Discover the 12 Best Side Hustles for Every Age
If I had to identify one thing that’s helped me become successful then it would have been all the extra jobs that I did on the side as a teenager.
This also continues till this day.
Having a side hustle helped me to earn extra income apart from my day job.
Which allowed me to save and invest that extra sum of money which I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.
So today we are going to go over some side hustle ideas that you can follow at every age group.
I will also share the financial milestones to be achieved for each age group, make sure to watch to the 3rd age group, as that would be where most people are in and have difficulties with.
Phase 1: 13~16 Years Old
Alright, so phase 1 would be for the age group between 13 to 16, the target for this age group would be anywhere from $30 to $200 a month if you are feeling ambitious.
Of course, this is a wide range and only acts as a benchmark, but if you make more or less than this, that’s also fine.
At this age, you would usually have limited capital, but what you would have is a lot of energy.
So this would be the perfect opportunity for you to go out and try every side hustle you can, that way, you can figure out the things you like and don’t like.
Also, since you are just starting out, you would be extremely prone to mistakes left, right and center, so do not feel discouraged.
The quickest way for anybody to grow is to make mistakes and then learn from what went wrong.
Idea #1
The first idea would be trying out a business that is mainly about providing a service, no matter what it is.
For example, you can start a business of washing cars, now this is a great way because the startup cost is virtually zero.
All you need is a sponge, a bucket and some honest hard work.
You can also get a pressure washer from your local hardware store for a hundred bucks and you can use this to clean people’s driveways.
If you charge twenty dollars a driveway, then it’s only gonna take five jobs and you would have broken-even on the pressure washer.
So everything after that would be pure profit.
Idea #2
One of my customers worked for an international soft drink company and as a tip he would give me a carton of soft drinks which I never thought of drinking as I was more interested in selling it at school.
This is something you can think about doing as well.
The real-life example is this boy from the UK that was making upwards of 50k a year by selling candies in school.
Although I am not doing that well myself, it taught me one thing which is whenever there is a demand, then money can be made.
At school there was always a demand for candy as there are so many young kids.
You might have to check your school’s guideline before doing this, but I just went ahead regardless.
You know, to bring this to the next level, you could even get your friends in on it and sell for you.
You would then pay your friends based on a commission basis.
So let’s say you give them 25% of the proceeds for each candy bar they sell.
It really is amazing how much you can learn about entrepreneurship and business by doing this from a really young age.
It helps you to learn to manage people and how to make a profit, and it is definitely a huge part of why I love being an entrepreneur so much.
The only drawback is that it is limited to while you are in school, that’s Monday to Friday.
Idea #3
So a good way to fill out your weekends would be being an event host.
This is a great side hustle as you can meet lots of interesting people and it helps you stay mentally strong because you need to make decisions quickly.
Phase 2: 17~21 Years Old
Phase two is for ages between 17 and 21.
By this age you would have a better understanding of what you enjoy doing and what you don’t enjoy as much.
You should use this time to focus on improving on the things that you enjoy doing and develop some technical skills in those particular areas.
The side hustle target for this age group would be approximately $200 to $500 a month.
Idea #4
One of the obvious ones would be becoming a tutor, which will probably earn you around $20 an hour.
But if you are not the greatest academically like me, and don’t think this option is available for you then you don’t have to teach school subjects.
Most people have some kind of skill.
While other people are interested in learning, it's all about finding that skill and offering to teach it to them.
So like I said, I wasn't the best at school.
And there’s no way somebody would pay me $20 to teach them Math.
That's for sure.
So instead I used to teach people to play the guitar.
With any tutoring side hustle, the money is always limited to the amount of students you can get.
And most of them only want an hour of your time.
Idea #5
So it's a good idea to find another way to sell something of value to your clients as well.
As I was able to make most guitars sound better by tuning them up.
I decided to offer this as a service and take their guitars home with me after they had a lesson.
So it's all about finding that win-win for your clients.
Idea #6
The next side hustle is dropshipping and it's great for anyone that is good with computers and the internet.
Dropshipping is where you advertise someone else's product and send them to an online store.
Then the manufacturer sends out the product directly to your customer.
You physically don't have to touch the product, which is great.
Some might argue that dropshipping is terrible and adds zero value to society.
Now let me explain, while dropshipping probably won’t make you a millionaire like the online gurus selling courses are going to tell you, the market is extremely competitive.
The profit margins are low and it's not a great long-term business model but I still think it's worth doing as it's a great way to learn how to run a business with very little startup costs.
You can treat it as kind of a trial run where you jump in at the deep end of an extremely competitive market.
It might take a while to make a profit but the skills you are learning along the way are going to be worth so much more to you.
In fact, they're going to be worth more to you than the money you'll probably make.
Many traditional brick and mortar stores have no clue how to use social media to boost their business and they are being bought out by younger entrepreneurs who have developed these skills, which they can then leverage to make the business more profitable and move forward into the digital world.
So think of dropshipping like a video game, the more you play it, the better you'll get and the more valuable skills you'll learn.
Phase 3: 22~29 Years Old
Okay here we are: phase three.
This is the age group between 22 and 29 years old, the side hustle target for this would be anywhere from $500 to $1,500 a month.
Your main focus at this point would be to maximize the value of the skills you had mastered previously.
People have called this working in your genius zone.
To put it in simpler terms, it is basically where your greatest passion meets your natural talents, and you can capitalize on your innate abilities.
Idea #7
This is you working smartly for the next decade and now that you are 22 years old, you can start investing that extra money long-term instead of spending it.
For example, if you just put $250 per month into a simple low cost index fund, at 7% average return per year, then by the age of 65, you'll have $1.1 million dollars.
And the money you put in is just a small part of your side hustle income.
So it won't affect your day to day life.
The key here is to look at the skillset you've been building up over the last few years and think about how you can level them up and charge more.
Idea #8
If we are talking about the previous idea, which is dropshipping, then maybe you upgrade to selling your own products or running social media marketing adverts for other businesses.
You can get paid a lot for helping other businesses with their social media marketing.
It's just by hiring you, they're actually going to be making more money instead of losing it.
You effectively pay your own wages because you can charge higher prices.
One foolproof way to get your first client is to offer to work for them for free for a few weeks and use your skills to boost their sales.
And then they're less likely to say no when you ask them to start paying you for your skills.
Even if they do say no, you can go to another business.
You can say, look what I did for them.
I can do that for you too.
And the great thing about this is you can do it all from the comfort of your own home in your spare time.
Idea #9
Or maybe you ran a YouTube channel when you were younger, you can then upgrade and become a graphic designer or a video editor.
I’ve got a friend who’s an engineer in the US and he runs his own graphic design workshop teaching people the skills they need to be an excellent graphic designer.
He is booked out for every workshop he host in the past.
Graphic design talents are in high demand and will always be needed.
And while there are many design agencies and studios already out there, you can definitely find work as a new freelancer.
Most small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations need the services of a talented designer, but they may not be able to afford an agency.
As an independent freelancer with no overhead costs, you can offer your services at affordable rates and still earn an excellent hourly rate.
And as you gain more experience and have more demand for your services, you can raise your prices and increase your income.
And we all like a little bit extra cash, don’t we?
Idea #10
Now, a great way to use this extra income to create another side hustle would be saving up for a down payment on a duplex house and getting a mortgage.
This is called house hacking.
It's one of the fastest ways to increase your net worth when you're in your twenties.
A duplex has two separate living areas.
And the idea is that you're able to rent out one side of the house and live in the other.
By doing this, the other person pays a part of your mortgage for you.
This means you could end up with a completely free house when the mortgage is paid off and you also have a place to stay in for free and all the money you would've been paying on rent you can use to invest instead.
Phase 4: 30 Years Old And Above
Now the last phase, or phase four is for those 30 years old and older.
The key thing here would be shifting your side hustles to become more passive as your investment capital would be larger by this age.
Therefore, you would be able to capitalize on bigger and better opportunities that you come across.
Plus, at this age, you would probably value your time more than your money, as you would be able to spend more quality bonding time with your loved ones.
At this point, the largest side hustle amount would be $1,500 to $3,000 a month.
Idea #11
One of the most prominent side hustles would be real estate investing, as you would have deeper pockets by this age compared to during your teens.
Property investing can earn you the largest side hustle income.
When you first buy a rental property, there is likely a lot of work and renovation to be done.
You can use your spare time to fix it up manually.
Anything you have limited knowledge on, you can just search for on YouTube as there’s really nothing that you can’t learn.
An alternative to this would be hiring a professional to fix up the house, but when you are starting off, it is always better to do it yourself to be more profitable.
Not to mention it can be a fun and rewarding experience.
Another benefit of property investing is the ability to be paid years after you put in the upfront work.
Idea #12
By your 30s, I am sure you would have gained lots of knowledge that is valuable to other people.
So you could use this to coach in areas that you're super confident in.
This could be anything from swimming to public speaking, to playing an instrument.
There's a market out there for coaching everything that you can think of.
The key here is to do this one to many online, rather than one-to-one as you're able to help more people and not sell your time.
To do this you create a digital product or you could create a YouTube channel that helps people for free.
Just like I've done.
By working your way through all of these levels.
You'll have a massive array of skills, multiple rental properties, digital products and a huge investment portfolio.
When you reach this level you'd have passed the tipping point where your side hustles are bringing in more than your day job.
This means your money is working for you and not the other way around.
And this is what the truly rich have known and done for years.
- Ivan