Investing in stocks is a little different than the other Side Hustles we’ve discussed. You do the work now, but you receive the benefits in the future. At least 10 years in the future. It’s a long time to wait, sure. But some minor investment now could lead to a nice chunk of change down the road, and certainly has the possibility to keep you living comfortably into retirement.
Now, if you’re a young person, it can be a little hard to think about retirement. And you’ll be happy to know that there are multiple ways to invest. If you want to get into medium or short term investing, there are lots of educational sources out there. Just be sure to invest what you can afford to lose—the chances of losing are high in short-term investing. Investing for the long term is the safest method and provides the most consistent growth potential, and that’s why it’s on our Side Hustle Master List.
Concept | |
category | Financial |
Takeaways | Requires knowledge of equities and derivatives or can use robo-investors (managed portfolio) |
complexity lowhigh  | Capital Required lowhigh |
skill required lowhigh | time required lowhigh |
return potential lowhigh |
 | learn more |
Compounding Interest
To see what you can make over the long term, we’ll use a simple compounding interest calculator. Compounding interest means your money earns interest, and the interest that was earned also earns interest, and so on. If you invest $50 a month in a safe stock like the S&P 500 (a group of 500 large businesses), over 10 years, you’ll invest $6000 total. Let’s also say you get 8% compounding monthly interest. After 10 years, your $6000 is now $9208. That’s $3208 extra without doing anything. Now check this out. If you stop investing more money and leave that money in there for 10 more years, it will turn into $20,438. Notice how we got $3000 for the first 10 years but over $10,000 for the second? That’s because the interest compounds on itself. It can take years to learn about investing, so we’ve included some links below to start you off.