Key Takeaways
- The rise of the gig economy has helped people build multiple streams of income.
- People choose to take on gig jobs for many different reasons, but it’s a great option to help pay down debt, save more, or earn some extra spending money.
- There are pros and cons to a gig job, to include being self-employed with the freedom that entails, to the associated taxes that come with that status.
Gigging is a term for using a multi-prong spear to hunt for frogs or fish. However, it’s taken on a whole new meaning in today’s world of the gig economy where you are gigging your cash flow and moving it forward.
One of the tenets of good wealth building is to have multiple streams of income. You could do this in the past by getting a second or third job, with multiple employers, and coordinating several schedules to make it work. People still do that, but it’s difficult. Today, you can start online. You could work with 99designs, ELance, Fiverr, or specialty sites like Experfy if you’re a data scientist. Or you can be hands-on by doing ridesharing with Uber or Lyft, or run an AirBnB, or other services.
There’s a lot of different reasons people choose to work in the gig economy. I’ve heard some of these reasons on the hundreds of rides I’ve had on ridesharing services. One person was saving money to pay down their student debt. The next was pay-as-you-go to earn their education. Another was trying to retire early. One driver told me that they just wanted to learn English by talking to people that they give rides to!
All jobs have their pros and cons. Some of the pros of the gig economy are:
+ You are your own employer, so you get to do what you want, when you want, so there’s a lot more freedom.
+ You get to pick different benefits that you want that are available to you as a self-employed person.
What are the cons?
– Since you are your own employer, you enter in to the results economy, which means you must have a result to make money. You can’t just do time and effort and expect to make money like you can with a salaried or hourly position.
– Taxes become a bit more complicated since you don’t have an employer to withhold those taxes for you.
Overall, it’s much easier today to gig your cash flow and to have multiple streams of income to help you build your wealth quicker, and more successfully over time.
Until next time, enjoy!
Gary