Welcome to the first side hustle report of the new decade! In today’s post, we’ll be taking a look at what I earned from side hustling in January 2020.
To give you a bit of context on what these side hustle reports are about, last year I took a big leap and quit my job to pursue this blog full-time. I’ve gone through a bit of a career crisis over the past few years which ended up with me finding myself pretty unhappy professionally (think living for the weekend and dreading Mondays).
After spending 5 years practicing law in three different settings (biglaw, govt, and non-profit), it became clear to me that it was time for me to move on and work on things that I found more fulfilling. The way I see it, work is just too important and takes up too much time to spend most of that time being unhappy and unfulfilled.
So, for the past year, my full-time job has been this blog, where I’m able to make a humble living from the ads and affiliate revenue that I generate. In addition to this blog, I also do my best to bring in extra income through a variety of sharing economy and gig economy apps. These are apps that I’ve been using ever since I was a big shot lawyer and I’ve always done them because I find them interesting and fun to do. It also helps that all of these gig economy side hustles fit in very well with my day-to-day life.
2020 is shaping up to be a very big year, with some major life changes coming on the horizon. What this means is that my side hustle life is going to evolve, but my goal is to keep doing these gigs every month so you can see what sort of income you can generate, even with a busy schedule.
With all that said, below is a breakdown of my earnings for last month:
Side Hustle Income for January 2020
- Airbnb: $0
- Rover: $462.40
- Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex/Grubhub: $413.44
- Wag: $33.40
- Bird/Lime: $13.05
- Shipt/Instacart: $43.14
- Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $136.99
- Job Spotter: $6.79
- Roadie: $30.16
- ProductTube: $20
- Google Opinion Rewards/1Q/Surveys On The Go: $17.43
- User Interviews/L&E Research: $10
- Secret Shopping: $894 of free food
Total Side Hustle Income for January 2020 = $1,186.80
January was a bit of a travel month for me, which allowed me to do a few side hustles that I haven’t been able to do in a while. Most people don’t think about this, but one of the interesting benefits of gig economy apps is that you can use them pretty much anywhere. That means it’s possible to side hustle and make extra income, even while you’re traveling.
In this case, I flew to DC for a few days around the beginning of January to visit my parents. I don’t have a job anymore that requires me to work in one spot, so I was still able to get work done while I was back home – in this case, out of a WeWork since I have access to all WeWorks around the country due to one of the credit cards I have. I also did a little bit of side hustling in DC, including charging up some scooters, walking some dogs, and opening up a local bank account in order to get a $200 signup bonus. I’ll go into more detail about these later in the post.
In the middle of the month, I flew to Austin for my friend Gary’s wedding (he blogs over at Debt Free Climb). That trip worked out really well, as I got to use my Lyft Pink benefits from my Chase Sapphire Reserve in order to get some free scooter rides. I also did a little bit of side hustling there – delivering some food and dropping off some scooters. And I was able to get some blog work done at a WeWork in Austin while I was there.
Naturally, my two trips in January were both essentially free, with the flights and lodging booked entirely with points. I ended up staying at my parent’s house for my DC trip, so that didn’t cost me anything. For my Austin trip, I used my expiring Marriott Free Night Certificates to spend two nights at the Westin in Downtown Austin. It was a solid hotel with a really high cash rate, so I thought it was a good use of the certificates.
I’m going to be grounded for the next few months and likely won’t be traveling anywhere until April – which is a pretty long time for me since it seems like I’m usually flying somewhere most months.
Anyway, that’s some of the more interesting personal highlights of the month. Let’s take a closer look at the side hustle income in January.
Airbnb Income: $0
My wife and I are taking a break from Airbnb for a little bit, which is why our Airbnb income was $0 last month. We’ve been renting out our guest room on Airbnb since 2016 and during that stretch, we’ve only had 1 month where we didn’t do Airbnb at all – back in April 2017 when my wife and I were getting married and couldn’t handle the stress of guests in our house. That’s a long time of continuous Airbnb hosting when I think about it.
2020 is going to be different, as we’re going to be taking a break from renting out the guest room while we’re in the house. There are some reasons that we’re doing this that I’ll touch on in a future post. At the moment, the plan for this year is to either rent out our entire house on Airbnb when we travel or if we can’t get the house booked, rent out the guest room while we travel. I’m fairly confident that, at a minimum, we’ll be able to rent out the guest room pretty much anytime we’re on the road.
What that will mean is that our Airbnb income will take a major dip in 2020. The bright side is that this reduced hosting might mean that I can take advantage of the Master’s Rule this year. It’s a rule that allows you to generate tax-free income if you rent your primary residence out for 14 days or less. I can then take that income and put it into a Roth IRA, making it tax-free forever.
- If you have extra space and want to earn extra income using your home, you can sign up to be an Airbnb host using my referral link.
- Airbnb is also one of the most affordable ways to travel. If you’ve never used Airbnb, sign up for Airbnb with my link in order to get $40 off your first stay.
Rover Income: $462.40
January was a big Rover month, mainly because I had a dog that I watched during Christmas and New Years. I ended up making $308 essentially doing something that I was already doing anyway (I already have to take care of my own dog, so taking care of a second dog isn’t much more work). This dog was pretty funny – a Boston Terrier that was friendly and energetic.
My other dog guest for the month was Cooper, the Toy Poodle that my wife and I have been watching for the past three years. He was 14 years old when we first started watching him and today, he’s 17 now.
The rest of the Rover income for the month came from a few dog walks that I did through Rover. My neighbor found me on Rover back in December and has been requesting the occasional evening walk for her dog. This works out really well because I can also bring my own dog on the walk with me, which basically means I’m getting paid to walk my own dog when I get home from work. It might not be exactly passive income, but it sort of is, in a way.
If you already own a dog, I think it makes sense to sign up for Rover and see if it works for you. You can sign up to be a dog sitter on Rover using my referral link.
Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex/Grubhub Income: $413.44
We’ve had a really mild winter in Minnesota this year, so it has made doing deliveries a lot easier. I ended up making a lot more than I realized when I pulled the delivery numbers of the month. Below is a breakdown of my earnings on each delivery platform in January:
- Postmates: $63.06
- DoorDash: $290.69
- Uber Eats: $53.69
- Amazon Flex: $0
- Grubhub: $6
My strategy this year has been primarily to do a few deliveries during the lunch hour when I’m downtown, then do deliveries on my way home when I leave my coworking space. It doesn’t seem like a big deal when you’re doing it, but that money does add up.
I also did a few deliveries while I was on the road. When I was in Austin, my buddy and I were eating at Torchy’s Tacos and after we finished our meal, I decided to turn on my delivery apps to see if anything interesting popped up. As luck would have it, I ended up getting a delivery from Torchy’s going to an apartment building a few blocks away. I picked up the order as I walked out the door, then did a little exploring while I walked this delivery over a few blocks – not a bad way to explore a city. And I made 7 bucks, which covered at least some of the cost of my meal.
Wag Income: $33.40
Wag was pretty slow in January. I’ve been cutting back on Wag over the past year, mainly because I don’t find it as profitable compared to some of my other gigs. I mainly now do it when I’m bored or if I have a dog that I particularly want to walk.
The main advantage that I do think Wag has over other gig apps is that it’s probably the best one to use when you’re traveling. Walking dogs in a new city is a very easy way to get paid to explore. And since you’re walking, it doesn’t require any special equipment (when I’m doing deliveries, for example, I need a bike and a delivery bag). When I was back in DC, that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t feel like doing deliveries, but I was able to get a few Wag walks in.
If you want more information about Wag and how you can make it work for you, check out my Wag post.
Bird/Lime Scooter Income: $13.05
There are no Bird or Lime scooters in Minneapolis since they’re gone into hibernation for the winter, but I was able to charge up a few Lime scooters while I was in DC and Austin. I’ve been feeling kind of scooter deprived lately, so it was nice to be able to get back in the scooter game, even if just on a small basis.
In DC, I used the scooters to go from my parent’s house to the WeWork. There was a drop-off spot right outside of the WeWork, so I was able to ride the scooter for free, then drop it off when I reached the office. I dropped them off late, so I only received half-pay, but that’s still better than nothing – I literally got paid to ride the scooters.
In Austin, I didn’t charge any scooters since I was staying in a luxury hotel and couldn’t figure out how I would get the scooter through the lobby without getting yelled at by the staff. However, another task you can do with the scooters is to drop off broken scooters at a broken scooter drop-off spot. Austin happened to have a bunch of drop-off spots close to downtown, so my buddy and I rode a few scooters there and dropped them off for some extra cash.
One little known trick is that most of the time, these broken scooters aren’t actually broken. They also almost always seem to have a full battery. What this means is that, if you’re a scooter charger, you can basically ride these scooters around for free. That’s exactly what my buddy and I did during one of the days we were in Austin. We took these scooters, rode them around the city for free, then dropped them off at the drop-off spot when we didn’t need them anymore.
Shipt/Instacart Income: $43.14
I didn’t do as much Shipt as I thought I would. Like with the other gig economy apps, Shipt has some interesting use cases since you can do Shipt deliveries even while you’re traveling.
In this case, my interesting delivery for the month was a prescription delivery order from a CVS while I was back home in DC visiting my parents. This order only had to go a few blocks, and for whatever reason, it was offering a huge promo to get this order completed. It only took me a short time to complete this delivery and I ended up making $23 for the delivery. That worked out very well.
If you’re interested in learning more about Shipt, check out my Shipt Review to learn about my experience with Shipt.
Trash/Flipping Income: $136.99
In January, I sold two trash finds that I’ve actually been using as furniture for the past two years or so. We’re converting one of our extra rooms into an office – the room used to have a twin bed in it, but we gave the bed to my sister-in-law since one of her kids switched over to a regular bed. This meant that we needed to clear out some of the other bedroom furniture in there, which included a nightstand and a dresser.
The dresser ended up selling for $30 and the nightstand sold for $10. The nice thing about this is that we used this furniture for years, so the fact that we were able to sell them after using them for over two years was icing on the cake.
The other sales this month were on eBay, where I sold about $72 worth of stuff. These were all things I bought at the Goodwill Outlet, which is where I usually go when I’m looking for cheap things to flip. It’s really not hard to find $50 or $100 worth of stuff if you’re willing to spend a little bit of time there.
Finally, I sold about $24 worth of old clothes that I’m getting rid of. Clearing out my closet is a long-term project, but it’s slowly getting done. My next step is to get rid of a ton of dress shirts – I have probably close to 50 dress shirts that I never wear now since I don’t have a normal job anymore.
Job Spotter Income: $6.79
Job Spotter has taken a big dive due to recent changes with the app. I used to regularly make $10 to $30 per month just taking pictures of hiring signs, but Job Spotter changed their algorithm a little while ago to dramatically reduce what it pays for signs that have already been photographed.
What this means is that, if you take a picture of a hiring sign for a chain restaurant or you’re not the first to take a picture of the sign, you basically only get paid 5 cents or so. I suspect that for most people, somewhere around $3 to $5 per month is going to be more realistic now.
Roadie Income: $30.16
Roadie was very interesting for me this past month. I don’t do Roadie very often, so it’s worth explaining how this app works. Basically, you can deliver anything to anyone using the Roadie app, but the vast majority of the deliveries are lost luggage deliveries from the airport. If American Airlines, Delta, or Southwest lose your luggage, they contract with Roadie to get the luggage back to you.
In this case, my mom came to Minnesota to visit me over a weekend. On the day that she was leaving, I went with her to the airport, then picked up this Roadie gig while I was there. The drop-off location was a house just a block away from a light rail station, so I was able to hop off the train, walk the luggage over to the house, then hop back on the train. The delivery paid $10.16, but for some reason, I also received a $20 bonus when I did the delivery. I have no clue why, but that meant this one delivery paid $30, which made it very worth my time.
ProductTube Income: $20
I made $20 via ProductTube in January. This is an app that I think is well worth doing for most people. It takes almost no time to do each of these gigs, so the hourly rate is really high – I’d estimate it at $60 per hour or more given the time it takes. The only thing that stops me from doing these gigs more is that there aren’t that many of them each month.
Google Opinion Rewards/1Q/Surveys On The Go Income: $17.43
The short survey apps that I keep on my phone continue to be worth my time. Below a breakdown of my earnings with each one in January:
- Google Opinion Rewards: $2.26
- Surveys On The Go: $11.17
- 1Q: $4
1Q was a little more lucrative than usual because I received a whole bunch of questions during one stretch in the month. You get 25 cents per question you answer and each question takes literally 2 seconds to answer.
I also continued to make a good amount from Surveys On The Go. In 2019, I made over $100 from that app and this year I’m on pace to do that again. I find it pretty amazing how much that app pays given how little time and effort the surveys take.
User Interviews/L&E Research Income: $10
In January, I grabbed one market research gig via User Interviews. This one required me to answer a few survey questions and then I received $10 in an Amazon gift card. The survey only took a few minutes, so it was worth my time.
Secret Shopping Income: $894 In Free Food
This isn’t a side hustle per se, but a lot of people have asked me to include this information to get an understanding of what’s possible with secret shopping.
In January, I went out to eat 28 times and had all of those meals reimbursed via these secret shopping websites. It’s getting to the point where my wife is starting to say we need to cut back on secret shopping because we’ve been going out to eat way too much. It has led to a large decrease in our grocery bill, but admittedly, going out to eat this many times probably isn’t sustainable long-term.
The funny thing about secret shopping is that, just like the other apps I use, secret shopping can also be done while you’re on the road. In this case, I ate three meals for free while I was back home visiting my parents. When I was in Austin, I couldn’t find any food secret shops, but I did snag two drink secret shops that reimbursed me over $100 to buy drinks for me and my buddy. This worked out really well because we were already going out anyway – so the fact that we got our drinks for free was just an unexpected bonus.
The specifics of how secret shopping works is beyond this post, but be sure to read my post on Restaurant Secret Shopper jobs. That post goes into much more detail about how you can use secret shopping to reduce your food budget and still live it up.
And that concludes the January 2020 Side Hustle Report!
January was a solid month, although down compared to months I’ve had in the past since I didn’t do any Airbnb. Cutting down on Airbnb is going to dramatically reduce my side hustle earnings. I suspect that in the future, getting around $1,000 per month of side hustle income is going to be my more realistic target (in the past, I was regularly hitting $3,000 to $4,000 per month of side hustle income thanks to Airbnb).
There are some big changes in store for 2020, so the nature of my side hustling is going to change a bit. I think you’ll still find it interesting, even if the numbers aren’t going to be as big as they used to be.
Be sure to check out my other side hustle reports if you’re curious about how my side hustles work. And feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Thanks for reading.
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- SoFi Money ($325) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $300 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Upgrade ($300) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $300 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $300 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Nice! I love this and have started to include them in my financial hustle. The great thing about your report is seeing how they stack up. Personally I’ve been having luck with Bestmark. I haven’t been able to find restaurant shops there (which is where I read you used them for) but it seems like there’s a bunch of other easy gigs.
Really curious about where you are finding all these restaurant shops. I tried Bestmark and Marketforce, these almost never have anything (anything they have is 50+ miles away). Presto is 95% banking. I’ve only seen a restaurant gig there once. I did sign up for some of their member lists and they have had a few museum restaurant “gigs” but I haven’t been able to get to those. I looked when I was out of town and that city had a few, so I’m thinking the secret shopping for food isn’t as big in my city for whatever reason (Philly)
Still waiting for those scooters to arrive here! lol
How much time did you spend last month on these side hustles?
In other words, have you run the numbers to determine the dollar-per-hour value of these gigs?
So, the key with a lot of these side hustles is that I don’t so much carve out time for them, as I fit them into my day. For example, I sometimes walk my neighbor’s dog for 30 minutes on Rover and I get paid $12.75 for that time. But during that walk, I also walk my own dog. So am I making $25 per hour or is it something else since that 30 minutes would normally be spent walking my own dog anyway?
Same thing with doing deliveries on my way home from work. I bike and try to snag deliveries heading back towards my house. That’s 15-20 minutes that I’d have to spend biking home – but if I’m delivering food along the way, do you discount the time I’m spending biking?
The only gig that I feel like I actively work to do is Shipt, and so far in my experience, it seems like it’s a $20 per hour type gig. I never make less than $20 per hour if I had to actively do the math on it, especially since I’m doing all of this stuff during high demand hours.
For whatever reason, I’ve had no issues finding restaurant secret shop gigs in my area. I keep going to the same places every month – I must just be quick at getting them or there’s less competition here.
Weirdly, I’ve been able to grab secret shops in almost every city I’ve visited since I started doing this, so not sure why I’m having so much luck. I always check Bestmark, all the Presto ones, Marketforce, and A Closer Look.
Just keep an eye out for them is all I can say.
Wow! Very impressive list. I will take some time to study these. Thanks.
Thanks!