Most of us have our “Main” hustle where we go in for approximately 33% of our day, do what we need to do and “clock out”, then go home. In this day of uncertainty, passion provoking thoughts, technology advancement, ease of information access and freedom to expand your ability to gain wealth, one should establish the “Side” hustle. The side hustle helps accomplish many goals in your life, and I want to talk about the 5 reasons why I think everyone should work on their side hustle game! Why? Because we all want to be financially free, and have the ability to pursue what we want in our lifetime.
Do you love working for “the man”, being confined in rigid walls that you have tried hard to change/tear down, to being told “how things are”? I hear crickets, which is exactly what I would have expected. I remember going along in my journey and realizing at an early age, around 20, that there was no chance, in living hell, that I would at some point be working for a pay check.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not the worst thing, and heck – you can make a lot of money that way, you can support a family and you always have to do whatever is necessary. However, if you have the chance to break through the walls, pursue passions, build wealth, be happy and most importantly – be free, wouldn’t you hop to that opportunity? Based on how I’ve been feeling, especially after writing about side hustles you can do at home and Bert’s article on making saving a part of your routine, I’ll dive into the top 5 reasons why I think everyone needs to have a side hustle!
Top 5 Reasons You Need to Side Hustle
1.) Passions – You get to work on your passions before and after the main 9-5 job. You get to focus on something else that truly sparks the mind and you can pour your heart into it. Part of this that relate to me was this blog, and then there is investing into stocks, as examples. Those are two side hustles right there, where I immediately get excited and envelope myself in those areas, with no immediate plans to jump out. This is quite different than the 9-5, where it potentially may not be your passion. You may be good at the 9-5 position you have, but you aren’t really eager, anxious or you don’t wake up feeling excited about what’s to come. The side hustle helps explore your passion. Then, one may even turn that passion into your main daily routine, and that also partly means you are free. Look at Jason Fieber at Mr. Free at 33 – he followed his passions and is now “free” of time constraints to continue his passionate activities. Thank you for the inspiration Jason.
2.) Happiness – Ah, nice transition from the first reason into the second. When you are in the “9-5” routine, your happiness may not be maximized until you are fulfilling your passions. Sure – you can come home from your job, spend time with your loves ones, work out, hang out with pets, play games, go for a run, travel to another city on weekends, but you cannot stay in this state of mind if you aren’t passionate with what you have before you are able to do these things. When you are working through your side hustles and bringing in side/additional sources of income – you can increase your happiness, as the time clock points more in your favor and opens up the opportunity to do those things that truly make you happy.
Further, those side hustles are typically performed, because it does just that – makes you happy. I love writing on this blog for the community, but also for myself. I do love it, it makes me happy. Right now I am looking down at my fingers typing away at over 100 words per minute, because I am following a passion and the thoughts are coming out of my ears. Yes, that was a rant. I am sure Bert can state the same thing. Whether that is writing about financial freedom, researching stocks, buying stocks, investing into real estate, selling clothes online, you ultimately are happier because of two reasons: You are following your passions and you are reducing the time spent on the activities that do not increase your happiness in the future.
3.) Passive Income – With side hustles, this provides additional sources of passive income. Why is this important? Because these sources of income/cash flow can provide sources of expense coverage, wealth building and to use for experiences. I know I’ve traveled to quite a few places in the past few years and the majority of this was fueled via the side hustles. A few side hustles that have provided expenses coverage, wealth building & experiences are credit card cash back, selling items on eBay, swagbucks and other things that I’ve been able to do at home.
Looking back, the fact that I’ve made over $750 via swagbucks was enough alone to either pay for my Punta Cana trip, majority of my month’s expenses or even a smaller dividend stock purchase. Indirectly, these side hustles and other forms of cash providing sources, helps provide access to these areas of our life.
4.) Wealth Building – Here comes a Snoop Dogg reference, “one, two, three into the four…”. However, this also falls in line – you are following passions, increasing your happiness, increasing income sources, which ultimately (if prudent enough), leads to wealth building. The side hustle can bring you an increase in wealth if you save your money, invest into assets that produce cash flow (obviously, I am biased towards dividend paying stocks), pay down debt or take a class to learn more about your passions/side hustles to further increase your income streams from them (i.e. perfect them).
Side hustles are important, for sure, in the wealth building area of your life. Financial Samurai is a great source, as well, for these – in his articles about Uber, here he showed the income you can bring in to build wealth. Funny, though, he ultimately points to building a website, such as this! Uber definitely wasn’t a passion and didn’t increase his happiness, that’s for sure.
5.) Freedom of Time – Ultimately, your side hustles will provide you freedom of time in the future. Every dollar that you are able to save and perhaps produce cash flow off of, helps cover expenses in your daily life. In my monthly dividend income articles, I summarize the amount of my expenses that this type of income it covers. I do this because it provides a sense of direction of when financial freedom will ring. This is about time, and having more time doing what you love.
Top 5 reasons to have a side hustle conclusion
In the end, I’m all about someone following their passions. I am all about the pursuit of happiness. I am all about having that time on your hands to spend it with the one’s you love. I am all about proving others wrong, as well. I am all about taking the impossible and making it possible. What is interesting are the constant articles about the 30-40 year old’s retiring that are catching fire on the web. They have caught as much fire to actually provoke my colleagues to pick up and read one. Their legitimate statement was this, after reading about a fellow dividend blogger/retire early guru – “Yeah, he retired early, but he lives such a cheap life, that I wouldn’t want that at all”. Talk about pure ignorance.
What this statement means to me is that there was not a single consideration to the individual who retired early to live the life that makes him the most happy, to which he performed by having multiple side hustles. My co-workers don’t understand, most at least, the importance of understanding that each journey is different, but the other fact that a side hustle can help accomplish other things that you want to have in your life.
-Lanny