My Biggest 2024 Side Hustle Wasn’t Passive

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Jamie Northrup asked this question on social media:

Which side hustle earned you the most in 2024?

He then announced that his biggest money-maker was Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, a highly passive income stream.

That's the dream of many solopreneurs: Making money in your sleep.

Jamie's living that dream right now, and that's awesome!

Then there's earning money “the old-fashioned way”

My biggest side hustle of 2024 wasn't passive at all.

Quite the opposite.

I've earned over $500 (so far) in 2024 giving piano lessons.

For me, it almost doesn't seem like work. It's relaxed, with a willing student. As far as active income streams go, it's a nice one!

Is freelancing all downside, though?

The only downside, if you choose to call it that, is that there's no scaling this kind of income. I show up, do the thing, get paid, and that's it.

Recently I've heard other content creators all but swear off freelancing ever again, after a stint with a demanding client. And that's fair.

Though I completely appreciate creating content to build a paying subscriber base, it is nice to get paid for a job at completion. For every heartfelt article or helpful video that gets, um, meager attention, it's great to be rewarded, with cash, immediately.

In short, it's not either-or but both-and. Though I'm working toward passive income streams, I'll take the non-passive ones as they come!

Thanks for reading!

Hi, I'm John and I encourage people to work for themselves, and on themselves, every day to sleep better at night.

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