749: $150/hr from Home: Upskilling to Work Less and Earn More

The Side Hustle Show is designed to help you make more money, but do you have a firm grasp on your overall financial picture? I was stuck in spreadsheets and logging into a dozen different accounts for far too long, which is why I'm excited to partner with Monarch for this episode. Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything: your accounts, your investments, your saving goals, and your spending, and does it all in one place. Plus, you can get your first year of Monarch Core for half off. That's just 50 bucks with promo code SideHustle. Now, I probably check the Monarch app more often than I should, but it's helped my wife and I celebrate certain net worth milestones. It's helped us visualize our spending and get honest about where it all goes. It's helped us reallocate funds in an intentional way and just be less stressed about little expenses when they pop up. Use promo code SideHustle at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code SideHustle. Here's a proven path to 150 bucks an hour from home. If you found yourself in this position, I think a lot of listeners can probably relate to it. You've got a good job. It's one that you don't necessarily hate, but if you look ahead and do some future projection, maybe the salary ceiling is somewhat capped. Maybe there's some, uh, bureaucratic red tape that's kind of tied to the advancement or the advancement opportunities are limited. And you come to this realization that, look, the current path isn't going to get me where I want to go. And ultimately, there's this moment of realization that nothing's going to change until I change it. Well, my guest did change it, and that's why I'm excited to share this story. Ultimately carving a new path with not only a better financial upside, but some more time freedom as well. From easeintoearnings.com, Hermela Felton. Welcome to the Side Hustle Show.

Thank you, Nick. I'm excited to be here.

I am excited as well. You, at this point in the story [laughs], you are having this pretty awful commute, two and a half hours, sometimes three hours a day, and then the pandemic happens, and you switch all of a sudden to remote. And it's like, look how much time I got back. I got back, like, 15 hours a week back into my life. And there's this kind of light bulb that goes off. Can you take me back there?

Yeah, absolutely. So we were commuting, like, about two and a half hours on average in the DC metro area, and traffic was horrendous. And for context, I worked as a college advisor on campus, and I loved my job, but once COVID occurred, and I got back those time, it was the first taste of time freedom, really, because now I can clock in at 9:00 instead of my workday beginning 7:00, 7:30.

Yeah.

So it was a sweet taste of freedom, and then at the same time, I was kind of listening to financial independence podcasts. And I was learning about financial independence and the path to financial freedom and my-- kind of my thoughts and head started racing, like, am I on the right path? Is this it for me, or is there something else more to help me achieve some of that time freedom,