When you’re earning a fixed salary and there’s only so much you can squirrel away each month, the time it’ll take to reach retirement seems years or decades away. When using one of the popular early retirement calculators like this linked one from Networthify, it offers clarity about the amount of time it’ll take to reach your retirement target.
To help you stay positive while chopping down the time it’ll take, here are four side hustle ideas that could boost your savings rate to retire sooner.
Drive for Uber
Driving for Uber is easy enough. You just need some spare time, a private hire licence and some Uber insurance UK to cover driving on UK roads and motorways. Then you just load up the Uber app, make yourself available to pick up fares, and wait.
You’ll need to apply to your local council for the private hire taxi licence, but when it comes to Uber insurance you have many insurance providers to choose from. A price comparison site like this one will make it easier to compare those policies and choose the right one.
Manage Social Media Accounts
Being a social media account manager is something you can do in your spare time. This is best offered to companies and brands that don’t require up-to-the-minute updates if you’ll be busy in your day job during regular office hours.
Making use of software, it’s possible to schedule posts on Instagram and Pinterest to publish on a certain date and time. This lets you prepare a bunch of new posts over 1-2 hours of working time that will publish gradually over the course of a few days. There’s also other software available to schedule delayed posts on Facebook, Twitter and other networks too.
Gigging Graphics Designer
As a graphics designer, you can bid for and pick up new design gigs on UpWork.com. You won’t succeed with every project you bid on, but as you manage to secure assignments, complete them and get positive reviews, it’ll become easier to secure new ones.
Over time, you can get some regular customers who need logos, websites and letterhead templates designed for their various projects. There’s a decent amount of flexibility with the hours worked and once you are established, the rates are reasonable for quality graphics work.
Shopping for the Elderly
Some seniors have trouble getting around for long periods but still need to get their weekly food shopping done. If they’re not comfortable with going online to complete their shopping, they may pay for someone to visit them, take down what they need, and do their shopping for them.
There are services that can provide this or it’s possible to network to find seniors who would appreciate the help in exchange for some compensation for your time and effort. While the earnings won’t break the bank, there’s a feel-good element to this side hustle that holds special appeal to those who do it.
It’s also possible to mix and match with different side hustles as they become available. Some are seasonal whereas others have year-round needs.