One of the reasons I like the gig economy is because it lets me try out weird jobs that I might not otherwise get to do in a normal setting. I’m sure you’ve had times where you thought it’d be fun to do a certain type of job for a day (I know I’ve always […]
Side Hustle
How I Made $14k In One Year With The Sharing Economy
The start of April means it’s tax time here in the Financial Panther household. As I’ve been gathering up all my tax documents, I thought it’d be helpful to share with you exactly what I made in 2016 via the sharing economy.
Without a doubt, 2016 was my biggest side hustle year. Altogether, I pulled in a total of $14,181.43 by taking advantage of sharing economy apps like Airbnb, DogVacay, and Postmates! That’s a pretty surprising number to me, especially considering the fact that I spent essentially no money in startup costs and that I made this money by doing things that I was already doing anyway.
Making Money With Airbnb: Why I Rent Out Our Guest Room
It never really occurred to me how much space in a typical house goes unused until Ms. FP and I moved back into her four bedroom house. As a renter, we never lived in an apartment bigger than 800 square feet or so. Our smallest apartment (where we found all of that sweet, sweet trash) was about 600 square feet. At the beginning of this year the two of us moved back into a 4 bedroom house that was double or triple the size of any apartment we’d ever lived in.
It seemed like a waste to have so much space for just two people. But we didn’t want to get roommates either. That’s when we decided to try out our hand at Airbnb…
Job Spotter App Review: Earn Extra Money By Taking Pictures Of Hiring Signs
In one of my Side Hustle Reports, I wrote about how I made a little over $25 taking pictures of hiring signs using an app called Job Spotter. Since that didn’t seem like all that much money, I didn’t expect a lot of people to care too much about the app. I was pleasantly surprised […]
The Solo 401k: The Side Hustler’s Bonus Retirement Account
One of the great benefits with starting up a side hustle is the ability to get paid as an independent contractor. When you consider all of the sweet benefits you get from side hustling, you have to assume that the government must want us to side hustle.
Take tax deductions, for example. The government lets you deduct expenses related to your side hustle for things you might already be doing anyway. With a little planning, someone driving for Uber in their spare time could easily offset the costs of driving that they’re already doing anyway.
Perhaps the most amazing thing that the government lets you do as a side hustler is to save money into extra retirement accounts that other people don’t have access to. Start up a side hustle and you can save some- or in some cases, almost all of your side income – into a Solo 401(k), a SEP-IRA, or a Simple IRA. Depending on how much you make and what type of retirement accounts you already have, you could potentially save thousands more per year in tax-advantaged savings.
Making Over $1000 Selling Trash Finds Found In One Dumpster
This is a story about our unorthodox adventures in side hustling by selling trash finds. It all started when Ms. Panther and I moved into a luxury apartment building in early 2015. We’d received a deal from a guy who wanted us to take over his lease, and as a result, we were able to move into a luxury building paying less rent compared to what we had previously been paying in our “normal” apartment. It was a deal too good for us to pass up.
After getting our keys from the leasing office, we walked out of the building through the garage. And there I saw it – a perfectly good coffee table sitting right by the dumpster. On a whim, I grabbed it and listed it up for sale on Craigslist. It sold just a day later to young couple for $25. In my mind, it felt as if I had just found $25 in the trash.