Day Jobs to Side Hustles, This is How We Earn
While it is absolutely true that both financial independence and early retirement are a function of spending, not earning…I think it’s safe to say most anyone on the path is working some variation of a “normal job.” And all the side hustle you care to handle. Here are ours.
Disclaimer: Yes we’re absolutely privileged and lucky! But in addition to having jobs that let us stay in the air conditioning these days, we also put in a ton of effort now to earn what we can. We didn’t start out earning big money, and a not-insignificant factor has been negotiating (even when it’s painfully uncomfortable).
I abhor the term “side hustle” and actually kind of resent the money-fetishization and idea that every free moment needs to be spent hustling or earning. That said, we don’t live in my ideal world, we live in this one…so we participate in the system available to us. We go through periods of disliking our jobs in the ‘first world problems’ sense of the word, but are generally safe, unexploited, and not destroying our bodies more than any other office drone.
HIS:
Primary Income: “Day job” as a contract software developer.
I started a company a few years back and am currently working for myself, subcontracting to a large firm for a lot of hours a year. It pays very well, far more than I had any hope for when I dropped out of school at 14.
Sidestream #1 – Rental House
Yes, I know…every financial blogger is like “just save up and buy a distressed triplex in a midwestern city, fix it yourself, and let your tenants pay the mortgage!” – I get how infeasible that seems. While ours may not be any more realistic, here it is…we bought a townhouse outside Washington DC in 2011. We moved away in 2015 to be closer to her job, and started renting it out, at roughly a breakeven point, cashflow-wise. We ended up moving back within the year, so rather than kick out tenants that were paying our mortgage, we took a 401k loan and moved into a cheaper condo that’s a better fit for us anyway. This is not necessarily a ‘side hustle income’ stream as we have a mortgage, but the rent pays all expenses so it’s an important part of our plan.
How did we manage to buy a house near DC when she was an intern and I was very early-career, you ask? “Uncle Sugar” comes through again! As an honorably discharged veteran, I was able to get a zero-down VA loan with no PMI, and at a lower rate than conventional mortgages. One of the many, many benefits of the 8 years I was enlisted, and something I’m extremely grateful for today.
Sidestream #2 – Subcontract Software
I had an opportunity in 2019 where a friend of mine wanted me to negotiate a job for him, and I knew of a big company that had just won a contract and needed skilled developers. Long story short, I have 2 guys subbing under me, and I keep a few dollars an hour from the labor rate. The client gets great work, they get way more than a big company would pay, and I save every penny from this stream.
Sidestream #3 – This Blog
It actually earns negative money (for now!) and is probably classified as a hobby but there’s potential, I think.
HERS:
Primary Income: “Day Job” as a research psychologist, on W2.
Yes, that’s not something you can fall into by chance. She spent nearly a decade in school and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to get here. It pays well and she’s made astounding progress at paying off that student loan debt (much of the white pasta in the eponymous jar).
Sidestream #1 – Private Practice
While it’s not a huge earner because she doesn’t focus a lot of effort on attracting new clients, she usually has one or two that she sees for an hourly rate. During covid with no office expenses this has been mostly profit, but she mostly does it to keep clinical skills up.
Sidestream #2 – Psych Evals for the state
She recently had a somewhat chance encounter where another psychologist offered to refer court-ordered evaluations to her for an hourly rate. While we don’t yet know how it’ll average out, she has 2 free weekdays a month from her normal job that she could use to do 1-2 evals and sock away the pay.
We’ve also had a number of things that could theoretically be used to earn more, but didn’t seem worth the trouble.
So that’s that. Two thirty-something white-collar workers with 2 additional income streams a piece. But what’s crazy, and what has taken me this long to fully realize/appreciate…is that you CANNOT EARN YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM – it’s a function of spending, not income. You could be bringing in $500,000/yr and living paycheck to paycheck with no hope to retire. We’ll explore that later on, but suffice to say I have no complaints about the input side of the equation.
Do you think a side hustle is a necessary part of the puzzle or a distraction from your personal life? Is there really such a thing as “passive income” at this stage of the game?