Saving up on a part-time income can be tough. While a regular paycheck is great for budgeting purposes, you can always stand to have a little more cash flow to grease up the gears of life.

Sure, you could take on more shifts. Or, you could start a side hustle, and open up a wealth of opportunities for yourself while earning some extra money.

Here’s why the latter nearly always makes more sense. 

The Internet Makes It Easy

If commuting to work is taking it out of you, you might want to consider developing an online income source such as freelance writing, web development or visual design.

Rather than picking up an extra shift, getting changed, and driving to and from work, you just hop on your computer and get started. Less time in traffic jams, more time in your jammies.

Variety Will Make It Seem Less Like Work

Unless you’re a hang-gliding instructor, any job will get a little dull once you’ve done it long enough. Having a side-gig that bears slim resemblance to your regular shift can really help to take the monotony out of your money making.

Do you work in an office? Maybe you could find some work you can do outdoors – gardening, for instance. Are you dealing with customers all day? Try finding something you can do in the seclusion of your own home.

Changing things up like this can actually make your regular job less boring.

You Can Pursue A Passion Project 

Some people will wait until retirement to start doing what they truly love, but why wait? If you already have a steady income source, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do what you love in your spare time and try to make some money from it.

Are you artistic? Great, see if there’s a way you can sell your work. Can you push a word around? Perhaps there’s a novel you can work on while picking up the odd job as a freelance editor. If you love arts and craft, you might want to check out online marketplaces.

Everyone Needs Savings

If your needs are already being met by your regular job, it can be tempting to frit away that extra cash on trinkets and toys. But there’s no better opportunity to rack up some savings than when you’ve got extra money coming in.

If you really want to spare yourself the temptation, you can even have your side gig money paid directly into your savings account. That trip to Europe isn’t going to pay for itself!

But even if you’re not possessed by a burning need to see the world, you should still be stacking away cash, because everyone needs an emergency fund. Think of this as a kind of financial safety net should you suffer one of life’s unplanned setbacks – a loss of income, for instance, or a blown head gasket in your car.

You Can Develop Passive Income

Passive income is any income earned without your active involvement, apart from an initial investment. But that investment doesn’t have to be financial – it’s just as possible to earn passive income from investing your time and effort.

For example, if you can take a cool photo, you can sell your snaps to a stock photo website. Every time a user purchases the right to use one your pics, you earn a small commission. Similar arrangements can be made for graphic design work, instructional eBooks, and, of course, original online video content.

What makes passive income great is that it can continue trickling into your bank account years after you completed the work. And if you develop enough high-quality PI assets, that trickle can become very respectable indeed.

Granted, not all side-gigs will let you do this – it’s difficult, for example, to earn royalty cheques for being a taxidriver. But there are still a ton of options out there.

It Can Boost Your Career

Taking on a side-hustle is also a great way to expand your skill set and rack up experience. Moonlighting as a virtual personal assistant, for instance, will teach you organisational and administrative skills. If you’re studying IT, freelancing as a web-designer or troubleshooter will definitely impress when you start applying for permanent roles.

But padding out the resumé isn’t just about experience and qualifications; one of the most sought-after qualities right now is an entrepreneurial spirit. Potential employers will look favourably on the fact that you had the initiative, discipline, and organisational skills to hustle on the side in the first place.

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(Lead image: Screencap via YouTube)