Side Hustle or Slow Hustle? Building Wealth in Your 30s and 40s

If you don’t find a way to make money while you’re asleep, you’ll work until you die.
-Warren Buffet

A young reporter working with CNBC TV18 and Times of India, started a project alongside her full-time job in 2008. The project focused on telling stories about Indian entrepreneurs. The project kicked off well and has featured thousands of entrepreneurs and has received funding from Ratan Tata and Kalaari Capital. This is the inspiring story of Shraddha Sharma, who quit her full-time job to nurture her pet project YourStory, one of India’s biggest media platforms for Startups.

Well, oftentimes most of us are challenged with the question: “Should I choose to do things differently by taking up a side gig alongside the full-time job?” On a lighter note, I’m pretty sure if you are a corporate employee, you would already be planning to start a café along with your colleague! Well at the end of the day it all boils down to money! Let’s breakdown side hustle and slow hustle to see which one is really your cup of coffee.

Seismic Shift:

There has been a paradigm shift in the mindset towards money and wealth creation in the past decade. People’s focus has shifted from settling into a stable job and retiring with a pension fund to prioritizing and creating multiple income streams either through side hustles, freelancing, investing or creating other passive income sources. The job landscape has also seen a drastic change. In today’s era, the traditional 9 to 5 jobs have taken a back seat. The number of avenues available to make money are endless. You can be engaged in a full-time job/business and still choose to make educational videos based on your experience and upload on platforms like Udemy and YouTube to make money. Do you have a knack for writing? You can write and publish your own books on the Amazon Kindle Platform and create a passive income source. The mindset has shifted from expending to saving and people have started striving towards gaining financial independence and retiring early rather than retiring in the 60s. Traditional assets have also been disrupted by digital assets. Going by the theory, assets do not have to be visible; it must be working, the new age assets include assets like digital gold, cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

More and more people are interested in learning about personal finance as awareness is being created in platforms like YouTube, podcasts and fintech apps. In fact, this has worked to the advantage of many social media influencers, and they have created courses around personal finance and wealth creation and have resorted to this as a stream of income.

Side Hustle: Taking up one or more activities like business, teaching or part-time gigs alongside the full-time job for quick gains or it can also be taken up to follow one’s passion. Someone good at singing might decide to teach vocal singing during the weekends apart from having a full-time job.

Slow Hustle: This involves engaging in intentional long-term wealth creation by carving multiple income streams through investing and following financial discipline and working towards scaling up in career by upskilling oneself. It’s about building wealth through consistent long-term efforts rather than seeking immediate gains.

One of the best examples for slow hustle is investing in stocks that provide returns through dividends over time. Yet another attractive way to create wealth through side hustle is invest in real estate through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

Weighing elements in decoding the hustles:

To decide if one must take up a side hustle or not depends on many factors including:

Personal goals: passive income, early retirement or just financial security

Financial stability: assess if you are financially stable and if you have an emergency fund that can cover your six months’ salary/personal expenses and needs.

Involvement: if you have the time and energy to commit to a side hustle.

Sprint Vs Marathon:

While engaging in side hustle has its own perks. It helps in creating an additional income source and act as a backup plan to fall back during unforeseen situations like an unexpected layoff. But it does take a toll on one’s physical and mental health. It can result in burnout and distraction from the primary job. This can impact the personal relationships as one might not spend quality time with family members.

Slow hustle has its own power. Investing early can reap the benefits of compounding. Let’s assume you invest Rs. 5 Lakhs today at the rate of 10% and it would take around 17 years for this to become Rs. 25 lakhs. If this investment is continued it would take only around 7.5 years for it to become Rs. 50 Lakhs. One can explore multiple avenues and instruments to invest in depending on the risk appetite. Some of the popular investment options are EPF, PPF, Mutual Funds, Stocks, Real Estates, Gold and Crypto. This way one can build multiple income streams without burning out. Rather concentrate and work towards upskilling, explore opportunities to switch jobs and ask for promotions.

To keep up with the ever-changing world and advance professionally, work on honing your skills and upgrading yourself. You can use tools like Linkedin Skill Assessment to understand what skills a future role might demand. The best way to hone your skills is by staying plugged in communities like Linkedin, attend meetups and webinars and signup for certification courses through platforms like Udemy and Coursera. Engaging in relevant real-life projects can also enhance your experience.

Side hustle works best when one is passionate about exploring something beyond the full-time job, is financially stable and has the time to explore new things. But when the full-time job is demanding or one has challenges raising the family and needs to preserve the mental bandwidth, it is best to opt for slow hustle. And in today’s era, there are multiple tools that can help in planning, budgeting and managing finances. Budgeting apps like Jupiter, IndMoney and platforms like Zerodha, Grow come in handy to plan your finances.

Is it not a question of either side hustle or slow hustle. It is what works best for you. Your wealth journey is personal and customize it with flexibility and self-awareness. So, what kind of hustle will help you live the life you would envision for yourself?