This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fiverr in partnership with Kasai Media. All opinions are 100% mine.
As my regular readers know, I started Young Adult Money primarily to make some side hustle money to offset my monthly student loan payment.
The past two-plus years I have been able to do just that. Through blogging and other side hustles I have more than offset our monthly student loan payments.
Student loans aren’t the only loans I have, though. My next target: our monthly mortgage payment.
Making money from a side hustle to pay off loans is a great feeling. You free up your “regular” income to put towards investments, savings, and yes, even spending.
If making side hustle like something you’re interested in, read on. Today I will tell you how to pay off loans with side hustle money.
The first step, of course is to find a side hustle. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself when choosing a side hustle.
1) What skills or expertise do you have?
The first thing I recommend people do who are looking for a side hustle is to take some time to think about their skills and expertise. Utilizing your current skills and expertise is the easiest way to get started with a side hustle.
Are you good in photoshop? Perhaps a graphic design side hustle is up your alley. Are you good in Microsoft Excel and don’t mind being buried in spreadsheets? You could start a spreadsheet consulting side hustle. The side hustle possibilities are only limited to your imagination.
There are many sites like Fiverr that make it easy to market your skills to potential clients. I am in the planning process for a second website and Fiverr will be the first place I look for a logo designer, theme designer, and any other freelancers I need.
If you’re looking for some motivation, consider reading about how one of my relatives makes over $200 an hour with their side hustle. He didn’t learn a new skill. Instead he applied knowledge and expertise to create value for a customer.
2) How practical is your side hustle idea?
Once you’ve thought of potential side hustle ideas you should ask yourself how practical your side hustle is. Some people’s side hustles are simply working a part-time job in the evenings and weekends. This can work really well for some, but won’t work for others. If you have kids this may be difficult as you will be away from the house virtually all your children’s waking hours. For a single person this could work well, though.
I personally have found blogging and other online-based businesses to be the ideal side hustles because of the flexibility they offer. I even wrote a post about why blogging is the ultimate side hustle. The only drawback of an online business is that there is a lot of competition and you aren’t guaranteed to make any money – in fact you might even lose money.
The bottom line is you have to consider whether a side hustle is practical for you. If one side hustle isn’t practical there will always be another option, so don’t get too emotionally invested in any one idea, especially in the initial brainstorming and planning stages. You absolutely need to weigh the impact a side hustle will have on your life. You are sacrificing what was previously “free” time for more work time.
Note: if you’re interested in starting a blog or content website as a side hustle, check out our post that explains how to start a blog in 5 easy steps.
3) What is your ultimate goal with your side hustle?
Let’s face it: it takes a high level of discipline and commitment to work a side hustle. After all, who wants to go home from work and do more work?
If you are reading this post there’s a good chance you have some type of loan, whether it’s student loans, a car loan, a mortgage, or some combination of the three. Use loans as motivation to your side hustle. My student loans motivated me to start side hustling and it’s benefited me greatly. This technique is called mental accounting and it can be a very effective tool for getting motivated.
With your motivation in mind, it’s important to think about what side hustle best aligns with your goal. There was another blogger I used to read a few years ago who started a site called “Deliver Away Debt.” He worked as a delivery person at night and on the weekends to drastically speed up paying off his family’s loans. He wasn’t planning on doing this forever, and he accomplished his goals within a couple years. His family is now free from debt and work as full-time missionaries.
While working a part-time job might make sense for some people, others may want to take a different approach. One of the characteristics I look for in a side hustle is the ability to sell it. For example, I don’t ever want to simply quit blogging; instead I want to sell my website to an investor. Consider what your ultimate goal is and make sure your side hustle aligns to that goal.
4) How much time do you have before you need your side hustle to be profitable?
One final thing to consider is how quickly you need money from your side hustle. You might need money ASAP or within a short period of time (i.e. $3,000 within 4 months). In these situations it makes more sense to take a part-time job than to try to build an online business. Many online businesses do not start out profitably.
If you don’t need money right away but would like to create an income stream that can help offset your loans, a small business may be the way to go. Again, it all depends on your skills, knowledge, and goals for your side hustle. Freelance work can start slow but can also ramp up very quickly once you start getting referrals.
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I know I shared a lot of information so if I could give you just one takeaway it would be this: use loans as motivation to side hustle. Virtually everyone has some sort of debt, and virtually everyone desires to someday be debt free. Side hustle money can help you pay off your loans quicker.
When have you practiced “delaying” in your life? What impact did it have? Have you ever delayed something that actually ended up hurting your finances?
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Photo by Antonio Tajuelo
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Kinda funny timing (to me) for this post. My husband LOVES tinkering and he’s driven me crazy by dismantling lots of our 1920s house and then moving on to new projects. The fireplace? Been torn apart for a year…
This morning while looking for something to use s a physical trigger (a la Budgets are Sexy) I was reminded how many people make a good living by buying vintage items at yard sales (for cheap) and reselling them for a decent price on EBay. This is right up his alley. Lets him tinker, saves my house, makes money!!
We actually did use part of the money from a side hustle to pay off our student loans many years ago. Best decision ever!
Like I wrote the other day, mental accounting is a great way to decide how to allocate/use different side hustle streams. I assign each stream to a different thing and it makes it that much easier to attack the goal as it allows me to avoid mindless spending.
Great points here! I agree when it comes to choosing the right side hustle you have to determine how fast you want to start earning money. Getting a part time job outside of the home wasn’t an option for me since I didn’t want to be away from home more than I already am. But with building a small online business or selling your services online and even blogging it takes time to build things up and actually start earning money. Sometimes, you’ll even have to spend a little money in order to make money. I reached out to someone on Fiverr to do my logo and it was a great choice :) Currently I use my side hustle money to help make extra payments on my car note since it has the highest interest rate among my debt. Once I get rid of that, I’ll move on to the student loans.
Holly at ClubThrifty I agree! I really feel like I’m “level-setting” when I use side hustle money to pay off student loans. Definitely a great strategy for getting rid of debt. Plus, when student loans are gone you end up having a new cash flow that you otherwise wouldn’t have had.
indebtedmom Oh good idea showing him a different side hustle that keeps him busy without driving you crazy ;) Starting home projects is the easy part, finishing them is tough. I think part of it is you never know what obstacles you will run into along the way or how much time, money or expertise it will take to finish the project.
FrugalRules I’m with you on the mental accounting aspect of side hustling. To be honest it would be difficult to stay motivated in YAM’s early days if I didn’t have the loans to deal with. The loans kept me motivated to create a new income stream that can offset them.
Chonce I found a graphic designer on Fiverr as well and I plan on having them create a new one sometime in the near future. You’re smart for focusing on the highest interest debt – it’s the same approach I take.
Side hustles are easier than ever to come by in the age we live in. I started blogging just as something fun to do during downtime at work, but one thing led to another and now I’m making some decent money freelancing which I put towards my student loans. This will help me get out of debt so much faster and it all kind of happened by accident!
I really think just doing something productive on a consistent basis will lead you to a path to make some money.
thebrokeprof Great to hear about your freelancing success! It’s pretty incredible the world we live in today. There truly is unlimited opportunity for those who are determined to achieve goals. I agree with you on the productivity factor. If you are consistently productive it becomes more and more likely that you will end up making money on those pursuits.
Side hustle money can definitely be a great way to pay off loans! I’ve even found it super beneficial in paying for diapers these days haha. There are so many options out there to use skills you have to make some additional income, and the bonus is that it tends to not feel like work as much when you are pursuing your passions and doing something you love at the same time.
You’re not lying about discipline being the key. I had thoughts of creating a website in the mid 2000’s. Never did it because I wasn’t focused and didn’t have the discipline. Now, I enjoy spending my downtime working on my site and making it better.
Christina@EmbracingSimple I agree! One thing people don’t think about enough with side hustles is the momentum that you can gain from pursuing side hustles. You never know what your side hustle will turn into, and there’s always potential for something big coming out of it.
Jason @ The Butler Journal Sometimes I think back to my college and even high school days and wonder “what if I had started a website then and stuck with it?” You never know. I just might have ended up a full-time blogger after college.
Time seems to be the issue with side hustles for us. I would love to take on more side hustles but, for now, we are concentrating on blogging and eBay! Paying off debt is a huge motivator!
We have delayed vacations but are now realizing we have just a few short years before the kids will be off to college and we want to make many memories with them before it’s too late. That’s another great reason to side hustle!
How Do The Jones Do It Time is a huge constraint for anyone trying to side hustle. eBay can be a great side hustle. I know Jason (who commented below) flips things he buys at thrift stores on eBay. Seems like a great way to make some extra $ in your spare time.