A significant number of Gen Z individuals are engaging in online side hustles. Despite having a master’s degree and a six-figure data analytics job, 25-year-old Natalie Fischer is one such example. She was working an additional 30 hours a week online, offering personal finance tips and promoting products and brands on social media. In July, she left her corporate job to become a full-time side hustler.
Fischer, like many others, believes that relying on a single income is no longer viable. She is on track to earn more than her corporate job by the end of the year and expects her income to increase exponentially in the coming years.
Many young workers are turning to side hustles to earn extra cash, develop their skills, build relationships, and unleash their creative energy. They sell online tutorials, products, and services, and influence on social media. Gen Zers, born after 1996, have had access to digital devices and the internet their entire lives, and many are eager to use them to earn money.
Their formative years were marked by the 2008 financial crisis, pandemic lockdowns, and mass layoffs. These experiences have made them more inclined to seek additional income sources. Digital side hustles have low entry barriers and are often aspirational for young people who grew up watching social media influencers.
Fischer found her niche posting content on personal finance, initially just for fun. She started posting on Instagram about her journey as a first-time investor in the stock market during the coronavirus pandemic, quickly attracting an audience. She turned inbound questions into TikToks and gained more than 56,000 followers there, allowing her to get sponsorships and create content for brands.
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