Hi, guys, it’s Mark. If I had to pinpoint one thing that really helped me become successful, then it would be all the little extra jobs I did on the side from when I was a teenager, and even through today. Having a side hustle helped me to have extra money on top of my normal job, and that 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 size hustles are the right one for you can be tricky. I mean, there are 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 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 tonight. Well, just think of it like a Pokemon – you start small with just a few skills, and then you evolve and 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?
Let’s start off with level one, which is when you’re 13 to 16 years old. My side hustle target for this age was around $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 figure out what I did and 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 start-up costs were very low, and all I needed was a sponge, a bucket, and a bit of hard work. You can also pick up pressure washers now from Home Depot which costs only $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 100% 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, and at school, there is 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 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 $0.25. 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 with 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 a lot of interesting people. You can start at 14 and expect to make around $16 a game, which isn’t bad at all, really.
Level two 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 enjoyed doing and what I really didn’t like doing. I used 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 can do is become a tutor as they earn around $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 that other people are interested in learning, and it’s all about finding that skill and offering to teach it to them.
Level three 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’ve 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, a 7 percent average return per year, then by the age of 65, you’ll have $1.
1 million dollars 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 skill set that 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. As 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 clients 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, photographer or a videographer. A friend of mine is a teacher in Australia and his side hustle is wedding photography and he’s booked out for every weekend for next year. For me, instead of just improving people’s radio control models, I started building them from scratch.
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 20s.
At 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 in side hustles 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 you reach this stage, you’d have passed the tipping point where your side hustles are bringing in more than your day job. This means your money’s working for you and not the other way around.
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’re between the ages of 13 and 16 years old, you can start a side hustle that is cheap to get up and running. You can become a tutor, start some kind of service-based business, or even sell candy.
When you’re between the ages of 16 and 18, you can focus on getting better at the things you love doing and developing your skills in those particular areas. You can become a tutor, start dropshipping, or even sell your score notes.
Between the ages of 18 and 29, you can upgrade and become a graphic designer, photographer, or a videographer. You can also invest in property and make more passive income.
The key is to do what you love and to focus on building up your skill set. Remember, having a side hustle helped me to have extra money on top of my normal job and that allowed me to save and invest a lot more money than would have been possible from just a nine to five job.
2 k per month my main focus was making the most out of the skills that I’ve 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 that you’re 18, you can start investing that extra money long term instead of spending it.
For example, if you just put 250 dollars per month into a simple, low-cost index fund with a seven percent average return per year, then by the age of 65, you’ll have 1.1 million dollars. 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 skill set that 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. As 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 clients 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, photographer, or videographer. A friend of mine is a teacher in Australia, and his side hustle is wedding photography, and he’s booked out for every weekend for next year. For me, instead of just improving people’s radio 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 Ferraris 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 and wisdoms 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 20s. 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 have been paying on rent, you can use to invest instead.
Now, the boss level, level 4, 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 in side hustles 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, 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 a professional in to fix up a 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’s working for you and not the other way around. And this is what the truly rich have known and done for years.
Now, you’re going to 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, ring that old bell, and smash that like button. I’m also posting daily on Instagram, so check out over there, Real Mark Tilbury. See on the other side.
