Find A Side Gig To Bring In Extra Money

I’ve written before that if you’re having trouble paying your bills, there are usually only two ways to get out of trouble. Either reduce your spending and expenses, or make more money. Usually it’s easier to simply reduce your spending.

But what if you’ve done that, and you’re still struggling to pay your bills? It might be time to work a side gig or two.

A side gig, or side hustle, is any work you do outside of your regular job to earn extra money. While a side gig could be a traditional part-time job where you report to work for a few hours every week at certain times, there are lots of side gigs where you don’t have regular hours or even a boss. Instead, you work when you want, selling either your services or something you create.

For example, if you are a crafty and artsy individual, you might enjoy making jewelry, greeting cards, and decorations. Why not try to sell some of your creations on Etsy? If you’re good at it, you might make enough to pay your cell phone bill every month.

Or maybe you mow a neighbor’s lawn every month. You could easily earn $100 or more mowing just one lawn each month.

Are you a talented writer? If so, look into writing articles for various websites and blogs. You should be able to find a market for whatever topic you’re passionate about, whether it’s sports, money, diet, cars, travel, or any other subject.

You might have better luck selling your articles if you get really specific. For example, I just Googled “How to create monsters with Legos”, and found quite a few results. Someone got paid to write those articles. If Legos is your thing, why couldn’t it be you?

The going rate for writing articles for websites is usually between $15 and $50, though some pay more. Writing a couple articles a month could earn you $100.

If you don’t like these side gigs, brainstorm and come up with a few on your own. Just think of things people don’t like to do, like raking leaves, washing their car, cleaning out their gutters, trimming trees, shopping for groceries, etc. There are people all over the world who gladly pay others to do those tasks for them.

If you’re thinking that you don’t have time to work a part-time job in addition to your main job, don’t worry- The great thing about many side gigs is you can work them as little or as much as you want.

Take dog-walking, for example. If you like dogs, maybe you can find someone in your neighborhood who will pay you to walk their dog. According to ZipRecruiter.com, the national average pay for dog walkers is $14/hour. If you walk someone’s dog for one hour each week at that rate, you’ll earn $56/month.

If that’s enough extra money for you each month, then great. But if you need more, you could increase the number of customers until you make as much money as you need. If you need an extra $200 each month, then keep advertising your services- soon you’ll have four dogs to walk each week, and you’ll earn $224 every month.

And don’t let the seemingly small pay-offs of a typical side gig discourage you. If you can earn even $100/month for the next ten years, you’ll have made $12,000. That could make a huge dent in reducing your debt.

To learn more about side gigs, listen to the 30th episode of my podcast, called “Money on the Brain”. In it, I interview a friend of mine who happens to be an expert at side gigs. He gives advice on side gigs and explains how they helped him become debt-free.