5 Top Side Hustles for Financial Professionals

There’s a common misconception that people who work in the financial industry must have a lot of money themselves. That’s not always the case — and accountants, bookkeepers, financial planners, advisors, bankers and the rest could always use a little extra income, same as anyone else. 

If your primary career deals with money, you could leverage your skills and knowledge to open up all kinds of alternative income streams. Keep reading to learn about the top side hustles for money pros.

Experienced financial professionals should have no problem marketing their skills to students who need academic tutoring. Companies like Advanced Learners, for example, hire industry veterans specifically to serve college students majoring in subjects like business, economics and finance. Those same skills could also lend themselves to a side hustle tutoring high school kids who are struggling with math or a related subject.

At the college level, the average tutor earns $19.37 an hour, according to Payscale. For high school tutors, Indeed estimates a similar average rate of $18 an hour.

Small businesses don’t have accounting departments — and they can rarely justify hiring a full-time accountant — but the entrepreneurs who launch those businesses often have neither the skills nor the time to keep the company’s books by themselves. 

If you’re a financial pro with a background in bookkeeping, you can launch a side hustle to fill that gap. 

Work as a part-time bookkeeper includes keeping track of revenues and expenses, entering data into software programs like QuickBooks, and performing services like paying bills, invoicing and reconciling financials. According to PayScale, bookkeepers make an average of $21.94 an hour.

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For entrepreneurs across America, the dream of owning a business will remain a dream forever without a loan — and in so many cases, getting a business loan hinges on having a great business plan. 

According to GoBusinessPlans, companies pay consulting firms $25,000-$50,000 to draft the kind of business plans that lenders and investors want to see, but entrepreneurs and start-ups can’t fork over that kind of dough. They will, however, pay qualified financial professionals with real-world experience who know how to articulate a business’ objectives and strategies with professionalism and clarity. According to ZipRecruiter, business plan writers average $32 an hour.

Freelancing isn’t just for writers and web designers. Financial pros of all disciplines and backgrounds can join the gig economy and build their side hustles on a contract-by-contract basis. There are several finance-specific freelancing sites where you can advertise your services, list your skills, compete for clients and build your client base, but Paro just might be the best of the bunch.  

The platform gives its experts — that’s you — tools for client management, productivity and marketing to help them build their businesses while matching them with paying customers. 

Areas of expertise include budgeting and forecasting, auditing, insurance, business analysis, strategic advisory, tax services and accounting.

Finance-themed websites large and small pay industry professionals for their insight, analysis and ideas, and you can cash in on your knowledge — and your ability to articulate that knowledge in writing — as a guest blogger. 

BloggerPassion maintains a list of financial and business sites that pay between $50-$150 per post in 2022. FreelanceWritingGigs.com has a list of sites that pay writers — including business and finance sites specifically — up to $300 per post.