I do a lot of side hustles that pay me anywhere from $3 to $12. This seems silly when at the same time I will buy a $4 latte without much thought, so why am I willing to delivery someone's McDonalds order to them for roughly the pay of a Big Mac?
It comes down to where I put my side hustle money and what it goes towards.
I have all of my side hustle income deposited into my favorite online bank account, and the only bank account I will ever say nice things about, Capital One 360. Everyone should have a Capital One 360 online bank account. There are no fees, you can open as many accounts as you want and nickname them whatever you want and they have some of the highest interest rates you will find. They also have easy to open kid’s accounts, which is part of my side hustle money project.
When I was pregnant with my kid, my husband and I each started depositing $10 per week into a savings account for our future minion. Every time that $10 per week hits $1,000, I move it to a custodial investment account with Capital One Investing. Combined with Christmas and birthday present stocks from my parents and a recently very healthy stock market, let’s just say my four year old is pretty close to buying his first car.
No one notices $10 per week, which is an important lesson to teach yourself. I wish we had started paying ourselves $10 per week at the same time, but it’s never too late to start.
Besides the $10 to my kid, my side hustle bank account also pays for deposits into Long Game, monthly dues for an investment club, and my roll-up apps: Acorns and Qoins. These small withdrawals are also my motivation to do side hustles. I do not have any paychecks going into this account, so if I don’t want it to overdraw, I have to get my side-hustling butt out the door.
So that is where my side hustle money goes. A little to savings, a little to investing and a little to my kid’s future. If I feel like I have excess at any point, my next move is to build up my HSA, which is a great way to reduce tax liability and make medical bills feel less painful.