15 Side Hustle Ideas to Earn Extra Cash

With inflation on the rise, it seems that the money we bank after paying all the bills is dwindling. Reaching savings goals has become increasingly difficult. Thankfully there is a long list of potential opportunities that can bring in a little extra cash to help you reach financial goals, pay down debt, and put a little cushion in your budget. Use this list as inspiration to help you make more progress towards your current money goals. Some are quick to profit while others may take some time to reap the rewards. Regardless, the key to succeeding in any side hustle is to focus your specific skills and take advantage of them! Are you a pro on a Cricut? Enjoy doing crafty projects or teaching others a certain subject? Make money doing something you enjoy and never work a day in your life! HOW TO START A SIDE HUSTLE Make a list of activities you enjoy doing or would tolerate to make a little extra moo-lah Narrow down the list you made to a top 3 and get to researching what you may need to startup and get moving on your way to pay day! Make a checklist of steps you need to take to get up and running Make a budget and account for any up-front costs you’ll need to be successful and turn a profit Work your way through the checklist one action item at a time 15 IDEAS TO INCREASE YOUR RESIDUAL INCOME Drive for Lyft/Uber If you enjoy driving, people, and being in control of your schedule – check out Lyft or Uber. Both companies offer flexible scheduling, pay surge during peak hours, and insurance protection while you’re driving during work hours. Deliver Food Maybe you like to drive but interaction with people just isn’t your thing, look into delivering withGrubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. There are quite a few different entities depending on where you live geographically so do your research! Everyone has to eat, right? Having your food come to you is even better! Deliver Groceries Is the grocery store your happy place? Shopping at the store can be therapeutic for some. If that applies to you – make some money while you meander the aisles of your local grocer! Instacart or Shipt are the apps for you to check out. Shipt even claims you can make up to $22 an hour working for them! Tutor (Online or In-Person) Regardless of the times, there are always people in need of supplemental education. Tutoring individuals in subjects that you are strong in can be rewarding both in life and financially! Look atTutor.com, TutorMe, orStudypool if you prefer online education. Maybe teaching face-to-face is more your speed. In that case, contact your local tutoring establishments and educational systems to see if they could use an extra hand. Be on guard though when scrolling through online postings. Some other users are just looking for someone to write their paper or complete their work for them. That doesn’t mean all postings are of the lazy nature. Others need honest help to comprehend and complete assignments so ask questions before taking a job! TutorMe has stated you can make at least $16 an hour – cha-ching! Become a Transcriptionist If you are good at typing, listening, and have an eye for detail, this could be the gig for you. Transcriptionists are professional typists who listen to recorded or live audio files and type up written versions of the content. They are essential in the medical and legal industries, but other corporate sectors need them too! Though you have to be trained and certified, you have the potential to make around $20 – $45 an hour depending your skill level and speed. Utilize sites like Rev to find jobs quickly – once your certified of course. Join a Focus Group or Take Surveys Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Want to make money voicing yours? Platforms like Focus Group, MyPoints.com or Survey Junkie pay you for your responses and honest feedback. Not too shabby! Keep in mind that some of these sites are looking for very specific things when they select participants. You may not qualify for every single survey opportunity or focus group you see. Also, you may need to answer a lot of questions and complete quite a few surveys before you can cash out. It’s not the quickest option but it is always something to look into for your free time. Rent Your Home or a Spare Room on Airbnb We know this option may not be for everybody but if you’re the hostess with the mostest this could be your niche! Websites like Airbnb rent out your space(s) for either long or short term stays and depending on your location, could rake in some serious cash. It’s okay to be hesitant towards opening your home up to strangers – Airbnb alleviates this stress. They offer host damage protection for your property that can range up to $1 million in coverage. Additionally, they offer host liability insurance just in case someone gets hurt during their stay. Even though Airbnb doesn’t screen each guest, there is a mutual rating scale in place so hosts feel more informed and relieved of stress regarding who they are letting into their home. Resell Items You’ve Thrifted You need to front some cash for this one. You never know what you might find while thrifting! Something one person thinks is worthless may be the cash-out you’ve been looking for. What’s that saying? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure? The premise is easy: buy low and sell higher. Do your market research on what is currently trending and how much these items are selling for. Many people have gotten into upcycling (we will touch on this shortly) and are looking for those perfect pieces to restore or get creative with. The easiest places to resell items is through sites like Facebook Marketplace, Amazon,eBay, Poshmark, Thredup, and even GameStop – just to give a few examples. Here’s the catch – do not go into debt for this venture. Having friends and family loan you money to front the costs of items only puts you back. To the same token, you definitely don’t want to end up with a bunch of stuff you still owe money on and can’t even sell. Go slow and always purchase in cash – cash is king after all. Channel Your Creativity for Cash This one may not be for everybody but if you have an artsy side and enjoy expressing your creative capabilities, there are many options available to you! Sign up as a freelancer with Fiverr, Upwork, or 99designs (maybe all three) to connect with clients who need your creative mind to get some jobs done. Predominantly focused in writing, editing, graphic design, and voice-over work, do what you love while getting paid for it! Only thing you need to do to get started is create a profile (a resume of sorts) so potential clients can check out your work, experiences, rate, and specialties, Earlier we mentioned upcycling. From restoring classic pieces to their former glory, to putting your own spin on things, the sky is the limit for this one. Check out some social media pages of other upcyclers to get some inspo! Another way to utilize that creative ability is to start an online store front and sell products you make on platforms like Etsy, Amazon, or even Facebook! There you can ucycle, revamp, embellish, restore, and all that jazz while sharing your creativity with the world. Turn Your Clothes into Cash Have a piece of clothing you haven’t worn in forever? Maybe it still has the tags on it. Lighten the load in your closet and make some money while doing it! Places like Plato’s Closet and similar consignment concept stores are always looking to purchase new inventory. If you have higher end pieces that you want to catch a fair price for, post them on sites like Poshmark or The RealReal to get verified and fair compensation! Thredup is also a great and convenient, hassle-free option for all clothing as well. Become a User Tester When businesses come out with a product or develop something that isn’t performing the way they expected, they need to know why. In cases such as these, businesses will look to their consumers or random people to be user experience testers. That’s your cue! Companies like UserTesting, Analysia and TryMyUI will pay you money to test out different developed products like websistes, apps and products – and then give your feedback. Most of them state you can get $10 for each test you complete! Cha-ching! Dog Walk or Pet Sit All those who love animals, say I! Do what you love and make some money along the way. You can pet sit while the fur parents are away or find a couple of fur baby clients you can walk during the week. Bonus – you can enjoy some fresh air and exercise too! You can advertise your own pet-sitting business on social media, put signs up in your neighborhood and local area, or use a website like Rover or Wag to instantly get clients. They let you set your own schedule and adjust your fees – but they do take a cut of your profit. If you don’t want to share your profit, get the help of your friends and family to start spreading the word to drum up some clientele! Do Tasks for Other People Be a Honey and help to complete another’s Honey-Do-List! From completing tasks like little fix-it jobs or running errands – sign up on sites likeTaskRabbit or Handy. If you are a certified tradesman or craftsman you can get some extra gigs through Handy too! Advertise on Your Car Get paid to advertise on your car! As long as you don’t mind putting stickers, magnets, or even wraps on your car to make up a little extra gas money, this is for you. Nickelytics, Wrapify and Carvertise. All have geographical or mileage requirements but can bring in a steady stream of much needed extra money. Do your research on each company as they have different perks and options available to fit you best! Deliver with Amazon Flex You know that Christmas Day feeling you get every time a new amazon package is delivered to your front door step? Be the reason others get to enjoy it too…while making money! Sign up to deliver joy with Amazon Flex and have the power to create your own schedule. Work as much or as little as you like. According to Amazon, most drives make $18-25 an hour! Hopefully this list sparked some insight into the world of side hustles and how to increase your residual income! Make sure you do your research into which ever avenue you choose to explore and follow the steps mentioned above to get started. Don’t forget: when the money starts to roll in, put that extra income in your budget with your specific goal in mind. If you don’t, you’ll end up mindlessly spending it and you’d be dong a lot of extra work without gaining any ground. Take it one side hustle – one day – at a time. Make it happen!

Recession: What is it? What should I expect? How do I prepare?

What is a recession? Two or more sequential quarters with a significant, pervasive decline in economic activity. In the last week, the Federal Reserve announced their highest interest rate increase in almost three decades, raising rates by 75 basis points in an attempt to control the unbridled inflation that hit new levels at 8.6% just last month in May. Financial experts have been monitoring the gross domestic product, or GDP – the value of all goods and services produced within a country during a specific period of time – as it is a key metric used to determine the growth or recession of the economy. Within the first quarter of 2022, the US GDP declined by 1.4% most likely due to an increase in COVID-19 cases coupled with a rising inflation. Compounded with the war in Ukraine and instability in the stock market, economic distress just grew. The moment GDP falls during two consecutive quarters, the country is technically then in a recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research makes the official call and we have yet to hear it. The possibility of an impending recession in the US comes with many anxieties, concerns, and even some curiosity about what this momentous occurrence means for your finances. Well, we are here to help and provide guidance, or at the very least shed some light on this difficult financial period for us all. Okay, so what typically happens during a recession? To best manage expectations of the future, one must first review outcomes of the past. Every recession has its own variances in terms of length, severity, and associated consequences. According to history of past recessions, consequence that reiterate themselves are layoffs, and a decreased accessibility for credit as banks and lending institutions are generally slower to lend as default rates generally increase in times of economic downturn. Assuming the Federal Reserve continues to increase rates to tamp down on inflation, there is a likely chance we see an increase in borrowing costs. Read our blog on A Shift in the Market Tide to learn about how the increase in rates is already affecting the real estate market for both buyers and sellers. Remember, with all dark clouds there is a silver lining. In a recession, the lining is that as rates go up and inflation takes a cool down, it results in the fall of prices on goods and services and an increase in our personal savings rates as the APY’s increase from a formerly chart topping 0.5% to 1% depending on the establishment you bank with and of course, the labor market and wages. Another trend seen over past recessions, such as the Great Recession of 2009, is an uptick in entrepreneurship as the newly unemployed seek creative ways to turn small business ideas into a reality or even make their hobbies profitable. What can we do to prepare and protect ourselves? Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Control what you can control. Here is a checklist covered in this video by CNET that we feel is a great tool to utilize in order to prepare yourself and protect your financials from a potential recession: Review your goals: go over your one year and two-year financial goals to make sure you are still on track to accomplish them. If you’re not, decide what levers you can pull to ensure you can still make them happen. Reduce spending and stock up on cash: review your current spending habits and your budget. Unplug from recurring costs that are not essential and do not align with your goals, like your list of subscription box memberships you forgot about anyway. In recessions, cash is king. During the 2009 recession, it took laid off workers 8-9 months to find a new job. Make sure you have a safety net in place to cover your essential costs in the case you find yourself laid off. Consider a side hustle: consider ways in which you can bring in additional revenue streams to support your monthly fixed costs and savings goals! Make a list of the gigs you can do on your off hours to help you build a bigger emergency account like dog walking, getting crafty with a Cricut, driving for Uber, or becoming an Instacart shopper, just to name a few. Consolidate debt: streamline your payments and get a lower rate! Should I stop investing in my 401(k)? We understand the fear that ensues from a downward spiral in the stock market and with the current market doing just that over the last few weeks, people want to know how a recession could impact their long-term investments. A question everyone has is: “should I stop investing?” The answer: absolutely not. At least, not if you can help it. Many want to panic and cash out because they don’t want to face the volatility and downward arrows. Financial experts advise to avoid making split-second or impulsive reactions as recessions may actually be a good time for you to review your investments and ensure you’re well-diversified. To avoid making any detrimental decisions on your own, please consult a financial advisor before doing so to determine if your portfolio needs any adjusting to protect your investments or even to take a risk on the market. Historically, sticking with the market pays off. Investors who cashed out their 401(k)s during the Great Recession missed the boat on the rebound. The S&P 500 – Standard and Poor’s 500, is a stock market index that tracks the stock performance of 500 large companies that are listed in the United States and is one of the most followed equity indices – has seen significant increases, nearly 150%, since its historic lows in 2009, adjusted for inflation of course. We hope that by now you have a better idea of what a recession is, how it occurs, what to expect, and the best ways to protect your finances during times of economic discourse. Remember, consult a financial advisor before making drastic changes or decisions to your accounts and to ensure that you are best protected in the case a recession does occur. No one can predict the future, it’s imperative to remain calm, gather facts, and make deliberate moves to remain protected in your financial position.

A Shift in the Market Tide

As economists scramble to update their 2022 housing forecasts issued back in December and update midyear forecasts to factor in the curveballs the market has been pitched, we have been diligently paying attention to the changes and analyzing what is to come. It’s no secret that rates are soaring, and disruptions are ensuing. The market shift is here, and we want to talk about it. With the national inflation unexpectedly accelerated and running rampant at 8.6%, the highest seen since December of 1981, comes a hike in interest rates in an attempt to get inflation under control. Compounding with a desperate need for inventory in the Real Estate Market to restore balance and sanity, more and more buyers are finding themselves pushed out of the sphere of opportunity to purchase a home. With an increase of interest rates, on top of the barely there inventory, buyers have no other option but to fork over more cash to even have a competitive foothold in the purchasing arena. Simply put, non-cash buyers who could afford to shop and purchase a year ago are expected to pay more and get less through tough trade-offs when you consider their need to take out a loan and face the rising rates. Homeownership has become increasingly expensive. Additionally, Home sellers will need to adjust their expectations considering the above. The bidding wars will look a little different, offers may not be tens of thousands of dollars over asking prices, and buyers may not be as willing to waive all contingencies. Though still deemed a sellers’ market, the buyers’ struggle with affordability and interest rates will undoubtedly shift the tide. As we continue to track trends in the market and look towards possible solutions, one thing is for certain – you can take heed knowing that we are a long way from a crash. If it were not for last year’s record-breaking numbers, this year would trend on being a very good year. Look to the bright side, if sales do fall that could give inventory levels the boost it needs for buyers to find properties and have options.      

Interest Rates Still Historically Low

The Fed recently announced a .5 raise in interest rates leading to the 30-year fixed mortgagerate to end the first week of May 2022 at 5.27%. The rate rose 17 base points and is the highestit has been since August of 2009. The same occurred for the 15 -year fixed mortgage rate,ending the week up 12 base points at 4.52%. This increase in the interest rates has beenpushed to help combat inflation and experts have been saying that rates will continue to climb.Although rates are expected to climb, this does not mean that the housing market is slowingdown anytime soon! Historically, rates are still on the low side after reviewing the last 45 years of data. Let's lookback at the change in rates in 5 year increments. Starting in 1975-1980 the average mortgageinterest rate was 10.23%. From 1980-1985 the average rate was at an all time high of 14.33%,this was brought on by rising oil prices, government overspending, and increased wages. Themost notable event that drove the rates up was the Oil Embargo of 1979 which causedhyperinflation and caused the Fed to act swiftly. From 1985-1990 the interest rate returned to a normal rate for the time of an average of 10.60%slowly recovering from the previous 5 years. From 1990-1995, rates continued to drop down to8.57% due to the emergence of the internet as a global commercial network. This spurredinvestments into technology causing rapid economic growth in the US. The reason this neweconomic prosperity caused the average rate for the time period to decrease is because of theinverse relationship of the economy and interest rates. In the years 1995-2000, rates droppedeven further to 7.63%. From 2000-2005 rates continued to drop to 6.52% From 2005-2010 rates were at 5.73%, this low interest rate was not representative of theeconomy at the time. From 2010-2015 rates were 4.13% Lastly, from 2015- 2020 the average mortgage rate was at an outstanding record low of only3.90%. It only makes sense that the Fed would raise interest points at this time. Do not look atthe rates in today’s market and let it incite fear in you and dissuade you from making your homebuying dreams come true. Instead, relish in the fact that rates are still historically low and yourdreams are still within your grasp!