Let’s take a minute and be honest with ourselves. Our young professional lifestyle is pretty good. I’m assuming that most of us live in a pretty nice house or apartment, are able to go out to eat once or twice a week, and can afford to treat ourselves every once in a while. If we’re being real honest with ourselves though, if we had an extra $100 or so, life could be a little sweeter. We might be able to upgrade on our next trip, stay an extra night or go out to eat once more each week. What’s a young professional to do though? We already work a solid 40-80 hours each week. We come home tired and all we want to do is lay on the couch. And that’s where the awesome thing I call a side hustle comes into play. 
What is a side hustle?
A side hustle is a super part time, easy gig that we do perhaps as infrequent as once per month. It’s nothing taxing on our bodies or our minds. It’s not formal either; our current job wouldn’t give us a hard time if they found out about it. The best part of it is that it pays, cash money. Even an extra $100 can go a long way in our monthly budget, as it can be used as ‘mad money’, money we wouldn’t ordinarily have but can spend however we want.
How can I find one?
Tough question for sure. You’d be hard pressed to find a ‘help wanted’ in the paper that was looking for a one or two day a month commitment that paid a decent wage while only requiring a little time and effort. You certainly gotta get creative when you’re out looking. Craigslist could be a good place to start. I feel like there are always a couple of odd jobs that people want help with. Also try asking around and always keep your ears open.
Any good examples?
Maybe you could help someone move for the day (I heard of one gig a couple of Saturdays ago paying $20 per hour). Maybe babysitting for neighbors could be something to look into. No shame in my game. Granted it might be weird for a 24 year old guy looking for babysitting gigs but girls might find that a little easier. Uber and Lyft offer some part time employment where you serve as a cab driver with your own car? Maybe it’s helping out with a local event and they need some admin help or heavy lifting assistance? Maybe that elderly couple across the street could use their grass cut once a month?
Ah but I don’t want a big commitment.
Fair enough, me neither. The beauty of a true side gig should be that it’s very flexible and that you should be able to work at your own leisure. It should be no big deal when you don’t ‘schedule’ yourself one week or perhaps don’t go out and look for anything to help out with this weekend.
Side hustles are great. Maybe your band gets a gig once a month. Perhaps you’re able to walk your neighbor’s dogs twice a week. Whatever it is, it should be fun. We work too hard at our regular job and put up with too much stress and too many headaches to have our side gig be stressful too. Find something you enjoy, or at least don’t mind doing. Find something that you can do without too much physical or mental effort. Once you’re able to find a good side hustle, you’ll hopefully be bringing in a little extra dough each month. Be sure to enjoy that money! Your side hustle money should be a nice little boost to treat yourself. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble spending it, I certainly don’t!
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