Having a side hustle is sometimes considered a pillar of FI, or key aspect to reach financial independence. I have tried a few things over the years, like selling pest control part time, ridesharing, and general labor. I don’t really have a large scale side hustle, but instead just try to do small and simple things to get a little extra cash. Sometimes people think I’m crazy, but they probably didn’t save an extra 1k last month. Additionally, my wife has started a side hustle with BabyQuip, the AirBNB of baby gear. I wanted to share my earnings from the last 5 weeks.
An Extra 1k In August
… plus a little bit of July.
| 25-Jul-2019 | 9 | jobspotter | bike ride | |
| 30-Jul-2019 | 20 | personal capital | bro in law referral | |
| 30-Jul-2019 | 5 | Bing | Bing search reward | |
| 1-Aug-2019 | 200 | amex bonus | American Express Card | |
| 2-Aug-2019 | 20 | M1 Finance | referral | |
| 2-Aug-2019 | 10 | Coinbase | Learned about EOS | |
| 3-Aug-2019 | 7 | Job spotter | ||
| 3-Aug-2019 | 5 | Cleo Sign up Bonus | ||
| 3-Aug-2019 | 10 | Coinbase | Learned about some other crypto | |
| 5-Aug-2019 | 3 | jobspotter/coins | ||
| 5-Aug-2019 | 4 | speaker | busted 10′ subwoofer | |
| 7-Aug-2019 | 3.46 | jobspotter/coins | ||
| 7-Aug-2019 | 5 | ibotta referral | ||
| 8-Aug-2019 | 30 | microwave | ||
| 8-Aug-2019 | 50 | Monarch Money | App waitlist feedback survey | |
| 9-Aug-2019 | 115 | washer/dryer | ||
| 9-Aug-2019 | 40 | pest control | ||
| 9-Aug-2019 | 30 | mad skills motocross | e sports | |
| 9-Aug-2019 | 4.8 | Job spotter | ||
| 12-Aug-2019 | 40 | chairs | sold old chairs | |
| 12-Aug-2019 | 50 | Tradelines | First tradeline deposit | |
| 12-Aug-2019 | 30 | sell boy clothes | ||
| 13-Aug-2019 | 50 | Tradelines | ||
| 16-Aug-2019 | 75 | changing table | no longer needed. | |
| 16-Aug-2019 | 3.25 | Coins/GetUpside | ||
| 17-Aug-2019 | 9 | boxes/coins/jobspotter | sold boxes | |
| 20-Aug-2019 | 20 | Coinbase DAI | Learned about DAI | |
| 21-Aug-2019 | 20 | personal capital | referred coworker | |
| 30-Aug-2019 | 20 | worthy bonds | blog referral | |
| 30-Aug-2019 | 4 | Job spotter | ||
| 31-Aug-2019 | 25 | SoFi Invest | sign up bonus | |
| Aug | 170 | 170 | babyquip order 1 | breakeven startup cost/insurance ($170) |
| Aug | 40 | 40 | babyquip order 2 | breakeven after acquisitions ($40) |
Earnings totaled $1127.76, but we spent $210 building up inventory for baby stuff which brings our profit to $917.76. Not bad!
Breakdown
You might be thinking, “I haven’t heard of half these things.” So I’ll try to explain some of these activities.
- Personal Capital is an app I use to track my money, and they offer $20 for referrals (those who are referred also get $20 to Amazon). For some reason, not every user has the option to refer others. I tell lots of people about it. Blogpost coming soon.
- Bing is a search engine owned by Microsoft and they compete with Google. They will pay you to use them rather than Google.
- We got a $200 credit on our American Express credit card for spending $1,000 in July. We didn’t buy anything we normally wouldn’t.
- M1 Finance is a brokerage I use, and they were giving $20 for referrals (and referee’s) in August, rather than their normal $10.
- Jobspotter is an app owned by Indeed, which is a popular job listing site. Users go around taking pictures of Help Wanted signs and associated storefronts. Indeed turns these into job postings on their site and rewards users with Amazon gift card credit. Since April my wife and I have earned $175 simply taking pictures of stores we frequent. This makes window shopping profitable. I will go more in depth on this in the coming weeks.
- Sofi offered me $25 in free stock. I have an account but have never gotten a loan from them or used any of their services, other than SoFi Relay.
- Coinbase is where I buy and sell cryptocurrencies. I haven’t made any transactions in over a year and a half, but Coinbase has been adding more coins and paying $10-20 in rewards to learn about new currencies and their projects.
- Mad Skills Motocross is my favorite game on my phone. Turns out I’m in the top 5% speed wise, so I make money off some races.
- Worthy Bonds loans money to small businesses that are backed by physical inventory greater than the value of the loan. They pay 5% and my review ranks decently well on Google. We both get $10 when you sign up and deposit $100 or more for 6 months. There are no fees, and you can withdraw anytime.
- Tradelines: I sell authorized user spots on my credit cards to random people through Tradeline Supply Co. Yes, it is safe and secure. It’s really easy money, and is helpful to others who are trying to improve their credit.
- Cleo is an AI money assistant. I got $5 for just signing up. Cleo looks at your spending and saving, then offers you quizzes (chances to win money) to see how much you’re keeping track of your finances. You can get $5 from my link if you want to give it a try.
- We sold chairs, a changing table, a few appliances and a subwoofer I found in a parking lot.
Conclusion
I don’t think it’s ever been quite so easy to come across free money. It seems like every day I see a Facebook ad for something that will give me money just for downloading an app. There are probably other things I am forgetting (I know for a fact that my wife earned more money by using ibotta and other rebate apps), but all in all, we made roughly $1,000! Not too shabby.
Maybe there are ways I increase my side hustle income if I focused on less little stuff and a few bigger things. It’s something I’m thinking about often, and we will hopefully be starting a rental empire in the next couple of years. My wife is just getting started with BabyQuip, and it will likely grow in popularity. Additionally, she is a piano teacher, but isn’t teaching while she finishes up her degree. As of now, I’m doing what I can on the side and focusing more on my day job.
What are some of the simple things you do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to earn a little extra?
