When 22-year-old Marguerite Horton isn’t at her two part-time jobs – working at a waste management company and as a sustainability manager for a Denver catering company – the Louisville millennial likely can be found plugging away at her eco-friendly blog, Instagram account and online shop.
Unless she’s tending to the pups she dog-sits on the side.
While the idea of all that may leave some winded, Horton doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. She’s one of nearly four in 10 Americans whose daily grind includes a side job – or three – and is a part of the generation more likely than any other age group to identify as a “side hustler,” according to a 2018 survey from financial information website Bankrate.
“Millennials are more likely than members of other generations to say they have a side hustle,” Bankrate’s Amanda Dixon wrote. “In fact, the odds of someone earning money from a second job decline with age.”
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Margeurite Horton works on her blog/merchandise shop from her home November 20, 2018.
Andrew Hudson, founder of well-known Colorado job board Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List, isn’t surprised by the study’s findings. He’s found that most entry-level jobs for recent college graduates start at an annual income of around $30,000 to $40,000.
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“That’s about what it started at when I graduated from college in 1989,” Hudson said. “You think about all the expenses a millennial has to worry about right now: college debt, cost of housing in Colorado, technology, cell phones, health care and all these things we never had to worry about. These costs have all risen. It is literally impossible for them to be able to survive on a $35,000-a-year salary at a so-called professional job.”
In 2015, 5.6 percent of Coloradans held down multiple jobs, which was slightly higher than the national average of 4.9 percent, according to the most recent statistics available from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
“The side hustle thing has been going on a long time,” said Alexandra Hall, the department’s chief economist. “It’s also known as the gig economy now because it’s been powered by technology that makes the transaction much easier than it used to be. Back in the ’90s, it would have been more complex to make the arrangement. Technology is changing things to make it much easier to participate.”
Technology makes Horton’s side hustle possible.
Horton moved to Colorado this summer after graduating from the University of Vermont, joining her twin sister, who graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, out West. The sisters, raised by parents who owned a restaurant, developed a strong relationship with food and the complex issues that went with it – food waste, health, agriculture and beyond. During college, Horton along with her sister and friends worked on a blog with a name too profane to print that stood for strong relationships with people, food and the Earth.
Horton helps design sustainable T-shirts that they re-purpose from thrift stores, as well as stickers, buttons and posters, and sells them through the blog, which features content about the environment, good eats and social justice issues.
On the weekends, Horton also uses the Rover app to find local dog owners willing to pay for someone to walk or watch their precious pups.
“We’re all just out of college, so this is just a big transition for us,” Horton said. “We’re still trying to figure out what career we want to do or if we’re happy with what we’re doing right now. There’s a lot of uncertainty, but comfort in knowing what we’re doing now might not be what we’re doing in four months.”
While the dogs and the blog help supplement Horton’s income by about 10 percent to 15 percent, she views her side hustles more as passion projects that keep her pursuing interests she loves.
“I like getting to do different things,” Horton said. “No day looks exactly the same, and I get to move around, be around different people, make those personal connections with new people all the time. I don’t know if I ever really want to work full-time on just one thing.”
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
LOUISVILLE, CO – NOVEMBER 20: Margeurite Horton works on her blog/merchandise shop from her home November 20, 2018. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Brandon Wong, a 24-year-old Arvada resident, is also using his new side hustle as a launching pad for his dream job.
Wong works about 40 hours a week at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store. On his days off, he becomes a part-time financial educator through Five Rings Financial, growing a clientele in the financial industry. Wong, a graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, turns into his own boss when he’s not working retail, helping educate people about their financial futures.
“My goal is to create a side hustle that turns into a career,” Wong said. “I don’t want to have a 9-to-5 schedule. I don’t want to have a boss who dictates when I take a break. I want a lifestyle where I’m controlling my own time and living my own dream.”
Not having days off was hard for Wong at first.
“It was really exhausting,” Wong said. “But it got to the point where I was looking at my bigger goals, and it motivated me to not think about the crazy hours. We live in Colorado. It’s expensive. This gives me the opportunity to save up and buy a house and have future college savings for my future kids and retirement savings while making the money I need at the same time.”
Hudson hears from senior working professionals who complain about their millennial employee’s entitlement, griping that the younger workers stay in one place for a couple of years and then move on.
“Then I hear from millennials who say they don’t mind paying their dues, but they gotta pay the rent,” Hudson said. “And I get that. The American dream where you pay your dues for decades and move up in your career in your 40s and buy a house and get married and have kids has become such a distant illusion. You don’t see people working for the same company to get the gold watch anymore.”