Having a successful side hustle can create an opportunity to take an early retirement or just quit your 9-5. Corporate life has gotten increasingly difficult in recent years with frequent layoffs, unreasonable bosses, toxic work cultures, and every other type of nonsense. It’s no wonder people are bailing out to pursue the freedom and profitability of a successful side hustle.
I am a perfect example of this. I was able to retire early from my Corporate job at the age of just 58. That’s at least 7 years earlier than I would have normally retired at the age of 65.
That was a sweet feeling, I’ll tell you. The reason I was able to retire so early was because I had started my own successful side hustle years earlier.
Out of all my co-workers, I was the youngest person I knew to be able to retire.
How I Engineered my early retirement
In a way, I didn’t actually retire. I basically QUIT to run my own business. But we are calling it a “retirement” since I had earned retirement benefits after nearly 30 years with the company.
The nice thing is that after a total of 40 years of punching a time clock and reporting to a boss, I am free every day to do exactly what I want. What an awesome feeling!
I’ve been running my side hustle since about 2013. (I actually don’t care for the name side hustle – it always sounds like I’m running a con game or something). Diversifying your income stream is very smart, so I’ve run a variety of lifestyle blogs and online businesses – including my current combo of Your Fairy Techmother and Your Fairy Debtmother, plus my travel blog – Adrian’s Crazy Life.
My Retirement Surprised Even Me
I hadn’t actually planned to retire as early as I did, but the one thing I always promised myself was that if I ever got to the point where I was truly unhappy at work, I’d find a way out. I’ve seen too many people just marking time and going through the motions in their last years before retirement. Maybe you are to that point in your life too, or getting there?
It was actually pretty sad. I really loved my job. I had a great group, a great boss, enjoyed my work, and I was a top performer in my division. They even treated me to a special trip to New Orleans to celebrate being named as one of the top 1% of the company. But things always change. The great boss left, to be replaced with a horrible boss. The great group started to fall apart – my friends were reassigned, retired, were laid off, or just quit.
Having a side hustle in your back pocket can save you from a miserable situation in at work where you’re truly unhappy. A toxic boss or a terrible work environment can have as great an impact on your mental health as a divorce or any other significant life event.
The weird thing is that the whole company seemed to shift about that time. All my friends in other departments were just as unhappy as I was. But the difference was that most of them were just stuck there because they were 100% dependent on their 9-5 income. I wasn’t, because I had been building an additional source of income and job skills that were completely separate from my Corporate job.
Decades of Double-Duty
That doesn’t imply that it was all totally easy. I worked a string of small businesses over the years, some more successful than others I was an Ebay seller for several years. I sold rubber stamps and scrapbooking supplies. Then I sold Pampered Chef products and did lots of work on Fiverr before I started my blogs and my consulting business.
Finally, some success! At last, I’d gotten to the point where I was making enough money to consider it a successful business. But it was definitely not an overnight success.
And I was also raising 3 children during these times. Once the kids were in bed, I’d work for several hours before bed. I had my kids late, so I was 40 with a very hyperactive 2 year old, a 12 year old, and a teenager while working a full-time job plus my business. It’s a wonder I didn’t lose my mind!
As I hadn’t even thought about retirement at this point, there was another strong motivation for working such long hours. I have some strong anxiety around money, and one of the things I hated most was that completely broke “day before payday” feeling. You know, where you are trying to stretch out your gas or scavenge through the pantry for meals because you are waiting for your paycheck to show up. HATED THAT!
I haven’t felt like that for years because with a business like mine, I have money showing up every few days. I’ll wake up sometimes to find out I’ve earned $50 or $100 overnight (that’s the BEST feeling!).
Or a new client signing up with me can create an instant raise of hundreds of dollars. That certainly wasn’t happening in the Corporate world.
Why You Need a Side Business Even if you Aren’t Ready to Retire
As in my case, having my own side business gave me some options. It gave us extra money for paying off bills, for taking vacations, for paying for our kids college and trade schools – all debt free. That would not have been possible without our side hustle income. My husband also had a side hustle of mowing lawns and doing handyman work on the weekends. It was hard for both of us, but we wanted better options for our sons.
My side hustle allowed me to leave my job when I was burnt out, discouraged, and just DONE with Corporate life. It gave us extra tax write-offs, especially for my failed business attempts. If nothing else, it just opened up my mind that sitting at a desk working a boring job until I was 65 was not my only option.
Yes, it was a lot of extra work. But it’s time when I would’ve just been watching TV anyway. So I watched TV AND worked on my laptop.
Most of my work was all done online, from the comfort of my own home.
Even when our sons were younger, I still managed to arrange my time off to go on field trips, to help with their Scout activities, to do fun things with them on the weekends. I even did some homeschooling with our youngest who needed some special help. Anything is possible if you want to make it work badly enough.
And think about it. What would an extra $500 a month do for you? An extra $1,000? How much money would you have to make before you could give up YOUR boring job?
I know MANY people who are making $5,000 – $10,000 a month with their side hustles. Of course, I also know plenty of folks who work their hind ends off, and don’t make a dang dime!
You definitely have to be smart, hard-working, talented, and have a certain amount of LUCK.
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How Can You Start Your Own Side Hustle?
These days, side business options are as numerous as grains of sand on a beach. People have found ways to turn just about any skill or hobby into a successful business. There are hundreds of blog posts or magazine articles on side businesses and how to start a business of your own.
In fact, my freebie for this site is 20 Profitable Side Hustles You Can Start THIS WEEKEND. Get your copy here.
