{"id":403,"date":"2022-05-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/side-hustle-full-time\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:47:20","slug":"side-hustle-full-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/side-hustle-full-time\/","title":{"rendered":"When is it Time to Pursue a Side Hustle Full-Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Also known as: The millennial pipe dream. <\/p>\n

I literally walked to a local coffee shop so I could drink a $7 lavender latte in order to write this post in the correct mindset (which is, I am a millennial with free will, hear me roar<\/em>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>My take, however, is that you shouldn\u2019t leave a full-time job until your side hustle has proven long-term, consistent financial viability.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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This question comes up approximately once a week in my DMs, so I figured it was worthwhile to sit down and attempt to standardize my reply: When is it time to quit your \u201ctradish\u201d full-time gig and pursue your side hustle full-time?<\/p>\n

To be fair, there are a lot of different takes on this; I know one gal who quit her full-time job before even starting<\/em> her business because she felt like she was so stifled at work that she had no energy or creativity left over to build something in her free time (I pray that\u2019s not your situation). <\/p>\n

My<\/em> take, however, is that you shouldn\u2019t leave a full-time job until your side hustle has proven long-term, consistent financial viability (sexy, right?). It may not be for everyone, but for the chronically pessimistic and risk-averse (hi, nice to meet you, kindred spirit), this is the only approach that I think works in all situations<\/em>. <\/p>\n

(As in: You may decide to yeet full-time work with no plan and totally Zuckerberg it, but man, I\u2019ll be damned if that\u2019s not the exception.)<\/p>\n

What do I mean by long-term, consistent financial viability?<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?<\/p>\n

When I started Money with Katie, it didn\u2019t make a single dime for about eight months. I just shouted into the void to an audience of seven people and texted my mom \u201cplease clap\u201d every time I\u2019d publish something. I don\u2019t know of any<\/em> side hustle that\u2019s glamorous to start, but posting 60-second videos of yourself talking directly into the camera about a \u201creally cool new blog post\u201d you just wrote about Roth IRAs to three likes and zero comments certainly wasn\u2019t all star power and rainbows for a long<\/em> time. <\/p>\n

But during this period of void-shouting, I did a goal-setting workshop where I had to \u201cexamine my ideal life.\u201d Unsurprisingly, I spent the majority of the meditation imagining myself as a resident of San Diego, living in an airy, white loft space filled with plants, and attending leisurely 9am yoga classes during the work week. And what was my source of income in this fantasy?<\/p>\n

My ($0 in 2020 revenue) Money with Katie job. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>Even then, I knew that in order to leave my full-time job security, I\u2019d need roughly twice as much income to feel safe doing it.\u00a0\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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One of the questions I had to answer in the exercise post-meditation was about what amount of income would make me feel \u201csafe.\u201d I remember writing, \u201cI want to make $10,000\/month from Money with Katie. That would make me feel secure and successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In retrospect, it\u2019s pretty ambitious that I even wrote those words: I hadn\u2019t made a single dollar from Money with Katie (and still was about 3 months away from monetization), and $10,000\/mo. was roughly twice as much as I was earning in my day job that paid $60,000\/year. A year!<\/em><\/p>\n

(While my goals now are technically larger, they are\u2014in some ways\u2014less ambitious than that original $10,000\/month goal, because now I have proof of concept<\/em>. I had no idea what I was doing when I committed to $10,000\/mo.)<\/p>\n

The point is, even then, I knew that in order to leave my full-time job security, I\u2019d need roughly twice as much income to feel safe doing it. <\/p>\n

Why? Because your corporate job offers a few things that doing it on your own likely doesn\u2019t:<\/p>\n