2672: 4 Reasons To Make Extra Money - It Changed My Life And It Can Change Yours Too! by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Finance Daily, Episode 2672.

[00:01:04] Four reasons to make extra money. It changed my life and it can change yours too

[00:01:09] by Michelle Schroeder, Gardener of MakingSense.com

[00:01:13] And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Merriam.

[00:01:17] Now let's get right to today's post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:23] Four reasons to make extra money. It changed my life and it can change yours too

[00:01:29] by Michelle Schroeder, Gardener of MakingSense.com

[00:01:34] Here on MakingSense of Sense we talk a lot about making extra money

[00:01:39] While I'm all about a person cutting their expenses, this is one of our main goals this year.

[00:01:44] There's a lot to be said about using your extra time to make extra money.

[00:01:48] Due to my past side hustles, most of which now compromise my full-time business,

[00:01:53] I was able to pay off my student loans completely, travel, quit my job, start my own business and more.

[00:02:00] Side hustles have completely changed my life for the better

[00:02:03] and this is why I think more people need to look into making extra money on their own.

[00:02:07] Even if you think you don't have enough time to make extra money,

[00:02:11] I'm sure you have at least a few hours each week.

[00:02:14] Dedicating something as little as a few hours each week can still mean enough time to make extra money each week.

[00:02:21] Here are four reasons you should be making extra money.

[00:02:25] Number one, extra income can be used towards debt.

[00:02:29] Debt was my main motivator for making extra money.

[00:02:32] While I made a good salary at my day job, it wasn't enough to where I could continue to live the life I wanted to

[00:02:38] as well as pay off my debt quickly.

[00:02:40] I didn't want to be buried in debt forever, so paying it off quickly was a big goal of mine.

[00:02:45] I realized the only way I could pay off my debt quickly was to build up my extra income streams.

[00:02:51] Making extra money definitely helped with my debt goal.

[00:02:54] I was able to pay thousands of dollars extra each month from my side income streams.

[00:02:59] While that may seem impossible to you, I promise it's not.

[00:03:03] I've had many people email me to tell me they too thought it was impossible until they worked hard towards their side hustles.

[00:03:10] In fact, I recently received an email from a reader who paid off 25,000 of their student loan debt in less than one year due to side hustles.

[00:03:18] They thought it was impossible but then they realized that they could do it too.

[00:03:23] Number two, you can reach a financial goal quicker if you make extra money.

[00:03:28] Are you trying to reach any financial goals?

[00:03:30] Maybe you want to save money for a vacation, build up your emergency fund, add to your home down payment fund or reach retirement quicker.

[00:03:38] Whatever your goal may be, making extra money can help you reach your financial goals faster.

[00:03:43] Like I said earlier, cutting your budget is great but making more money is even better.

[00:03:49] Earning extra money can allow you to save more money.

[00:03:52] This is because you can only cut your budget by so much, whereas you can grow your income by an endless amount.

[00:03:58] What I like about earning extra money is that you can use all of your side money and throw it out a goal.

[00:04:04] This way you aren't really missing your money as much as it's all extra anyways.

[00:04:09] Number three, you can test out a business idea when making extra money.

[00:04:14] If you're interested in starting a business, you might want to think about first starting it as a side business.

[00:04:19] This can be a great idea because you can fully test the waters of your new business on the side while still having the stability from your full-time day job.

[00:04:27] You can see whether you like your business idea, whether it will truly work out if you can make an income from it and more.

[00:04:34] I know firsthand about this.

[00:04:36] My side hustles turned into my full-time business.

[00:04:39] While I didn't start my side jobs thinking that they would eventually turn into a business,

[00:04:43] it was a great way to start as I was able to keep my day job income and benefits while seeing if it would work.

[00:04:50] It took a lot of stress away.

[00:04:53] And number four, making extra money can help you diversify your income.

[00:04:58] Do you ever feel too reliant on one source of income?

[00:05:01] Maybe you're afraid that one day you may lose your job or that something will happen to your main source of income.

[00:05:07] If you work towards building up side income streams and diversifying your income,

[00:05:11] then you won't really have to worry about one of your income streams having a bad month or completely disappearing.

[00:05:17] By diversifying your income with multiple income streams, you'll have a backup plan.

[00:05:26] You just listen to the post titled,

[00:05:28] Four Reasons to Make Extra Money.

[00:05:30] It changed my life and it can change yours too.

[00:05:33] By Michelle Schroeder Gardner of MakingSenseofSense.com

[00:05:36] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:06:53] The key to saving money and building wealth is to increase the gap between your income and expenses.

[00:06:59] So it's well worth your time to consider how you could go about doing both.

[00:07:03] I think all of us have unique skills, preferences, and circumstances that we can leverage to spend less and make more.

[00:07:11] When I was leaving my full-time job, I came up with a list of 14 potential streams of income that I could explore that were pretty unique to me.

[00:07:19] When I shared it, I received some feedback that some of these ideas would be difficult for others to replicate.

[00:07:25] But I think the point in sharing was to explore the thought process that helped me come up with those ideas.

[00:07:32] We're all creative and I think tapping into your own creativity to come up with ways to make money can be far more beneficial in the long run than trying to replicate someone else's strategy.

[00:07:43] But don't get me wrong, you can get a lot of inspiration from others and the options are seemingly endless.

[00:07:49] The gig economy is flourishing thanks to easy access to technology and a new way to make money seems to pop up every day.

[00:07:57] One of my favorite authors on this topic is Kevin Ha, who writes a blog called The Financial Panther.

[00:08:04] Check out his post called the ultimate list of gig economy apps if you're looking for more ideas. It's incredibly comprehensive.

[00:08:12] And that will do it for today, have a great day and start to your weekend and I'll be back here tomorrow as usual where optimal life awaits.