Investing Your Side Hustle Income: Tips for Maximizing Your Returns

If you're anything like us, you have a day job, plus a side hustle (or two) going. Maybe it's selling handmade pottery on Etsy, pet sitting, or teaching yoga on the weekends. Maybe you're doing pretty good, but you want to make that money work for you. If you`re really like us, you've probably thought about investing that extra income, but where? How you can use the extra cash to improve your investment portfolio?

(Just a little disclaimer here: we are not financial advisors. Please do your own research and consult a professional before making any investment decisions. This is just some advice from one side-hustler to another.)

Get Educated

The first step to investing any of your hard-earned money is knowing what you want do with it. Sure, you can put it in a mutual fund and hope for the best, but that's not exactly maximizing your returns. If you haven't already, take some time to educate yourself about investing. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos (from the pros, not the influeners) and get accustomed to the landscape.

One easy thing you can do is move your savings into a higher-yield savings account such as wealthfront. Many of the big banks offer the convenience of keeping your savings and checking account under one roof, but if you look closely the savings accounts might be paying you a fraction of what you could get with a smaller, high-yield savings account.

The internet is your friend here, but be careful. once you start down the rabbit hole of personal finance blogs, you may never emerge.

As Warren Buffett once said:

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

Don't be caught off-guard with your investments. Do your research and approach the game wisely.

Embrace the Side Hustle Mentality

One of the things that sets us side hustlers apart from the rest of the pack is our drive to make more money. As we always say, if this were easy everyone would do it. We're not willing to settle for just one income stream and we need to carry that same mentality to investment.

Find ways to diversify your portfolio beyond traditional stocks and bonds. Invest in alternative assets like real estate or cryptocurrency.

(Of course, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversification is key. But don't be afraid to think outside the box.)

As Robert Kiyosaki, the author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad," once said:

"The key to financial freedom and great wealth is a person's ability or skill to convert earned income into passive income and/or portfolio income."

Embrace the side hustle mentality and find ways to make your money work harder for you.

Automate Your Investing

Let`s be honest: It's easy to forget to invest our hard-earned money when there are bills to pay, snacks to buy and Instagram posts to scroll through. But prioritizing investments can yield huge returns in the long run.

So, how do you make sure you don't neglecting your investments? Automate them. Set up automatic contributions to your IRA or 401(k), or use apps like Acorn or Robinhood to invest your spare change automatically.

(This is also a great way to dollar-cost average your investments. That's finance-speak for "buying stocks on a regular schedule, regardless of the price.")

As Jim Rohn, the motivational speaker and author, once said,

"Don't let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action."

Take action and automate your investments.

Key Takeaways

Investing your side hustle income can be a smart move for your financial future. To recap our tips:

• Get educated on investing.
• Embrace the side hustle mentality and diversify your portfolio.
• Automate your investments to make sure you're not neglecting them.

(And, as always, consult a professional before making any investment decisions.)

So, go forth and invest, our fellow side hustlers! Who knows? Maybe one day we'll all be able to retire on passive income from our days making pottery for our Etsy shops.