As we all know, the economy is incredibly uncertain right now. A lot of people I know have a side hustle to make extra money as a safety net. That got me thinking—what does everyone else do for a side hustle? Is it actually lucrative? How much time do you spend on it?
Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few different ways to make extra money. When I was younger, I took a second job in retail during Christmas to afford gifts for my son. While the extra income helped, the exhaustion from working full-time and then heading straight to my second job really burned me out. I barely saw my son, and in hindsight, the time away from him wasn’t worth the trade-off.
Later on, I tried various gig jobs like assembling furniture and running errands. I actually enjoyed putting furniture together—it gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I’ve also built websites and fixed computers for people, mostly through word of mouth since my friends and family know I have a degree in computer science. While I’m fairly adept at technology, social media isn’t really my thing, which is probably just part of being a techie introvert.
The most lucrative side hustle I’ve found, though—the one I could actually turn into a full-time job—is selling on eBay. I make a surprising amount of money just by selling things I no longer need and buying and reselling certain items. It’s always interesting to see what sells quickly and what doesn’t. For example, I listed a bunch of new clothes my daughter never got a chance to wear for cheap, and they sat there with no interest. But then I listed some childhood stickers from my old collection for a much higher price, and they sold almost immediately. My Star Wars collection was another hot seller—it was gone before I even had time to second-guess listing it.
Now, I’m planning to go through all my childhood toys and sell them too. I have to wait until my daughter is at school, though. For some reason, she believes she should inherit my Cabbage Patch dolls, Strawberry Shortcake collection, and Barbies. But I feel like someone who truly collects these items will appreciate and care for them more than she would. Plus, selling them allows us to go out and do things together, and those experiences will be far more meaningful to her than a toy ever would.
And that’s really the bigger question—when you take on a side hustle, is it worth trading all your time for extra money? If it’s a short-term hustle to pay something off or invest in starting your own business, that makes total sense. But otherwise, how do you stay motivated to keep trading your time for more work?
I’d love to hear from others—what’s your side hustle, and is it worth the time you put into it?
