Is Your Side Gig Worth It?

August 16, 2017

There are lots of reasons to take on a side gig, not all of them financial. Perhaps you’re looking to gain experience in a new career field or you love the type of work but couldn’t do it full time (pet sitting comes to mind, one of my former side gigs). Finding a way to bring in some extra cash with your free time definitely makes sense, especially when it helps with things like paying off that lingering credit card balance or allows you to take a vacation you couldn’t otherwise afford. But not always.

My side gig of teaching group fitness is less about the money and more about guaranteeing I get a good workout in at least once a week (although I never complain about getting paid to work out!) But there may come a time when it’s no longer serving you, or you realize that you may actually be losing value, which is what lead me to go from teaching three classes per week to just one. If you’re thinking of a side gig, how do you decide if it’s actually worth it? There are a few things to consider.

What would you be doing otherwise?

I’ve met many interesting people riding around in ride-share cars over the past couple of years, most of them just trying to pick up a few extra bucks in their spare time. I often wonder if they’ve thought about the total trade-off they’re making considering the time they spend logged in but not driving anyone, the price of gas, the wear and tear on their vehicles, etc.

One way to figure out if a side gig like that is worth it is to consider what you would be doing with that time otherwise. If you’d be parked on the couch binge-watching old episodes of Friends or flipping through social media, then it’s probably a worthy trade of your time. But if you’d be doing homework, engaging in restorative downtime that may enhance your performance at your “real job” or something else that could potentially earn you more money down the road, then maybe it’s not worth it.

Is it serving you?

Teaching fitness definitely passes the first test — I’d either be sleeping or paying to work out elsewhere if I wasn’t teaching — but I recently found myself wondering if it was worth it in other ways. Besides actually teaching the class, I also have to spend time learning each class, which can add up to a couple more hours each week. And after more than 12 years doing it, I’m getting bored and I know it’s not making a difference to my fitness. But the kicker was that two of my classes were at 6am, which meant that two nights a week I had to be in bed by 9:30 if I wanted to get a full night’s rest.

Since I work from home, I no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn in order to squeeze in a workout, so I was having to get up early only because I was teaching. I knew I was done the night the Cubs won the World Series and I couldn’t fully enjoy the celebration because it was already two hours past my bedtime. Teaching daybreak classes was no longer serving me and the lifestyle I currently live, so I gave up my early mornings earlier this year and have never looked back.

How much is your time worth?

There’s actually a way to quantify the worth of your side gig as well. Oftentimes we just think of the total dollars we earn, when we should be thinking about the true hourly wage, including all the costs involved in the job as well as the time spent indirectly related to earning that money. In the book Your Money or Your Life, the author describes it as what you’re trading your life energy for so that you can quantify purchases in terms of how many total hours of your life you’re trading for that thing.

Here’s my calculation for teaching at the gym, where my $42 hourly wage turns out to be less than $2 per hour now that I’m down to just one class per week. If I were doing this only for the money, I’d have to re-think that trade!

 

What’s the impact?

Ask yourself if your side gig is truly something that is making a positive impact on your life. You may find that it is, that it’s the thing that gets you through long workdays. If that’s the case, it’s worth it. On the other hand, if you find that it’s adding stress to your life or you’re finding yourself saying no to things you want to do because of your side gig, it’s worth examining whether that stress and sacrifice is worth the extra cash.

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7 Ways to Earn More Money Without Quitting Your Day Job

November 30, 2016

When you hear the word “budget,” what do you think of? Chances are it makes you think of things like sacrificing, cutting back, going without or other restrictive terms that are often associated with budgeting. But a budget is simply a tool to help us achieve our life goals in a more deliberate and successful way. Sure, one way to balance a budget is to cut back, but another way is to increase income. Here are seven ways to do that – several of them that I’ve done myself.

1. Become a Tasker on TaskRabbit. Have you learned how to read the language of IKEA assembly directions or do you get a special thrill from the sound of the vacuum sucking up debris? These are just two of many everyday skills that can be put to flexible and lucrative use via the TaskRabbit app, which connects people who have more money than time to people like you, who have more time than money these days.

2. Babysit. Do you have any idea how much over-worked parents are willing to pay a teenager to watch their kids for a night out? Imagine what they’d pay a fully-employed responsible adult, even for just a few hours on weeknights… easy money!

There are even services like Care, Sittercity and BabysitEase that connect you with families seeking help. I was a sitter for BabysitEase back in my Cincinnati days and it was great! If I had a Saturday night with no plans, I just logged into the website and signed up for whichever family looked like the most fun for me.

3. Take care of cats and dogs. If kids aren’t your thing, consider offering your services as a pet sitter. This is another side gig I held until recently.

I signed up for a local pet sitting franchise that performed a background check on me and then offered me the chance to check in on people’s cats and dogs while they were out of town. I only did the ones I wanted to and they did all the work of collecting the money, providing insurance in case something happened, etc. This was an especially great way to make money when I was in town for the holidays.

4. Teach others your hobby. Are you the person your friends and family turn to with questions about technology, fitness or even just how to properly apply their makeup? Services like Dabble (not to be confused with the dating app) are a great way to teach other people how to do the thing you love while making some extra cash. I have an acquaintance that makes great use of Dabble to teach other crafters how to knit and crochet on weekend afternoons.

5. Sell the products of your hobby. Several years ago, I signed up for a booth at a local craft fair where I sold fingerless hand-warmers that I had knitted myself while binge-watching The OC on DVD. One of my ongoing coaching clients uses Etsy to sell her original paintings in an effort to escape her paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle without having to leave her beloved apartment. It doesn’t cost anything to set up your store.

6. Blog about your hobby. I have a good friend with a day job who started a food blog several years ago to share recipes and entertaining ideas with friends and family. After building up a decent following on social media, she’s now able to pitch large brands for sponsored posts, which has helped her to pay down several thousand dollars in credit card debt!

7. Charge for your carpool. I’ve met some of the most interesting people while riding around town in rideshare cars via Uber and Lyft. They are authors, nurses, and even office workers who just give one ride each day after work before heading home.

No matter what way you decide to earn some extra cash, make sure you take the extra step and actually apply that cash toward your savings goals. While the money you earn may seem like just a little, it adds up. Make the most of your spare time to help get you where you want to go faster.

 

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