This 25-Year-Old Is Going Viral For Sharing Exactly How She Earns An Extra $100 Every Day After Work
As someone who believes that all workers should be paid an actual living wage for full-time work, side hustle culture often bums me out. I don't love the idea that people should have to work constantly and monetize their hobbies just to make ends meet.
I just think that as a society, we need garbage collectors as much as we need doctors and as much as we need artists — and we need all of those people to make enough to live on more than we need some CEO to get a bigger bonus.
But since we don't live in an equitable world, I think that transparency around how we can earn more on the side can be really helpful for those times when one paycheck just isn't going to cut it.
Recently, I came across 25-year-old Jackie Mitchell (@jaclynmitchelll) on TikTok, where she's sharing her 100-day challenge to earn an extra $100 a day, and I really like the way she's showing her followers exactly how she makes more money after work.
I also love that Jackie is doing this as a time-bound challenge so it doesn't feel like a forever thing. I used to freelance on top of multiple part-time jobs, and it's so easy to get rundown and feel as if your work will never end when you don't have an end date for yourself.
Every day since Sept. 12, Jackie has posted a video sharing her progress toward her goal, and she has quite a few different ways of getting to $100 each day.
In many of the videos, Jackie does data annotation tasks on DataAnnotation.tech in the evenings after work. Data annotation involves tagging and labeling data so that computers and AI can better understand it and put it to use.
On day 1, Jackie shares her data annotation earnings, saying, "I finished up my first task at around 6 p.m. and I got paid $28.42. And then I was going to make dinner, but I actually spent 30 more minutes making $10 more on an easier task before starting dinner."
She also makes money by playing games on Swagbucks and participating in studies on Prolific, as well as from TikTok's own creator program. But that's not all. In one video, she even mentions that a coworker gave her a bunch of old Beanie Babies to resell.
Finding her husband sorting Beanie Babies, she says, "This situation is just very funny to me. Some of them were worth a little bit, but overall they were all worth, like, $5." Must not have the Princess Diana Beanie Baby.
Though Jackie makes her hustling look easy and cozy, often doing tasks while snuggled up in a heated blanket, it's still definitely a lot of work. Often, she's logging off for the night around midnight.
Just thinking about it too hard makes me sleepy, to be honest.
In the comments, people are cheering Jackie on, but also gobsmacked at the amount of work she's doing every day.
I hope that on day 101, she gets herself a really special treat.
The comments are also full of other side hustle and cash-back ideas to try that can help people set aside a little more money.
As someone who LOVES cash-back and earning rewards, I went through such an intense Fetch rewards app phase a couple years ago. You can read about it here.
People also asked how to tell if a moneymaking opportunity online is legit. This is such an important question because scammers often prey on people who are desperate to make money. Jackie shared that for her, it's been a process of trial and error, but reading reviews on Reddit can be really helpful.
The r/BeerMoney subreddit is a great hub for people who use the internet to make extra money in their spare time.
People also wondered about the tax implications of making this much money on the side. Jackie shared that since these earnings are all pretax, she sets aside 20% and makes estimated quarterly tax payments.
If you've never done taxes as a freelancer, it can be pretty confusing at first. Basically, when you get a paycheck from your employer, taxes are generally taken out first. But as a freelancer, you're responsible for paying the government yourself.
When I freelanced, I tracked all of my earnings and expenses in a big ol' spreadsheet and used tax software to calculate my quarterly taxes. Staying organized all year is key to not having a meltdown at tax time.
Jackie told BuzzFeed that saving for a big personal goal is her motivation for taking on this challenge. "My husband and I are saving for a house, and we kept talking about a last push before our lease ended," she said. "I'm really competitive, especially with myself, so I sometimes turn my goals into daily or weekly challenges. I think it helps me stay motivated. When you know there's a specific number to beat for the day or that you have to beat yesterday's stats, it's a lot more motivating than just setting that kind of ethereal goal of, 'I want to buy a house.'"
Tapping into your competitive side is one way to gamify your finances, and for some people like Jackie, it can be really motivating. Whether you're trying to save up for a goal or pay off debt, approaching it like a challenge or a game can help you get more focused and strategic.
And she shared that posting her progress on TikTok is really helping her stay committed to reaching her goal: "I posted my challenge on TikTok because I thought it would further motivate me to keep going with it, and that's definitely proved true!"
As I write this, Jackie is on day 21 and has already earned more than $2,000 on the side since starting this challenge.
Jackie said she started doing side hustles as a "broke college student" because it was difficult to find a job that fit with her school schedule: "I joined a lot of communities and trial-and-errored several forms of revenue until I found the ones that worked best for me."
She added, "Once I graduated, I still kept up with them, at least loosely, and would utilize them to earn extra income for travel or big purchases. Now that we're close to buying a house, I use them a lot!"
She also revealed her favorite kind of side hustle: "One of my favorite ways I've earned extra money is through consumer studies and focus groups! They aren't the most reliable (I only do about one a month because of how specific some of the qualifications are), but they're so entertaining to participate in, and they usually pay really well compared to the amount of work required."
She continued, "Usually, you're sent an unreleased product to test and provide feedback on. It's fun because you're kind of impacting what goes out to consumers, and you're getting paid to talk about your opinion for an hour. Who wouldn't love that!"
And because not all gigs are created equal, I had to know her least favorite, too. "My least favorite side hustle would definitely be donating plasma," she said. "I absolutely hate needles. I did it once when I was desperate in college, and I think I passed out. The needle is huge, and it's actually really painful. Not worth it for $75!!"
I can't even look at needles, so I'm with her on this one.
Finally, she said there's no bad time to start digging into a little extra work if you're interested in dabbling in a side hustle: "You don't have to set a crazy goal, or even set a goal at all. In this economy, any extra income helps, and small savings make a big difference over time. And don't be afraid to search around for what works best for you! Identify your strong suits and look for online work that aligns with those strengths."
She also said, "Growing up, I was not naturally an organized or motivated person. It took a lot of work, but I really do believe in the power of little changes and habits to lead to huge shifts in discipline! If anyone reading this feels like they don't know where to begin with budgeting, side hustles, or saving money, just remember that every little step in the right direction is forward movement!"
Is there something you're doing to earn extra money on the side, or do you have a favorite (or least favorite) side hustle?
I'll go first. I loved my old gig ghostwriting content for a major guitar brand, but I could not stand driving food deliveries for an app. It was too much wear on my car and my patience.
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