How to Thrive in the Gig Economy

I don’t care for the sentiment, “You deserve to be happy.” It makes people think that life is supposed to be comfortable 100% of the time. When things get hard, often, our younger generation decides to move on to something new.

That being said, people in their 20s and 30s probably will not do what I did. I joined the military at age 18 (10 days after high school) and have stayed in for 22+ years. This career choice has secured my financial future, along with investing, real estate, and business. 

People don’t want to donate 20+ years to a nameless, faceless corporation that will divorce from them as soon as trouble strikes—as we saw during the pandemic of 2020. This mindset has given rise to the “gig economy.”

What Gets Rewarded Gets Repeated

What is the gig economy? People want to work on a per-task basis instead of signing up to be in the office for 40+ hours. New age workers wish to extract the precise tasks from the workforce and get paid for them.

Yes, we used to call this freelance work. It is very similar to freelancing, but the amount of taskers out there is striking. There are entire websites dedicated to the gig economy, some of them are Upwork and Fiverr. 

It’s like the difference between working for a taxi company and driving for Uber. With the taxi company, you are stuck in your car for an indiscriminate amount of time—waiting for a call. Driving Uber gives you complete freedom to set your schedule. 

What are the negatives of the gig economy? The negatives of the gig economy are the same for people working a standard job—you are exchanging time for money. Working for money is the worst thing you can do in the long term. Why?

Because eventually, you’ll get to the point where you can no longer work, and when you stop exchanging time for money, you’ll lose your paycheck. Employers used to provide pensions to supplement workers through retirement, but those are long gone. 

How to Create Passive Income 103: For Advanced

So, if workers move from contract to contract, gig to gig, how do they prepare themselves for the future? 

Excellent question. Let’s go back to my article “Why You Need a Job.” Inside this article, I explain that you need a job to pay expenses. You need to invest any excess money. You will also need to invest time into starting a business. 

Surprise, working in the gig economy is nearly the same advice as working a job. You must do everything in your power to live below your means, reduce expenses, invest excess cash flow, and build a business (small or big). 

How to Write 1000+ Words Every Day part II

Difference between the gig economy and working a job. Okay, there are some differences between working a job and the gig economy. Holding down a job is going to help you build a solid resume of work. Your career highlights grow over time, allowing you to gain recognition and experience. Eventually, you can teach your profession or become a consultant.  

The gig economy has something similar to that but far less trusting. You can build yourself up on a platform like Uber or Fiverr—earning high star ratings and good reviews. But, will these corporations be around in the next 10-20 years? We have no idea. You’ll need your own form of resume.

Now let’s get into the steps to thrive in a gig economy. The goal is to establish ourselves as subject matter experts, build wealth, and create our own business opportunities.

Step One—Start a Blog. The most important step is starting your business, which you can simply do by creating a blog. Yes, a blog is a business that you can scale as large as you want. I didn’t think this way until I read the book “How to Blog for Profit.”

Now, a blog will allow you to establish yourself as a subject matter expert. First, you should be reading and reviewing books on your profession every day. Just doing this can be an extremely lucrative business.

Build Wealth Slowly

Say you read a book every week and then wrote a review. From age 21 to 31, you would have 520 book reviews on your site. The magic of search engine optimization would bring free traffic to your blog daily. 

You can also write about your experiences in the gig economy. There is always someone looking to follow in your footsteps, whether a freelance coder, ghostwriter, website builder, game designer, QA tester, etc. Every profession has a new generation of people wondering how to involve themselves in the world.

Your blog will be a record of everything you have accomplished. If you took courses to hone your skills—write a product review and add an affiliate link. You’ll get a juicy commission if someone signs up for the course. 

Step Two—Live Below Your Means. Everyone wants to escape the grind. So, don’t be like everyone else—embrace the struggle. Part of the grind is living below your means. You simply cannot afford to have a lovely apartment or house, a new car, and travel to luxury vacation spots. 

Sell Your Creativity for Passive Income

No matter what Instagram shows you, you can’t afford that lifestyle. And why would you want to anyway? You’ll have to do some deep reflection on what life means and what you want to extract through your lifetime. Also, what value are you adding to society? 

4 Steps to Become Rich

My book “4 Steps to Become Rich (book)” explains the four simple steps to become rich. 

1) Pay down debt

2) Lower expenses

3) Create multiple streams of income

4) Invest in assets

Once you master these steps, feel free to splurge on whatever you want. By that time, I’m sure you will have a different mindset towards wealth and being rich. 

The main idea is to give yourself a safety net as you navigate the gig economy. Your business will be growing very slowly, and that’s okay. Remember, you’ll be building a “resume” via your blog—that takes years. 

You will want to build a nice emergency fund, say $10,000 and rent a room. You cannot afford to live alone. 

How to Retire in California

Step 3—Take Gigs that Build Your Resume. Remember, your blog is your resume. The more diverse gigs you take, the more people will want to read about your experiences. Don’t spend years doing the same ghost-writer work. Write a manuscript, a play, or a comedy—take a challenge. 

I didn’t make it to the highest enlisted rank in the Marine Corps (Master Gunnery Sergeant) by playing it safe. I had to volunteer to go to war, attend courses, and take new jobs and positions. I had to diversify my “resume” so that the promotion board saw that I was well-rounded. 

You’ll have to do the same. There are many options out there for gigs; take a challenge and try something new. Ensure you document everything on your blog. Don’t just work for money; build a career. 

“Starting Your Career as a Contractor” explains how to build a career in the ultimate gig economy, construction. You start as a freelancer building your skills. You can specialize our branch out to learn different jobs like painting, tiling, or renovations. Then, you can become a general contractor who is an entrepreneur in the world of construction. 

How We Plan to Retire on Dividends 2

I think this book has many parallels to what the new generation faces with the gig economy. Don’t get caught working parallel your entire life. You should be building upwards towards an ultimate goal. 

Step 4—Work Towards Financial Independence. No matter what you do in life, you just need enough money and assets to retire. The faster you can achieve your number, the quicker you are on the beach.

The key to financial independence is financial intelligence. You can’t become free if you don’t know how to make your money work for you. Luckily, that’s all I write about on my blog. By the way, I have 73  book reviews on my blog (but who’s counting).

I have written too many financial books to count, so let’s start with this one, “New Year’s Passive Income Resolution 2022.” You can also buy yourself the companion lined notebook to take notes. The goal for 2022 is to create $100/month on passive income by December 31, 2022.

My wife and I built our passive income stream from $28 to $700/month in two years, so I know you can do the same. The most important part of the gig workforce is taking care of your finances because no one else will. No one is coming to save you. We call this self-rescue. 

Life is Not a Game

Conclusion. Work hard, build a side business, live below your means, and take your finances seriously, and you will be far ahead of the pack. Work towards having a noteworthy career, not just grinding for money.  

I wrote this article as something I can give to my son to read. He is currently 15 years old, and the world tells him that he can have everything. This is true, but it requires a ton of work, motivation, dedication, and focus. 

Forge your own path and stick to it. Good Luck out there! Please join my Facebook Group if you want the latest articles and free books delivered to your news feed. Also, you can contact me inside the group and ask questions. I also have a Facebook Page where you can see my latest articles.

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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it.  I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing