The 13 BEST Side Hustles To Start (at EVERY AGE)

Summary

Mark shares insights on how side hustles can significantly boost your financial growth at any age, from 13 to 30+. He discusses various side hustles that require little to no investment, including washing cars, selling candy, tutoring, drop-shipping, and digital marketing. Mark emphasizes the importance of gaining valuable skills and investing wisely. As you grow older, he suggests shifting focus to passive income sources like real estate and coaching. By following these steps, he claims you can achieve financial freedom, with your side hustles earning more than your day job.

Takeaways

• 😀 Side hustles can significantly increase your savings and investment potential beyond a typical 9-to-5 job.
• 💼 At ages 13-16, aim to make $50 to $150 per month with low-cost side hustles like car washing, selling candy at school, or offering services like driveway cleaning.
• 🚀 Try multiple side hustles when you're young to figure out what you enjoy, and don’t worry too much about mistakes – they are learning opportunities.
• 📚 At ages 16-18, aim to make $250 to $400 per month through tutoring, offering specialized skills like flying model helicopters, or trying drop-shipping to learn business skills.
• 💡 Drop-shipping might not make you rich, but it can teach you valuable digital marketing and business skills that are essential in today’s market.
• 💻 From ages 18-29, focus on your 'genius zone' to earn $800 to $1.2k per month. Consider scaling up by using the skills you’ve developed, such as offering social media marketing services to businesses.
• 📈 Start investing early with side hustle income. Even $250 per month in a low-cost index fund can grow to over $1.1 million by the time you're 65.
• 🏠 House hacking is a great side hustle in your 20s. Buying a duplex and renting out one side can significantly reduce living expenses and increase your net worth.
• 💰 At 30+, focus on creating more passive income streams, such as rental properties and coaching. The goal is to make money work for you, giving you more free time.
• 🎯 As you advance through side hustles, you'll gain skills, assets, and investments that will eventually surpass your day job income, allowing for financial freedom.

Q & A

What does Mark credit for helping him become successful?

Mark credits his success to the extra jobs and side hustles he did from a young age. These side hustles allowed him to save and invest more than he could from a regular 9 to 5 job.

Why does Mark believe it's important to start side hustles at a young age?

Mark believes starting side hustles at a young age is important because it allows you to try different things, learn from mistakes, and develop skills without significant financial risk, as young people usually have more time than money.

What was Mark's first side hustle, and how much did he charge?

Mark's first side hustle was washing cars at age 14. He charged $2 per car and $1 for a second car. The start-up costs were low, making it a profitable venture.

What creative side hustle did Mark pursue in school?

Mark sold candy at school, a side hustle inspired by one of his car-washing customers who worked for a chocolate company. He sold the candy he received as tips, which proved to be highly profitable at school.

What financial target does Mark recommend for individuals aged 13 to 16?

Mark recommends a financial target of $50 to $150 per month for individuals aged 13 to 16, emphasizing that it's a benchmark and earning more means they're ahead of where he was at that age.

What side hustle does Mark recommend for people between the ages of 16 and 18, and why?

Mark suggests becoming a tutor as a great side hustle for people aged 16 to 18. Tutoring allows you to earn around $20 per hour by teaching others a skill you are good at, not necessarily limited to school subjects.

Why does Mark suggest drop-shipping as a learning tool despite its low profitability?

Mark recommends drop-shipping as a learning tool because, although the profits are low and it's highly competitive, it provides valuable experience in running a business, developing digital marketing skills, and understanding e-commerce, which are critical for future success.

What is house hacking, and why does Mark recommend it for people in their twenties?

House hacking involves buying a duplex, living in one half, and renting out the other to cover most of the mortgage. Mark recommends this as a way to increase net worth quickly in your twenties while investing money that would otherwise go to rent.

What does Mark mean by working in your 'genius zone' during your twenties?

Working in your 'genius zone' means focusing on the skills you've mastered over time and leveraging them to maximize your earnings. This is a critical strategy for increasing income and pursuing higher-level side hustles in your twenties.

What is Mark’s strategy for earning more passive income after turning 30?

After turning 30, Mark's strategy for earning more passive income focuses on property investment. He invests in rental properties, which provide long-term passive income, and shifts his focus to valuing time over money by creating systems for passive earnings.

Outlines

00:00

👋 Introduction to Side Hustles and Financial Growth

Mark opens the video by introducing himself and emphasizing the importance of side hustles in achieving financial success. He reflects on how having side jobs since his teenage years allowed him to save and invest more money. Mark promises to guide viewers through different side hustles for every age group and how to adjust them to maximize earnings. He compares personal growth through side hustles to evolving like a Pokemon, encouraging viewers to 'level up' their skills and financial targets over time. He humorously hints at his age and encourages viewers to stay engaged until the end.

05:00

🧒 Starting Young: Side Hustles for Ages 13 to 16

Mark shares his side hustle experience as a teenager, setting a financial target of $50 to $150 per month for ages 13 to 16. He talks about his early venture of washing cars, a low-cost, high-effort business. He suggests other service-based businesses and discusses how side hustles at this age allow experimentation with minimal risk. Mark also shares a story about selling candy at school as a lucrative, albeit unofficial, business and encourages creative ways to involve peers for bigger profits. He also suggests becoming a sports referee as a weekend side hustle that pays decently and promotes fitness.

10:01

🧑‍🎓 Leveling Up: Side Hustles for Ages 16 to 18

For ages 16 to 18, Mark raises the side hustle target to $250 to $400 per month, focusing on honing skills and finding ways to monetize them. He suggests tutoring as a flexible option but expands beyond school subjects, mentioning how he taught people to fly model helicopters. Mark advises bundling additional services with tutoring to increase earnings. He also introduces drop-shipping, explaining its low startup cost and potential for learning valuable business and digital marketing skills. He counters criticisms of drop-shipping by positioning it as a way to develop long-term skills rather than immediate wealth.

💻 Smart Hustles: Side Hustles for Ages 18 to 29

Mark shifts focus to higher-earning side hustles for ages 18 to 29, with a target of $800 to $1.2k per month. He encourages viewers to master and monetize skills developed over the years, whether through drop-shipping, social media marketing, or video production. He also emphasizes the importance of investing extra income early, using index funds as an example. Mark suggests offering free services initially to build a portfolio and gain paying clients. He highlights various ways to leverage digital marketing and content creation for businesses and even suggests house hacking as a smart investment option.

🏠 Passive Income and Time Management for Ages 30+

Mark discusses the importance of shifting to more passive income sources after the age of 30. With a side hustle target of $1.5 to $3k per month, he focuses on investments like property rental, recounting his experience fixing up his first rental property and how it still provides passive income today. He emphasizes valuing time over money at this stage and explores options such as creating digital products, coaching, or building a YouTube channel to generate income without constantly trading time for money. By this point, Mark argues that side hustles should work for you, not the other way around.

Keywords

💡Side Hustle

A side hustle is an additional job or business that someone takes on outside of their main employment. In the video, Mark emphasizes the importance of having a side hustle as a way to earn extra income, which can be saved or invested. He shares examples of his own side hustles, like washing cars as a teenager and later investing in property, showing how side hustles helped him build wealth over time.

💡Investment

Investment refers to the act of putting money into something (such as stocks or real estate) with the hope of gaining a profit. In the video, Mark talks about the importance of investing side hustle earnings into long-term assets, like index funds or rental properties, as a way to build passive income and wealth over time. He provides an example of investing $250 per month into an index fund to potentially accumulate $1.1 million by retirement.

💡Passive Income

Passive income is money earned with little to no effort after the initial work is done. Mark explains that as people get older, they should shift their focus towards earning passive income through investments, such as rental properties or digital products. For him, passive income from rental properties became a major source of earnings that allowed him more freedom and time to spend with his family.

💡Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship involves starting and managing a business, often requiring innovation and risk-taking. Mark stresses that starting side hustles at a young age teaches valuable entrepreneurial skills, such as managing people and making profits. He shares how selling candy at school and running a small car-washing business sparked his interest in entrepreneurship, shaping his career path.

💡Financial Target

A financial target is a specific income goal that someone aims to achieve. In the video, Mark shares his personal financial targets at different ages, starting with $50-$150 per month at 13-16 years old, and growing to $1.5k-$3k per month by the time he was in his 30s. He uses these targets to illustrate how side hustles can evolve over time and help people achieve financial milestones.

💡Leveling Up

Leveling up refers to improving or advancing in a particular area, often by gaining new skills or knowledge. In the video, Mark compares the journey of building side hustles to a video game, where individuals start small and gradually level up by gaining experience and skills. He encourages viewers to constantly improve their side hustles and aim for higher earnings as they age.

💡Drop-shipping

Drop-shipping is a business model where the seller markets a product, but the manufacturer handles storage and shipping directly to the customer. Mark acknowledges that drop-shipping has low profit margins and high competition but suggests it as a valuable way to learn business skills, such as digital marketing and customer management, with minimal startup costs.

💡Tutoring

Tutoring involves teaching or helping others improve in a specific subject or skill. Mark suggests tutoring as a side hustle for teenagers, where they can earn around $20 per hour. He emphasizes that tutoring doesn’t have to be limited to school subjects; people can tutor others in any skill they have mastered, such as flying model helicopters, which Mark did when he was younger.

💡House Hacking

House hacking is a real estate investment strategy where someone buys a property and rents out part of it, often covering much or all of the mortgage. In the video, Mark describes how he saved money from his side hustles to buy a duplex, where he lived in one part and rented out the other. This method allowed him to increase his net worth and live essentially mortgage-free.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing involves promoting products or services online using tools like social media, email, or search engines. Mark discusses the importance of learning digital marketing skills, especially for those interested in side hustles like drop-shipping or helping other businesses with their online presence. He notes that mastering these skills can lead to high-paying opportunities in social media marketing.

Highlights

Mark emphasizes how side hustles contributed to his success from a young age by providing extra income and learning opportunities.

He encourages viewers to find a side hustle suitable for their age and evolve their skills over time, comparing it to leveling up like in a video game.

For ages 13-16, Mark suggests starting simple service-based businesses like car washing, emphasizing low startup costs and high profits.

He recounts how selling candy at school was a successful hustle, recommending kids explore similar ventures based on demand.

Mark suggests becoming a sports referee as a great weekend side hustle for young teens, as it pays well and offers physical and mental benefits.

At ages 16-18, he recommends exploring tutoring or teaching unique skills, highlighting his own experience teaching model helicopter flying.

He introduces drop-shipping as a valuable learning experience for young entrepreneurs, despite its challenges, due to the business skills it helps develop.

Mark advises using side hustle earnings to build skills in digital marketing, particularly for helping businesses improve their social media presence.

For ages 18-29, he suggests upgrading side hustles by offering higher value services or starting a business, like social media marketing or YouTube.

He shares the benefits of ‘house hacking,’ where buying a duplex and renting out one side helps cover mortgage costs and build long-term wealth.

Mark emphasizes the importance of investing side hustle income early in life, specifically recommending index funds for long-term wealth building.

By age 30+, Mark shifts his focus towards more passive income streams, such as rental properties and online coaching, to gain more free time.

He highlights the value of learning from YouTube tutorials to fix up his first rental property, which has since become a passive income source.

Mark encourages leveraging expertise to coach others online as a way to scale income and avoid trading time for money, using digital products or channels.

He concludes by urging viewers to subscribe and engage with his content, emphasizing that following the outlined steps can help them achieve financial freedom.

Transcripts

- Hi guys, it's Mark.

If I had to pin

down one thing that really helped me become successful

then it would have been all the little extra jobs I did

on the side from when I was a teenager.

And even through to today.

Having a side hustle helped me to have extra money

on top of my normal job.

And that had allowed me to save and invest a lot more money

than would have been possible from just a nine to five job.

But deciding what side hustles are the right

one for you can be tricky.

I mean, there's just so many options out there.

That's why today I'm going to run

through some of my favorite ways

you can make some extra money at every age.

I'm also going to share with you my financial targets

I aimed for at each stage.

If you watch the video until the end

you'll know the perfect side hustle to start

at whatever age you're at and how you should pivot

and adapt over time to make the most money possible.

From 13 years old, all the way up to my age, 33.

I think I got away with that didn't I?

Well just.

Think of it like a Pokemon.

You start small with just a few skills and then you evolve

and you become more skilled and a lot more powerful.

Maybe one day you'll be powerful enough to

absolutely destroy that thumbs up button

and subscribe at the same time.

Right, so let's start off with level one, which is when

you were 13 to 16 years old, my side hustle target

for this age was around about 50 to $150 per month.

Of course, this is just a benchmark for you to aim for

but if you're making more than this

then you're ahead of where I was at that age.

When I was younger, I didn't have much money.

So I had to start a side hustle that was cheap

to get up and running.

I saw this as the perfect opportunity to try everything

and figured out what I did and I didn't like.

I also made a lot of mistakes but you know what, really,

it doesn't matter because

I didn't have much money to lose in the first place.

All I had was my time.

And I had plenty of that.

My first idea for you is starting

some kind of service based business.

When I was 14, I washed cars.

I used to charge $2 per car, and then $1

if they had a second car, it was great

because the stop costs were really low

and all I needed was a sponge

a bucket and a bit of hard work.

You can also pick up these pressure washers now

from the home depot, which only costs $149.

And you could use this to clean people's driveways.

If you charge $50 per drive

then it's only going to take three jobs

and you've got a jet washer that's paid for itself.

So everything after that is a hundred percent profit.

One of my customers worked

for a big chocolate company and as a tip

he would always give me a massive box full of candy

which I never thought about eating

as I was more interested in selling it at school.

This is something you can think about doing as well.

A boy in the UK did this

and he was making over 50K per year

in multiple different schools until he got shut down.

Wherever there's a demand money can be made.

At school there was always a demand for candy.

You may have to check if this

is allowed at your school, but I didn't.

I just got on with it.

You could just sell this from your backpack

but what I would suggest if it's

really successful is get your friends to sell it

for you and you can pay them based on a commission.

So for every candy bar they sell

you could give them 25 cents.

It's amazing how much you can learn about business

and entrepreneurship by doing this from a really young age.

It helps you understand how to

manage people and make a profit.

It was definitely a big reason

I fell in love with being an entrepreneur.

The only issue was starting a side hustle

at school is you can only make money during the week.

So a good way to make some extra money at the weekend

could be to become a sports referee.

This is a great side hustle as

you get paid to stay fit.

It keeps you mentally strong.

As you have to make decisions quickly and

you get to meet lots of interesting people.

You can start a $14 and expect to make

around $16 a game, which ain't bad at all really.

Level two.

This is when you're between the ages of 16 and 18.

When I was at this level, I had a much better idea

of what I enjoy doing and what I really didn't like doing.

I use this time to focus on

getting better at the things I love doing

and developing my skills in those particular areas.

My side hustle target for this age

was between $250 and $400 per month.

One of the easiest things you could do is become a tutor.

Let's say you earn around about $20 per hour, but

if you're not the greatest at school like me, for example

and you don't think that option is open for you

then you don't have to just teach school subjects.

Most people have some kind of skill.

Other people are interested in learning, and it's all

about finding that skill and offering to teach it to them.

So like I said, I wasn't the best at school.

There was no way someone would pay me $20 to

teach them English.

That's for sure.

So instead I used to teach people to fly model helicopters.

A bit like this one.

With any tutoring side hustle the money

is always limited to the amount

of clients you can get.

And most of them only want an hour of your time.

So it's a good idea to find another way to sell something

of value to your clients as well.

As I was able to make most

model helicopters fly better by tuning them up.

I decided to offer this as a service and take their models

home with me after they had a lesson.

So it's all about finding that win-win for your clients.

A good idea could be selling your school notes

or charging to be in an online group where

they can ask you questions whenever they want.

The next side hustle is drop-shipping and it's great

for anyone that is good with computers and the internet.

Drop-shipping is where you advertise someone else's product

send them to an online store.

Then the manufacturer sends out the product directly

to your customer.

You physically don't have to touch the product,

which is great.

But Mark, drop-shipping is terrible.

It adds zero value to society.

Do something decent instead, terrible advice.

Now, hold on, let me explain.

Drop-shipping probably won't make you a millionaire

like the online gurus selling courses are going to

tell you the market is extremely competitive.

The profits are very low

and it's not a great long-term business model

but I still think it's worth doing

as it's a great way to learn how to run a business

with very little startup costs.

Drop-shipping is like a trial run.

You're jumping in at the deep end

of an extremely competitive market.

It might take a wall to make a profit

but the skills you are learning

along the way are going to be worth so much more to you.

In fact, they're going to be worth more

to you than the money you'll probably make.

Most of the boomers running huge companies have

no idea how to use social media to boost their business.

And their physical stores are going bankrupt.

They're being bought out by younger entrepreneurs

who have developed these skills, and they're able to

use those to make the businesses more profitable

and moving forward into the digital world.

So think of drop-shipping like a video game

the more you play it, the better you'll get and the more

valuable skills that you'll learn and if drop-shipping isn't

for you, but you still want to learn digital marketing.

Then YouTube is a very, very similar side hustle.

It's very competitive and it will focus you to level

up your video production and your marketing skills

and all you need to start this as a phone

a decent internet connection and some editing skills.

Right,

so now level three, which is between 18 and 29 years of age

my side hustle target for this age

was 800 to 1.2k per month.

My main focus was making the most

out of the skills that I had mastered.

Lots of people call this working in your genius zone.

For the next 10 years or so it's all

about working as smart as possible.

And now you're 18.

You can start investing that extra money long-term instead

of spending it.

For example, if you just put $250 per month

into a simple low cost index fund, at 7% average return

per year, then by the age of 65, you'll have $1.1 million.

And that's just a small part of your side hustle income.

So it shouldn't affect your day to day life.

I explained this in my last video.

So make sure to check it out if you've missed it.

The key here is to look at the skillset you've been building

up over the last few years and think

about how you can level them up and charge more.

If you did drop-shipping, when you were younger

then maybe you could upgrade to selling your own products or

running social media marketing adverts for other businesses

You can get paid a lot for helping other businesses

with their social media marketing.

It's just by hiring you.

They're actually going to be making more money instead

of losing it.

You effectively pay your own wages

which means you can charge higher prices.

A good way to get your first client is to offer

to work for them for free for a few weeks

use your skills to boost their sales.

And then they're unlikely to say no when you

ask them to start paying you for your skills.

Even if they do say no, you can go to another business.

You can say, look what I did for them.

I can do that for you too.

And the great thing about this is you can do it all

from the comfort of your own home in your spare time.

If you had a YouTube channel, when you were younger

you could upgrade and become a graphic designer

or a photographer or videographer.

A friend of mine is a teacher

in Australia and his side hustle is wedding photography.

And he's booked out every weekend for next year.

For me, instead of just improving

people's radar control models.

I started building them from scratch.

If you wanted a good quality radio-controlled model

and didn't have the ability to be able to build it yourself.

I was the only option in my area.

And this was how I met one of my mentors.

He had seven Ferrari's and a Bugatti Veyron.

I just loved working in his garage.

I was surrounded by all those cool cars.

And to this day I'd say

I gained more from his words of wisdom

than I charged for the job.

So by upgrading your skills you're able

to start earning a nice bit of extra income.

And we all like a bit of extra cash.

A great way to use this extra income to

create another side hustle would be saving up

for a down payment on a duplex house and getting a mortgage.

This is called house hacking.

It's one of the fastest ways to increase your net worth

when you're in your twenties.

A duplex has two separate living areas.

And the idea is that you're able to rent

out one side of the house and live in the other.

By doing this, the other person pays a big part

of your mortgage for you.

This means you could end up with a completely

free house when the mortgage is paid off

and you also have a place to stay in

for free and all the money you would've been paying

on rent you can use to invest instead.

So now the boss level, level four is for 30 and upwards.

My aim was to shift my side hustles to

make more passive income.

As I had more money to invest in different opportunities.

By this stage what I valued more than money was time.

And I wanted more of that to spend with my family.

At this point, I was looking to make 1.5 to

3k inside households per month

but I've definitely surpassed that now.

I decided to invest in property.

And to this day, it's one of

the biggest extra income sources.

When I bought my first rental property

it needed loads of work being done to it.

I took on the challenge and used up all my spare time

I had to fix it up.

With YouTube, you know, there's really nothing

you can't learn and I was able to do all the work

and have the house rented out within six weeks.

Now, of course I get professional

in to fix up house, but when you're starting off

it's sometimes more profitable to do it yourself.

And to be honest, it was definitely a fun challenge.

That first rental property still pays me a passive income

to this day.

At 30 plus you'd have gained lots

of knowledge that is valuable to other people.

So you could use this to coach

in areas that you're super confident in.

This could be anything

from carpentry to fitness, to business.

There's a market out there for coaching

everything that you can think of.

The key is to do this one to the many online,

rather than one-to-one as you're able to help

more people and not sell your time.

To do this you can create a digital product

or you could create a YouTube channel that

helps people for free.

Just like I've done.

By working your way through all of these levels.

You'll have a massive array of skills,

multiple rental properties, digital products

and a huge investment portfolio.

When you reach this you'd have

passed the tipping point where your side hustles

are bringing in more than your day job.

This means your money is working

for you and not the other way round.

And this is what the truly rich

have known and done for years.

Now you gonna love this next video.

I'll leave it up here for you

but don't click on it just yet.

Don't forget to subscribe to the channel

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See on the other side.