Jeff Proctor

Note: you can find our 2024 Side Hustle Report here. Every year DollarSprout conducts an annual Side Hustle Survey to get a pulse on side hustlers across the country. In 2020, the big story was how the economic halt from COVID-19 forced many workers to find alternative means of income. In 2021, as the economy…

My wife, Paige, has been a Physician’s Assistant for two years.  She has a great salary, great benefits, the opportunity to help people — everything you could ever want in a job. But even though it all looked great on paper, behind the scenes, things were starting to unravel. Over the past year, she’s been…

Ah, the age old question that virtually every freelancer has had to grapple with at some point – usually early on – in their career: Should I work for free? Ask this question in any freelancing group on Facebook or Reddit and you’ll have no shortage of people offering strong opinions. For some reason this…

When Ben and I first started our business, we had no idea what we were doing. We had about 1,000 ideas written down at any given time. We’d wake up, meet in the living room (back when we shared an apartment), have our coffee, then sit down and start working on whatever idea we felt…

  What It All Means The classic “3-6 month emergency fund” advice that is passed around isn’t enough anymore. Income diversification is just as important. It’s been over 6 months since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in the United States. For many that have taken even the most aggressive approach to saving a long-term emergency…

This post was originally written in 2020. DollarSprout turns 5 years old next month. Sometimes I can’t believe we’ve made it this far. They say that over half of all new businesses don’t live long enough to see their 5th birthday. Most fail long before then. It hit me this morning that I’ve never shared…

Editor’s Note: This report is from 2020. We’ve recently released our 2024 Side Hustle Report with updated statistics. If there’s one financial lesson we can glean from the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that a 9-to-5 job isn’t synonymous with financial security. Unemployment is the highest it’s been since the Great Depression, and rising.[1] As a result,…

If you’re looking for an easy way to modestly boost your income each month, paid surveys can be a legitimate side hustle. Answering online surveys for money isn’t a new concept. Every year, dozens of new sites pop up that offer to pay users for sharing their opinions. Some are certainly better (and less spammy)…

Selling your jewelry online offers a practical alternative to traditional options, such as pawn shops or local jewelers, where you’re unlikely to get top dollar for your items. Whether you’re looking to cash in your gold jewelry or watches, or you’re an artisan who creates handmade pieces, the internet provides a range of platforms that…

Many people think about budgeting in the same way they think about counting calories. They know it’s important but they shudder at the thought of actually doing it. And just like with calorie counting, once someone starts sticking to a budget that suits their lifestyle, they start seeing positive results. Budgeting apps — much like…