Almost anybody can earn more money with a side hustle: babysitting, catering, coding, etc. Question is: Why aren't you doing it already?
Everyone wants to earn more money, right?
Of course, who wouldn’t?
But let’s ask a different question: Will you earn more money this year?
If the answer is a definitive yes—great! Maybe you landed a new job, negotiated a significant raise, or got yourself a side hustle.
If the answer is no—why not? What’s your excuse?
I read a Lifehacker piece recently about why you might not want to follow financial advice when you’re broke. The reason? So much financial advice assumes that you have money, you’re just using it wrong—spending too much on food and not saving enough.
But what are you supposed to do if you don’t have enough money to begin with? You’re not squandering $500 or $1,000 a month on unnecessarily luxuries, you’re paying your rent, your utilities, and your student loan, and you’ve got $200 left to buy some combination of food and anything else you might need in the course of the month.
Of course, saving a little is better than saving nothing. Even $50 a month is a good start, but if you literally only have a couple hundred dollars with which to eat and buy other necessities, trying to save isn’t realistic—You’re going to need that money sooner rather than later.