Says it all in the title
Backstory:
I am currently a hip hop DJ in my personal life and made around $7k last year and $20kish in 2019. I want to continue doing this alongside my current job especially now that vaccines are rolling out. I am also seriously considering funding and putting out a rap mixtape with lots of features like what DJ Khaled or DJ Mustard do (I know this sounds ridiculous on this forum but its my passion so bear with me).
I sometimes daydream about the tape being a huge hit and still keeping my current finance job. I know one day, either my music or professional career is going to have to be put aside and I have given myself the target of making $250k per year in music/entertainment to resign from my job.
This had me wondering, do any of you on here have a semi successful non finance side hustle and how much you make from it?
Wanted to get into professional gaming but it didnt go so well. So $0
Addicted to COD "Aspiring Professional Gamer"
Interesting. What was your game?
I played Dota & Dota 2 for a very, very long time. During prime time I had ~5700+ MMR (Immortal if you reach this at the end of a ranked season, or Divine 7 or 8 or 6 I don't remember). I won't call this professional level for sure. Meanwhile, I didn't practice as much as professional gamers. I was a math + econometrics double major in a top 35 college with a 3.5 GPA.
I had some pro players when playing ranked games. I didn't know those were pros at the beginning, but when I saw that kind of ID and that 8000 MMR (this was in 2016, not now where 10K+ MMRs are like everywhere) I knew he must be some pro player. Dotabuffed.
Would I have a shot in professional Dota 2? It's hard to say, probably not. It's a very competitive environment, and I've never played any serious semi-pro league. I would have needed to take 1 year off to explore this potential. Damn it...now I think about it, I should have done it. Even if I'm not that good, 1 gap year is nothing.
Best heroes: spectre, shadow fiend, and ursa. All top 200 with shadow fiend top 100 (if you were better than this, ignore). This was prime time. I haven't played it in 2 years and I'm probably some 2.5K player now.
Position: I started as a mid player ~10 years ago in HS, then transitioned to carry after 4-5 years as my party (long-time friends from both HS and college, 5-7 people) later had a really, really good immortal-level mid player. I turned out to be very good at playing carry/position 1. I stilled played a lot of sf because that was like my No.1/2 hero along with spectre.
Due to toxicity of both US West & US East, I later transitioned to pos 4. A lot of clock and sky wraith.
Only $ I've made from Dota 2 was $200 when I finished off 3rd with 4 people I didn't know at all in a school-wide Dota 2 competition. I was 5.1K then, and the 2nd best player was 3.8K.
Was rank A+ on ESEA for CS:GO so pretty good at that. Just for reference, only way to move beyond would've been to literally make playing a full-time thing but I decided to go to college and pursue a career instead :)
My PA which is 80% tech
My PA who is 80% tits
My PA which is 80% tater tots
As someone who is also a hip hop DJ in their spare time (making some cash but definitely not semi-pro amounts that you’re pulling). Are you not worried about your hobby sullying your professional image since finance still leans pretty conservative? I’m just worried about some old fart deciding I’m not fit for a promotion or something because I couldn’t be a good (see: sterile) representative of the firm. I’m sure DJs of other other genres probably worry about this less since electronic music tends to not be as vulgar as rap/hip hop.
The CEO of Goldman DJs so I imagine the stigma against it couldn't be that bad
I am worried about the same thing tbh so I never bring it up in the office. If I do get a number 1 hit track and I come into the office the next day like nothing happened I don't think anyone would say anything about it though. People here seem pretty drained an clueless to that world.
Also do you planning on going full time pro as well with the DJ thing? Because that's definitely what I want to do.
Flipping Scotty Cameron's on eBay. Made a few thousand. Fun to get my hands on cool putters every now and then. Has turned into a collection that has netted me nothing more than anything.
I'm a life long skater who shouldn't be in finance but is for the money. I have a little clothing brand I created back in college and make tee's, sweatshirts, and hats/beanies. Usually sell to friends and others by word of mouth, but also just give stuff away for free to the skaters at Tompkins for recognition.
Have made probably around $20k in the past three years. Could probably scale more but work takes up too much of my time. So if the situation is right, I'd quit my job and work for myself full time and maybe do 1-2 real estate deals a year for that extra cash flow.
Bro wtf I have never met a semi pro skater in this field before, thats actually really cool. I used to pose as a skater back in 2017 when the Lil Uzi rockstar thing was the wave and even had a clothing brand (I got kicked out but they're still going strong) so I kinda look up to you guys.
I always knew there would some people with alternative interests in finance but I never seem to bump into them.
With the cash you have now though I would say you should work on expanding the brand maybe by hiring a tik tok person to be the face while you bank roll the organization.
Sorry I am giving advice you didnt ask for just want all of us that weren't into skiing and lacrosse to succeed in our passions.
Thanks man but I’m not sponsored or anything, I just make gear and skate with my friends. I’ve thought about marketing more but work takes up a lot of my time so I’ll let my friends run the Instagram most of the time and we’ll just meet up every other day and bs about we think we can do. Appreciate it though and not sure why you got ms, agree that people should pursue what makes them happy.
You forgot squash.
I also have been skateboarding for pretty much all my life and I am definitely bummed out because I know as soon as I start work, I won't have any time to skate. Do you still skate now that you have a job? I also have had some second thoughts about bringing it up with colleagues because of the stigma around skating and whatnot.
I skate maybe twice during the week if I'm lucky, otherwise it's on the weekends. It sucks but that's what happens to everyone when they have to grow up. As for the stigma, I haven't really encountered that with coworkers plus I think it has faded due to the wide range of people who skate now. If anything, the only time you will be talking about skateboarding with your coworkers is if you bring it up.
Funny to think I've probably run into someone from this forum at Tompkins or LES. When I finally broke it to my team that I went to a skatepark over the weekend they were really interested and bring it up almost every HH.
Sports betting.
Make money betting smart --> lose more than I made with hubris/being undisciplined --> end the year down
What are your picks for the afc and nfc championship games?
I know you just want to fade me, and I respect that.
But as Lee Corso would say, NOT SO FAST
I bet Chiefs -3 and Bucs +4 when it opened (Bucs now +3.5).
Love the DJ side hustle, this is super cool. How do you get this cleared as an outside biz activity by your firm?
I finished college in 2019, started at my firm (big 4 audit) in 2020 as an intern and recently become A1. During the onboarding process they didn't ask anything about side jobs like this. They just wanted to know if i sat on the board for any of thier client so I didn't need to disclose anything. At least I hope i didnt need to disclose anything.
I would double check that lol
invest real estate, co-founded a hospital chain (that's sadly been a money-losing venture), consult to a few tech companies in exchange for equity
What type of real estate? How did you get involved with the tech companies (were they friends or past clients?) Would also be interested in hearing more about the hospital chain but understand if you don't want to divulge too much for anonymity purposes.
Also interested
Interested as well
Real estate - just buy apartments, ideally with some distress. I worked in REPE before but did not enjoy it. Buildings are boring, though they are good investments. So my wife and I go find properties that we can buy at reasonable prices, and hold indefinitely. When we can, we refi. Nothing groundbreaking here.
Hospital - co-founded a platform with some HNW people I know. We set up the entity to first buy a cheap hospital in China on government auction. It did not go so well, as we are not experts in the area. We bought something that's really high capex, when we should have opted for a more asset-light model, and lease the property. The chairman then went ahead and made some mistakes, and kind of shot the project in the foot. Basically even though we bought the first hospital at very low cost, he was gripped with hubris and bought another small hospital at a high cost. We over-extended ourselves. So now I'm working to exit the project. 5 years in, I hope we can get back our costs. It's led me to never want direct PE-type exposure to any project ever again. Possibly investing in a PE fund might be viable in the future but never again as a principal.
Tech companies - I have an MBA alumn who is a super-angel in China. He asks me to help capital raise for some of his portfolio companies. I get some options in exchange. Most have been worthless but one of them became a big company and paid out ok.
I'm still looking for side-hustles. Watching this thread for ideas.
OnlyFans
Aside from my PA I run an Instagram page with a couple hundred thousand followers. Outsourced the posting and I dropship merch. Only made 10K last year but it’s growing and requires no effort at this point from me. But that wasn’t the case at the start (obviously).
Did you start the page with the intent of monetizing it in the future or did it just happen organically?
Completely accidental. Was more something I was doing for fun / to see if I could. Max 5 minutes of work a day + a lot of luck.
how do you go about outourcing posting? interested
OP, can you share a bit on how you got started with the hobby and your first few gigs?
Payola and Networking with people from my alma matter
In the national guard part time. ~$20k a year
Thanks for serving.
My next painting will likely be 58 inches x 9ft and looking to sell for $20K with a budget of $800 for paint and wood to create the frame.
It will probably be in panels, maybe 3-4.
have you ever sold any paintings or is this just a first try?
Yeah I’ve sold pieces but for only up to $1K. I have three large $10K pieces in inventory right now as well.
I’m going to video the next large piece that I do - from start to finish (building the frame to putting on the gesso and oil).
If you work in accounting, why would you need to hit $200k from music to quit your job...?
Lol this was genuinely funnny. Its basically because I dont plan on staying in accounting and already have accepted an offer to join a bank this summer in DCM. In less than 4 years I should be pulling in around $200k.
So i need my income from music to at least be what a comfortable banker is making for me to consider leaving the security of a full time job.
I assume DJs have a shelf life, right? Like, wouldn't your cool factor fade as you age (obviously, after it peaks at a certain age)?
Does dropshipping really work or is it a meme?
you are 5 years late to dropshipping
This - the time to hop on was definitely 2015-18, now the majority of Instagram “brands” are just drop shippers with paid influencers lmao
I flip watches for fun. Usually have $110k - $130k in watches sitting around and will sell them as a new one comes in. I have a hell of a lot less than that into the current collection. Got really really good at flipping when I was 18 - 20 (not watches) so this is really fun that way + getting "paid" to own nice watches is a win. I wish I was knowledgeable enough about cars to do the same there but that's not happening any time soon. Plus cars are harder to ship than watches which makes them a lot less liquid. You can sell a Nautilus/RO in 2 - 5 days at a premium but not a car AFAIK!
That's awesome. What site/service do you use to find buyers / sellers? I have sold some old watches on ebay, but they were less than $1k
Where do you find the watches and how do you verify authenticity?
Mostly forums like WatchuSeek, The Rolex Forum, etc... Authenticity is pretty easy when you're buying something like a Lange & Sohne, Patek or higher end finished watches. A big chunk of my collection is in independents and haute horology that is impossible to fake.
Casually flip shoes on the side, made a few grand last year nothing crazy. Biggest hits were a few pairs of dunks and the Kobe Grinches.
Looking to possibly getting a shoe bot to scale it a little bit. Anyone have any success or experience with one?
Hit my DMs. I'm an development analyst by day. Shoe botter / reseller at night. Sold $100k Gross last year at a gross margin of 30%. Also have met a lot of cool RE people through shoes.
one of my friends flips shoes--what he does is he buys limited re-releases of older shoes right when they drop (kobe 6s, jordan 11s) and then waits a week or two and sells them online.
.
An extra 50 bucks every hour of tutoring adds up.
An extra 50 bucks every hour of tutoring adds up.
Do you also do banking?
Has anyone done real estate wholesaling?
I flip dirtbikes on fb marketplace. There are so many scumbags on there trying to just relist bikes for a quick profit, but I legitimately try and add value when I sell (new plastics, replace worn parts, deep clean, generally whatever is needed) I love the mechanic aspect of it, and I really enjoy rebuilding/refurbishing old beat up motorcycles. I've gotten to touch basically every moving part of a bike just by teaching myself and watching youtube. I prefer 2 stroke mx bikes because they are vastly easier to work on and cheaper to source parts for. The mx bike market has gone crazy over the past year and it has been much more difficult to find good deals when buying - not to say that they aren't out there though. Generally I can make $500-1500 on a sale and can do around 1 sale per month.
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