The 10 BEST Side Hustles - How I Make $10,000 / Month

What's up, Graham? It's guys here. So, I'll be honest; not only have I seen every single side hustle video imaginable on YouTube, but I've also tried nearly every single one of those options throughout the last 12 years.

And let me tell you, even though I failed miserably at creating my own Amazon ebook that sold the grand total of five copies, some other side hustles were incredibly rewarding and wound up making quite a lot of money. In fact, I still do many of these side hustles today because they take next to no time, they're extremely profitable, and almost anybody could do them at any age to make an extra $20 to $200 a day without having to resort to signing up for clinical drug trials, selling your kidneys for beer money, scalping tickets, or having to resort to an MLM on the weekends.

So, without further ado, these are my top 10 favorite side hustles from the sea of side hustle options out there. And guaranteed, if you watch until the very end, you'll be able to incorporate a few of these ideas as soon as the video is over.

Although, before we start, the best side hustle ever is by smashing the subscribe button and signing up for my weekly video recap newsletter because I post a lot of videos. And if you want all the information condensed down into an easy-to-read post, I got you with the link in the description. So, thank you guys so much for doing that, and with that said, let's begin.

Alright, so to start things off, we're going to begin with the basics of creating a second source of income. The quickest one that almost everyone could begin implementing immediately is dividend income. Of course, you might be thinking to yourself, "But Graham, dividend income isn’t a side hustle, that’s just sweet, sweet passive income."

And that's somewhat true, but the purpose of a side hustle is to create multiple sources of income, of which this one is probably the easiest to do right now. Here's how this works: anytime you go and buy a stock, what you're really buying into is a small piece of ownership in the company.

And when that company posts a profit, sometimes they'll pay you back a portion of what they make in the form of a dividend. As a few examples, it's reported that the average dividend in the financial sector is 4.1%, utility companies pay about 3.9%, and others like consumer goods, healthcare, and industrial pay about 2.2%.

That means if you invest $100 into one of those stocks, you could make anywhere from $2 to $4 a year for doing absolutely nothing besides clicking a few buttons on your phone. Now, this one, of course, I get it; it technically takes money to make money, so I'll cover plenty of other free options shortly for everyone else starting out with zero.

But if you have the income and you don't mind investing it, then dividends could make a fantastic side hustle. And trust me, once you start, you're not going to want to stop.

The second, since we've just talked about dividend income, it would be irresponsible of me not to talk about the other income source that goes hand in hand with stocks, and that would be capital gains. This is what happens when you sell your investment, like a dividend stock, for a profit.

And the amount you pay tax on is what's known as your capital gains. For example, if you buy a stock for $10 and you sell it for $25, that means you'll pay tax on the $15 profit, and that will be reported to the IRS as another source of income. They’re always watching.

It's also another way that you can make money by investing in stocks because not all stocks pay dividends. Instead, many stocks are known as growth stocks because what they don't pay out as a dividend gets reinvested back into the company, pushing up the stock price even higher.

It would be like buying a $100 stock, and instead of it paying you a 5% dividend every year, the stock price goes up by 5% a year. At the end of the day, it's almost the exact same thing, except you're not going to be taxed on the value of the stock going up until you sell, unlike dividends, where you'll have to pay tax each and every year depending on how much money you make.

Not only that, but the capital gains tax rate is generally much lower on investments that you've held longer than a year than on unqualified capital gains. So, use that to your advantage, especially if you're young and not making a lot of money.

This is why most wealthy investors prefer growth stocks as another source of income, because not only are they not getting taxed each and every year, but they have complete control in terms of how much and when they sell to lock in those sweet, sweet long-term capital gains tax rates.

And third, before we go into the free options, there's one more that could potentially make you a lot of money depending on how involved you want to be, and that would be rental income. Now, I don't think you need to buy a property with 20% down in a highly competitive market with all cash investors to make this work, even though that is an option.

But with this, it's entirely possible to make money with absolutely nothing out of pocket, even if you don't own your own property. Here's the thing: yes, if you buy a property, rent it out, and make a monthly profit, you're doing well.

But for people just starting out without a ton of cash to buy a home, you could make quite a lot of money by renting out an unused bedroom or some extra storage space, like a garage. My own podcast co-host Jack just recently put up one of his extra bedrooms on Airbnb to make some extra money, and he wound up making an extra $100 a night just for taking on the occasional guest.

I've also seen people rent out a portion of their entire garage for anywhere from $200 to $500 a month, which is cheaper than a storage unit and sometimes works way better for your neighbor down the street who wants an extra parking spot for their 1994 McLaren F1.

And best of all, even if you rent your home, as long as your lease agreement allows for additional tenants, you could use this exact same strategy to offset your own cost of living. I've had so many friends rent out a four to five-bedroom house for $4,000 a month, only to sublease those bedrooms for $1,500 a month each, giving them a free place to stay.

So, my thinking is this: if you have the interest to work with other people, or living with a roommate or renting out some unused spaces, do it! But just be aware that it's not going to be 100% passive, and there will probably be a learning curve until you make more consistent income.

Now, fourth, for anybody who doesn't have extra money but you want to make money without having to spend money, I have the perfect solution for you, and that would be selling stuff you already own. Now, I understand this requires that you actually have to own something to begin with to sell it, but I would venture to say that almost all of us have something we do not use that's collecting dust in the closet that could be sold for money.

Places like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist make it extremely easy to list whatever you have, place it up for auction, have the buyer cover shipping, and your total time commitment is simply taking pictures of what you have, listing it online, writing a description, and then waiting for it to sell.

And worst case, even if it doesn't sell, you're not out any money, and you still get to keep what you already have. Of course, the downside here is that it's not a sustainable side hustle, and there's only so much you could sell before eventually you're living in an empty apartment, sleeping on $100 bills.

But at the very least, it's a good place to start. You'll get paid for things you already have, and it'll free up space for more activities. Plus, it's something that probably 90% of you watching could begin doing immediately, and then you could use that cash towards other areas like investments, dividend stocks, and this next one we're about to mention.

After that, fifth, if you want a guaranteed side hustle without all the responsibilities of managing a side hustle, some people are not going to be happy for me to say this, but you should get a part-time job. I sound so old when I say that! I'm just surprised how complicated people want to make this out to be or how it's glamorized to bootstrapping your own way to making $5 an hour because you're doing it for yourself.

Honestly, working for someone else gives you guaranteed income, predetermined hours, and zero risk of not getting paid, unless your boss is terrible. But you know what, that’s besides the point. So, traditionally, if you want to earn a little extra money, part-time work is generally the first thing that comes to mind.

It doesn't need to be glamorous and it doesn't have to pay you an exorbitant amount, but if you're willing to do some extra work for a local business, work for somebody else, or do some work after normal hours, evenings, or weekends, then look for potential options within your city.

Check Craigslist, LinkedIn, Monster.com, Facebook Meta, or any other job sites to see what's available. And with record high job openings, chances are you're more leveraged than you think. Now, this might also include driving for DoorDash, delivering groceries, washing dishes at a local restaurant, or subscribing, if you haven't done that already.

But regardless, there's no shame in an honest day's work, and for anyone looking to make some extra money with absolutely zero risk, this is the way to do it.

The sixth— even though this one takes significantly more work and it's pretty much the exact opposite of our last option, it could also be very financially rewarding, and that would be starting your own business. I seriously think this is one of the most underutilized income sources that enough people don't take advantage of.

Because working any type of side business independent from your main job is not only a good way to make more money, but also diversify yourself in the event that something happens, and you need something to fall back on. I just want you to think about this and ask yourself, what do you do between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and midnight every single night?

That is 6 hours a day, or almost another entire full workday on top of a normal workday that most people just completely let go to waste. If you want to get ahead or you want to make more money, use this time and let it count! As an example, this channel for the first 2 years was my side hustle that I would do after 6:00 p.m. until probably 1:00 in the morning almost every single night.

I did that for years until eventually I went full-time because I enjoyed it so much. But that wouldn't have happened at all had I not used my nights doing something that I was really excited about. This will put you so much further ahead in the future; you'll get some really good experience, and what do you have to lose besides the evenings? You’re probably watching Netflix anyway.

The seventh, if you don't want the obligation of running your own business or the time commitment of agreeing to do a part-time job, but you still want to make fat stacks of cash without a lot of work, consider doing focus groups. This is something I did throughout my early 20s when I had the extra time, and I would make anywhere from $5 to $500 for a few minutes to a few hours' worth of work during a time when I wasn't doing anything anyway.

Now, for anyone not familiar with what this is or how this works, companies want your opinion on their upcoming products or services so that once they go to market, they know exactly what the consumer wants. To do this, they rely on focus groups to get unbiased feedback on what they have to offer, and then they can make adjustments accordingly.

The payout for these usually ranges depending on how long it's for, whether or not it's online or in person, or how niche of a demographic they're looking for. But most of the time, if you qualify, it's worth it to do it. This certainly is not meant to replace your income or anything, and I bet someone like Elon Musk isn’t raging to his friends about how he made $200 doing a 30-minute survey.

But if you want to make a little extra money on the side working just a few hours a month, this is absolutely a good way to do that. Now, WTH, we're going full Gary Vee on this one, and that would be flipping items for free online.

And the best part about this is that you need $0 to start. For example, go to Craigslist and under the for sale section you'll see a word "free." Click that, and it's items that people are just giving away. Now, yes, most of the time it's junk, and it's not like people are giving away Steinway pianos.

But if you look long enough, eventually you'll find something that's worth money that the owners just don't have time to properly sell. For example, here's a leather couch for free, here's a coffee maker perfect for coffee, now for sale at bankrcoffee.com for free, here's a literal grand piano from the same manufacturer that I paid $16,000 for, for free.

This is all something that the right person would pay money for with the proper advertising. So if you have the ability to pick up these items, move them, store them, and wait for the right buyer to come along, you can make some pretty decent money. And worst case, even if no one buys it, you could just repost it back on Craigslist for free and let someone else take care of it.

Ninth, this one would have to be my favorite; it's how I got started in my own personal finance journey, and it's absolutely the opposite of anything Dave Ramsey would ever suggest, and that would be credit card churning. This is the practice in which you sign up for a credit card and then meet the minimum spend to get the sign-up bonus.

Generally, these offers range anywhere from $100 to $300 on the low end, all the way up to $1,500 or more for some of the high-end luxury credit cards. But regardless, doing this takes next to no time, long-term it could help your credit score, and let's be real: who doesn't like getting free stuff?

The easiest way to do this is super simple. Websites like NerdWallet and The Points Guy will give you updated lists every single week on the latest credit card offers ranging from $200 back with Wells Fargo to 150,000 bonus points on Marriott to thousands of dollars worth of free travel on the AMEX Platinum.

From there, all you need to do is put your normal everyday spending on the credit card, pay it off in full by the end of the month, and get free money for items you would have been purchasing anyway. This is something that I've been doing now for over 10 years, and it's allowed me to travel anywhere I want to go for free.

And as a side hustle, this is something that could easily make you anywhere from $100 to $500 a month for probably 10 to 30 minutes worth of work. For anyone who wants to learn more on exactly how to do this, all you got to do is Google or YouTube "credit card churning," and there are some fantastic resources out there that will walk you through every step along the way.

Finally, my 10th favorite is to monetize one of your skills. The thing is, if you're good at something, or if you have a unique skill, like calculus, building websites, or being the first to hit the like button on a video, learn to turn that into a business.

For example, if you're good at playing the piano, look into giving piano lessons, or if you're good at math, English, science, or history, look into becoming a tutor. Or you could do what I've done from time to time, which is do YouTube consulting in terms of growing other people's channels.

Now, unfortunately, this isn't something I could give you specific guidance on because it really depends on what you're good at. But think about what you have to offer and then reach out to other people who could use those services. This is something that anybody could start with no money out of pocket, and the only cost is your time.

So, from every side hustle that I've talked about in the past, these ones are by far my top 10 favorite to make extra money with the least amount of work possible. After all, studies show that the more income sources you have, the more money you tend to make.

So, start small, pick and choose the ones you feel best fit your schedule, and then subscribe and hit the like button if you haven't done that already. So, thank you guys so much for watching. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram and on my brand new video recap weekly newsletter that takes all of these videos, condenses them down into one weekly readable thing.

And anyway, just add yourself to that; the link is down below in the description. Thank you guys so much for watching, and until next time!