our savings. I pretended I wasn?t even making any additional income ? aside from putting money aside for taxes of course!
We weren?t in debt, so we invested it all. But if you are in debt, it can be a great way to really ramp up your debt repayment?plans. The trick is to simply pretend the money was never made in the first place. If you can do this, then you can really set yourself up financially down the road.
Final Thots
While it could be easier to win the lottery or even figure out some?illegal ways to make money, the truth is that those income sources won?t last over the long term. Yes, that includes lottery winners because most end up broke shortly after winning.
If you really want to get ahead financially, take the time to involve yourself with a side hustle. The income you make can last and it will help to improve your finances over the long term.
Jon writes at Penny Thots, a personal finance blog whose writes about all things personal finance. The goal of the site is to improve your finances to positive, one day and one penny at a time.
What are some of the reasons why you earn extra income on the side. What was the first side hustle you had? Do you ever see yourself leaving your full-time job to manage your side hustle?
Photo courtesy of:??Depositphotos.com/bond80
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Moonlighting enables me to save more and buy more things I want. Now, I can’t imagine myself settling only with my 8-hour job. I have gotten used to this set-up that I work on my side hustle after my 8-5 job everyday.
I used the same strategy when I was in debt. I used all of the money from my 2nd job to pay off my debt. When I started my websites, I never accounted for the money. I just reinvested 25% back into the business and then saved the rest in my retirement accounts.
Jon I completely agree! Having some side income is a great way to boost your savings plus it gives you a certain amount of financial freedom. All my extra income has been going into an emergency fund for when I finally quit my job. It’s been growing pretty steadily and I should have almost $30k soon!
Great job Thomas. It really is fun to see it quickly add up when you are putting in extra every month. Keep up the great work!