The Retirement Newsletter: Side-hustles — a summary
Issue Number: -8 — fifteen ways of making money on the side
Welcome
Welcome to issue -8, which is the 137th edition of this newsletter. That is 137 weeks (2 years and 33 weeks) of newsletters — some 62,000 words, which an average person would take 4 hours and 20 minutes to read.
Around 20 of the newsletters have been about side-hustles. So, why do I keep writing about side-hustles?
Side-hustles
I have written a lot about side-hustles in retirement, and my interest stems from three things — making some extra money, keeping my mind active in retirement and having fun. All of which I consider to be equally important.
Over the last 137 weeks, I have written about passive income in your retirement and the idea of evergreen income, and I have suggested fifteen possible ways to make a little extra cash:
Reading — see Issue -92 of the newsletter where I looked at Reading as a side-hustle.
Exercise — see Issue -89 on Exercise as a side-hustle.
Writing — Writing as a side-hustle was discussed in issue -86.
YouTube and Photos — I first explored this in issue -84 — YouTube and Photos as a side-hustle.
Online Courses — see Issue -80: Online courses.
"Knitting" (without wool) — in Issue -76 — ”Knitting" (without wool) — I considered turning any hobby or pastime into a side-hustle.
Relaxing — Issue -73 looked at Relaxing as a side-hustle.
Gardening — gardening as a side-hustle was covered in Issue -67 — Gardening.
Walking — Walking as a side-hustle was looked at in issue -60.
Being a couch potato — Issue -58 looked at Being a couch potato as a side-hustle.
Travel — turning a love of travel into a side-hustle was looked at in issue -47, Travel.
Do it yourself (DIY) — in issue -44, I asked if turning Do it yourself (DIY)skills into a side-hustle could bring in some extra income.
Photography — in Issue -39, I revisited Photography as a side-hustle.
Paid Newsletter — setting up a Paid Newsletter to bring in some money was explored in Issue -38.
Owning a dog — in issue -8.5, I looked at Owning a dog as a way to make some extra money.
In each newsletter, I list ways you could potentially monetise your interests.
In my retirement, I am seriously considering three from this list:
Number 4: YouTube — I enjoy making videos. I could improve my current YouTube Channel to get it monetised (I only need another 200 subscribers and double the watch hours) and use it to promote my Online Courses and other learning resources. — more details.
Number 5: Online Courses — Based on my professional experience as a scientist and lecturer, I have the knowledge to tackle this and the skills to produce the learning material and videos. (If I don’t, then I have been seriously short-changing my students for the last 25 years.) — more details.
Number 11: Travel — I already blog about my travelsand would love to find a way to make some money from my travel experiences. This will be something I will explore as a side-hustle in my retirement — more details.
Plus, I am still working on my idea to launch a paid version of this newsletter — see Issue -10 — Ten weeks and counting, and should I launch a paid newsletter.
But there is a problem. Just because you have the expertise and have taken the time to set something up, there is no guarantee that your audience will find you and you will make some money.
Build it, and they will not always come…
This is so true.
If you build something, there is no guarantee they will come. (“Build it, and they will come” is a misquote from the film Field of Dreams. The line is: “If You Build It, He Will Come”. Anyway, I digress.)
I have numerous personal examples of things I have built over the years, and either have found no or a very limited audience.
Software — I wrote and sold software in my spare time for over ten years. I wrote some niche software for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I never made much money, but it paid for a few nice trips (mainly skiing) and kept me in expensive Apple computers. I stopped writing software after making the mistake of working out how much I was getting paid per hour.
Website design — another side-line. I made a bit of money but stopped doing the work when a charity (I was doing the work for free) threatened me with legal action if I didn’t return access to their website. Luckily, I could prove the company they had hired to take over from me had locked them out of the server and not me. I learned from this the value of keeping work and server log backups.
Educational blogs and websites — I still run the sites, mainly to keep my hand in running a website. The blog and website get quite a bit of traffic, but I have made very little (barely covers the cost of the server) from the Google Ads on the site.
Travel blogs — I have run several travel blogs over the years, and none have made any money. I still run one travel blog over at Medium. The blog has over 700 followers, and I have made about $20 from the 600+ posts (see 500 posts on Medium in 500 days for a breakdown on the first 500 posts). The travel posts feed the stories for “Travel — Nostalgia Corner” below.
YouTube — I have been running a YouTube Channel since 2012. I have 58 videos with 348,000+ views and nearly 800 subscribers. The channel isn’t monetised as I haven’t hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours yearly. The channel started as a solution for posting videos for my students, as the university servers couldn’t handle video streaming. I have never promoted the channel and haven’t posted in two years (we now have better servers at work).
Newsletter — you are reading it (and thanks for getting this far — well done). Again, it hasn’t set the world on fire. But who knows?
None of the above (apart from the software) has made much money, and even that didn’t make enough to make the effort worthwhile. But I have an excuse and a possible solution.
A solution?
My excuse is my day job. I never had the time to invest in my side-hustles, but come retirement, I will. And I need it to work, because if it doesn’t, I will burn through my savings waiting for my State Pension to kick in, and I would prefer to hang on to my ‘emergency fund’.
So, watch this space, and watch out for the launch of the paid newsletter. Who knows what might happen?
Travel — Nostalgia Corner
This week, six stories from a road trip to Malacca in Malaysia:
Malaysia — Road trip to Malacca — Dasom Inn Hotel, Malacca, Malaysia — one of my more interesting hotel choices in Malaysia.
Malaysia — Malacca — Portuguese Custard Tarts, Durian Chocolates, Pineapple Tarts, and the worst snack in the world — snacking my way around Malacca.
Malaysia — Malacca — Exploring Malacca, Malaysia — A stroll around town looking at some stunning architecture.
Malaysia — Malacca — St Paul’s Church, Malacca, Malaysia — Exploring the history of Malacca.
Malaysia — Malacca — Porta De Santiago (A Famosa Fortress), Malacca, Malaysia — The old fort of Malacca
Malaysia — Malacca — Dutch Graveyard, Malacca, Malaysia — The colonial past of Malacca.
Next week, some more stories from my time in Malacca, Malaysia
Next week
Next week, in issue -7.5, I ask the age-old question — why does Christmas come around so fast, and why am I never ready?
Thanks
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Until next time,
Nick
PS, If you want to contribute something to the newsletter — a story, advice, anything — please get in touch.