Jessica Irvine: Hello and welcome to It All Adds Up the podcast
Jessica Irvine: where we chat about money, how to get it, how
Jessica Irvine: to spend it and how to invest it. I'm senior
Jessica Irvine: economics writer Jess Irvine.
Dominic Powell: And I'm money editor Dom Powell. And today we're talking
Dominic Powell: about the great world of side hustles.
Jessica Irvine: It makes me tired just thinking about it. I see.
Dominic Powell: Well, exactly. We already do enough work, you know, real hustling.
Dominic Powell: Who's who has time for hustling any? Well, apparently a
Dominic Powell: lot of people, they're very popular things to do. You
Dominic Powell: see a lot of people these days with a little
Dominic Powell: side hobbies and other little ways to to earn a
Dominic Powell: bit of money on the side. Yes. If you ever
Dominic Powell: had a side hustle, something you'd categorize as a side hustle.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah, I have had many I'm excited about this topic
Jessica Irvine: because just the idea that you can make money in
Jessica Irvine: your spare time only recently occurred to me and in
Jessica Irvine: ways that you wouldn't necessarily I haven't set up an
Jessica Irvine: online business or anything, but in terms of selling stuff
Jessica Irvine: on Facebook Marketplace, renting out my car space, I've done
Jessica Irvine: a few of those things. I made about 300 bucks
Jessica Irvine: a month, I think, by renting out my car space,
Jessica Irvine: just pretty good street instead, you know, and I'm not
Jessica Irvine: particularly I'm not in the CBD or anything. I just thought, Oh,
Jessica Irvine: that's easy. Money doesn't matter to me if I park
Jessica Irvine: on the street. Hmm. Yeah. What about you, dummy? You're
Jessica Irvine: a hustler.
Dominic Powell: Look, I think, like, if I'd thought about it, like,
Dominic Powell: I wouldn't categorize myself as, like, someone with the side hustle. But, like,
Dominic Powell: in the past, I've definitely done little things, like, beside that,
Dominic Powell: that have. That have saved. They have made me money. Like,
Dominic Powell: this is like super nerdy, which is like, really made
Dominic Powell: us like, baring all. But I used to be really
Dominic Powell: into playing like trading card games, Like you go and
Dominic Powell: Magic The Gathering. I still play them a bit these days,
Dominic Powell: but I used to like buy and sell like trading cards.
Dominic Powell: I'd like speculate on them, like I'd buy them at like,
Dominic Powell: you know, $0.50 and be like, Oh, they've gone out
Dominic Powell: to a dollar and I'd sell them for like a
Dominic Powell: dollar and all that sort of stuff. If it was,
Dominic Powell: it was fun.
Jessica Irvine: Wow. I've never even heard of those. Yes.
Dominic Powell: Yeah, It was like I didn't make like, I probably
Dominic Powell: made like maybe, you know, a couple hundred bucks a month, like,
Dominic Powell: I wasn't doing big bucks or anything like that. But
Dominic Powell: this is back when I was like 17 or something
Dominic Powell: like that. But yeah, I've had some I've had some
Dominic Powell: side hustles.
Jessica Irvine: I guess that's really cool. And if it aligns with,
Jessica Irvine: you know, your personal interests and you enjoy it, I
Jessica Irvine: think that's yeah, I think that's perfect. Exactly. My, my
Jessica Irvine: real big thing, which sort of bordered on an addiction,
Jessica Irvine: was when I discovered Facebook Marketplace a couple of years ago.
Jessica Irvine: And I just it just blew my mind that you
Jessica Irvine: could connect with potential buyers. Like I could just post
Jessica Irvine: anything and I'm a seller and you just, you know,
Jessica Irvine: if you can navigate the wild world of is this
Jessica Irvine: still available, which is the message you get through Facebook marketplace,
Jessica Irvine: you know, if you need to connect with anyone as
Jessica Irvine: a as a buyer and seller and you know and
Jessica Irvine: you meet some wild and wonderful people that I was like,
Jessica Irvine: I can I can sell anything. And yeah, you know,
Jessica Irvine: we'll get to some of the things I've sold. But
Jessica Irvine: like I sold, I went on holidays to the Highlands
Jessica Irvine: and I found some really big pine cones that had
Jessica Irvine: fallen from a tree and there was heaps of them
Jessica Irvine: and I took about eight of them home and then
Jessica Irvine: I found a wicker basket on the side of the road.
Jessica Irvine: It was in good condition and I sort of styled it,
Jessica Irvine: you know, these pine cones in this lovely wicker basket,
Jessica Irvine: and I sold them for 45 bucks.
Dominic Powell: That's so there you go. That's, that's an entrepreneur and mindset.
Jessica Irvine: The crazy money bit of arbitrage.
Dominic Powell: I think before we get into the whole thing, I'm
Dominic Powell: going to get on my soapbox for a bit. And
Dominic Powell: some would say that a podcast is a soapbox anyway,
Dominic Powell: so I'm getting on a soapbox. So then a soapbox, but.
Jessica Irvine: I'm not going to interrupt you. Go for it.
Dominic Powell: Is that I do have like I have like a
Dominic Powell: slight inherent issue with like the whole concept of side hustles. Like,
Dominic Powell: I feel like they've been really glamorized in like recent years,
Dominic Powell: you know, the whole idea of like, working a second effectively,
Dominic Powell: like a second job to, you know, make enough money
Dominic Powell: to get by, like, turned in to be sort of
Dominic Powell: all like, you know, you can go and work with
Dominic Powell: Uber and it's this whole sort of issue with the
Dominic Powell: gig economy, which I think is just sort of like
Dominic Powell: an unhealthy part of our society. Like it's sort of
Dominic Powell: inherently capitalistic, all that sort of stuff. I have a
Dominic Powell: I have a problem. And I think there's also like
Dominic Powell: a bit of like a privilege issue here where it's
Dominic Powell: like calling a second job a side hustle, which is
Dominic Powell: like the glamorized version of it, rather than just a
Dominic Powell: second job, which you need to work to get by. Like,
Dominic Powell: that's sort of doesn't sit right sometimes with me. But anyway,
Dominic Powell: I recognize a lot of people do it and really
Dominic Powell: enjoy the side hustle. So it's I know it's not
Dominic Powell: always bad, but I do want to recognize that there
Dominic Powell: is like a little bit of a perception issue here.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah. I mean, the rise of insecure work. Yes, 100%
Jessica Irvine: a thing. And sort of whether it's, you know, a
Jessica Irvine: good thing that we have like new technologies, we can
Jessica Irvine: jump on and do an Airtasker and sort of do
Jessica Irvine: these and connect to work opportunities that might use our
Jessica Irvine: good skills that we have. That's that might be good.
Jessica Irvine: But is it a sign that, you know, you just
Jessica Irvine: don't have a full time job that with an employer
Jessica Irvine: who's committed to you and your career progression and paying
Jessica Irvine: you a fair wage? And we know, of course, the
Jessica Irvine: wages in Australia being backsliding, not keeping up with inflation
Jessica Irvine: for a number of years. So is it a sign
Jessica Irvine: of desperation that people are sort of having to now
Jessica Irvine: go outside of their pay job, still do the the
Jessica Irvine: full time work, but then also hustle on the side
Jessica Irvine: just to keep? The rising cost of living. That is
Jessica Irvine: a predicament a lot of people are in. That doesn't
Jessica Irvine: sound very fun to me.
Dominic Powell: No. But at the same time, I think there's a
Dominic Powell: lot of people out there who just genuinely enjoy monetizing
Dominic Powell: their hobbies and things like that. So I think there's
Dominic Powell: there's many bits of ways that you can sort of
Dominic Powell: swing it.
Jessica Irvine: So exactly. And I think it's at least thinking through
Jessica Irvine: some of the things like we're going to go through
Jessica Irvine: a list of potential side hustles for you if you're interested,
Jessica Irvine: just because it might spark some ideas. And, you know,
Jessica Irvine: I mean, and to preface everything by saying that to
Jessica Irvine: make sure that you're being paid a fair salary in
Jessica Irvine: your full time job, you know, do ask for those
Jessica Irvine: pay rises. I think it was that our second episode
Jessica Irvine: that we did that was, you know, you can side
Jessica Irvine: hustle yourself or you can ask for a pay rise
Jessica Irvine: that might give you the equivalent if you're lucky, and
Jessica Irvine: if you could negotiate anyway. But that's yeah, Before we
Jessica Irvine: get into the side hustles, I do say make sure
Jessica Irvine: you get paid.
Dominic Powell: Represented, compensated fairly from your from your main place of employment.
Jessica Irvine: And if you're not, maybe you should spend your spare
Jessica Irvine: time looking at job ads and getting a new job
Jessica Irvine: where you might be paid more. You know, if you're
Jessica Irvine: not happy with what's happening in the in the day job.
Dominic Powell: Indeed. But I suppose how do you how do you
Dominic Powell: define a side hustle? I mean, I feel like that's
Dominic Powell: sort of in the name, right? It's something you just
Dominic Powell: do a little bit extra on the side, right?
Jessica Irvine: Yeah, something on the side. Just a bit of extra
Jessica Irvine: cash in the pocket outside of a traditional job. Although,
Jessica Irvine: you know, if you really into your side hustles, they
Jessica Irvine: can grow into small businesses.
Dominic Powell: Absolutely.
Jessica Irvine: That might be a future career for you. So but
Jessica Irvine: I'm open to the idea of doing some things on
Jessica Irvine: the side.
Dominic Powell: Yeah. And I think we all do at some point
Dominic Powell: in our life, do a little bit of extra something
Dominic Powell: on the side, like, you know, even if it may
Dominic Powell: not be something that you think as it would be
Dominic Powell: a side hustle, but maybe you've just made a little
Dominic Powell: bit of cash doing, you know, whatever. You sold some
Dominic Powell: pinecones in a basket.
Jessica Irvine: On the pine cone, retail.
Dominic Powell: Pinecone. Right. So this is just as the job title
Dominic Powell: after a journalist and an economist who's also a pine
Dominic Powell: cone retailer.
Jessica Irvine: Add that to the business cards. So we thought you
Jessica Irvine: can basically divide side hustles into two broad types of
Jessica Irvine: categories which we'll sketch out for you. This is my methodology, Tom.
Jessica Irvine: I hope you're on board with it. You can either sell,
Jessica Irvine: sell your skills and time or sell your stuff or
Jessica Irvine: rent your stuff. So sell your skills, sell your stuff.
Jessica Irvine: And I thought we might start with sort of listing
Jessica Irvine: out for people. If you're interested in getting a side hustle,
Jessica Irvine: selling your skills, you know, and your labor on the side,
Jessica Irvine: what are some of the the best ones. 30, Right?
Dominic Powell: Yeah. Well, I was like, you know, as we've sort
Dominic Powell: of just mentioned before, there's been a massive rise over
Dominic Powell: the past sort of decade, I guess, in terms of
Dominic Powell: these gig economy companies like Uber, Ubereats, DoorDash, Menulog, know, Deliveroo, RPA, Deliveroo,
Dominic Powell: you were too good for this Earth, or at least
Dominic Powell: too good for Australia, apparently, and Airtasker and all those
Dominic Powell: sort of things where you can go and, you know,
Dominic Powell: deliver food to people or pick people up and or,
Dominic Powell: you know, deliver someone's couch to them or help them
Dominic Powell: nail some nails into a wall. I don't know how
Dominic Powell: handyman work, but that sort of stuff like the you know,
Dominic Powell: there's lots of there's lots of like sort of things
Dominic Powell: where you can sell you sell your skills in that sense.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah. And some of those are sort of what you
Jessica Irvine: would consider lower skills, like you just your skills that
Jessica Irvine: you can drive a car and you have some spare
Jessica Irvine: time and you're willing to do that. But I think
Jessica Irvine: Airtasker is fascinating, like the sorts of things, the jobs
Jessica Irvine: that can be posted on there. And again, it is
Jessica Irvine: that sort of wonders of technology and being able to
Jessica Irvine: connect us. And if you've got something to sell, just
Jessica Irvine: doing it in a more direct way. So yeah, Itasca
Jessica Irvine: as well, you know, but that can work for you too.
Jessica Irvine: You know, you're great at sort of, I don't know,
Jessica Irvine: what are you great at?
Dominic Powell: What am I going I'm great at? You know, being
Dominic Powell: a being a good friend.
Jessica Irvine: Not being a good friend.
Dominic Powell: No, I I'm as a one of my hobbies is photography,
Dominic Powell: which is something I do on the side. But like, I.
Dominic Powell: I would never be able to I don't think I
Dominic Powell: would be able to actually monetize that. Like, I don't
Dominic Powell: think I'm good.
Jessica Irvine: I can you could probably go on Airtasker and say,
Jessica Irvine: I'll be your friend for the day. That's it. A
Jessica Irvine: hundred bucks, you know, that's what I'm a great, caring,
Jessica Irvine: warm person. There are lonely people out.
Dominic Powell: There, but I wouldn't $100. I'm not doing that for
Dominic Powell: a whole day. $400. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to need more.
Dominic Powell: I'm going to be more conversation than that.
Jessica Irvine: Well, you can you know, you can test the market.
Dominic Powell: Inside of this to get to like all of this,
Dominic Powell: to get into like the realm of like, escort, like,
Dominic Powell: you know, So I think, well, maybe, maybe, maybe we
Dominic Powell: get a little too close to the sun here.
Jessica Irvine: Keep it legal. Yeah, that would be advice. Yeah, but
Jessica Irvine: I love that, you know, monetizing your hobbies, whether it's,
Jessica Irvine: you know, you're great at drawing or sketching, and particularly
Jessica Irvine: with photography, you can sell prints. And I like to
Jessica Irvine: talk about the sort of difference between side hustle and
Jessica Irvine: passive income. If it's something that, you know, you, you
Jessica Irvine: are producing great artwork and you can sell reprints of,
Jessica Irvine: you know, one that you've done the work once you've
Jessica Irvine: taken the gorgeous photo, but you're selling prints of it,
Jessica Irvine: that's almost it. You know, there's delivery costs or whatever,
Jessica Irvine: but it's a more passive thing where you've not taking
Jessica Irvine: a new picture every time. I think that's a great idea. And,
Jessica Irvine: you know, people get on mentioned Airtasker, you know eBay
Jessica Irvine: you can sell arts and crafts Etsy everyone can have an.
Jessica Irvine: See store. Now that seems to make it really easy.
Jessica Irvine: And moving into the world of like digital products, you know,
Jessica Irvine: which is a little bit more passive, as we say.
Jessica Irvine: You know, particularly on Etsy is one where you can sell,
Jessica Irvine: you know, get paid for like you're the specialist in this.
Jessica Irvine: So you write a small, you know, ten page PDF
Jessica Irvine: on get started on whatever it is, which is sort
Jessica Irvine: of like an alternative to traditional book publishing. And then
Jessica Irvine: once you've done it, every download is, you know, passive
Jessica Irvine: income for you. And as you know, I'm into a
Jessica Irvine: bit of budgeting and lots of people sell templates and spreadsheets.
Jessica Irvine: You know, here's my net worth tracker. I can make
Jessica Irvine: quite sizable passive incomes from having produced that intellectual property
Jessica Irvine: and just pop it online and see if it flies.
Dominic Powell: Well, you can write a book called Money with Jess,
Dominic Powell: and you can sell that in every good bookstore.
Jessica Irvine: I haven't told you this, but last night I won
Jessica Irvine: an award. Oh, yeah.
Dominic Powell: Congratulation.
Jessica Irvine: Thank you. Book of the Year by the Australian Business Awards. So, yeah.
Jessica Irvine: There you go.
Dominic Powell: Let's see if you. If your side hustle is good enough,
Dominic Powell: you can win an award for it. You.
Jessica Irvine: Exactly. I'm really proud of that, actually. Yeah. You should decide.
Dominic Powell: And lastly, I guess, like, you know, you can sort
Dominic Powell: of take yourself back to when you were when you
Dominic Powell: were younger and, you know, when everyone used to be
Dominic Powell: a babysitter or dogs today. And that's something you can
Dominic Powell: do these days as well. You know, you can put
Dominic Powell: an ad on a local noticeboard or on your local
Dominic Powell: Facebook community group, a good common network or whatever they
Dominic Powell: are these days where you can offer, you know, babysitting, house, sitting,
Dominic Powell: pet sitting, lawn mowing city guides, or another very popular
Dominic Powell: one for that that people do quite a bit. So
Dominic Powell: these are these are all all options that are a
Dominic Powell: good way to get a little bit of extra cash
Dominic Powell: in the pocket.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah. My first job was lawn mowing lawns and we
Jessica Irvine: just and my brother also used to mow lawns and
Jessica Irvine: we got in the publishing business and just did some
Jessica Irvine: flyers and dropped them around letterboxes in the local neighborhood.
Jessica Irvine: That is still a legit option.
Dominic Powell: My first job was the paper on which my parents
Dominic Powell: used to help me with because it was in a
Dominic Powell: rural area and it was way too big for me
Dominic Powell: to do by myself.
Jessica Irvine: Oh, well, did you split the money?
Dominic Powell: They gave me all the money. It was right. It
Dominic Powell: was a great gig, to be honest. I got I
Dominic Powell: was fantastic. Anyway, but on top of. Well, I suppose
Dominic Powell: as an aside to selling your skills, you can also
Dominic Powell: sell your stuff. So you can be like Jess and
Dominic Powell: you can sell a basket of pecans. Is there any
Dominic Powell: have you sold anything else like that? Jess, Is that
Dominic Powell: your best come up?
Jessica Irvine: Sold a lot. Like I kept a spreadsheet of my
Jessica Irvine: transactions and there was one year it was pre-COVID. COVID
Jessica Irvine: put the brakes on my Facebook marketplace reselling business. But
Jessica Irvine: I had so done in the order of 150 to.
Dominic Powell: 220 hours.
Jessica Irvine: In the course of a year. In addition to the
Jessica Irvine: pine cones. My one of my favorite ones is I
Jessica Irvine: bought some fake grass for $100. It was offcuts from
Jessica Irvine: like a tradie who'd been laying it on a commercial site.
Jessica Irvine: And I used it to lay down just out on
Jessica Irvine: my balcony, my patio. So I bought it for $100.
Jessica Irvine: I used half of it, and then I sold the
Jessica Irvine: remnant for $100. So it was essentially free. That's great
Jessica Irvine: that I got that. And then my best one I did,
Jessica Irvine: veering to some interesting territory of of morality issues in
Jessica Irvine: terms of I would also look and get free stuff
Jessica Irvine: on Facebook marketplace because sometimes people just move or they
Jessica Irvine: just want something gone from their house. So you grab
Jessica Irvine: it if it's good. And then I would sort of
Jessica Irvine: have it in my house for a little bit. I mean,
Jessica Irvine: this was how I dealt with the morality of it,
Jessica Irvine: because it was like a painting this big Balinese batik
Jessica Irvine: painting or was like a fabric thing in a nice
Jessica Irvine: gold frame and a lady just wanted it gone from.
Jessica Irvine: So I went and grabbed it. I had it for
Jessica Irvine: a while, decided it was too big and I thought
Jessica Irvine: it for 150 bucks.
Dominic Powell: They go.
Jessica Irvine: To.
Dominic Powell: Someone's.
Jessica Irvine: Trash, a bit of arbitrage.
Dominic Powell: Versus treasure.
Jessica Irvine: Some people think that's probably a bit dodgy, but you know,
Jessica Irvine: everything has an innate value and people people perceive that
Jessica Irvine: in different ways. And, you know, I did make a profit.
Dominic Powell: And that's and that's what it's all about because it
Dominic Powell: all adds up, which is the name of the podcast.
Dominic Powell: But I think in that sort of vein, like sort
Dominic Powell: of selling like, you know, secondhand books, furniture, all that
Dominic Powell: sort of stuff is, is really, really popular these days.
Dominic Powell: And one thing that's become massive, I think, in the
Dominic Powell: past couple of years is like reselling vintage goods. Like,
Dominic Powell: I see I feel like every week there's a new
Dominic Powell: like Melbourne Instagram account, which is like, you know, selling
Dominic Powell: random stuff like a little, you know, porcelain tiger or
Dominic Powell: something like that. And people just go and find these
Dominic Powell: in like UPS shops and garage sales and then just
Dominic Powell: resell them. And it's like they're making quite a lot
Dominic Powell: of money off this. Like these people sell them for
Dominic Powell: a few hundred bucks and I'm sure they got them
Dominic Powell: for a lot less than that.
Jessica Irvine: So yeah, people can develop like a neat knowledge and
Jessica Irvine: go into the op shop and see the bone shine
Jessica Irvine: or whatever it is, and it doesn't mean anything to me.
Jessica Irvine: But there are brands, you know, and particularly with clothing,
Jessica Irvine: the luxury high end brands, and they'll sort of score
Jessica Irvine: the the one and then pop it on like an
Jessica Irvine: eBay store and resell it. So you got it. You
Jessica Irvine: got some postage costs involved in that. But if you've
Jessica Irvine: got an eye for, you know, vintage goods, that's something
Jessica Irvine: to consider. Another way of sort of moving. If you're
Jessica Irvine: into clothes and you've got the luxury brands, there's a
Jessica Irvine: lot of consignment sellers as well. You just kind of
Jessica Irvine: Google consignment seller in your area. And so particularly if
Jessica Irvine: you have sort of lived in a opulent manner, but
Jessica Irvine: now you're finding your pennies, you can sort of get
Jessica Irvine: rid of some of that stuff and not just check
Jessica Irvine: it out by using consignment sales. Yeah.
Dominic Powell: And then there's also sort of things like these sort
Dominic Powell: of falls into the similar bucket to the Uber and
Dominic Powell: Menulog and all that sort of stuff. But like renting
Dominic Powell: out your car or your car space just mentioned that.
Dominic Powell: You mentioned that you had done that, rented out your
Dominic Powell: car space for a while.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah. And a neighbour had just said dropped a flyer
Jessica Irvine: saying they needed a space. That's all. I got that.
Jessica Irvine: But you can, you can post your car space on
Jessica Irvine: Facebook marketplace, you know, with a dollar amount. And there's
Jessica Irvine: another site called Park Hound where you can advertise car
Jessica Irvine: spaces for lease and then you can also just rent
Jessica Irvine: out your car. There used to be something called car
Jessica Irvine: next door, which I think is now Uber Fareshare and
Jessica Irvine: this other one's called Drive My Car, an American one
Jessica Irvine: called Turo 2ur0, which is just about to launch in Australia.
Jessica Irvine: So when you're not using your car, you have to
Jessica Irvine: go to the office. These days they make us do that.
Jessica Irvine: You can, you know, your car's just sitting at home,
Jessica Irvine: you can let somebody else use it. And you know,
Jessica Irvine: there's apps that sort of arrange it all. You have
Jessica Irvine: to sort of think about insurances as well and make
Jessica Irvine: sure you're properly. Covered. But, you know, thinking of what
Jessica Irvine: assets you have lying around and sort of making turning
Jessica Irvine: them from dormant assets into income producing.
Dominic Powell: And I think like, you know, on the very, very
Dominic Powell: far end of the scale for that, if you if
Dominic Powell: you are lucky enough to own a home that for
Dominic Powell: whatever reason, you're not using to live in. I mean,
Dominic Powell: you could always put it on something like Airbnb, but
Dominic Powell: like I feel like that's sort of like, you know,
Dominic Powell: if you're in that position, you probably don't need a
Dominic Powell: side hustle check, which she.
Jessica Irvine: Could check it for. But as someone who does have
Jessica Irvine: that privilege, another one, if you're reducing holiday costs, is
Jessica Irvine: to look at home swaps or home exchange websites.
Dominic Powell: Trying to sell me a time such as this.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah, we should swap homes. I can come to Melbourne
Jessica Irvine: and Sydney and have holidays for free.
Dominic Powell: In Melbourne and Sydney. Two great holiday destinations. Yes.
Jessica Irvine: It's a bit limited. But yeah, you know, a spare
Jessica Irvine: room if you've got one, you know, can become an
Jessica Irvine: income producer for you if you need it, if you're not.
Dominic Powell: And I think an important thing to think about is
Dominic Powell: like not every side hustle has to be something like new.
Dominic Powell: Like you don't have to be like creating, you know,
Dominic Powell: you have to sit down and be like, Right, what
Dominic Powell: can I do? Like, what can I sell? Or, you know,
Dominic Powell: you can just be something that you do already or
Dominic Powell: have already like, you know, a lot of people talk
Dominic Powell: about this like monetizing their hobbies. Like, you know, as
Dominic Powell: I mentioned, I do photography. Maybe one day I want
Dominic Powell: to sell prints that would be, you know, quote unquote,
Dominic Powell: a side hustle sort of thing. So don't like if
Dominic Powell: you are interested in doing it, don't stress yourself out
Dominic Powell: about like having to come up with something. It can
Dominic Powell: just be something you kind of do already.
Jessica Irvine: Yeah. And but also to be aware of tax implications
Jessica Irvine: so that the ATO is on to us all side,
Jessica Irvine: hustling ourselves in our spare time. And you know, if
Jessica Irvine: it becomes a significant source of income. So maybe you
Jessica Irvine: just like making little papier maché things or something and
Jessica Irvine: it's just your passion that you want people to own
Jessica Irvine: your paper maché creations, that's one thing. But if you
Jessica Irvine: go setting up a market, stall, your advertising, you have
Jessica Irvine: a business name, then you might be getting yourself into
Jessica Irvine: the territory of being a small business and that being
Jessica Irvine: something you might need to get an ABN with. So
Jessica Irvine: do just, you know, maybe talk to your accountant if
Jessica Irvine: you have one, or just, you know, be mindful that
Jessica Irvine: income that you earn from side hustles can in some
Jessica Irvine: cases definitely be taxes.
Dominic Powell: Yes. And sometimes it can be the case that you
Dominic Powell: might earn so much from a side hustle that it
Dominic Powell: boosts your income up over a tax bracket that could
Dominic Powell: sort of eradicate the sort of benefit you get from
Dominic Powell: the side hustle in the first place. Right. In terms
Dominic Powell: of the amount that you would end up getting taxed.
Dominic Powell: So it's something you have to sort of think about.
Jessica Irvine: Not be diminishing it. Yeah, Yeah. But, you know, sometimes
Jessica Irvine: I think what the ATO doesn't like. Okay.
Dominic Powell: Oh, bold words. Oh, you're going to have, you know,
Dominic Powell: of Chris Jordan busting it all around in the second time.
Jessica Irvine: I sort of figure if you all sort of selling
Jessica Irvine: a few of your photographs.
Dominic Powell: Yeah, I mean I've never declared any of my side
Dominic Powell: hustle quote, income to the ATO. So they go.
Jessica Irvine: And I think I did interview the ATO tax time
Jessica Irvine: and I asked them about my Facebook marketplace stuff and
Jessica Irvine: it was not a business that I was running. I
Jessica Irvine: just happened to have sold some things and bought them
Jessica Irvine: some things and there was any resulting profit or loss
Jessica Irvine: was not taxable. And I said, So maybe if I
Jessica Irvine: became just surviving Marketplace reseller extraordinaire.
Dominic Powell: Papa.
Jessica Irvine: John's Inc, it would have been a thing. Yeah. So
Jessica Irvine: I hope there's some ideas there. If people are sort
Jessica Irvine: of needing to rustle up a little bit of extra
Jessica Irvine: cash these days. You know, some of the sites we've mentioned,
Jessica Irvine: you know, give it a Google. You can just Google
Jessica Irvine: side hustles. But yeah, if you have some extra time
Jessica Irvine: and you don't actually need that for relaxation or seeing
Jessica Irvine: your family. Exactly. To look after yourselves, everyone, and make sure,
Jessica Irvine: of course, that you're getting the pay the pay that
Jessica Irvine: you deserve. And your main job would be my take out.
Dominic Powell: Yeah. And I think the thing is like also it's
Dominic Powell: good to keep in mind that like, a side hustle
Dominic Powell: shouldn't distract you from your main job, nor should it
Dominic Powell: be like additional stress in your life, right? Like, don't
Dominic Powell: do it if it's going to make you feel crap
Dominic Powell: and like, you know, stress you out and make you worried. Like,
Dominic Powell: just only do it if it sparks joy. You know,
Dominic Powell: as Marie Kondo once.
Jessica Irvine: Said, and if it doesn't, and if your job doesn't
Jessica Irvine: spark joy, maybe spend the time looking at job that
Jessica Irvine: since did. Indeed. So onto our listener question of the week,
Jessica Irvine: which is from Mallika. Hi, Jess and Dominic. We recently
Jessica Irvine: bought a house and when negotiating interest rates with the bank,
Jessica Irvine: it would be helpful if you could provide some tips,
Jessica Irvine: especially on how to structure the home loan. The fixed
Jessica Irvine: interest rates are currently much higher than the variable rates,
Jessica Irvine: and considering the cash rate hikes have slowed down a bit.
Jessica Irvine: Does it make sense to still opt for a fixed rate?
Jessica Irvine: What do you think?
Dominic Powell: Still tough? I don't know. It is one of those
Dominic Powell: sort of situational things. If I was doing a home
Dominic Powell: loan right now, I would probably be sticking with a
Dominic Powell: variable rate because there is the sort of view that
Dominic Powell: the cash rate will stop rising soon and could start
Dominic Powell: dropping next year. And the great thing about being on
Dominic Powell: a variable rate is that if you stay on it
Dominic Powell: and you see the cash rates start to drop and
Dominic Powell: those fixed rates start to go down, you can then
Dominic Powell: make the switch pretty much whenever you want. You're free
Dominic Powell: to free to do that. So I think it's sort
Dominic Powell: of good at the moment to keep your powder dry
Dominic Powell: because you're right, there are some fixed rates out there
Dominic Powell: that are really high. And if you're going to be
Dominic Powell: on that for, you know, a year or two years
Dominic Powell: and then the interest rates start to drop, then you're
Dominic Powell: going to feel a bit shit. So I think that's
Dominic Powell: that's probably what I would say. But what do.
Jessica Irvine: You. Yeah, I've always taken the view that fixing is
Jessica Irvine: sort of a gamble. You're trying to figure out where
Jessica Irvine: interest rates are going and the banks got a lot
Jessica Irvine: of very clever people to try and figure that out,
Jessica Irvine: that they'll probably win on the deal. We've just come
Jessica Irvine: off a really historically unusual period where fixed rates were
Jessica Irvine: lower than variable rates, and that was incredibly unusual. It
Jessica Irvine: was to do with the pandemic. And so this idea
Jessica Irvine: of fixing is sort of become very popular because you
Jessica Irvine: could fix it these 1.8, 1.84%. But traditionally it is
Jessica Irvine: the other way that fixed interest rates are higher than
Jessica Irvine: variable interest rates. And that's because you're paying for a
Jessica Irvine: bit of certainty because, you know, you just feel like
Jessica Irvine: you need the certainty of knowing what the repayments will
Jessica Irvine: be each month for a fixed period. And traditionally you
Jessica Irvine: do pay a premium for that. So I think we're
Jessica Irvine: back into the more normal world where that's the case.
Jessica Irvine: And then whether you fixed or whether you variable, that's
Jessica Irvine: sort of a personal preference as to whether you can
Jessica Irvine: stand the uncertainty of you don't really know exactly what
Jessica Irvine: the repayments are going to be or whether you want
Jessica Irvine: to pay for the certainty to have it in. And
Jessica Irvine: anything else is gambling and sort of trying to time
Jessica Irvine: the market or figure out which one. You can also
Jessica Irvine: do a little bit of both. This is I didn't
Jessica Irvine: know this that you could sort of have half of
Jessica Irvine: your loan fixed for some certainty, half of it variable.
Jessica Irvine: You can structure that in any percentage split you want. Yes.
Jessica Irvine: So just explore all those options.
Dominic Powell: Absolutely. And just what is your budget tip for this week?
Jessica Irvine: Yeah, this is from my friend Meredith. Hi, Meredith. She
Jessica Irvine: told me about this on the weekend. If you want
Jessica Irvine: a cheap holiday, particularly if you like, a bit of camping,
Jessica Irvine: a bit of van camping glamping, There are some new
Jessica Irvine: apps to try in Australia. So if if you do
Jessica Irvine: want to grab a camper van and go around Australia,
Jessica Irvine: you know, there are big retail brands that are quite expensive,
Jessica Irvine: but there's now an app called Camp Le Phi where
Jessica Irvine: you can, you know, camper van owners. You know, it's again,
Jessica Irvine: it's sort of a side hustle for them. They pop
Jessica Irvine: on their camper van. They're not using at the moment
Jessica Irvine: or it's a motorhome or a caravan. And then people can,
Jessica Irvine: you know, rent that out from from the owner and
Jessica Irvine: presumably is cheaper. I haven't used it yet. But then
Jessica Irvine: so just sort of paying the retail price and then
Jessica Irvine: you can combine that with another app called Hip Camp,
Jessica Irvine: which is another online marketplace where people who have properties,
Jessica Irvine: rural properties, can advertise, lease out their space. So maybe
Jessica Irvine: you go, you get the camper van on camp, the FI,
Jessica Irvine: and then you find a spot to go park in
Jessica Irvine: the wilderness, which is just somebody who's got a property
Jessica Irvine: they're not using. So you can combine the two and
Jessica Irvine: have a lovely holiday. So I'm very much an aspiring
Jessica Irvine: camper van Holiday just.
Dominic Powell: Yeah, I'm like, I like it like unhealthily obsessed with
Dominic Powell: like people on, you know, like Tik Tok on Instagram.
Dominic Powell: Who are those like Van Life sort.
Jessica Irvine: Of a nurse.
Dominic Powell: Like I, I can spend, I can spend hours watching
Dominic Powell: that sort of stuff with. It's like, I don't think
Dominic Powell: I could live that way. I don't think I could
Dominic Powell: live in like a tiny van, but like watching the
Dominic Powell: when the fact that I can and I've got like,
Dominic Powell: you know, spices hidden underneath the stove or something like that,
Dominic Powell: it's yeah. And it's all like, perfectly like bento box
Dominic Powell: sort of, you know, shoved into place. That sort of
Dominic Powell: stuff fascinates me. So maybe I'll go and go and,
Dominic Powell: you know, live my best van. Life fantasy, if you.
Jessica Irvine: Like my life. Yeah. Give it a try. And then
Jessica Irvine: if it's not you.
Dominic Powell: If I, if I call into the podcast next week
Dominic Powell: from a van, you'll know.
Jessica Irvine: I'll, I'll praise that and admire that in you. Yeah.
Dominic Powell: As we should.
Jessica Irvine: Yes, we should celebrate. You know, it's good to talk
Jessica Irvine: to you again next week.
Dominic Powell: Yes. Thanks everyone for joining us. Say, let it. This
Dominic Powell: episode of It All Adds Up was produced by Julia Carr,
Dominic Powell: Cat Soul. The information discussed is general in nature and
Dominic Powell: does not take into account your personal financial situation, goals
Dominic Powell: or objectives. You should always do your own research or
Dominic Powell: get professional advice before making any major financial decisions. If
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