Are Your Side Hustles Paying You What You’re Worth?

Not all side income jobs are same. Some may not be worth it as they take more effort than the money you earn.Here's a way to assess them
assess if a side income job is worth your time

I’ve always been a firm believer in the make more money mantra as opposed to the cutting expenses to the bone when it comes to building wealth. Even within the make more money crowd I’ve seen numerous side hustles that are done for the sake of making more money, with no regards for the time spent to make this money.

Tell me, if you are earning Rs.50,000 a month, would you take up a side hustle that pays you Rs.500 for 16 hours of work?

Of course not! This is peanuts compared to what you earn. You are better off spending this 16 hours with your family or on other ventures.

Time vs Money trade off

Time is your most valuable asset. It’s an asset that can never be replenished. To most, time is more valuable than money itself, as time cannot be earned. It can be bought, but let’s discuss that another day.

I’ve seen people who have a full time job spend numerous additional hours on their side hustles and earning passive income. This is time that is spent away from family, away from entertainment and self.

I have come across a ton of examples in the past where some side income streams such as Pi Coin Mining, Google Opinions etc give you a decent payoff for the few minutes work. While the same cannot be said of examples such as Phoneum or Freebitco.in.

So you need a way to asses your effort, risk and returns.

When you calculate the amount of hours worked to earn that income it sometimes comes out to barely above minimum wage. If your side income jobs barely make above minimum wage you will never get ahead. There’s only 168 hours in a week, that is not an efficient usage of your time.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to assess if your side hustle jobs are worth your time and energy.

Assess side income job’s worth

Before you start any side hustles you should ask yourself these three questions:

  1. How much is my time worth
  2. How long will this take?
  3. Am I getting paid enough?
  4. Can a 15 year old do this task?

How much is my time worth?

Do a simple calculation on how much you currently make on your main job. How many hours do you spend to make this money?

Eg: Say you are paid Rs.50,000 per month for working 5 days a week, 9 hours a day. Then, considering 21 working days in a week, you make about Rs.265 per hour.

Now, your side income jobs should be generating a lot more than Rs.265/hour. Simply because, you are already giving the most of your time in your regular job. The remaining time is precious and is a lot more valuable.

How long will this take?

Think how long the job is going to take. Will it impact your family time, work and life balance and regular job?

If the side job is going to be an issue to any of these then it probably is not worth it.

Am I getting paid enough?

Having calculated your hourly worth and knowing how long the side hustle is going to take, now see if you are getting paid enough to do the job.

In some cases, you may be learning a lot or networking. So, not everything will be about money in these cases. Consider these soft benefits as well.

Can a 14 year old do this task?

This is my final question. If what you are going to do pays well, but can be easily done by a 14 year old school kid, then there are several inferences from this:

  • The task is easy and you don’t have much to learn or grow as a skill
  • It can be automated in the future
  • or it can be given to someone who charges cheaper, probably that 14 year old kid looking for pocket money

So ask these questions to decide if it is in your best interest to pursue that side hustle to make money

If the answer to these questions is not in your favor, then it is probably not worth taking up the side income job.

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