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Not-so-fun fact: with recent inflation spikes around the country, recent surveys show that around 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
If this is you, you’re not alone! When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it’s difficult to set aside money for savings, investments, bigger purchases, paying down debt, or even just an emergency fund. As anyone could tell you, these kinds of savings and emergency funds are important—so what’s a worker to do?
Well, unfortunately, you can’t do much to change the current gas prices, but you can do a lot to bring in a little extra side income. A side hustle is a great way to make extra money on the side, even if you have a full-time job or need to make extra money from home.
Scroll down to read our full list of easy side hustle ideas, including the best ways to make extra money fast and the best side hustles for college students.
There are so many good side hustles available for you—no matter what your skills, how much or little time you have to work, or where you live, there’s opportunities for you to make money on the side.
Common motivations to start a side hustle include:
Choosing the best side hustles for you comes down to understanding:
For more tips on getting started, check out our article on choosing the best side hustle. Or, just keep scrolling for our best side hustle ideas.
Not sure where to begin? Start with some of the best, classic side hustles. These side hustles have high earning potential, are easy to get started with, and have been tried-and-tested.
Becoming a delivery driver is one of the best and most classic side hustles. It’s extremely flexible, you can set your own hours, and you can work as much or as little as you want. All you need is a car (or even a bike!) and you can get started.
Some of the most popular food delivery apps you can drive for include Doordash, UberEats, Postmates and Grubhub. Many drivers like to drive for more than one to increase their earning potential!
Earning potential: $1,000+ /mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Like to drive and like people too? Why not start driving for Uber or Lyft in your spare time? Late-night trips to the airport or driving people around a big city can really add up. Like food delivery, you can set your own hours and work as little or as much as you want, so this is a super flexible gig.
Earning potential: $1,000+ /mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Another one of the best side hustles is walking dogs and/or pet sitting! If you love animals, it’s a no-brainer. You can get started through a dog-walking app like Wag! or Rover, or you can go the old-fashioned route and simply put up some flyers around town or post about your dog-walking services on local neighborhood Facebook groups.
If you’re in a time crunch—aka need to make money sooner rather than later—it might be easiest to start with a dog-walking app, where you can get clients and start accepting walks right away.
Earning potential: $600-$800+ /mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
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Another easy way to start making some extra money is to deliver groceries through a gig-work app like Instacart or Shipt. These apps make it super easy to accept orders that you can then pick up and deliver to neighbors.
Many delivery drivers who drive for food delivery apps like to add grocery delivery to their options as well, since grocery orders tend to come in throughout the day vs. food delivery orders which are more concentrated around specific times.
Earning potential: $600-$800+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
If you have skills you could offer online to help others complete projects or accomplish tasks, freelancing is a great option. If you’re not sure where to get started, there’s a lot of freelancing websites that will allow you to “quick-start” your freelancing side hustle. Fiverr and Upwork are two popular websites where you can offer services in everything from writing and editing, graphic design, accounting, legal advice, music production and more.
Earning potential: $1,000+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: medium
Know how to fix stuff in the real world? Join a freelancing site like Taskrabbit or Thumbtack and help people fix things around their homes, paint the living room, clean out their garages, put together Ikea furniture and more. If you have a skill that you can do reasonably professionally, there’s almost bound to be people in your area who are willing to pay for your help.
Earning potential: $1,000+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
One of the best and most popular side hustles—and many people’s first—is still a great option. People with kids always need sitters, so there’s plenty of work available. Sites like Sittercity or Urbansitter can help connect you with families in your area who are looking for sitters, and you can set your own hours and rates.
Not a kid person? Sites like care.com allow you to provide other types of caregiving services as well, like senior care, pet sitting and housekeeping/house sitting gigs.
Earning potential: $1,000+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Handy with a toilet brush? Have a fine eye for detail and know your kitchen cleaners from your bathroom cleaners? You can make a decent amount of money cleaning houses on the side, even if it’s not the most exciting work! Keep in mind that most people prefer their house cleaners to arrive during the day, so having daytime availability is a plus.
Don’t know how to get started? Care.com has housekeeping gigs available in your area, so you can get started there. Or try posting on local neighborhood pages like NextDoor to get the word out.
Earning potential: $1,000+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
If you live in a frequently-touristed city, becoming a local tour guide can be a fun (and lucrative!) side hustle. There are organizations you can join to become an official guide, you can work at historical or tourist locations on the weekend as a docent, or you can simply start your own tours. Many tour guides will offer free tours to groups of tourists, and then ask for tips at the end. Airbnb is also a great way to offer local guided and hosted activities for travelers in your area.
Earning potential: $500-$800 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: medium
If you live in an area where a lot of TV or movies are filmed, being an extra in a movie is a great way to bring in a bit of extra income! For most extra roles, you’ll only need to be on set for a day, so if you have a spare weekend or a free day off during the week, it’s worth seeing if you can snag a gig as an extra.
If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles, don’t count yourself out—San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and more also have lots of extras casting calls! Find casting call gigs on sites like Backstage or Central Casting.
Earning potential: $200-$600 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: medium
Don’t look like a “typical” model? That doesn’t mean you can’t still make extra money through modeling gigs! There’s all kinds of places that need models besides major clothing brands—think small businesses in your area, local photographers, stock photographers and more. You can even become a model for niche items like watches or sunglasses.
Earning potential: $600-$800 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: medium
This one requires a bit of know-how, but if you know your ISO from your f-stops, you can make extra money on the side taking portraits for people. There’s so many reasons people might need portraits done, from senior portraits to basic headshots. Dust off your camera and get the word out that you’re available and you can easily start taking bookings on evenings, weekends or whenever you’re free.
Earning potential: $1,000+ / mo.
Difficulty to get started: hard
This is an easy one—if you don’t like kids or pets, you can get paid to house sit. House-sitters are typically asked to do things like check in on the house, water plants, pick up the mail, or other small tasks while homeowners are away on vacation. Some homeowners will even allow you to stay in their home as part of the house-sitting gig. You can find house-sitting gigs on care.com—or just ask your neighbors if they need their house watched during their vacations!
Earning potential: $300-$500 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Ok, so this isn’t your typical side hustle—but did you know you can get ordained online and start officiating weddings right away? You don’t have to become a priest—just fill out an online ordination form, pay the (nominal) fee, and wait 1-2 weeks to receive your official ordination. After that, you can start helping happy couples say “I do”—and stash away some extra cash on the side.
Earning potential: $400-$800 / wedding
Difficulty to get started: easy
If you’re looking for ways to make extra money with a full-time job, you know that having enough time to dedicate to your side hustle can be a challenge. Luckily, there are a number of side hustle options that only take a few hours a week. Even better, you can start a side hustle that can earn you passive income, which means you can basically “set it and forget it.” What could be easier?
This won’t have you raking in the dough every week, but it IS easy! Sites like Swagbucks or UserInterviews pay you to take surveys or participate in focus groups. The rewards can range from as little as less than $1 for a quick survey to $100 or more for focus groups. You know what they say—every little bit adds up!
Earning potential: $50-$100 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Did you know you can earn money for the money that you’re spending? Whether it’s groceries, home goods, clothes, hotels and more, you can earn cash back on purchases through apps like Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, Receipt Pal and more. You’re not going to be raking in the dough, but if you get on multiple apps and make sure to scan all your receipts, you won’t be leaving basically free money on the table, either.
Earning potential: $100 - $300 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
You may not be a pro photographer—or even own a “real” camera—but you can still sell your photos to stock photography sites, like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and Getty Images! Typically, you can contribute your photos to stock photography sites and receive a small commission when your photos are purchased or downloaded. As a result, the income you can make from this as a side hustle can be very variable. But if you have a lot of travel photos or even everyday photos that could be used as stock photos, there’s no harm in seeing if you can make a little extra money off of them.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: easy
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This is easy money, especially if you work from home and don’t need your car all the time! With apps like Turo, Hyrecar or Getaround, you can rent out your car and get paid—kind of like Airbnb, but for your car. And don’t worry—these apps offer special insurances for car owners so you can rent out your car with peace of mind.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: easy
If you have a space room—or even a spare garage, basement, attic or parking space—you could be making money by letting others use it. Obviously, spare rooms can go on sites like Airbnb, where you can rent out your space for travelers. (Keep in mind that many rental leases have no-Airbnb clauses, so check in advance if you’re not a homeowner!) But even if you just have some extra attic space or a spare driveway, there could be neighbors looking for some extra space—and you could easily make some passive income. Check out sites like Neighbor that let you make money off of your extra space.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: easy
Drive for work, or just drive a lot in general? You could make money by placing brand decals on your car and giving brands some free advertising space. With companies like Carvertise, you get to pick which brands you want to display, and, even better, they make sure the decals are installed and uninstalled professionally, so there’s no permanent change to your car! If you drive a lot, this is basically free money that you don’t have to do anything to get.
Earning potential: $100-$300 / mo.
Difficulty to get started: easy
Want to make some extra money while working from home? Starting a side hustle is a great idea! There are so many side hustle ideas where you can work entirely from home: set your own hours, be your own boss, and earn income wherever and whenever you want!
Calling all Tiktokers! Social media management is a great freelance side hustle where you can work completely from home. Check online job boards or LinkedIn for part-time gigs, or reach out to small businesses online or in your area that might need help managing their social media accounts. Not super familiar with the ins and outs of every channel? You can learn a lot online through websites like Later or Buffer.
Earning potential: depends on your experience
Difficulty to get started: medium
If you’re crafty, handy or creative in any way, Etsy can be a great place to make extra income on the side! Etsy is a great place to sell basically anything you made yourself, from digital downloads to party supplies, clothes to furniture and so much more. If you have a crafty hobby you’ve been looking to monetize, Etsy can help you do so.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
You don’t have to have a Ph.D. to be a good tutor—just a solid grasp of the subject, a bit of creativity and a willingness to be patient. You can tutor just about any subject, from math to reading, history to sciences, from elementary school all the way up through college courses. If you have a tutoring center or a school/university near you, you can inquire about side gigs, or you can tutor online.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
Not a whiz at any subject? If you know how to speak any language, you can tutor languages online. Teaching English online is a huge area of opportunity for a side hustle, because there’s a lot of people around the world that wish to learn English. It’s not just English though—if you speak Spanish, Mandarin, French or really any language fluently, you can find an audience of people who are hoping to learn it online. Sites like Italki or Open English are a great place to get started.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
Know another skill? You can teach others skills you know and make it a pretty lucrative side gig. Not sure what to teach? Try skills like:
You can teach people in person, over zoom or even create a course on websites like Udemy or Teachable so people can learn on their own time.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
One of the best work from home side hustles is being a virtual assistant. As a virtual assistant, you might be:
You can get started as a virtual assistant with many companies online, or start your own gig!
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
Do you speak multiple languages? You can make great money translating documents, ebooks, video captions and subtitles and more on the side! Not sure where to start? Try listing your services on sites like Upwork or Fiverr.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
Know how to land a job with an awesome resume? You can start a side hustle coaching others on how to land their dream gig, or simply writing or editing resumes for others. You can list your services on freelance sites like Upwork or Fiverr, or just do your own thing. LinkedIn is a great place to find people who need professional resume editing!
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
If you’ve ever been told you have a great voice for radio, narrating audiobooks could be a great side hustle to work from home. All you need is a quiet space and some basic recording equipment (which you can get from Amazon or other major retailers at affordable prices). Sites like Bunny Studio or ACX are great places to get started. Keep in mind that it can take some time to work your way up to bigger, higher-paying gigs, but keep at it and this can become a lucrative side hustle!
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: hard
Another great work from home side hustle is voice acting! From commercials to voice-overs to ecourses, there’s lots of video online that needs audio content recorded alongside it. You can find tons of voice acting gigs online—just be willing to start small first to build up your portfolio.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: hard
If you’re a bookworm, writing book reviews can be an easy side hustle. Find books to review on sites like Publishers Weekly and do reviews one-off or make a regular side hustle out of it.
Earning potential: $100-$300/mo.
Difficulty to get started: medium
If you need to make extra money fast, a side job can be a good idea. Whether you’re trying to pay off your student loans as quickly as possible or beef up your bank account before your next vacation, a side hustle can help you make some extra income.
Sell things you don’t need on sites like Craigslist, Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace or eBay. Cleaning out your closet, your attic, or your parent’s basement can add up fast! Of course, you can always have a good old-fashioned garage sale too to get stuff out even faster.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and you can help provide life-saving treatments for people battling leukemia or other illnesses. You can also be involved with clinical trials. Obviously, this is an unconventional side gig, but if you need a bit of extra income fast, it could be a great way to help someone else out while also making a bit of extra money.
Earning potential: $600 - $800/mo or per study
Difficulty to get started: easy
Have a free weekend and need some extra cash? Help people move in your area and get paid for it! You just need some muscle and spare time. Bonus points if you have a truck or another vehicle that can cart a lot of cargo! Sign up for a site like Dolly to provide on-demand moving help and get paid twice a week, plus keep 100% of your tips.
Earning potential: $1,000+
Difficulty to get started: easy
Become a driver: If you’re in college, older than 18 years old, and you have a car, driving side hustles can be a great option for you. Consider driving for side hustle apps like:
Walk dogs: No car? No problem! You can walk dogs or provide other pet caregiving services through side hustle apps like Wag! or Rover.
You’re already studying hard for your classes—why not let your hard work pay off (literally)? You can sell your class notes and study materials to open source sites and help out other students taking similar classes by sharing study materials. Sites like StuDocu and Stuvia are great places to start.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: easy
If you have weekends/evenings free, coaching sports or becoming a junior league referee is a great (and easy!) side hustle as a college student. Just pick any sport you are familiar enough with the rules on and reach out to local leagues and school teams to see if they need any coaches or referees.
Earning potential: variable
Difficulty to get started: medium
Once your side hustle is set up and making you extra income, make sure you’re taking steps to maximize your earnings! Here’s 4 ways you can maximize your side hustle earnings without much extra work:
Check out our guide to tax deductions or simply use our Instant Deduction Finder to find all your potential deductions!
Don't forget to download the Everlance app to track your business expenses, work mileage and other tax deductions throughout the year so you're prepared for tax season. Need more help? Check out all our resources for self-employed workers.
We help people save time and money. At Everlance, we're on a mission to empower mobile workers and businesses. That sometimes leads us to generalize tax information. Everlance team members are not certified tax professionals. If you need help with your specific tax situation, please reach out to your tax advisor.
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