The other day I was talking with some friends of mine and they were feeling pretty miserable. You see, they invested all of their liquid assets into stock and investments run by others. Yep, you guessed it, they lost millions as a result! Now don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE proponent to investing wisely.
In fact, I highly encourage you to invest heavily! But here is the caveat to that. I suggest you invest into yourself.
A side hustle is a way for you to earn more income for you to invest. Let your main hustle supply the bills and needs for your life. If your main source of income is not covering that, you need to change your income source not add another one.
Pros
- You have additional income
- You can offset unexpected expenses
- Gives more options when it comes to how and where you spend your time
- A Chance to grow and hone your skills
- Could position you to leave a bad or unsafe job
- Performance at your primary job could suffer
- You may need to spend money to make money(business expenses)
- Less free time
There are definitely drawbacks and benefits to working a side hustle. If you're undecided, ask yourself what you would use the extra money for. If it's not really needed, then you may decide not take on more work as you are already spending plenty of time at your main job. But if your account balances could use a lift, then that alone is reason enough to consider a side hustle.
Remember, a side hustle can be something you do short-term as well. If you have $5,000 in credit card debt you may decide to hustle until that balance is chopped down to $0.
In closing, if you start a side hustle this year, you can always stop doing it if it just doesn't work into your calendar. You never know if a side hustle is right for you until you try!