Читать книгу Side Hustles For Dummies - Alan R. Simon - Страница 24

Side hustles are for everyone! Nobody is too young, or too old, to jump into the side-hustle game. You might need a particular background — interests or expertise, or maybe even academic or other credentials — for some types of side hustles. But even if you don’t have a particular background, you have lots and lots of other options available to you.

Consider Ravi, who is just beginning his senior year of high school. Ravi is sort of a financial prodigy and has been dabbling in Bitcoin and other cybercurrencies ever since he was a freshman. Last summer he started a subscription-only blog aimed at other teenagers looking to learn more about cybercurrencies. So far, Ravi has nearly 300 subscribers, with more people signing up every day.

Ravi’s sister Maira, a junior at the same school Ravi attends, also has an entrepreneurial focus. Ever since her freshman year, she has been creating YouTube videos with fashion tips. This year, she expects to make close to $15,000 in ad-sharing money from her videos.

Ravi’s and Maira’s next-door neighbor Paula has been living in the same house for the past 40 years and is now the last remaining original homeowner from when the development was first opened. Paula was a college professor for most of her professional life, but she retired five years ago. After six months of reading and going for long walks, Paula started to get a little restless. She had always been high-energy, filling her days with not only teaching and other university-related tasks but also several hobbies, most notably scrapbooking and stamping. She still spends a fair bit of her time with those hobbies, but now she also makes YouTube videos from which she earns some decent money from placed ads.

Kelsey just turned 50 and retired from her city’s public school system after 25 years teaching elementary school. With a lot of free time on her hands, Kelsey is a constant presence at garage sales, swap meets, flea markets, and church bazaars all around her city. She looks for great bargains in older toys, children’s books, nostalgic Americana such as old signs and posters, and other items that she then sells on eBay and other websites. She spends around 15 to 20 hours a week buying and listing items and packing and shipping what she sold. Kelsey doesn’t make a killing, but she does make a fair bit of money to supplement her teaching pension.

Your side hustles may — and probably will — evolve over time, along with your interests and experiences. I’m a great example of this proposition. My side-hustle journey began with doing small business PC applications on the side and teaching people about then-new microcomputers. After 40 years in the technology world, I’m ready to leave databases and analytics and other techie stuff behind. I may still write a tech book or two, or do some data- and analytics-oriented videos every now and then. But I’m much more energized writing novels or doing videos about my lifelong hobby of baseball and sports cards or writing about non-tech topics … like side hustles!