Side Hustles That Are (and Aren’t) Worth It
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And what are we talking about today, Rachel? Strategic side hustles. Not just any side hustles. Strategy. I was like, I can grocery shop. It's not that hard. I remember this. This is so embarrassing. God, I'm going to be judged by this, but this happens. Hey, guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Campbell. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. ♪

This is the show where two friends who happen to be money experts talk about what you're talking about. So everything from pop culture, current events, and money. What do we got, George? This is called the Kentucky Kernel.

Don't let the O-L-O-N-E-L fool you. It's pronounced kernel. Kernel. Because America. America. I don't know why that word is spelled that way. It's very frustrating, but it's a delicious drink. Stick around until the end. We'll give you our rating and reveal the cost per glass. That's right. Okay, so I think we should start off this by one of these questions that people ask a lot. And I'm going to ask you, George, what were you thinking? You told us about something recently, and I literally was floored, and I thought...

George, maybe you're doing it for content. Maybe you're doing it for experience. But George, can I just give the punchline? Yeah. Was an Instacart shopper. Yes. Recently. Was. Like a month ago. Yeah. I signed up. Because you're on baby step seven. So yeah, they're confused. Because generally, you'd be doing the side hustle to hit a short-term financial goal. We're trying to get out of debt, so I'm taking all the jobs I can. This was not the case with me.

I did it for fun, like a sociopath. But here's what happened. So part of it was motivation, though, because of, like, the job you do. And we talk about side hustles a lot, right? So actually, you're a very selfless person. Thank you for saying that. You're the first. And then also, tell us about the shopping experience. Okay. How hard is an Instacart shopper? We might need all day to talk about it. Y'all, it is not for the faint of heart. Stop. I was like, I can grocery shop. It's not that hard.

Little did I know, I'd be at the Sprouts bulk bin at 9.30 at night picking out licorice with a plastic tong and they're all stuck together. Oh, no. I had the most, every experience was horrific. Everyone had its own unique little challenge. Oh, no.

I thought, oh, a prescription from Publix. This should be easy. I can just get the prescription, deliver the prescription. Nope. They have to be home to sign off legally. Otherwise, you go to jail. Oh, no. So I'm knocking on the door. Seven dogs are barking at me through the glass. I'm frightened for my life. I'm calling her, calling her. She's like, I'm at a concert. I'm like, well, lady, I can't give you the prescription unless you're home. She says, what do you mean? I need the prescription. I was like, oh, my gosh. Is this lady going to die on my watch? But it is.

So then I'm like, I'm in a conundrum. So I go back to Publix. It's a medical emergency. And I have to make it back to Publix Pharmacy to return it in time so that she can even pick it up in the morning. Oh, no. Why did she do that, though? That's her fault. Thank you. Americans. What are we doing? So there was just at every turn, and then it was like, I'm going to the nicest neighborhoods I've ever been into. I'm surprised they even let me in. Gated communities. I need to find a code. There's no, they didn't give me a code. Oh, no. $3 tip, Rachel. Who?

$3 tip. No. I'm lugging gallons of water. Shame on you. I'm not about shame, but shame on you all in a gated community. And can I tell you? That tip $3 to little George. You know the community well, Rachel. It was the... It wasn't your neighborhood. No, but it was the blank. Yes.

A ritzy community. $3 tip for little old George lugging all those gallons of water. That is terrible. Can I say? It makes me feel better because we really don't Instacart anymore. I will do Costco because sometimes I'm like, I don't have time on Saturdays to go and do my full run. So that is one time I will. But I do a percentage and I do like a...

I'd do like a 15, 20%. I mean, a lot of our bill goes to that tip. $3. But you know what? I always get a thank you for the great tip. And I remember being like, okay, okay. Until I heard your story that people only tip $3. Yeah. That happened multiple times. Did you just pick them up like a thing of bananas? No, I'm telling you. There was gallons upon gallons of waters. I mean, I had to make multiple trips to the trunk. Oh.

Just to carry this stuff. So bad. One of the, my last Instacart run, zero dollar tip. No, they didn't even tip you. Zero, and this was like, I'm texting back and forth. Will they pay you though, like an hourly thing or is it strictly just tips? So you get paid for the trip, which is minimal. And then you also get tipped on top of that. And there can be bonuses that pays on the time of day and peak hours and all that. So I'll tell you what I made over doing this. I counted the hours. I did five total hours. I made $149. Wait, hold on.

Not in one day, over the course of a week or two. But five hours. Five total hours a week. You made this sound like a 48-hour deal. No, I was doing this for about a week or two. Okay, five hours. And how much? Sorry. $149. Okay. And they guaranteed, like, hey, you'll do seven trips. You're guaranteed to make $100. Okay.

On those seven trips. Yeah. And so I didn't even hit the minimum and they ended up giving me the full amount. Okay. Plus tips. And I did get a secret tip from the lady about the prescription because she felt really bad. Oh, that's sweet. She insisted. Yeah, that's fair. So yeah. Did you recommend it? Here's the good part. Didn't have to deal with like people in my vehicle, right? So if that's you-

Like Uber or something. Uber, there's like strangers getting in and out of your car. I get the, especially for ladies, that would make me uncomfortable. I don't want my wife out there, you know, picking up strangers. Yeah.

So in that regard, it's better because it's kind of on your own time. You're in a Kroger at 9.30 at night just going, hey, man, they're out of diet story. Is diet Sprite? You're dealing with what's out of stock in the store. You're hoping they get back to you in time. So it was kind of annoying and stressful. I realized I'm a good shopper. I would never ask someone to go. I was in the bulk bin scooping rice, weighing it to get exactly one pound of wild rice for them. Exactly one pound of red licorice.

And I thought, what psychopath? Are they doing this to torture me? Do they know it's me specifically on the other end? Oh, man. So it ended up being about $30 an hour. Okay. To that I say, that's a good side hustle. Sure. $30 an hour. But it's work. It's work.

But it is work. Which is a job. Yes. And that's before, you know, that's not counting the wear and tear in the vehicle, the gas, whatever. That's right. I drive an electric car. The gas was not a problem for me. But it was work. And every time I left the house, my wife was like, why are you doing this again? I'm like, for fun slash content. Listen, it really was just an experiment. No,

No, I think, and I appreciate that. Good for you, George. Yeah. You know? I'm willing to do the work. So yeah, I mean, the truth is some jobs require more of you. Some you're going to make more money than others, but it's understanding like your time is money. Yes. So where's your time better spent? I think it's the whole strategic play of all of this. And I found that the more you're willing to get out there and bust your butt, the more you're going to make.

You can take surveys at home and make four cents, you know, for every survey. Or you can go do Instacart and, you know, have a little grief, but make 30 bucks an hour. That's so good. I know. And I hate to say it, George, you have more life experience than me in this arena. I mean, I can go back to like high school, college days. I mean, I started at Ramsey right after college. So I feel like I've been in the like nine to five world for most of my... Yeah, you grew up fast. For most of my life, I grew up fast.

No, but I think back even in high school and stuff, I worked at Libby Lou, you know, the little boutique within the side of Parisians. We didn't have this in Massachusetts, but in the South, this was a delicacy. It was, yeah. What's the closest store you can think of that's mainstream? Oh, that's a good question. Was it like a limited to vibe? It wasn't a clothing store. It was like a Claire's that would do your hair and makeup, if you will. Oh. Uh-huh.

But I'm not great at hair and makeup. And there I was. What are you doing here in makeup? For little girls? They didn't care. Oh, it's for little girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally, totally, totally. Got it. But you know, you go work for the mall and then as like teenage Rachel, then you'd go babysit or start your own business or do whatever. And you do realize the cash flow, right? So I'm like, even as a teenager, you can start to understand, okay, where will I make more money? What's going to take more of my time, more of my effort? And yeah, and it shows. And I think with side hustling, we talk about it getting out of debt and,

when you have these big financial goals, this is what you want to do. But again, you don't want to waste your time. And if you have the skill set to be able to do some things that bring in some serious cash, that's what we want. Yeah. And I've done some weird ones. Like when I was getting out of debt, I did the Nielsen People Meter. You know what that is?

No. So they send you a little beeper. Yes, I do know this. And you have to carry the beeper and have it on. Yes. And it's listening to all the media you're engaging in, radio, TV, movies, whatever. And that's how Nielsen gets its ratings. When they say, hey, we had high Nielsen ratings because 30 million people watch this. That's how they're basing it off of households like mine. Just like yours. So I'd carry it and they would give me like, I don't know, 30 bucks a month.

Yeah. You know, stuff like that. I was also doing music at the time, so I would make money from streaming. I would sell my music to be used in films like wedding films. You know, if your church is making a video, you can pay to license my song. Yeah. So I'd make some money there. Yeah. I got a few big hits. Ford used two of my songs for their YouTube channel. No way.

No way. They were legit. I got an email and I was like, hey, it might be not good enough for you, but are you okay with $2,500 per song for them? And I was like, yeah, we can make that work. Oh, I'm willing to. It should have been like $3,500. Yeah.

So I got like, you know, a few grand. Yeah. Did you make any after your skateboard videos on YouTube? Nobody, that's unlisted. That's for my eyes only. You know, no one needs to see 15 year old George shirtless. And that like 13 year old kid that you showed recently. I'll never forget that story you told recently. That's true. I showed a random teenager skateboarding in the street. I said, hey man, I used to skate. Want to watch my video? Forced him to watch all four and a half minutes of this video.

I realized afterwards, like this kid was probably just like stranger danger. So good. Oh my God. But yes, I used to make websites using Squarespace and I would charge, you know, authors and entrepreneurs. George, you've been holding back all your fun stories. I had no clue. I did marketing consulting for my friend's agency. I'd help launch podcasts and do branding work, all kinds of things to get out of debt. What was your favorite? I think the marketing consulting because I was doing marketing at the time at Ramsey. So it was actually sharpening my skills here.

and helping me get better. So that's what I would tell anyone. If you have skills, you're going to enjoy it the most if you're able to use those skills to make good money. And sometimes it could turn into full-time side gig where you start your own business eventually. Totally. Now those feel like realistic side hustles. There are some floating around the internets. Yeah.

if you will, social media especially. You know, they're a little too good to be true. Have you seen the laundromat one? Oh, yeah. Like buy a laundromat. They make it sound so easy, like just spend $10 and buy a laundromat and you'll make a bajillion dollars a month. Yes, I know. And my friend recently bought a laundromat.

No, really? Him and his wife went in on it, maybe with someone else. And it's a lot of work. Well, I mean, he's out there, you know, especially on the front end. You've got to fix the machines. It's not a like just super passive. It's not a turnkey kind of thing. Yes. So hopefully long term it's worth it for them. But it's work. It's a lot. Well, I'd say the same with investment properties. Yeah.

People that get into this, like, oh yeah, this will be great. We'll just make some money on the side, the rent and all of it. They'll pay the mortgage, Rachel. Yeah. The tenants will pay. You know, I was just talking to one of our writers about this and she just, she sold hers. Cause she, yes, it was the same kind of thing. She like moved houses. She's like, well, I'll just rent it out. She was like, I rented out to some like sweet girls.

And she's like, and I would get a text, I mean, every other day about something. Like we saw a cockroach. Can you call an exterminator? The dishwasher broke. This, this. She was like, the amount of effort it took just like to keep up with it. And then, yeah, they pay, yeah, they pay the mortgage and then a little bit more. But then everything that was extra basically went back into the house. She's like, I made no extra money really. If you actually broke down the expenses, you'd be like, oh my gosh, we're kind of like breaking even. We're not really making a ton of money here.

keep it and then it gets equity and then you sell it in 20 years but this whole idea of like month to month like there's just it ends up not being a ton right versus on doing something else where you are making a ton of money so it's a little too good to be true in that way and it it takes a lot of money and if you're doing it largely with debt you're putting yourself in this in a serious bind there's tons of risk by going i'm gonna put nothing down on this they make it look so good

Well, yeah, of course, if you're selling a course on how to invest in real estate, I'm going to make it sound like this is a breeze. They all do. I know. Be like me. We retired at 23 because my wife and I— We don't go into a job and we have millions— We're $15 million in debt. I know. And then I'm going to get a little—I'm usually not sensitive about this stuff at all. But it does—like, this one does irk me. I'm like, you can comment about whatever, about my family. But when it's those people and they're like, Dave Ramsey's wrong—

And then they go into like, we're $17 million in debt with six VRBOs and five rental properties. And we live in the beach in Hawaii and travel to Paris and all this stuff. But they use Dave as like probably clickbait, his name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I'm just like, no, it's not good. Not good. Not good long term. Not good. Not a smart. Lots of risk.

And we take calls on the Ramsey show literally every day. The last show we hosted together. Yes. Just like a few days ago. It was, wasn't it every call was like, lost my job. Yeah.

a health scare. We had to move to go take care of my, like life happens. While things were going well, they took on a bunch of debt going, we can afford the payments. It's fine, we can do this. And then life happened and they're calling us going, what do we do? We can't afford the payments anymore. Not good, George. Never go into debt for any side hustle. How's that for advice? And you know, like if you go back to like simpler times, honestly, you think about like going straight to the customer, right?

and helping them with a service that's easy. Dog sitting, house sitting, babysitting. Yes. They're tried and true. And people are willing to pay good money in your own neighborhood. And can I say this? I pay a good amount for babysitting. Yeah. Because I do love a great babysitter. So I'm like, I will pay them well, or what I think is well. You know, and you watch a kid for four hours and you make more than Instacart. I mean, right? If you find a great family. Oh, 100%. I don't know. It's

I'm telling you, it's the way to do it. Or house sitting. People will pay for you to just sleep at their house while they're gone. Watch things, feed the plants for me. Yeah, water those plants. Yeah, and dog sitting is a great one. I mean, you know, we pay a dog sitter when we're out of town. We do some doggy daycare at her house and she makes great money as a side hustle and it's just fun money for her. Yes, and there's some apps and stuff that you can find to like find families in your area. But honestly, I think that stuff is like, that's where you make some good money. So sometimes it's just don't overthink it.

Yes. The side hustle that's right in front of you might be the best one. That's exactly right. Okay, so George, if you had to start over today, choose a totally different career. If you had like a completely different life, then as a Ramsey personality, what would you be doing? Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm trying to think of, I need lucrative job, lucrative,

low impact high reward i'm not the most athletic so i don't want to do physical labor so that takes out a lot of side jobs okay i'm gonna use my brain okay i'm gonna go uh consulting i feel like consultants make a lot of money and you're like what do you do what do you do i'm a business consultant uh-huh that's what i would do and my instagram bio would say entrepreneur slash consultant slash dj probably something like that but i get gigs i

At this juncture. But here's the thing. No one's going to consult with a 23-year-old, George. No, but you now? With all your life experience? But now, with all of my life experience, people would pay dozens of dollars. They would. Dozens of dollars to do that. How about you? I'm trying to think of what you're good at. I'm struggling. I'm struggling. I'm kidding. Okay, so in my dream job, which would take me years to work up the ladder, so this wouldn't answer the question, but I'm going to give you— You can still do it. Mary Kay's still around. Sorry.

I believe in you. Oh, my gosh. You're going to get the Cadillac. That would be some kind of political correspondent for a network. It's always been my side dream. I would follow campaigns around. I would be in the middle of everything. But that takes a while to get a good slot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what I would do now is I wonder if I could start a...

like a social media political account. Oh, like political news. Yes. I don't know. But through an entertaining filter. Get some political sponsors around. Not political parties sponsoring. Would it be like a nonpartisan situation? Oh, totally. Yeah, that's my thing. Because I'm like both sides. And I really do believe, I mean, genuinely, I'm like bring it both. Because it's like I want to throw off both. So then your pool is wider. Yeah. Right? You don't want to be selective.

Big pool people? Viewership? I don't know. What do you think? I think influencer would be an easier choice for you. I think you'd be great at that. You know, but can't you use like a mom influencer, you know, of like, hey, like here's the... Yeah, you know, but all this combined, I followed around when I was at the inauguration for 24 hours and did a lot of stories, a lot of stories. I was very tired. I saw them all. I was very tired. It's exhausting. It's very tiring. Yeah, can I just say being an influencer is not easy.

People imagine like, oh, you just get to do an Instagram post a day. Listen, you get that camera set up at 6 a.m. to get ready with me. And I would say this. I would say this. I don't want to, because I follow, I know some influencers and they're wonderful people. Like this is not a knock on that industry by any means. But you have to be a very disciplined person not to lose your soul. Because like literally, y'all, I mean, like I'm getting my makeup done and I told, I've never done this before. I was like, Winston, take my camera.

You got to take pictures of it. Like, we got to get this whole thing. Oh, no. Because you got to involve your family. Like, do you know what I mean? Takes a village. And your money, like the money you're making is dependent upon that of your own personal life. That's exhausting. I'm having like a panic attack right now thinking about it. Well, then TikTok's like, hey, we may not exist anymore. And you're like, well, there goes half my income. Yes. That's scary. Right? Y'all.

George? I'm not for it. Just keep, please watch Smart Money Happy Hour. I'll stick to Uber and Lyft. Let us keep doing our jobs. I will say I did Uber and Lyft for a while while I was getting out of debt too. I did both of those. Okay. And it wasn't the worst. I just found that I didn't want to go out late at night, even though that's when the money's to be made, because I didn't want to deal with inebriated people. I agree. Yeah. You know, and I got to tell, hey, can you not bring that Miller Lite into my car? Please?

You know what I mean? That bush light, that can. Can you leave it up there? On Broadway in Nashville at 11 o'clock. That's when I kind of was like, I think I'm done with this. Yeah. You know? That's a brave soul to go down there. Thank you. But that's when people do rides. Not you. Not you. The people that do it. I'm so brave. Honestly, Broadway is my worst nightmare. So the fact that I went there for fun, to make money. Terrible. Attracts. Terrible. All right. Yeah, well, you know...

What else I feel like is so important, though, is because when you are online, you're doing Uber, Instacart. Like, so much money is made online, like we were talking about. And also, all of our information is online. And so protecting that is so key. That's why I love and use, you love and use, Delete Me. Yes. Because it's a service that goes in and removes all of your information. So, I mean...

Your job history, your email addresses, phone numbers, names. I mean, it's just crazy what is out there on the internet. And Delete Me goes in and removes all your information from data broker websites that sell that data to other companies and make money off of you. So Delete Me goes and removes all of it. Yeah, I was just hearkening back to when I was a victim of fraud way back in the day before Delete Me existed probably. And I just think if I had Delete Me, I wonder if it would have happened. Yeah. If they had deleted my address off the web and all, you know, they had everything.

They had all of my information. So Delete Me really helped me sleep better at night. And it's a great thing for you, for the family. They have really affordable plans and it is worth every penny. Yep, so good. Go check them out. Go to joindeleteme.com slash smartmoney. They're giving our listeners 20% off any of their plans. That's a deal. Yeah, and their plans start as low as like $9 a month. I guess we'll put the link in the description as well. Let's do that for the people. Make it easy on them. So great. Who wants to remember a link? Convenience. That's what we're looking for.

So yeah, we tell people a lot to get their income up, especially, you know, when they are getting out of debt, getting an emergency fund, these like short-term money goals, which is really key. And, you know, at Ramsey, we have some other resources that kind of help get that ball rolling to find some extra margin. One of those is the EveryDollar budgeting app. Like when you're budgeting and you know where your money's actually going, you find more margin faster doing it versus just living kind of like on a whim.

And then also the 24-hour money challenge. So this is a great one too. So we'll put all these links down below for you to do because that one, it really expands to look at your whole money picture to say, okay, where are you overspending, underspending, like looking at everything to find margin there. In 24 hours. Yeah, it's very quick. We're talking a short amount of time, just quick wins. Some quick wins. So go check that out for sure.

Yes, but if you are looking to increase your income with a side hustle, there's some factors that you need to think about. Yes. So some people have a lot of skills in their resume. Others have very niche, more limited skills that you may not be able to use. And so knowing this, we created a side hustle quiz to help people determine what kind of part-time work side hustles might make sense for them, their money goals, how much time they have. And so we kind of put it into different buckets. There's the high skill, high time. I got a lot of skills and a lot of time to do it. There's high skill, high time.

Low time. And then there's limited skill, high time. And finally, limited skill, low time. Yes. And so there's something for everyone out there. And we did this quiz for ourselves because we walk the walk, Rachel. Can we share our results? Yes. I think it's very telling. Very telling when we see the results. This is really good, actually. Yep. So... So you kind of get like a character. And it's a quiz that will take probably what? Five minutes?

Three to four minutes. Yeah. So, yeah. So, it helps you, but you got to take that quiz. So, mine, I ended up in the professional segment. Where did you end up? Must be nice. I got the limited edition because I have a lot of talent to offer, but I'm also very busy. Very busy. Okay. So, for me, my in-person side hustle is consulting. George. You're living my dream. Nannying for me. Such a good mom. Can you imagine? Oh, my gosh. Event planning. Yeah.

I wish it said slash travel agent. I would kill it. I could actually see you, though, planning like luxury weddings. I could do it. Yeah. The event planning, I don't know, luxury travel. Yeah.

All right. All day. That fits in that category. All day. And then working part-time, like exploring just a new career path. So my at-home side hustle is teaching English. And they even give you a link to a company you can sign up to help you get started, which is great. Love it. Freelancing. And then starting your own online business. So this would be fun. Trying something like a...

Like an Etsy or a course or something. I don't know. I'm into it. Okay. I got the limited edition. Of course, I can't do a course. You'd make fun of me for a course. I wouldn't make fun of you. If it was a course for something useful. Yeah, that's fair. You know, just not a course on how to make money doing courses. Then that would make fun of you. Yeah. You know what I mean? But if it was like how to rearrange your closet and, you know, live the life you love and dress accordingly on a budget, I'd be like, yeah, that's great. You could walk people through. Thanks, George. You're good at marketing. Yeah.

I'm just spitballing. That one's free. So I did get the limited edition because I am very busy but very talented. In-person side hustles. These are so funny because it could not be further from the truth for me. First one, indoor-outdoor home maintenance and repair. Ha ha!

Hey! To be fair, though, I am good at like, I could get, you know what I could do? Smart home. I could get you a smart home. Yeah, that is true. You could. Pick the right products. I will not install the doorbell, but I can help you choose the right doorbell and get your app going. You know, getting it connected to the Wi-Fi, all that stuff. It's like my toilet's making weird noises. George is like, I don't know. Find an app for that. I don't know. That's a fun one. Another one, also, I would be great at, babysitting. Okay.

I got nannying. You got babysitting. Listen, kids think I'm cool. So I just like, hey. You know what? You drew pictures with Amelia like three years ago. She still remembers it. She remembers. I did draw pictures with her. Do you remember that? At an event, a random event. Yeah. George got on the floor with her and they were like drawing pictures together and she still talks about it. We had a competition of who could draw. She's like, there's George. It was who could draw a better horse. Ah. She won. I let her win, but she did win. Yeah.

Let's not do that one. Photography. I am good. That's something that was a love of mine is photography, film. And so I have some nice cameras. I could do that on the side for sure. And then at home side hustles, freelancing, which I've done a lot of. Tutoring. So I could use online tutoring sites to do that. And transcribing. I am a good typer. Like you ever use Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing? Remember that software? I think my dad got it for me. He's in the crowd today. I'm shouting out the crowd. Hey. Hey.

Yeah, I always loved it. You could try to work on your words per minute and it would also track accuracy. Yeah. What was it called? Mavis Speak and Teach Us Typing. If you know, you know. Was it yellow? Do you remember when our computer softwares or games would come in a box, y'all, and you would open the box and take the disc out and put it in? Do you remember that?

Is that what you're talking about? This was made... Show it to me because this could be a... Okay, they'll put her on the screen as well, editors, but this was made... She looks AI now looking back. I don't think she was real. She does look AI. Yeah, I don't think that's a real person, but...

Maybe she isn't. She's just perfect and beautiful. I don't know. But yeah, Mavis Beacon is the one who taught me how to type. Okay. Go take it for yourself. Can I just say that? Go take the quiz and let us know in the comments what you got as your results. And you know what? While you're taking the quiz, you should be comfortable while you're taking that quiz in your cozy earth room.

I wish being cozy was a side hustle. I would crush it. Make so much money, especially with Cozy Earth. We could be models for Cozy Earth. We should. Legitimately. We're available. I have so much Cozy Earth stuff now at our house. I mean, I really do. You could. And I've been giving it as gifts now because it's literally like, it's some of my favorite stuff because it feels like such good quality. I know if I'm giving it to someone, I'm like, you're going to love it.

But the pajamas, joggers, I'll always shout out the socks. Once I bought the socks. I need to try out the socks. One foot says cozy, one foot says earth on the top. I love it. So good. So great. So classy. So go check out their products. They're giving our listeners and viewers up to 40% off when you use the promo code SMARTMONEY at checkout. And they really do make just wonderful products. They do. From blanket sheets. I need to get my own PJ set. I got my wife one and now I'm a little jealous because her new thing is to live in PJ sets.

every night a new PJ set. I'm out here in my Kirkland sweatpants and an old t-shirt. What are you doing? I gotta live a little. Well, it's funny because my Cozy Earth PJs are my Navy ones.

And it feels like sacred. I'm like, there's over there. And if I feel gross at night, I'm not going to shower. I don't wear them. They're only like, they're my good ones. You know what I mean? It's that feeling of like. Savor it. They are. I know. They're special. CozyEarth.com, promo code smartmoney. We'll link in the description as well. Okay. So one of your favorite pastimes, not mine, is to go to Reddit. That feels like a veiled threat. I've been to Reddit maybe twice in my whole life. Well, you're an American hero. I want you to know that. You're better than all of us. Really?

Really doing well in life. But you can go there to find whatever you need to find. So we typed in like crazy side hustles on Reddit. Yes. And there's some funny ones, y'all. Okay, we're going to rate these one to ten. Okay. Odd jobs from Craigslist. Here's the quote. I've done everything from local fruit delivery to working a dinosaur exposition.

That's a 10 for me. Oh, for sure. Charles, this is what my son will do. He will do a dinosaur exposition. That's amazing. Well done. What is the exposition part? I bet you're touring like a place where dinosaur fossils were found in Denver, which... Not that you've ever done that. Not that it was a terrible experience. We went on a dinosaur tour in Denver, y'all. Supposedly it was where the first...

Oh, shoot. Stegosaurus was found on Earth, and it's my son's favorite dinosaur. So we bought... You're telling me geographically. In the entire world... Google it. That's what they claim. In Denver. Yes. The first stego found in Denver. Yes. Yes. And then it's a little bait and switch, you know? Because they're like, come see a stegosaurus. So we're like, you know what? We'll pay for it because it was a good setup. It's right by the Red Rocks in Denver. Yeah.

Okay, and if you work for this company, it's great. It's fine. I don't want to bash them. It's not your Yelp review. But you go, and then they're like, look at the side of this rock. Do you see all the footprints? There's no footprints? It's just a rock. And you're like...

Yeah. And that's where Jesus carried the dinosaur. And they have the... You don't see it. He was carrying the dinosaur. And then you go through an hour tour and you stop at all these things that are kind of... And then finally, they're like, do you want to see bones from a stegosaurus? And once they're like, thank God, yes. Yes, we do. And you expect like a... A full stego. You...

Nope. It's not, just a bone. It's another rock with a thing sticking out. Like a fossilized. And they're just like, there's the leg, you know, the, you know, not great. That's so sad. Okay, how about this? Creating online resources. I developed a WordPress plugin to solve an issue I faced. Uploaded it and made it public for others. Added a donation link.

was making $50 to $100 a month, realized a lot of people were using it, spent more time on it, added more features and detailed support, and eventually launched the pro version. And it recently, oh my gosh, crossed $300,000 in lifetime revenue. That's amazing. Way to go. And as someone who's used WordPress, it is...

the worst and you need 17 plugins to make your website work and if someone tweaks one plugin your entire website crashes not so god bless the you know he was like hey i'm gonna i'm gonna solve this problem or she we're my women developers out there where you at make some noise all right here's another one reselling vintage t-shirts buying and reselling novelty t-shirts within a week i was making 900 profit

So I guess you can go to like, you know, a Goodwill or something and find an old Led Zeppelin shirt and then resell it on eBay for five times what you paid for it. Yeah, I would not be good at that. I would be good at this next one though, selling homemade salsa at my farmer's market. It's been very lucrative.

And I feel so connected to my community, this person says. I make homemade salsa. Did you know this about me? You made homemade? Yes, I do. That was a Sharon Ramsey thing. She does not buy jarred salsa. So you're getting like the tomatillos, you're roasting them, you're putting them in the blender. No, for the green salsa, salsa verde, you do that. No, but for the other ones, it's just like, it's tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, garlic, and

A little bit of tomato sauce, if you kind of want to make it a little bit thicker. Some cumin, salt, and pepper. Wow. And it's great. But it's very fast. In the blender, put it in a mason jar. So you're never buying Tostitos salsa? I do sometimes now. Don't tell Sharon. But salsa is an easy thing to make. And if people love it, selling it, it's great. I'd just rather go to a Mexican restaurant. Support a local business, Rachel. Oh, my gosh. There you go. Here's another one. Making lava rock aquarium ornaments.

Not on my bingo card. All of those words together, it just kept getting more insane. Like making lava. Okay, making lava. Lava rock. Lava rock aquarium followed by ornaments. It brings in 400 to 700 bucks a month. Good night. Which tells you there's a lot of people out there... Looking for rock aquarium ornaments. I don't even know what that would look like. Is that...

No, that's not Christmas ornaments on the tree. That's what I'm wondering. Is it like things you put in the tank to make it cuter for the fish? Oh. It's all about aesthetics in the aquarium world. Woodworking. You know, you can build, gosh, workbenches, tables, all of it, and you can make $50,000 in three years, this person did. That's not bad for a side hustle. And to be fair, one of the most ancient side hustles. I mean, Jesus was out there, you know?

Here's another one for you I think you'd be great at with your music knowledge. DJing. This person said, brings in 400 bucks a month. That's not bad. We have some friends here who DJ and you can make great money. Weddings, parties, and as long as you have a good playlist. I would be the worst DJ. Just find, literally, search on Spotify for DJ.

playlist and hit play. Oh my gosh. You could do that. Yeah, we were talking about the Grammys earlier today with the team. I'm like, I don't know any, I know no one. Literally, my Spotify is the goodness of God and Taylor Swift. That's really all it's on. I love the goodness of God. I love that song by Bethel. So good. You gotta get into that theology. And then Taylor Swift

There's a lot going on there and yet not enough. You know what I mean? It's only two. So it's either like worship music or Taylor Swift. There's no one between. I mean, sometimes in Christ alone, if I'm feeling like old school, but like the goodness of God.

And then, yeah. So your Spotify rap was real sad. It was like, you need a life. All I do is listen to Audible in my car. I don't listen to music. Okay. You're a better person than us. We get it. No, I just like... I'm constantly learning. No, my books are about murder and kidnapping and yeah, it's not good. Like my books aren't great. Okay. Definitely more in the Taylor Swift genre. Yeah, what is your favorite genre of music, would you say? Pop? Yeah. Yeah.

You said it like I validated you after years of struggle. Yeah, it is pop. You know what? That's fine. Yeah, I mean, gosh, that's such a hard question. I don't know. Yes, I think it would be like...

Like give me a 2003 playlist and that is my happy spot. Okay. So now that's what I call music, 2003. I'd be so happy with that. Yeah. That's what I'm getting for Christmas. Like sister hazel. Like give me like, yeah, give me like a sister hazel. Like a, yeah, that genre. Because 20 years ago was the last time you listened to anything relevant. Got it. Okay. That helps me. I know. Give us one more, Rachel. All right. How about contract furniture assembly? Okay.

And this is a good one. So this person made $1,000 a week to show up with a fancy drill. And yeah, basically just put together some Wayfair stuff for customers and made $1,000 a week. Now I would pay for this legitimately. Yeah.

Yeah, and I love their end quote. I had no idea people were so scared of putting their own furniture together. That's real talk. Make some money that way. If I'm sitting on it, in it, my kids are in it, I need that thing built well. And I built a play set for my daughter. It took two of us, I think, two hours. It's exhausting. Have you done a kitchen? One of those kitchens for Mia yet? No, I'm too scared. You're about... I will hire a handyman. Don't do it Christmas Eve. Will Winston help me? Yes. Winston's great at putting stuff together. But he doesn't enjoy it.

He's just good at it. No, yeah. Especially if it's for someone else. He would help you, George. He likes you. I love how real that got. He would help. This is charity for him. He would do it. He would. He would help you, George. He would take ministry time for it, but he would do it.

Okay. He would do it. That was fun. We didn't rate those, but I'm giving those all 10s. Oh, sorry. I think they're all interesting. Oh, yeah. From lava rock aquariums to homemade salsa. These are all great ones. They all involve things that you're interested in and or good at. That's what I was going to say. Find something that you enjoy, right? And then you can make some great money. I thought I enjoyed grocery shopping until I was knee deep in the bulk bin counting wild rice.

Just single, just going, that's a pound, 0.98 pounds. I got to get to a pound or else, I don't know. They're going to report me to the police. I don't know what to do. Oh, George. God bless the side hustles. Just remember, here's the end quote. When you're working toward a money goal, remember everything is just for a season. It's not your whole life. That's right. So when it's miserable, remember the why. Remember why you're doing this. I'm going to get out of debt once and for all. I never want to side hustle again. That's a perfectly reasonable goal. Yep. I love it.

All right, so before we get into Guilty as Charged, this was a great drink. Killer drink. I liked it. We've had some duds lately, so I'm happy to say this one's a 10 out of 10 for me. It's called the Kentucky Colonel. What's your rating? I'm going 10 out of 10. It cannot be improved. Is this a drink you could go to like a normal bar and order? Yes. I always wonder with some of these. Here's what's going to shock you. Two ingredients in this drink. No, stop it. One of them, bourbon.

Well, yeah, I would guess that. That means there's only one other ingredient, Rachel, if you're doing the math at home, which is Benedictine DOM liqueur. Okay. So just kind of an herbal liqueur in there, but it really comes together and there is an expressed lemon peel. If you want to really go for it.

express a little lemon peel over it and drop it in there. It comes out to $3.12. I assume we used some nice, high-quality bourbon in here. You do you. Recipes in the show notes. This is, I'm going to say right now, my favorite two-ingredient drink of all time. I mean, two ingredients, that's, you can't beat that. It's very impressive. Do you think he stirs it or shakes it? This is a, oh gosh, what does he do? I think it's a stirred drink. Will can prove me wrong.

Stir it. It's a stirred drink. Stir it together. Yeah, it's not like a margarita. We're not shaking this up. Don't ruin it. So good. So good. All right. Well, now it's time for Guilty as Charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty as charged question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip. All right. Have you ever started a new job and knew immediately that it wasn't for you? It can't be Ramsey. It's awkward. Don't mention that one. You're still here.

I've done some weird stuff at Ramsey, though, like publishing, curriculum, sales on the phone. I've done a lot. Yeah, me, I've done a lot, too. I'm trying to think of the worst of the worst. No, I'm going to be honest. You've enjoyed them all. You had a great time. No, no, no, I'm going to go back. I think when I realized, like, okay, this would be, like, when I was working at Libby Lou. I remember this. This is so embarrassing. God, I'm going to be judged by this, but...

This happens. I was working there. I worked there for probably a year, but during Christmas break, I took off a lot because I was like, I'm a high schooler and I got like this thing going. I have this thing at high school going. I got a trip with my family. I got, I mean, all of this stuff. And the boss came up to me and they were like, you can't take this much time off.

what do I do? You know, I was like, I don't know what to do because I can't. Quit? Nope. Not go on the family trip. I can't. In my head at the time was like, but my high school parties. And you know, that was the moment where I realized, you know, I, yeah, I don't know. I think I can make my own schedule babysitting and do some other things. So yeah, that was a, that was a tough one. Wow. I've, I'm trying to think of the worst. I was auditing a bookstore thing

And like counting inventory is what I was doing. It was like a part-time side hustle. That was pretty miserable. I did IT work for my school over the summer. I would go and like update all the computers, every single one. In high school? This was a high school job. Did that for a while, also miserable. But started a new job. I would say Urban Outfitters. I worked at- George, you have done so much in your life. I literally was like a babysitter. I worked at the mall for maybe six months of my life. Like, I'm like-

I was a doctor's office receptionist. That was a fun one because I was getting paid $12 an hour. How long have you been at these jobs? I'm 48 years old, Rachel. No. Genuinely, I feel like I had the most boring childhood. I had your integrity snacks. I started a business. This is from like 15 to 23. I lived a lot of life, you know, and I moved states and all that. But my worst one, I'm going to say, was Urban Outfitters. I got fired from the Apple store.

My parents remember this well because I cried like a baby when I got fired because I legit thought like this is my career. Like I gave my life to this. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I was a creative. I was training people how to use the... So I got fired from that, went to Urban Outfitters. Why'd you get fired? Really nerdy. No, it wasn't even... I wish it was juicier. I hacked a little Dell MacBook, you know, like you could get a little Dell computers, little minis. And the geniuses who fixed the computers were like, hey, get one. We'll hack it into a Mac for you. So you could have this little tiny Dell that was like a MacBook. Yeah. So anyways, apparently that was...

They were trying to, they got new management. They were trying to fire a bunch of people. So a bunch of people got fired in like two weeks for random things. If you were late, you got fired. So anyways, mine was I, the software update that he did wasn't my copy of the license of the software update. And so they said that was a breach of something. Wow. They fired both of us. Wow. Crushed my dreams. I was making 16 an hour. I was like, this is amazing. I went to Urban Outfitters, was making $8 an hour. Fuck.

inside out clothes because people like Rachel would go in the fitting room, try 90 things, leave them all in a pile for little old George to clean up. Stop. And here's where I was there for three months total. Here was the final straw. Found a used feminine product on top of the mirror because we had to check for tags because people would steal stuff. No. That was my... No. That was it. Stop it. That's when I moved south. I literally moved across the country after that. After that.

I moved to Mobile, Alabama to start a new life after finding a used feminine product on top of the mirror. Gross. Where people would put tags from when they ripped off the tags to steal clothes. So we always had to check the top of the mirror because that's where they would put the tags. People stole stuff? Yeah. A lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. Surprised they're still in business with how much stuff people are stealing. Oh, man. That was my last foray at Urban Outfitters. But hey, 40% off discount.

My Libby Lewin is so sad. I was like, I can't go to my high school parties. Wow, wow, wee, wah. My entire life was altered after that moment. I found out a lot. Oh, man. Well, yeah, I can't, I mean, I don't know. Hard to enjoy a job after that. I think we can all agree. I mean, that's, yeah, that's terrible, George. Wow, guilty. Thank you for the first time you've had empathy for me, by the way. It's really rare to see on this show.

Oh, man. Well, that was fun. If you guys have any guilty as charged ideas, make sure to DM us on social. We love hearing them. Yeah, because you guys have actually some great ones. And if you don't want to miss a future episode, make sure to subscribe. And speaking of subscribing, George. We got something cool in the mail. Thanks to you guys, the faithful listeners and viewers out there.

Hold it up, Rachel. You got it? Oh, yeah. Here we go. Here we go. 100,000 subscribers on Smart Money Happy Hour. That's a big deal. Thank you, guys. That's a big deal. It's a big milestone for any creator, YouTuber out there. I mean, for people to get 1,000 subscribers is like, that's a lot of work. You know? And 100,000. So, thank you, guys. Thank you all for hitting that subscribe button. And, you know, next time we do this, I think is the million mark. So, only 900,000 to go. And now...

It would be cool to do that in our lifetime on this show. Yeah, we'll see. So encourage your friends to go check out the show. And truly, it's one of the most fun things when we're out and about. People go, I love Smart Money Happy Hour. Specifically, out of all the things we do, and I think it's because it's sort of a nice...

gateway drug into the Ramsey universe because it's just, we're having a good time. It's easy. And we do talk about money, but it's in a very casual way. Money and dinosaurs. So we'll see. Well, if you guys enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out the next episode, Habits Wasting Your Time and Money in 2024. We'll link it down below. And we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.