Here on Making Sense of Cents, we talk a lot about making extra money. While I am all about a person cutting their expenses (this is one of our main goals this year), there is a lot to be said about using your extra time to make extra money. Due to my past side hustles (most of which now…
Here on Making Sense of Cents, we talk a lot about making extra money.
While I am all about a person cutting their expenses (this is one of our main goals this year), there is a lot to be said about using your extra time to make extra money.
Due to my past side hustles (most of which now comprise my full-time business), I was able to pay off my student loans completely, travel, quit my job, start my own business, and more.
Side hustles have completely changed my life for the better, and this is why I think more people need to look into making extra money on their own.
Even if you think you don’t have enough time to make extra money, I’m sure you have at least a few hours each week. Dedicating something as little as a few hours each week can still mean enough time to make extra money each week.
If you are wondering what you can do to make extra money, check out the related posts below:
Below are four reasons you should be making extra money.
1. Extra income can be used towards debt.
Debt was my main motivator for making extra money. While I made a good salary at my day job, it wasn’t enough to where I could continue to live the life I wanted as well as pay off my debt quickly.
I didn’t want to be buried in debt forever, so paying it off quickly was a big goal of mine.
I realized the only way I could pay off my debt quickly was to build up my extra income streams. Making extra money definitely helped with my debt goal. I was able to pay thousands of dollars extra each month from my side income streams.
While that may seem impossible to you, I promise it is not. I have had many people email me tell me that they too thought it was impossible until they worked hard towards their side hustles. In fact, I recently received an email from a reader who paid off $25,000 of their student loan debt in less than one year due to side hustles. They thought it was impossible but then they realized that they could do it too!
2. You can reach a financial goal quicker if you make extra money.
Are you trying to reach any financial goals? Maybe you want to save money for a vacation, build up your emergency fund, add to your home down payment fund, or reach retirement quicker.
Whatever your goal may be, making extra money can help you reach your financial goals faster.
Like I said earlier, cutting your budget is great, but making more money is even better. Earning extra money can allow you to save more money. This is because you can only cut your budget by so much, whereas you can grow your income by an endless amount.
What I like about earning extra money is that you can use all of your side money and throw it at a goal. This way you aren’t really “missing” your money as much as it is all “extra” anyways.
3. You can test out a business idea when making extra money.
If you are interested in starting a business, you might want to think about first starting it as a side business.
This can be a great idea because you can fully test the waters of your new business on the side, while still having the stability from your full-time day job.
You can see whether you like your business idea, whether it will truly work out, if you can make an income from it, and more.
I know first hand about this. My side hustles turned into my full-time business. While I didn’t start my side jobs thinking that they would eventually turn into a business, it was a great way to start as I was still able to keep my day job income and benefits while seeing if it would work. It took a lot of stress away this way.
4. Making extra money can help you diversify your income.
Do you ever feel too reliant on one source of income?
Maybe you are afraid that one day you may lose your job or that something will happen to your main source of income. If you work towards building up side income streams and diversifying your income, then you won’t really have to worry about one of your income streams having a bad month or completely disappearing.
By diversifying your income with multiple income streams, you will have a back up plan.
Do you make extra money? Why or why not? How much time do you spend on making extra money?