Do you really need a side hustle?

Having a “side hustle” is becoming increasingly common and many young people are looking to have one to increase their income.

This can include selling items online; being a content creator or working in the gig economy.

I did experiment with having a side hustle in 2020 and 2021. During this period, I monetized my blog by doing paid content for DBS; Skillsfuture; NTUC Income and more.

However, in 2022, I stopped doing paid posts entirely as I did not enjoy them at all.

If you’re thinking of starting a side hustle, here are three simple questions you can use to determine if it will be worth your time and energy or not.

1. What is the effort-reward-ratio?

One of the key questions to ask yourself is: What is the effort-reward ratio for your side hustle vs your day job?

A simple way to think about this is:

Are you more likely to earn a $2,000 per month increment from your existing main career path through switching roles or promotion or upskilling, or to make $2,000 per month on whatever your side hustle pursuit happens to be?

Is the incremental effort of your main hustle or side hustle more?

For many people, it’s their main hustle, not side hustle that will propel them to further gains in the immediate future.

Another factor to consider is also the energy used. Mental and physical energy for the day is finite as well.

In my case, I decided that if I used my mental energy on writing paid content, it takes away from day job. When I stopped my side hustle and used that time for my work, I saw a significant increase in my income.

2. How closely linked is your side hustle to your day job?

Expanding on the topic of effort-reward-ratio, another question you can ask yourself is: Does your side hustle complement your career and vice versa?

For instance, VC Jeremy Au has been running the BRAVE Podcast since 2020. This branding helps his day job in an industry where reputation is key for deal sourcing. The BRAVE Podcast benefits his main role and vice versa.

Some have multiple side hustles that are completely different from their current jobs or their future career goals.

This approach can be exhausting, especially if your side hustles take up the time you would normally use to rest and recharge.

It is not the most efficient use of time and energy: If you're not using skills that play up on each other, you don't really have time to invest back into yourself with rest.

3. Are you trying to pivot into something new?

There are some situations where side hustle makes a lot of sense. One of these circumstances is when you want to pivot into something new.

For example, The Woke Salaryman was a side hustle until it became a full -time business.

The same goes for the co-founders of CoinGecko and Dollars and Sense.

In my case, I know from the beginning that I have zero intention of being a full time content creator.

I did consider moving to education as I felt that it would be much more meaningful and impactful than my day job.

However, after a pilot phase in late 2021, I realized teaching was not for me and incredibly draining.

Overall, I have made a conscious decision to double down on SaaS and just treat content creation as a passion project.

It has paid off in terms of skills learned and finances. In fact, I wish I made the conscious choice to focus earlier on.

That will help me not only do better at my day job but also enjoy content creation a lot more. Not all hobbies and strengths need to be monetized.

My thoughts on fire

In my mid 20s, retiring early was my only goal.

I remembered in Salesforce when my manager when he asked me what was my career goal, I replied “Retire early”

(Pro tip: Please don’t tell white hair middle aged Singaporeans this type of answer. They do not like it)

After all, I began to question a couple of things

• Was there really a point limiting myself for the prime years of my life just to retire early?

• Was there any meaning in life where one of my main goals is just to retire early and get freedom?

• What was I really going to do when I retire early? Isn’t it very miserable to only look forward to retirement but not be my happiest self in my youth?

That is when I changed my POV to instead pursue financial independence and focus on “How can I design a life so great that I do not need to ‘retire’ or travel to escape from?”