Why a side hustle can be a bad use of your time.
Opportunity cost, taxes and diminishing returns
Spend five minutes on Medium, and you’ll easily come across dozens of articles trying to convince you that everyone should have a side hustle, multiple income streams and a diversified skill set. No matter what our skills, employment situation or current income is, we should all be doing more.
This way of thinking seems to be ingrained in the millennial way of living, especially in the US. Perhaps is because I’m not American, or not quite a millennial (I am apparently a Xennial, born in the very late 70s demographic lull between Gen-X and the Millenials), but I think the relevance of the side hustle deserves to be questioned. In many cases, the hustle may not be worth the hassle.
The opportunity cost of the side hustle
Whether your side husltle is driving an Uber, writing on Medium or making crochet socks to sell on Etsy, it pretty much all comes down to trading some of your time for money. There is nothing wrong with that, it’s basic economics. By definition, your side hustle earns you (far) less money than than your primary source of income; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a side hustle anymore.
