Earning Alternative Income Without a "Side Hustle"
Hi all! It's been quite a while since I've posted outside of my normal financial updates, but with the Holiday and some personal errands behind me, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to write on something that's been on my mind for quite a while.
It seems that "side hustle" is somewhat of a buzz word as of late in the personal finance community. Everyone knows that co-worker who slings sneakers, does taxes on the side, or refinishes furniture after work and on the weekends.
Side hustles can be great! I know people who get a real bump to their income outside of their normal 9-5 jobs, and often it's doing something they love, something they'd be doing regardless of whether they made money.
But side hustles aren't great for everyone. If you work long or unusual hours, it can be extremely difficult to try and find the time to work on the side. For example, if you're trying to start a person-to-person sales-type side hustle, but you work nights and weekends, you're likely unable to meet up with someone during the most opportune time while people are off work and free. Or maybe you work normal hours, but you own a home and have a lawn and landscaping to take care of. Time constraints can quickly put a damper on a great side business idea.
Others may just not want to put in extra hours after working their day job. There's nothing wrong with this. Often when I come home from work, the last thing I want to do is put forth any more mental effort than having to remember where I put the remote.
For someone who fits in the above categories, does that mean you can't make any extra income outside your normal job? Definitely not! While I've often mulled over the idea of doing some freelance work on the side, I've never had anything consistent enough to call a true side hustle. However, over the last year, not counting investment returns, I've made upwards of $1,000 outside of my day job, all while putting forth little to no effort at all. Below, I'll outline what I've done, my experiences, and how much I've made from each source over the last year.
Bank Around
How often do you get mailers offering a few hundred bucks to open a new bank account? So often, I used to just throw these straight in the trash. There has to be a catch, right? High fees? High opening balances? Well actually, the answer very often is no, and this is one of my favorite ways to earn money with almost no effort.
Over the past year, I've opened new checking or savings accounts with three separate large, nationwide banks as a way to make some easy money. One thing that I do want to stress, though, is that you need to do your research before opening accounts. Before you jump into opening an account, you want to make sure you know the answers to the following questions:
Once you've found the answers to these questions, decide whether you're comfortable opening the account. If so, you're on your way to earning some EASY money. Through opening just three accounts over the past year, all with no associated fees or ridiculous hoops to jump through, I have made $700. The biggest drawback of this strategy is often these are 'one and done' type deals. Typically, have to be a new customer to get to bonuses. However, I almost always close these accounts right after my bonus hits, and after 6 months to a year after account closing, you're often considered a new customer again.
Another way to use banking to your advantage in this new age world of high tech banking is to use online banks to shop around for the best interest rates. I've been a big fan of online banks for years. They have low overhead costs, and they often pass these savings onto customers in the form of higher interest rates than traditional brick and mortar banks. There are plenty of online banks out there with great rates (CIT, Ally, Discover, and Capital One, to name a few).
I've always been a fan of CIT bank, as they've consistently offered great, liquid savings products that offered yields that were often higher than CDs at other banks. However, recently I noticed that I was earning 2.10% on my Discover Savings account, as opposed to 1.85% on my CIT money market account. One quick transfer later, and my block of savings was now earning an extra 0.25% in interest. For me, this only equates to an extra couple bucks a month, but if you're heavy on cash, you could definitely turn this into a nice way to earn some money with virtually no risk.
Get Rewarded!
Wouldn't it be great if you could get paid to go shopping? Well, in a way you can! Below are a few simple methods to I use maximize savings and rewards on virtually ALL of my purchases.
Ebates
Ebates is one of my favorite reward programs. I was turned onto Ebates by some coworkers when I started working full time who used it to earn rewards on work expenses. The premise sounded simple. You go to Ebates.com first, find the online retailer you want, and click through to the retailer's site. Just one extra stop, and you could be earning up to 15% cash back on your purchase! I thought it had to be too good to be true. What was the catch?
Well, I've been using Ebates for a few years now, and still have not found a catch. Even more, I've found ebates to be even easier to use once I had some time to fool around with it. I've got the extension added to my Chrome browser, and don't even need to stop at Ebates.com before I do my shopping anymore. I just head straight to the retailer site, and the add-on alerts me to activate Ebates with the click of a button. Further, with in-store cash back deals, and the easy to use Ebates app, what's there not to love? Lifetime (or the last three years or so), I've earned over $220, and over the past year, I've earned $175. I'd like to also mention that I only use Ebates on items I would have already otherwise been buying, often travel that is reimbursed by my employer.
If you don't already have an Ebates account, you can use my referral link here. If you sign up using the link and spend at least $25, you will earn a free $10!
Bumped
Bumped is a fairly new company that you may or may not have heard of yet. However, I think this will begin spreading like mad the way Acorns and Robinhood did, because the idea is genius in my opinion. Bumped is a rewards program similar to Ebates. You link a credit or debit card, and when you make a purchase with certain partner brands, Bumped will add a reward to your account. The reward is based on a percent of your purchase, set by each partner brand. There is currently a small, but growing, list of brands, but there are some big names on the list. McDonald's, Verizon, AT&T, Chipotle, Dunkin, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Papa Johns are just a few.
Sounds like Ebates, right? What's the big deal about Bumped? The difference is, instead of earning rewards in the form of cash, you earn rewards in the form of each company's stock. I think this is absolutely game-changing! Why wouldn't you want to start accumulating stock in the brands you buy the most? And for free, at that! Not only that, but by earning fractional shares based on your purchase price, this allows someone who would otherwise not be able to afford a share of say, Chipotle, which has a current price tag upwards of $700, to start working their way into the stock market.
I've heard people compare Bumped to Acorns, but there is one major difference that puts Bumped ahead in my book. With Acorns, the app automatically rounds your purchase up to the nearest whole dollar, and uses that portion to buy into an investment. That means that you are still using your own money to make the investment. With Bumped, you don't spend any more money than you normally would have buying your product or service. You buy that coffee at Starbucks at normal price, and you get 2% of your purchase amount back in Starbucks stock.
That's the part that really sets Bumped apart from other rewards programs in my opinion. All the companies partnering with Bumped at the moment are great companies, and as their stock prices rise over time (hopefully), so does your reward. I am new to Bumped, so I have only just over a dollar using the app so far. But if you are interested in checking out Bumped for yourself, then you can download the app, or check it out online here.
Credit Card Rewards
So you may shop at quite a few places that are not partnered with an online rewards service like Ebates or Bumped. In this case, a standard cash back credit card could be your best bet on earning a little extra money.
Before I go any further, I think credit cards are best used by individuals who are not tempted to spend out of their means - otherwise, a credit card can get you into some real debt and trouble. With the high interest rates credit cards tend to carry, it's best to stick to paying off your full balance each and every month.
Assuming you feel a credit card is for you, you should definitely do some shopping around for the best reward that fits your spending habit. One site that I have used in the past to compare different credit cards is nerdwallet. The site allows you to filter for cards based on your credit score, and the reward type you are looking for (cash back/travel/etc.).
My personal strategy is to maximize my rewards using multiple cards. I use a Bank of America Cash Rewards Platinum Plus card to shop for gas and groceries, as it earns me 3% cash back on each, a Capital One Quicksilver for my other personal purchase, as it has a 1.5% cash back reward on all purchases, and an American Express Hilton Honors Ascend card for my reimbursable work expenses, as I typically stay at Hilton branded hotels when travelling on business.
The amount in rewards I've earned using each card over the past year is laid out below:
If, after your own research, you decide one of the cards I've listed above is right for you, please use one of the referral links below to sign up! Unfortunately, Bank of America does not currently offer any reward for sign up.
Turn Trash into Cash
Do you eat canned food, drink soda or beer from a can, or even ever drive past a neighbor throwing away an old mower, washer, or patio furniture? Sounds like trash, right? Wrong! That sounds like easy money! Just a little time spend separating your trash, the occasional browse of the neighborhood curb, and a regular trip to your local scrap yard can earn you a good chunk of change.
Out of all the income sources I've listed in this post, this is definitely the closest to a true side hustle. Scrapping is something that I've personally done since my high school days just as something to do, and even now I continue to do during the nicer months of the year.
At my house, I have trash cans in my garage for each type of metal I would otherwise throw away. Aluminum cans go into one trash can, tin cans in another, and copper (the scrapper's holy grail) into a much smaller bucket. The extra space in my garage gets filled with other metal I find when I'm out and about. Old grills, broken lawnmowers - you name it, I've scrapped it! Then, when my garage starts getting a little tight, I haul it all down to my local scrap yard and cash in on my hard work. Luckily, my roommate has a pickup truck, so this makes the trip a lot less of a hassle.
I average about $20 per run, and typically go around 4-5 times per year, all during the late spring, summer, and early fall. Last year alone, I made $115 by turning in scrap metal. Taking into account all the time I've spent scouting out and sorting the metal, and the gas for my roommate's truck, is it really worth my time? Probably not. But to me, it's honestly pretty fun, and that should be worth something itself.
Conclusion: There's Easy Money Out There!
None of the income sources I've listed above, except maybe the last, require much effort at all to earn a few bucks on the side. Through the methods I've outlined, I was able to add an easy $1,275 plus to my income over the past year. And again, this was with minimal effort or extra time!
As a quick recap, my income sources in order of highest to lowest income earned are summarized below.
It seems that "side hustle" is somewhat of a buzz word as of late in the personal finance community. Everyone knows that co-worker who slings sneakers, does taxes on the side, or refinishes furniture after work and on the weekends.
Side hustles can be great! I know people who get a real bump to their income outside of their normal 9-5 jobs, and often it's doing something they love, something they'd be doing regardless of whether they made money.
But side hustles aren't great for everyone. If you work long or unusual hours, it can be extremely difficult to try and find the time to work on the side. For example, if you're trying to start a person-to-person sales-type side hustle, but you work nights and weekends, you're likely unable to meet up with someone during the most opportune time while people are off work and free. Or maybe you work normal hours, but you own a home and have a lawn and landscaping to take care of. Time constraints can quickly put a damper on a great side business idea.
Others may just not want to put in extra hours after working their day job. There's nothing wrong with this. Often when I come home from work, the last thing I want to do is put forth any more mental effort than having to remember where I put the remote.
For someone who fits in the above categories, does that mean you can't make any extra income outside your normal job? Definitely not! While I've often mulled over the idea of doing some freelance work on the side, I've never had anything consistent enough to call a true side hustle. However, over the last year, not counting investment returns, I've made upwards of $1,000 outside of my day job, all while putting forth little to no effort at all. Below, I'll outline what I've done, my experiences, and how much I've made from each source over the last year.
Bank Around
How often do you get mailers offering a few hundred bucks to open a new bank account? So often, I used to just throw these straight in the trash. There has to be a catch, right? High fees? High opening balances? Well actually, the answer very often is no, and this is one of my favorite ways to earn money with almost no effort.
Over the past year, I've opened new checking or savings accounts with three separate large, nationwide banks as a way to make some easy money. One thing that I do want to stress, though, is that you need to do your research before opening accounts. Before you jump into opening an account, you want to make sure you know the answers to the following questions:
- Do the accounts have any associated fees?
- What is the minimum opening deposit?
- What do I have to do to get my bonus?
Another way to use banking to your advantage in this new age world of high tech banking is to use online banks to shop around for the best interest rates. I've been a big fan of online banks for years. They have low overhead costs, and they often pass these savings onto customers in the form of higher interest rates than traditional brick and mortar banks. There are plenty of online banks out there with great rates (CIT, Ally, Discover, and Capital One, to name a few).
I've always been a fan of CIT bank, as they've consistently offered great, liquid savings products that offered yields that were often higher than CDs at other banks. However, recently I noticed that I was earning 2.10% on my Discover Savings account, as opposed to 1.85% on my CIT money market account. One quick transfer later, and my block of savings was now earning an extra 0.25% in interest. For me, this only equates to an extra couple bucks a month, but if you're heavy on cash, you could definitely turn this into a nice way to earn some money with virtually no risk.
Get Rewarded!
Wouldn't it be great if you could get paid to go shopping? Well, in a way you can! Below are a few simple methods to I use maximize savings and rewards on virtually ALL of my purchases.
Ebates
Ebates is one of my favorite reward programs. I was turned onto Ebates by some coworkers when I started working full time who used it to earn rewards on work expenses. The premise sounded simple. You go to Ebates.com first, find the online retailer you want, and click through to the retailer's site. Just one extra stop, and you could be earning up to 15% cash back on your purchase! I thought it had to be too good to be true. What was the catch?
Well, I've been using Ebates for a few years now, and still have not found a catch. Even more, I've found ebates to be even easier to use once I had some time to fool around with it. I've got the extension added to my Chrome browser, and don't even need to stop at Ebates.com before I do my shopping anymore. I just head straight to the retailer site, and the add-on alerts me to activate Ebates with the click of a button. Further, with in-store cash back deals, and the easy to use Ebates app, what's there not to love? Lifetime (or the last three years or so), I've earned over $220, and over the past year, I've earned $175. I'd like to also mention that I only use Ebates on items I would have already otherwise been buying, often travel that is reimbursed by my employer.
If you don't already have an Ebates account, you can use my referral link here. If you sign up using the link and spend at least $25, you will earn a free $10!
Bumped
Bumped is a fairly new company that you may or may not have heard of yet. However, I think this will begin spreading like mad the way Acorns and Robinhood did, because the idea is genius in my opinion. Bumped is a rewards program similar to Ebates. You link a credit or debit card, and when you make a purchase with certain partner brands, Bumped will add a reward to your account. The reward is based on a percent of your purchase, set by each partner brand. There is currently a small, but growing, list of brands, but there are some big names on the list. McDonald's, Verizon, AT&T, Chipotle, Dunkin, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Papa Johns are just a few.
Sounds like Ebates, right? What's the big deal about Bumped? The difference is, instead of earning rewards in the form of cash, you earn rewards in the form of each company's stock. I think this is absolutely game-changing! Why wouldn't you want to start accumulating stock in the brands you buy the most? And for free, at that! Not only that, but by earning fractional shares based on your purchase price, this allows someone who would otherwise not be able to afford a share of say, Chipotle, which has a current price tag upwards of $700, to start working their way into the stock market.
I've heard people compare Bumped to Acorns, but there is one major difference that puts Bumped ahead in my book. With Acorns, the app automatically rounds your purchase up to the nearest whole dollar, and uses that portion to buy into an investment. That means that you are still using your own money to make the investment. With Bumped, you don't spend any more money than you normally would have buying your product or service. You buy that coffee at Starbucks at normal price, and you get 2% of your purchase amount back in Starbucks stock.
That's the part that really sets Bumped apart from other rewards programs in my opinion. All the companies partnering with Bumped at the moment are great companies, and as their stock prices rise over time (hopefully), so does your reward. I am new to Bumped, so I have only just over a dollar using the app so far. But if you are interested in checking out Bumped for yourself, then you can download the app, or check it out online here.
Credit Card Rewards
So you may shop at quite a few places that are not partnered with an online rewards service like Ebates or Bumped. In this case, a standard cash back credit card could be your best bet on earning a little extra money.
Before I go any further, I think credit cards are best used by individuals who are not tempted to spend out of their means - otherwise, a credit card can get you into some real debt and trouble. With the high interest rates credit cards tend to carry, it's best to stick to paying off your full balance each and every month.
Assuming you feel a credit card is for you, you should definitely do some shopping around for the best reward that fits your spending habit. One site that I have used in the past to compare different credit cards is nerdwallet. The site allows you to filter for cards based on your credit score, and the reward type you are looking for (cash back/travel/etc.).
My personal strategy is to maximize my rewards using multiple cards. I use a Bank of America Cash Rewards Platinum Plus card to shop for gas and groceries, as it earns me 3% cash back on each, a Capital One Quicksilver for my other personal purchase, as it has a 1.5% cash back reward on all purchases, and an American Express Hilton Honors Ascend card for my reimbursable work expenses, as I typically stay at Hilton branded hotels when travelling on business.
The amount in rewards I've earned using each card over the past year is laid out below:
- Bank of America Cash Rewards Platinum Plus: $145 with no annual fee
- Capital One Quicksilver: $140 with no annual fee
- American Express Hilton Honors Ascend: Approximately 4 free hotel nights, plus automatic gold status, free weekend night, free priority pass, free National rental car executive elite status upgrade, and more, with an annual fee of $95
- Capital One Quicksilver referral link
- American Express Hilton Honors Ascend referral link (NOTE: This card has a $95 annual fee)
Do you eat canned food, drink soda or beer from a can, or even ever drive past a neighbor throwing away an old mower, washer, or patio furniture? Sounds like trash, right? Wrong! That sounds like easy money! Just a little time spend separating your trash, the occasional browse of the neighborhood curb, and a regular trip to your local scrap yard can earn you a good chunk of change.
Out of all the income sources I've listed in this post, this is definitely the closest to a true side hustle. Scrapping is something that I've personally done since my high school days just as something to do, and even now I continue to do during the nicer months of the year.
At my house, I have trash cans in my garage for each type of metal I would otherwise throw away. Aluminum cans go into one trash can, tin cans in another, and copper (the scrapper's holy grail) into a much smaller bucket. The extra space in my garage gets filled with other metal I find when I'm out and about. Old grills, broken lawnmowers - you name it, I've scrapped it! Then, when my garage starts getting a little tight, I haul it all down to my local scrap yard and cash in on my hard work. Luckily, my roommate has a pickup truck, so this makes the trip a lot less of a hassle.
I average about $20 per run, and typically go around 4-5 times per year, all during the late spring, summer, and early fall. Last year alone, I made $115 by turning in scrap metal. Taking into account all the time I've spent scouting out and sorting the metal, and the gas for my roommate's truck, is it really worth my time? Probably not. But to me, it's honestly pretty fun, and that should be worth something itself.
Conclusion: There's Easy Money Out There!
None of the income sources I've listed above, except maybe the last, require much effort at all to earn a few bucks on the side. Through the methods I've outlined, I was able to add an easy $1,275 plus to my income over the past year. And again, this was with minimal effort or extra time!
As a quick recap, my income sources in order of highest to lowest income earned are summarized below.
- New Account Opening Bonuses: $700
- Credit Card Rewards: $285, with no annual fee (plus hotel rewards, with $95 annual fee)
- Ebates: $175
- Scrap Metal: $115
With a little research and creativity, the side income possibilities are endless! They can be as effortless or as time consuming as you want them to be, and they can even be a fun way to spend some free time.
I would love to hear about all the ways you've found to earn extra income! Please, drop a comment below with any comments, questions, and suggestions.
- FI Anon
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