MMS085: How To Use Side Hustles To Increase Your Income

EPISODE 85

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Money Mastermind Show. Let’s Talk Money.

[EPISODE]

[00:00:04.2] GC: And welcome to the Money Mastermind Show. Tonight, we have David Carlson of Youngadultmoney.com and he’s going to help us discuss what it takes to start up a side hustle. We’ve probably talk about side hustles a number of different times. I’m not sure if we really have gotten into what it takes to actually have a side hustle going in the sacrifices and what’s needed there.

Welcome to our show David.

[00:00:27.5] DC: Thanks for having me.

[00:00:29.5] GC: Absolutely, thanks for being here and the rest of the Money Mastermind Show is Kyle Prevost of Youngandthrifty.ca, Miranda Marquit of Planting Money Seeds, Peter Anderson of Bible Money Matters and Tom Drake of the Canadian Finance Blog. Tom is not with us tonight. I’m Glen Craig of Free from Broke and I’ll be moderating.

So, side hustles. Maybe let’s just start off and talk what a side hustle is. The word hustle itself I think gets sort of negative connotation a lot of times whereas it’s starting to change and I think it needs to deserve a better connotation there but what do we mean by a side hustle? You want to start us off there David?

[00:01:15.5] DC: Sure, yeah. A side hustle is basically anyway you can make extra money on top of a regular nine to five job. So it could be running a blog like most of the other people on this show do or it could be freelance writing, managing a Pinterest account for businesses, pretty much anything you can do that will increase your income above and beyond your nine to five job.

[00:01:44.3] GC: So I think you kind of maybe talked about why we would go into a side hustle. It sounds that these are all different ways to make some extra money. Are there any other reasons besides maybe a couple extra dollars in cash that somebody might want to get into a side hustle?

[00:01:59.9] DC: I think people are a little more motivated if they’re in debt, which is where I am coming from. My wife and I graduated with about $100K of student loan debt and that’s such a drag in your finances and it’s tough to imagine paying, I think our payment’s $1,000 a month for 10 years and it just really kind of sets you back in a way and kind of holds you back.

So the reason I started side hustling was to offset that income, there is other reasons. Some people, I think Peter, you probably can talk to this more than the others but I think some people want to either stay at home and make money or they want a spouse to stay at home and their side hustle income kind of replaces their income.

[00:02:52.0] PA: Yeah totally, that’s why one of the main reasons I started to do my side hustles, my blog, my graphic design on the side was because I wanted my wife to stay home with our son when he was born. So it was a way for us to replace her income when she wasn’t working anymore. Well, working in a different spot at home not that she isn’t working.

[00:03:13.5] MM: Nice save, nice save.

[00:03:15.3] PA: Yeah, sorry. I almost blew that there. But really, everybody’s got a reason why they might want to be making extra money. You said you almost had $100K in student loan debt, that’s a pretty common thing these days. Maybe not a $100K but isn’t the average student loan debt these days is somewhere around $35,000 or something like that?

[00:03:35.0] MM: Yeah, it’s about $30,000 yeah.

[00:03:38.3] GC: Either way, that’s a pretty big amount to have to pay off be it $30 or a $100.

[00:03:46.4] MM: Yeah. Well and some of us just consolidated our student loans and our fine paying them off forever so.

[00:03:55.8] GC: Well, I think it depends on your situation though.

[00:03:57.6] MM: That’s true.

[00:03:59.2] GC: Maybe even at a low interest rate, $100,000 is still a lot of money.

[00:04:04.6] MM: Yeah, I think it would be a different story if I had $100,000, that’s pretty steep.

[00:04:09.8] GC: Yeah.

[00:04:10.8] PA: But when it comes down to it David, isn’t that really part of when you’re thinking about doing a side hustle, isn’t thinking about why you’re doing a side hustle part of it just because not everybody is going to want to necessarily do one. But you need to have a why behind your hustle right?

[00:04:28.0] DC: Definitely. I think that’s obviously a big driving force especially student loans with how high they are now. Another reason though, some people are a little more entrepreneurial and side hustles can be a good way to test out business ideas or give something a try or slowly ease into it and see if it’s something that can replace your income or even create a new career for you. So there’s a few different reasons why people do it. I think right now that and especially student loan debt is one of the bigger driving forces.

[00:05:06.3] GC: But I think that entrepreneurial side is huge though. I mean we’re in an age now where I think online activity, computers and such, is a big factor. You can do things now on the side in small doses on a smaller scale and make it work whereas maybe years ago, you really had to jump in the whole way in order for something to happen.

You had to buy a giant inventory, you have to have everything in place and really took maybe your whole work week to do things like that whereas now, you can do things like with drop shipping or whatnot in a couple of hours a week.

[00:05:46.4] DC: Yeah and I think it’s also easier to do work at any time. A lot of companies are contracting out work that can be done in the middle of the night if that’s when the contractor wants to do it as long as it’s done by a certain deadline. So I think that’s definitely changing things.

[00:06:08.2] GC: And that’s a great consideration too. I mean if you could get your nine to five schedule mixed in with your side hustle schedule, that’s a nice combination. So if somebody wants to do a side hustle, it sounds great, I’m going to make extra money on the side, it’s not as magical as it sounds. I speak from my own experience here but what does a person need to consider before they start pursuing a side hustle?

[00:06:34.0] DC: Well, I think you really have to think about how much time can you commit to it and what are you willing to sacrifice when you pursue that side hustle? Because everyone’s busy, everyone has a lot going on but you really have to set aside that time and make it a priority in your life and if you don’t do that, you’re probably going to burn out or you’re just going to quit one day. So I think really having a set calendar and knowing your capacity and what you can contribute towards this side hustle before you start will help you have a better shot of succeeding.

[00:07:13.8] GC: And that’s not just a solo thing though. A lot of people have families and such, you have to get everybody on board when you’re doing something like this don’t you?

[00:07:22.9] DC: Yeah and I mean I don’t have any kids. I have trouble imagining doing the amount of side hustles that I do with kids. So yeah people like Peter, I know you have a son. I don’t know how you make it work, to be honest.

[00:07:39.1] PA: Talk to Glen, he’s got four kids, right Glen?

[00:07:41.9] GC: Yeah. When I figure it out I’ll let you guys know. But finding the time to do things and then also having everybody on board with them allowing you to have the time to do these things and understanding because it sucks up a lot of your time. For a lot of people, that post nine to five, that’s valuable time, that’s family time, that’s husband and wife time, that’s spouse time, you’re choosing to use that time for something else so you have to make that agreement that you know what? I’m going to be able to spend so much time on this and maybe this is why we’re doing it and maybe having those goals. Sort of like those reasons for why you start a side hustle, having that in place.

[00:08:24.5] MM: Yeah and another thing, Tom is not here but one of the things that Tom frequently talks about is that, there’s that prime side hustle working time between 9 PM and 2 AM and I know because I’ve been on Skype and Tom’s there interacting ready to go and I guess in Tom’s case, the sacrifice he’s decided to make is not necessarily family but sleep.

[00:08:57.1] PA: Yep, we all know about that one is. For people that don’t have a lot of time though, I was reading your book David, let’s just hold that up for people on video, Hustle Away Debt, and I like one of the things that you talked about there was maximizing your current job before you can get into the side hustles. Making sure that you maximize your nine to five by maybe negotiating a raise or finding a promotion, maybe finding a new job. But isn’t that something that really could be key for people who don’t have a ton of time?

[00:09:27.6] DC: Yeah and I actually talked to someone, a family friend a few weeks ago. They either read in the book or read a post about it that I had published where you can go on Glassdoor.com. I don’t know if you guys have checked that out but you can see kind of salary data that people have anonymously submitted based on companies, positions, geographic areas and she used that to negotiate a raise. So she didn’t even need to start a side hustle.

She just used that, got a promotion, well maybe not a promotion but a raise so she’s making more money, and sometimes that’s a lot easier than starting a side hustle. I think everyone on this call knows, side hustle money isn’t really easy money. Again, because it has to be done on the top of your nine to five, it’s during family time, free time and if you can increase your income at your nine to five, that’s a really good starting point.

[00:10:29.3] GC: Yeah, I mean a side hustle is not field of dreams, it’s not build it and they will come and there will be like a line of people who are willing to throw cash at you. For a lot of people, especially for starting with a blog, you’re happy to get a few cents here and there. At least that’s how it was for me.

[00:10:49.1] MM: Another thing, maximizing work is great I think, and I think that’s really a good point. But one thing that we have not talked about is the elephant in the room and that’s television. According to the American Time Use Survey, the average person spends 2.8 hours a day watching television.

[00:11:08.1] GC: That’s all?

[00:11:09.1] MM: Yeah, I know. You’d think it would be more.

[00:11:10.2] GC: Well, see that’s the average.

[00:11:11.8] MM: That’s the average.

[00:11:12.9] GC: It means there’s a lot above it, a lot below it.

[00:11:17.4] MM: And when you stop and think about it, seriously track your time for a week and track everything that you’re doing for a week and see what you’re spending your time on and then when you say, “Oh I don’t have time for a side hustle,” look at what you’ve been doing with that time. Since my divorce, I have notices that there’s a lot of time in the evening when I’m not watching TV anymore. I used to be watching TV with my ex and now I am not watching TV anymore and getting a lot more done. So I think that’s something to think about, TV really sucks it out of you.

[00:11:54.0] DC: Actually, when I work on my side hustle or side hustles, typically I do have the TV on in the back. I know some people can’t do that but it’s a way to be productive with a show on. It depends what’s on the side and some take more thought.

[00:12:09.1] PA: So you’re getting 2.8 hours and a side hustle.

[00:12:13.2] GC: I used to try to do that but then I realized I really didn’t get a whole lot done.

[00:12:18.4] MM: It takes me twice as long to get through my e-mail if I’m watching a movie while I’m trying to answer e-mail.

[00:12:25.0] GC: Yeah but everybody is different. Who was it? Tim Ferriss talks about writing books where he’s got one movie just always on, on loop while he’s writing. So it depends on what you can do and what you need to tune things out or what your attention span is. I’m like, shiny object, anything that could distract me I’m out.

So it was really tough when the Mets won the World Series and trying to get anything else done and have it on the background at the same time. It was a whole lot and nothing going on but you got to know your own abilities.

[00:13:04.9] PA: Yeah, one thing — another thing I found interesting in your book is when you’re talking about all the different kinds of side hustles that you can get involved in whether it’s quick money side hustles, things that you can do for quick cash, delivering pizzas or whatever and then there’s the long tail side hustles. The things that you may take a bit longer to develop and you have to build something first and watch it grow overtime. I wonder if you can maybe talk a little bit about that.

[00:13:32.8] DC: Yeah, I think some people find themselves in the position where they really are having trouble staying afloat and they need to make money ASAP. I think we’ve all maybe given advice to people like that or dealt with people in that situation and again, sometimes it’s important to think of this stuff before you do the side hustle.

We already went over a few of them but with student loans, you can get income based repayments, just some of the little things you can do before you side hustle. But if you need money right away, you’re probably not going to be doing the most glamorous side hustle. You’re probably not going to be starting a blog because you’re not going to be making money for nine months or a year.

So sometimes you do have to do those things like deliver pizzas or maybe work a retail job, something where you can get in, start making cash right away. It’s not glamorous but it is a way to make money quick and then some of those long tail side hustles are things that are usually a bit more fun to pursue because it has so much offset at the end.

Maybe starting a freelance business where you’re maybe a freelance writing or you’re doing graphics for someone and it’s something that might take some time to build up clients, to get referrals and you might not have a whole lot of clients right away but long term, you could end up doing it as a full time job.

[00:15:02.0] GC: That’s I think the sort of great thing, you can just scale it up and you built up your expertise and you hear these stories all the time where all of a sudden that becomes your new career. Now all of a sudden for something that you’ve been doing for a couple of hours a week, now you’re the expert at it and you have something else that fulfills you so much more than what you were doing prior. So I think that’s a really great way to get your toes wet and just feel maybe what your passions are.

[00:15:28.3] DC: I think we all know quite a few freelance writers who started out not doing any freelance writing but overtime, they have added a few clients then some of them had made the switch to doing freelance writing full time, maybe do a few other things on the side. But it’s an example where people were stuck in jobs that they might not have that much and then now, they’re at home. They control their schedule and I think that happens a lot more often than we give credit to.

[00:16:01.5] GC: I think it’s also an important consideration though to say you’re not just going to go out and be a writer. You’re not just going to go out and be a social media manager or something along those lines. You really do have to kind of build up your base, build up your expertise and get to the point where you’re in demand because you have a talent that people actually want to have.

[00:16:23.4] DC: Yeah, I definitely agree and I think with writers, I have a few different writers on my site and I’ve had various other writers over the past couple of years and I think a lot of people don’t want to get into freelance writing because they think, “Anybody can write. I don’t have any leverage.” But like you said, it really is a skill and a talent.

When you get a good writer, you can tell that they stand out from everyone else and I think it’s similar in other spaces. I outsource the Pinterest management on my site and the person who does it is basically an expert at Pinterest. She knows what she’s doing and she gets results and I think a lot of people probably think that they can do Pinterest management but they might not even have some of that skill and expertise built up yet.

[00:17:17.1] GC: That’s interesting too, like you don’t have to be the top expert. You don’t have to be necessarily the best writer because Hemingway is not coming back from the dead but he’s not writing for everybody’s blog either or magazine or whatever. But somebody who has better Pinterest management than you do, they’ve got a place for you and they’ll just get better and better at that.

So sometimes, it’s not even conference wise, you don’t necessarily have to be as big as the big media company. You just have to be better than what the average person can do to be able to find your niche if that’s what you’re going to do. I mean there’s all sorts of other different types of side hustles that are out there.

[00:17:56.4] PA: I think that’s part of what’s great about being on the internet and being able to build the business online, is that you don’t necessarily have to be the biggest expert in the world right from the start. You just have to know a little bit more than somebody else online and there’s millions of people out there online. You’re bound to know more than quite a few people out there.

When I first started blogging, I’d been doing it for a year or two and I didn’t feel like I was the biggest expert in the world but I knew a lot more than other people. I was able to turn that into an ebook and sell that ebook for $20 a pop online and at this point, I’ve made thousands of dollars from that just because I knew a little bit more than the rest of the people online. So you don’t have to be an expert in something to learn something and then become an expert.

[00:18:41.0] MM: Yeah, I can really speak to that. When I started writing about money 10 years ago, I didn’t know anything about money. I was writing science things. I was writing for Discover Magazine at a physics website. I was a science writer and one day somebody was like, “Hey can you write about retirement?” And I’m like, “Sure?” And ten years later, here I am.

So I think that that is something, but like David pointed out, you do have to see that as a skill and you do have to kind of have something to build on there and as a writer, I take offence at the idea that anybody can just write.

[00:19:23.4] PA: They didn’t say “well”, like anybody can write.

[00:19:27.4] MM: No but it’s a very good point though. The thing that I love about where we’re at now is technology has made it so possible for so many people to do things and heaven knows, I’m not the best writer out there but I make a living and it’s great and not a lot of people can say that. There’s a lot of other things that you can do online. There’s web development. I have a friend who I went to school with and he does web development from his home in Montana.

And there’s a lot of stuff that you can do online. Graphic design, public relations, consulting and the beauty of this is we have video, we have Skype. I did my first ever financial coaching session, whatever they call it these days over Skype with a guy in Germany. So you can even do consulting without having to fly halfway around the world, you can just do it by video. So technology has really helped us make our own work lives.

[00:20:38.1] PA: We’re talking about — I’m sorry go ahead.

[00:20:41.0] GC: No, go ahead. Yours was probably more important than mine.

[00:20:44.2] PA: Well, I was going to say we’re talking a lot about online side hustles and stuff like that but there are a lot of other types of side hustles you can engage in, right David? I mean there’s engage in local business, build your own brick and mortar store. Can you talk to some of those types of things?

[00:21:01.8] DC: Well I think one thing that I found really striking was just how many people walk dogs and run dog day cares out of their homes. My wife says that’s her dream. She’s got her masters in psychology.

[00:21:19.2] GC: I just imagine Daddy Daycare, but with dogs.

[00:21:21.9] DC: So I’m going to keep her on the counselling course for now. But I mean if you work from home or if you have a more flexible schedule and you could watch eight dogs a day, you can make more than probably some people who commute to corporate office and sit there for 10 hours a day and not necessarily enjoying their jobs. So I think there’s a lot of opportunities with stuff locally that you can do that doesn’t necessarily involve the Internet.

[00:22:00.5] GC: Yeah, I mean you go into landscaping, you go into like you said, dog walking. If you’re a physical and athletic person, you could be a trainer of some sort maybe. The options are seemingly endless it seems. It’s just finding what your own passions and expertise are but what does a person really need to know before they get started on doing something? Before they head down that road, whatever it is, what kind of ducks do they have to have in a row?

[00:22:30.9] DC: Well I think, to what you mentioned earlier, you need to get your family on board. If you want to have the support of your significant other and you haven’t figured out how you’re going to balance the whole family life, it probably isn’t going to end very well because in the best scenario, your side hustle is going to go really well and you’re going to have a ton of demand for whatever you’re doing and then you’re going to be stuck not knowing whether you should pursue more or whether to come back.

Or even maybe a minimal side hustle that takes three to five hours a week, that still might impact your family quite a bit. I think getting them on board and there’s a lot of people who don’t have the personality to keep a calendar. But I keep going to the point of plan your day, plan your schedule and plan exactly when you plan on doing those side hustle activities because you have to make it fit into your calendar and if you can’t even do it sitting down and looking at a calendar, how are you going to do it on the fly?

[00:23:37.4] GC: That’s a really good point, I mean especially for those of us with online businesses of sorts. It’s really easy to go down rabbit holes and forget what you’re doing and all of a sudden, you think you’re doing research but really, you’re not. You are looking at 20 other different things and you realized that you haven’t gotten anything done.

[00:23:53.7] MM: That is the story of my life.

[00:23:57.6] GC: SoI mean having set times and exact schedules, that’s a great piece of advice for a lot of people. What else do you think you need to know? What are the dark realities of actually having a side hustle? What are the negatives that people need to know about?

[00:24:15.5] DC: Well, it’s actually a funny story. So at work today somebody found out about my blog and they told a few other people and we were all talking about the book and the blog and people just don’t understand how I found time for it and then one of the ladies that I work with, she’s like, “Well do you even have time for friends? How do you even have friends?”

So I mean she was joking but to her point, your social life is going to suffer if you side hustle because you’re not going to be able to hang out every single night with friends. You’re not going to be able to have this full social calendar and then I think the other thing is money expectations. I think blogging is probably the worst one because a lot of people suggest that people start blogs but you might not be making a dime for nine months, a year, a year and a half. You’re more likely to quit than ever make money doing it so it’s something to consider before starting.

[00:25:23.7] GC: You bring an interesting point in with people at work. What happens when people find out at work that you do this? It depends on what you’re doing but I can imagine there’s probably some cases where it might not be the best that your boss finds out that you’re doing something on the side or that you have other people that are doing it.

Depending on what you’re doing, maybe you’re doing something that could be competing or related or maybe your boss is saying, “Hey, you know what? I want you access via e-mail at 7 o’clock at night. Why are you off doing this when you should be working on the primary thing?” How do you reconcile that?

[00:25:57.7] DC: Yeah, I mean I don’t know what other people have done but I tend to keep a pretty low profile that’s why until today, literally probably only four people that I work with knew that I even had the site or the book or anything. Yeah, I think it really depends on your situation. Obviously avoid doing anything that looks like it might be competing with your day job. Make sure that it’s clear that you’re doing it outside of your nine to five job and not during it and again, it really depends on who you work for and what their thoughts are.

[00:26:38.0] GC: Yeah, you don’t want to sacrifice your real bread and butter. I mean that’s the whole point of it being a side hustle and not a jumping in feet first because you still need to have that steady job for all sorts of different reasons. What about how do you know when it starts to really take off? How do you know when to start putting in more time into it?

[00:27:01.7] DC: I think it depends on the side hustle. I think, again with some of the freelance writing, some people I know who now do that full time, they knew they want to do that full time. So I think they really put their foot to the metal and they took on as many clients as they could and I’m sure for about six months, a year, it was a pretty difficult time in their life because you’re literary almost working two jobs.

I think it just depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to create a new career or to build a business, you might have to put a little more time into it. I think with some of the long tail side hustles, as I call them, there’s a little more opportunity to outsource. Like I said, I have a few writers on my site which was a huge help when I wrote this book because I don’t know if I would have had the time to put the book together and put the time into that if I didn’t have them around to pick up the slack.

Because I’ve avoided writing a blog post for about two to three months while I was doing the book and it worked out really well but with some side hustles like consulting or totally just trading your time for money, you have to both protect your time but also embrace your side hustle when it’s doing well and if you can increase your price and your rate, that obviously is one way to lower the number of hours you commit to it. But I think it really depends on your goals. Some people want to be working 40 hours on a side hustle, others don’t want to work more than 10 so it depends on your situation.

[00:28:47.1] GC: Yeah, I guess if you’re really enthusiastic about it, it’s easier to put more time into it and not feel the burn because you’re loving it. Last big question here, you have a side hustle going, how do you deal with things like taxes?

[00:29:03.9] DC: Yeah, that’s a good question and I think the first year, I had to pay in quite a bit. The second year, I got a lot back. When I do taxes, it always swings in different directions. I don’t even know if I am the right person to talk to about this but if you look at the quarterly taxes at least in the United States, you pay in your estimated tax burden from each quarterly income. So you kind of have to estimate how much you’re going to owe but honestly, it’s really tough to get that right on the mark.

[00:29:46.2] GC: I think you’re allowed like within a certain percentage based on what you had done in the past year.

[00:29:50.2] MM: The nice thing about this is…

[00:29:52.7] DC: Yeah.

[00:29:53.0] GC: And I’m no tax expert.

[00:29:54.3] MM: You need to have paid 90% of what you should owe but if you pay 100% of what you owe the previous year, then you’re off the hook for any penalties that come if you’re off by a large margin. So if you’re off by a large margin, then you do end up having to pay penalty unless you paid 100% of your tax liability.

So like a couple of years ago, my tax liability was $8,000 and so as long as I paid $2,000 each quarter and made that $8,000 even though the fact that the next year my tax liability was much higher, I wasn’t penalized for that because I paid 100% of what my previous year’s tax burden was. That’s the easiest way to do it. Is to just look at your previous year and just say, “Okay as long as I have paid 100% of what I owed then I don’t have to worry about that penalty.”

I do have to make sure that I have money in the bank to make up for the fact that — and that’s the nice thing about the side hustle. You expect to keep owing money because that means you’re making more and that’s how I look at it anyway.

[00:31:00.6] GC: It’s a good problem when you are a little bit more, assuming everything else has stayed the same.

[00:31:03.8] MM: I always owe more money, every year I always owe more money.

[00:31:07.7] DC: Well one strategy you can do is you can increase how much you’re having taking off your 401(k) at work. That’s something that both my wife and I did after the year that there were tears at tax time. So we increased how much is going to bet taken out and then also increased those quarterly payments but I think it’s really tough the first or second year that you make that side income because you don’t even know what your quarterly tax is typically. So Google “quarterly tax”, ask somebody who you know who have experience in side hustles.

[00:31:39.8] MM: Come to Plantingmoneyseeds.com, I talk about taxes all the time.

[00:31:46.9] DC: Refer them to Miranda.

[00:31:50.6] MM: Yeah, well another thing that a lot of people overlook and I overlooked when I first started is state taxes. If you have a state where you owe income tax, a lot of people are like, “Okay, I’ve got my federal tax, I’ve saved some money aside for that, I’m ready to pay my federal taxes,” and then tax time comes and they owe state taxes and they’re like, “What just happened here?” So if you live in a state where you have to pay income tax, don’t forget about that because that can be an Achilles heel for a lot of people.

[00:32:18.3] GC: So it’s worth doing a little bit of research there on what you’re going to need to do for taxes.

[00:32:26.6] PA: I think it’s important…

[00:32:28.0] GC: Go ahead Peter.

[00:32:29.5] PA: I think it’s important for people to remember that they are going to owe taxes on that side hustle money. A lot of people kind of don’t even think about it and then they just think, “Oh this is just extra money that I’m not going to need to pay taxes.” No, you need to pay taxes on your side hustle money because that is income and if you don’t you’re going to be in trouble. Don’t mess with the IRS.

[00:32:48.0] GC: It’s not free money. On the other hand, if you have a legitimate business and you’re legitimately making money, you are going to have expenses as well. So make sure you keep track of that as well to offset your income.

[00:33:02.0] DC: Yeah, I actually have a spreadsheet where I keep track of various expenses. I think it’s super easy especially again, people who are trying to side hustle their first or second year. It’s really easy to just kind of put that in the bottom of the priority list and then you get to tax time and you have no idea how much you’ve spent on expenses. They’re on different credit cards or on different statements. Yeah so you really need to keep track throughout the year.

[00:33:30.0] GC: April 14, you’re looking for receipts and hoping for the best.

[00:33:35.9] MM: So one of the things that I love to do and it’s really important even if you’re not getting an EIN but if you just set up a separate account and say that, “This is my business stuff.” Say, “Here’s my business account, this is my credit card I am using for business,” that makes it a little bit easier to keep track as well.

Then I’ve got to the point where I just keep everything in my e-mail now. I’ve got it set up so that I can get e-mailed receipts for things that I spend and I just keep it in my business thing and it’s really easy but it makes it easier if you organize throughout the year.

[00:34:13.5] GC: I would just throw in the caveat though, if you are just starting out don’t think that you have to go out and get a whole new bank account. Don’t go out and get a brand new credit card and everything else. Build up to that.

[00:34:24.9] MM: Yeah.

[00:34:26.0] GC: Track everything but build up to it.

[00:34:27.4] MM: I’m just saying pick something. You don’t have to get a new credit card but just pick one of your credit cards and say, “This is my business, this is the one that I am using for business expenses.”

[00:34:36.3] GC: So this has been a great discussion and hopefully, we’ve added a lot to people’s knowledge out there. What we like to do here is we like to have a final word where we go around and Peter, if you’d give us your final word on side hustles please.

[00:34:50.1] PA: Sure, my final word is just that if you’re thinking about making some money on the side, just get started. Get a few pans on the fire, find something that you enjoy doing whether it’s maybe something that you’ve learned through your day job that you can take that knowledge and leverage it to make money on the side.

Or if it’s a quick money side hustle like David has talked about, delivering pizzas or a seasonal holiday job or something like that. Or if it’s a long tail side hustle with a blog or starting a business that may take a little time to build up first but get started today and you’ll be glad you did down the road.

[00:35:27.1] GC: And Miranda, what’s your final word?

[00:35:29.9] MM: Just make sure that you go into it realistically. A lot of people that I see are like, “Oh I want to be able to quit my day job in three months. I want to be able to do all this stuff. I want to magically charge people $500 an article when I’m a freelance writer,” and I hear that a lot and I’m just like, “Oh yeah because I just magically started making that money. I was making six figures immediately.”

So be realistic and approach it realistically and take a step back and realize maybe your side hustle only starts out with making $200 or $300 a month and then you can build on it from there but I know I am such a Debbie Downer but try and be realistic.

[00:36:22.1] GC: Yeah, that’s not a downer at all. I think that’s important for people to realize. Kyle what’s your final word?

[00:36:27.3] KP: I just think that a side hustle is a great idea especially coming from a bit of a millennial perspective in the gig economy being such a big part of our generation. It’s great for income diversity. Everyone’s job always seems secure until it’s not and perhaps a side hustle is one of those things where maybe you’re sort of preparing the ground for jumping in with both feet or it can get you in between jobs to the next job, your next day job. It certainly can help lessen than impact, and it can give you a little more long term security.

[00:37:00.4] GC: And David, if you’d close us off with your final word please.

[00:37:02.9] DC: Sure, yeah. With side hustles, I have a passion of telling people about if you are in debt as I mentioned earlier and I think it can be such a lifeline to somebody who feels stuck at their work, they’re working hard but they don’t increase their income there and they’re still having trouble making ends meet or they’re depressed about their student loans because, “Wow, how am I ever going to pay all this money back?”

I would just recommend that those people look into side hustles and see if there’s something that’s going to fit in your schedule and plan ahead and like Peter said, just get started and it can be a life changer.

[00:37:46.4] GC: David, thank you so much for coming and joining us tonight and talking about side hustles and sharing your expertise with everyone. For people out there that may not be familiar with you and your work, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work online and your projects that you have?

[00:38:01.0] DC: Sure. I started — Peter’s got the book held up. I started the personal finance blog, Young Adult Money, about four years ago and my first book is coming out a week from tomorrow. It’s called Hustle Away Debt and it’s about side hustles, how to pick a side hustle, pick the best side hustle, make it work in your life and really succeed in increasing your income.

[00:38:29.9] GC: Thanks again David for joining us and everybody else out there, thank you for listening and watching and until next week, be good with your money.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on the Money Mastermind Show, get more information at Moneymastermindshow.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes and YouTube and follow us on Google Plus.

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