From Zero to $30k/Year in Side Income (and Growing)
The breakdown of my side income streams for 2025
My side income growth from 2023~2025
I’ve started taking side gigs a bit more seriously in 2023. That year, I ended up having only one gig. I made about a few grand for the total. In 2024, I was able to work on a few gigs coming from a few different people. Not sure exactly how much I ended up making, but my guess is around 15k. And that’s a a tremendous growth compared to 2023.
And here comes 2025. As of this writing (May 7, 2025), my side income reached about 30k:
To summarize my side income:
2023: a few thousand dollars (let’s say $3k)
2024: about 15k
2025: about 30k already
$30K may or may not sound significant depending on your background, but for me, it’s a big deal. For the past couple of years, I’ve worked a full-time job earning $120K/year. So hitting $30K in additional income means I’ve already made one-fourth of that salary on top, bringing my run rate to ~$150K/year. Even better, I’ve got about $15K in accounts receivable.
What’s most exciting isn’t just the number, it’s the diversification. This income is spread across:
My W-2 job
Side gigs and consulting
This is a meaningful milestone, and a reminder that building multiple streams of income can create both financial momentum and peace of mind.
How I earned the money
There are 2 main side income streams I’m relying on this year:
Consulting / contracting gigs (about 2/3 of my side income)
Sponsored contents / partnerships (about 1/3 of side income)
Consulting gigs are either through my partner consultancies or my direct client.
I truly believe my efforts in expanding my network has just started to pay off this year. I started meeting people in 2023 (mainly via zoom calls), but that naturally led me to meeting more people, getting to know their career journey, and learning from each other. This increases the chance of people remembering me and what I offer. This is simple, and time consuming, but it works. If you like meeting people (or don’t dislike it), networking is something you need to be doing to land consulting gigs.
For sponsored contents, these are exclusively on my other newsletter, The Data Toolbox. Typically, companies reached out to me because I show up on LinkedIn a lot. And they see I know what I’m talking about. Once they see a fit between my content and their product, they decide to reach out for collaboration. I may charge a few grand for an article for the time being, but I think I’ll increase my price sooner than later.
Where to go from here
I wrote in a short article on my personal blog a bit about my future plans, but I may choose to slow down on my side gigs for a little bit. I have a new W2 job starting soon (I’m super pumped about this one), and I’d like to focus on it as much as I can. I might just do advisory and/or content creation on the side, and not too many hands-on projects. The last thing I want is to burn myself out.
After this next W2 gig though, I’m thinking of going all-in on my business. But you never know what happens. I might stay there for 5, 10 years. Or I might find another company a good fit and keep working on a W2 job. The least I can say is this next W2 gig will better equip me for my future work. I’m excited to keep learning, keep growing, and yes, keep making money along the way.
Wild!
Interesting!