8 (Real Life) Reasons to Start a Side Hustle

Today we’ll look at 8 (Real Life) Reasons to Start a Side Hustle in 2022.  Side hustles give you the flexibility to work when and where YOU want to.  When you start a side hustle you have the ability to grow your income even when you have a day job.

They also allow you to grow your skillsets and challenge yourself. There are literally so many different types of side hustles out there and several different reasons why people start them.

I spoke to 8 different side hustlers to get a behind-the-scenes look at why they started their side hustles.  Here are their stories:

1. Generate Passive Income

Side hustles that generate passive income are my favorite types of side hustles. Passive income streams don’t demand as much of your time or manual involvement in the long term (but may require some of it in the beginning).

Sara loved the idea of generating enough passive income to one day leave her day job.

“I started my side hustles with the idea of generating enough passive income to be able to leave my job. I wanted to finally be able to do what I loved without being stuck in an office for 14 hours a day.”

2. Retire Early

Julianna is an ambitious woman who is working to retire by 40! I don’t blame her!  Kim and I are also working towards financial freedom and the hopes of retiring early. 

What is one thing that is sort of necessary to retire early? More money! 

3. Earn Extra Income to Build your Savings

Jarek wanted to earn extra income and improve the size of his savings account to retire early. He is more interested in the laid-back side hustles that don’t require much commitment.

Jarek said, “I want to start a side hustle to earn some extra income and improve my savings rate. My long-term goal is to retire early and while I’m saving quite a bit already, it’d be nice to bump that up with some extra cash.

What turned me on to side hustles is the idea of making some money easily online. Doing something on the side always appealed to me and it’s certainly a lot easier now to do with a variety of online tasks.”

4. Pay Off Debt

Lance wanted to start a side hustle to help his wife pay off her $80,000 student loan debt.

Lance told me, “I started my side hustle to help my wife pay off her $80,000 of student loan debt. I was introduced to the idea of side hustling after reading other personal finance blogs at the time. My side hustle helped us pay off the debt in less than three years. To make things even sweeter, my side hustles of blogging and freelance writing turned into my full-time gig. It’s a pretty amazing deal.” 

5. Expedite Debt Payoff

It is hard to pay off debt with a single income from a full-time job.  Period.  Jerry realized this and needed to figure out something to help expedite his debt payoff. So, he turned to side hustles.

Jerry states, “I first started side hustling to expedite my debt payoff.  A couple of years ago, I realized that relying solely on my main income was not going to help me reach my financial goal of escaping the mountain of debt I was in.

“So, I decided to turn to side hustles.  My first side hustle was Swagbucks, and my second was driving for Uber.  Both were fun but weren’t going to get me to my goal of paying off debt.  I eventually had to pivot away from these low-paying side hustles. 

I have now pivoted to well-paying side hustles including freelance writing and social media marketing.  I’ve found that those side hustles pay well, and I can do them from the comfort of my home or local coffee shop!”

6. Build Up Emergency and Vacation Funds

Tana started a side hustle to help pay off her debt. But now she focuses on building up her emergency and vacation funds with the extra money. 

Tana started picking up side hustles after graduating from college. “My parents have always had multiple income streams, so I just figured it was normal to have a second source of income. Plus, I had credit card debt, a car loan, and student loans I wanted to pay off. Now, I do side hustles to build our emergency fund and vacation fund.

My main side hustle is web design and development since that’s what I started doing once out of college. It was the easiest to jump into since I already knew how to do it.”

7. Less Dependency on a Paycheck/Employer

Jeff wanted more control of his income and be able to depend less on his paycheck and his employer. His company went through some downsizing making Jeff realize how fragile that paycheck security is. 

“I initially started a side hustle after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.  I recognized if I wanted to get on the right side of the Cashflow Quadrant I needed another source of income that I was in control of and not dependent on a paycheck.  That began a journey of side hustle experimentation testing out new ideas until I finally found some that made good money.  

8. Pay For Children’s College Tuition

I think we can all agree when I say college tuition is absolutely insane. the majority of American’s fall into student loan debt that even some end up still trying to pay off in their elderly years.

Jillian is side hustling to help pay for her kid’s college tuition debt. This is a huge issue in America that seems to only be getting worse as college tuition continues to rise, every year.

Unless you are already uber-rich, parents and students today can’t do it without loans which means graduating with a mountain of debt!

Concluding Thoughts

From wanting to build your own business to paying off debt and just wanting to make ends meet, side hustles are helping people from all walks of life get a leg up in their financial situation.

Jared told me that “side hustles helped my wife Alexandra and I in more ways than one.  Including crushing our debt and now working towards financial freedom and living our ideal life.”

Kim and I have not only have built up our skill sets with our side hustle, but we are working towards building a secure retirement and our number one goal of retiring early and extremely comfortable!

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