9 Side Hustles That Are — and Aren’t — Worth It, According to Rachel Cruze and George Kamel
Written by
Nicholas Morine
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Jenna Klaverweiden
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Rachel Cruze and George Kamel are famous in the finance world for their concise and digestible budgeting and investment advice as delivered via a number of Ramsey Solutions media channels.
During a recent episode of “Smart Money Happy Hour,” Cruze and Kamel sat down to enjoy a cocktail of their choice while discussing some of the best — and one of the worst — side hustles to consider.
Instacart Shopper
Kamel kicked things off with a humorous story about his recent experience as an Instacart shopper, stating that he’d done so for about five hours as a test run. While he did say that many of the experiences were “horrific,” he also ended his tale by stating that he made about $149 for five hours of work, or about $30 per hour.
When questioned by Cruze as to whether he’d recommend it, he stated it was in fact a good side hustle, comparing it favorably to being an Uber driver or similar.
Real Estate Investment (Short-Term)
Both Kamel and Cruze were critical of the notion of attempting real estate investments (as a landlord or as a Vrbo or Airbnb entrepreneur) as a get-rich-quick scheme, enumerating risks or headwinds, such as maintenance, pest control, etc.
“With real estate, you make your money at the buy, keep it — and then it gets equity, and then you sell it in 20 years. But this whole idea of month-to-month … it ends up not being a ton … versus doing something else where you are making a ton of money. So it’s a little too good to be true in that way,” Cruze said.
“And it takes a lot of money, and if you’re doing it largely with debt, you’re putting yourself in a serious bind. There’s tons of risk by going ‘I’m going to put nothing down on this,'” Kamel said.
House-Sitting, Babysitting and Pet-Sitting
Cruze called for the audience to consider simpler times in which those looking for a bit of extra cash might help out with “easy” but necessary chores, notably house-sitting, babysitting and pet-sitting.
“They’re tried and true, and people are willing to pay good money in your own neighborhood,” Kamel said.
“And can I say this? I pay a good amount for babysitting, because I do love a great babysitter … So I pay them well … You watch a kid for four hours, and you make more than Instacart,” Cruze explained.
According to ZipRecruiter, the average babysitting salary is $18 per hour, while pet-sitters make an average of $16 per hour and house-sitters make an average of $17 per hour.
Reselling, Woodworking, DJing and Furniture Assembly
Toward the end of the segment, the pair went through a list of alternately serious and humorous side hustles posted to Reddit, like reselling (particularly vintage clothing), woodworking (crafting desirable furniture, decor or housewares), DJing (weddings and social gatherings) and furniture assembly.
No matter which side hustle one elects to go for, Kamel offered the following advice: “That’s what I would tell anyone. If you have skills, you’re going to enjoy it the most if you’re able to use those skills to make good money. And sometimes it could turn into full-time side gig, where you start your own business eventually.”
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