Do side hustles get taxed?

How It Works. Your freelance income is subject to self-employment tax, but there are deductions you can take to help lower your overall bill.

How do you know when to stop side hustling?

When your side hustle starts negatively impacting your personal life, it's a sign that it might be time to let go. Segal advised, “If your relationships, health or overall well-being suffer from the side hustle, it's crucial to consider quitting.”

Is it smart to have a side hustle?

Having a side hustle can keep you afloat while you look for more work. You're less likely to rely on credit cards or dip into your retirement savings if you have extra money coming in. You can also build up your emergency savings so you're prepared for a potential layoff.

How much should I make from a side hustle?

19.1% of side hustlers report that they make more than $1,000 a month. Most side hustlers spend 5-10 hours per week on their business. An average side hustle brings in $688 a month, but 45.6% of people report that they earn less than $250 a month from their side hustle.

What are the disadvantages of side hustle?

Filling valuable time with more work, even a passion project, may pile on stress. In addition to taking time away from friends and family, a side hustle will require additional record keeping and may complicate tax filings.

May 2020 Side Hustle Report - $1,939.03 - Financial Panther (2024)

Hello everyone and welcome back to another Financial Panther side hustle report. In today’s post, we’ll be taking a look at what I was able to earn from side hustling in the gig economy in May of 2020.

As was the case in March and April, many of my side hustles continue to be dramatically impacted by the pandemic, but other side hustles – mainly my delivery side hustles – have been able to pick up the slack.

Let’s take a look at what I made in May 2020:

Side Hustle Income for May 2020

Airbnb: $0
Rover: $0
Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub/Amazon Flex: $1,772.87
Wag: $0
Shipt/Instacart: $32.50
Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $47.10
Roadie: $28.74
ProductTube: $20
Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints: $32.82
Random Survey: $5

Total Side Hustle Income for May 2020 = $1,939.03

Similar to April, in May, almost all of my side hustle income came from doing food deliveries. I think it’s pretty remarkable just how profitable the food delivery game has been for me. It’s at a point where there’s really no reason for me to do any other gig economy apps, at least not right now while the food deliveries are paying so well.

One thing is that my side hustle income is definitely less diversified than it was before. In most months, I’ve found that my side hustle income is typically around 50-60% Airbnb based, and the rest split up into other categories. Right, almost all of my side hustle income is coming from doing food deliveries. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but it, of course, puts me at risk if something were to happen.

Below is a more in-depth look at my earnings for May 2020:

Airbnb Income: $0

My Airbnb income remains at $0 as I’ve paused my listing due to the pandemic and because my wife and I have a baby now.

Even if I was doing Airbnb right now, I’d doubt I’d get many bookings. Most of my bookings over the past four years have been for people coming to the University for events, and at the moment, every in-person event is canceled. It’s unclear when conferences and graduate program interviews will start up again. I don’t even know if the campus will be open in the fall. My hunch is that most colleges are going to be virtual for the rest of the year.

In the future, the plan will be to rent out the house when we’re traveling, or if we can’t do that, to at least rent out the guest room when we’re traveling. Unfortunately, our travel plans are currently on an indefinite pause. My wife and I still have two business class flights scheduled for late summer and fall, but I’m doubtful that we’ll be able to go on either trip. If we do, I’ll do my best to try to get our place rented out for at least some of that trip.

Rover Income: $0

Rover income also remained at $0 for the month of May. Like with Airbnb, Rover relies on people being able to travel and since people aren’t traveling right now, there’s very little demand for dogsitters. It does seem like this may pick up, as I’ve actually started to get some bookings again for this summer.

Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex/Grubhub Income: $1,772.87

As has been the case for the last few months, the food delivery apps continued to be very lucrative. It’s pretty astounding to me, but right now, I could probably make a full-time living doing nothing but food deliveries if I wanted to. As it stands, I’ve been spending between 1 hour and 2 hours each day doing deliveries with the goal of making around $33 per day. My thinking here is that without Airbnb, I still want to make at least $1,000 per month side hustling, so $33 per day comes out to about $1,000 per month.

At the moment, I’ve been really crushing that goal. Here’s a breakdown of my earnings on each delivery platform in May:

Postmates: $144.65
DoorDash: $909.66
Uber Eats: $428.99
Grubhub: $319.57
Amazon Flex: $0

It’s important to remember that I earned this amount with essentially no operating costs since I use a bike to do my deliveries (as an advantage, by using a bike to do deliveries, I’m also able to deduct my regular bike maintenance costs as business expenses). My hourly rate has been extremely high as well thanks to tips plus bonuses. Right now, things are so lucrative that I’m disappointed if I make less than $40 per hour.

Wag Income: $0

I did zero Wag walks in May and given how lucrative the food delivery game has been, I can’t really see myself doing any Wag walks. There also doesn’t seem to be a lot of demand for dog walking at the moment anyway due to the pandemic.

Shipt/Instacart Income: $32.50

I did two Shipt deliveries in May when I happened to be downtown running some errands. Both orders weren’t too large and the delivery location was really close to the store, so I figured I could work them into my schedule.

My issue with Shipt and Instacart is that they’re still very heavily tip dependent. Often, the amount I’m getting paid for a single delivery is the same as what I’d get paid for delivering food to someone. If I’m getting paid the same amount in either setting, then food deliveries obviously make more sense since I don’t have to spend time shopping for someone also.

For example, take a look at the two Shipt deliveries I did in May:

As you can see, one of my Shipt deliveries paid me about $24, which was probably worth it since it took me about 30 minutes to shop for and deliver the order. The order pay was solid at $10, but what put me over the top was the promo pay and the tip. If I didn’t get those two things, then would it really have been worth my time to spend 30 minutes shopping in order to earn $10?

You can see how impactful this can be by looking at the other order I did. I shopped for this order at the same time as I was shopping for the first order, but you can see that this order had no promo pay and the customer didn’t tip me. This wasn’t a huge grocery delivery order, but it still takes time for me to shop for it. Meanwhile, I could have made $8 doing a single DoorDash or Grubhub delivery.

I know that people more skilled than me are able to make in the $30 or more range with Shipt and Instacart, so it could also be that I’m just not that good at shopping for groceries. I know that if you can do it, stacking multiple grocery orders is the way to do it since this allows you to effectively double or triple your hourly earnings.

Trash/Flipping Income: $47.10

I’m continuing to slowly go through my house and clear out all of the unnecessary stuff that I own. Not only does this help me to declutter my house, but it also adds a little bit of extra money in my pocket – essentially monetizing the stuff that I no longer use.

Most people don’t think about this, but the stuff in your house has value. You just have to be willing to put in a little work and list things up for sale on eBay or on a local selling site like Facebook Marketplace. My general strategy is if it’s big (like furniture), then it’s going on Facebook Marketplace. If it’s small, then I sell it on eBay. I’m continuing to declutter my house and have plenty more stuff that I need to get rid of.

Roadie Income: $28.74

Roadie is a delivery app that originally started out as a way to move things long distances (the idea being that there are a lot of cars going from place to place, and people could move things in their cars). Over the years, I’ve seen Roadie evolve into an app for returning lost luggage to people. Airlines like American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest list found luggage on the app. Roadie drivers then pick up the luggage from the airport and deliver it to the passenger.

In the past few months, Roadie has also branched out into more local deliveries for big box stores like Home Depot and Michaels. For me, this usually doesn’t work out too well since I do all of my deliveries on a bike and things at Home Depot can be pretty big. These big box stores also aren’t usually located in areas convenient for me.

In May, I ended up doing three deliveries from Michaels. There’s a Michael’s that is about a mile from my house and all of these deliveries were art supplies that were small and easy to carry. Each delivery paid $9.58, which isn’t bad since I was also able to incorporate these deliveries with my food deliveries. The key with Roadie, I think, is to work it in with other gigs.

ProductTube Income: $20

ProductTube is definitely one of the more underrated apps out there, but it’s one that you absolutely should have on your phone because of how high-paying these gigs are for the amount of time they take. As I’ve explained in past side hustle reports, these gigs involve recording yourself shopping for certain goods. At most, the videos take 5 minutes to make and typically pay at least $10. In other words, every gig pays an effective hourly rate of about $60 or more.

In May, I ended up doing two ProductTube gigs. Both gigs were ones that involved online shopping, so I was able to film these gigs while I was at home. Note that ProductTube pays via Amazon Gift Cards, which is fine with me since I consider that a cash equivalent.

Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints Income: $32.82

I had a very strong survey month, making almost $30 just from surveys. Each of these surveys literally takes seconds to complete, so they’re well worth the time effort.

Here’s a breakdown of what I made with each survey app in May:

Google Opinion Rewards: $4.29
Surveys On The Go: $14.28
1Q: $9.25

In addition, I also made $5 this month from a new app I discovered called Facebook Viewpoints. This app is a little bit interesting. The task I received was to repeat names from my Facebook contacts. Apparently, Facebook uses this to help with its voice recognition software. I ended up having to read 100 names, which took a little bit of time, but was something I could do while I was watching YouTube. I don’t expect Facebook Viewpoints to be super consistent, but I’m leaving it on my phone for now since I think this could be an interesting app.

Finally, I also earned a random $5 Amazon gift card by taking a survey about infants. I believe I received this survey in an email and I was able to earn the $5 taking a survey that took me about 5 minutes to complete.

And that concludes the May 2020 Side Hustle Report!

May was again a very solid side hustle month, especially when you consider that most of my gig economy apps are seeing little to no business now. My plan is to continue to aim for at least $1,000 each month per my $1,000 per month challenge. This is very achievable for most people when you break the math down. Just $33 per day comes out to about $1,000 per month. If you can save and invest all of that, you’re looking at potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars just from earning a fairly small amount each day on the side.

My final thoughts for this month:

The delivery game – at least in my city – is very strong. This is especially true of food delivery and is also true of grocery deliveries. I think this will continue for the foreseeable future. The pandemic basically fast-tracked how fast people began adopting these delivery apps.
If you want to make significant money, you need to mix and match all of these delivery apps together. Do so in a way that makes sense for you. You want to fit these apps into your lifestyle.
If you can, use a bike. Most people underestimate how fast a bike can move through a city and it’s just more fun biking than it is driving. You could also consider getting an ebike. I’m a full ebike convert now, and I think it really opens up biking to a lot of people and makes it a mode of transportation that can seriously replace a car (or at a minimum, act as an alternative to a second car).

More Recommended Ebike/Scooters

Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:

Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.

More Recommended Investing App Bonuses

For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:

M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.

More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses

If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.

SoFi Money ($325) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $300 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
Upgrade ($150) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $150 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $150 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
Fifth Third Bank ($325) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states:Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account onlinebut you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements.Read my guide on this bonus here.
GO2Bank ($75) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $75 referral bonus.
Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
Varo ($30) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $30 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.

Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.32% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $250 for opening an account.
Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.