Financial Literacy

Hi everyone, welcome back to Express Yourself Teen Radio, and today we are going to be focusing on one of the trendiest topics in personal finance, side hustles.

I mean, side hustles are absolutely everywhere.

You open TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, and within approximately 30 seconds, someone is going to appear on your screen and say, here are five side hustles you can start today with no money, no experience, no effort, and no need to leave your bed.

And I always think to myself, wow, that sounds incredible.

I mean, according to the internet, we could all be waking up at 5 a.m., selling digital planners, managing seven anonymous social media accounts, and making passive income while we sleep.

Meanwhile, in my experience, most teenagers are still trying to remember whether the homework was due at 11.59 p.m. or during class.

So today I want to investigate side hustles honestly.

What are they? Why have they become so popular? Which side hustles are actually good idea for teenagers and which ones pay far less than they appear to? Which ones are simply scams? I think we should begin with the most basic question.

What is a side hustle? A side hustle is a way of earning money outside of your primary job or responsibility.

For adults, that might mean working a full-time job during the week and delivering food or freelancing, tutoring, or selling products on the weekend.

For teenagers, your primary responsibility is usually school, or I would hope it's school.

A teen side hustle might include babysitting, tutoring, pet sitting, selling clothes online, editing videos, mowing lawns, creating art, coaching younger athletes, or managing social media accounts.

I mean, decades ago, teenagers delivered newspapers and washed cars and shoveled snow and babysat their neighbors' children.

Today, teenagers still do those things, but now they can also resell vintage clothing online, edit TikTok videos, or teach virtual lessons.

Social media also constantly shows us people claiming to earn enormous amounts from very little work.

As a result, side hustles have become more visible and much more glamorized.

Federal Reserve data based on 2024 activity found that 13% of adults earn money by selling things, while 9% earn money through short-term tasks, such as deliveries, rides, or odd jobs.

students were especially likely to participate.

30% reported doing some form of gig work.

Most people doing gig activities spent relatively little time on them, with 70% reporting fewer than five hours per week.

So the side hustle economy is real.

However, the version presented online is often pretty misleading.

A video may be titled, how I made $10,000 in one month selling digital products.

But the person might not mention that they already had 500,000 followers, spent three years building an audience, paid for these advertisements, hired an editor and made most of the $10,000 by selling a course explaining how to make $10,000.

Why are side hustles rising then? Well, I think there are a bunch of reasons.