Looking for a relatively quick way to fatten your pockets? Side hustles are the way to go. Over half of U.S. millennials have already picked up jobs aside from their regular day jobs to increase their income, according to a study from Bankrate.
Doing anything from driving for Uber, serving tables on the weekends, or creating and selling original products on Etsy, up to 51 percent of millennials have occasional jobs they are dependent on for a steady stream of cash aside from their primary source of income.
Bankrate found the most popular side hustles for millennials are home repair, babysitting and reselling goods online. Other side gigs include things like substitute teaching or tutoring, makeup/hair services, online surveys or freelance photography.
Millennials are much more likely to have a side hustle than members of other generations. Diane Mulcahy, author of The Gig Economy, says there are two reasons.
“When I talk to millennials, I think two things really come up,” she says. “One is that they’re very aware that there’s no job security, so they’re the least likely generation to kind of settle into a full-time job and assume that everything’s going to be OK. The other reason is clearly economic. Most millennials—at least on the professional end who have been to college—have significant debt and a lot of them are looking for ways to either build a financial cushion or reduce their debt faster.”
But how much money can you actually earn from a side hustle? The average monthly earnings for millennials is almost $580. But 15 percent of millennials say they earn over $1,000 a month with their side gig alone.
Aside from the few millennials that rely on the steady additional income to reduce their debt or build more of a financial cushion, the majority (68 percent) describe the added income as “disposable,” using this money specifically for things like traveling.
