Most mornings, Dave DeNard rolls out of bed around 9:00 am. He makes his coffee, scrolls social media, and then heads outside for a walk with his two beagles, Ruby and Nova. By 10:00(ish), he\u2019s at his desk, ready to start his 4-hour work day. By many definitions, he\u2019s retired. And he\u2019s only 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWorking a 9-to-5 isn\u2019t going to buy me a house and two cars, and support a few kids,\u201d he says. \u201dThose days are long gone, unfortunately. Past generations could buy a home with a minimum wage job. My generation can’t afford rent.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he decided to do things differently \u2014 by being his own boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to our recent survey, DeNard isn\u2019t alone. 43% of multi-job Americans say they\u2019re working fewer hours and making more money than if they only had a single salaried job. If you look at Gen Z and millennials, that number is even higher, at 49%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In DeNard\u2019s case, he\u2019s earning more income selling his crafts on Etsy and coaching other Etsy sellers than he ever hoped to earn as a traditional W-2 employee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while not everyone\u2019s doing as well as DeNard, there\u2019s a broader trend toward independent work that\u2019s clearly on the upswing. According to a recent McKinsey survey<\/a>, 36% of employed Americans now identify as independent workers. In 2016, that number was only 27%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Could the gig economy be the next great land of opportunity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no denying that economic pressure in the U.S. continues to rise. The median price of a single-family home in comparison to median household income is higher than at any point since the early 70\u2019s<\/a>. Health insurance premiums have increased 55% over the last decade<\/a>. And let\u2019s not get started on the price of groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result? According to a recent MarketWatch survey<\/a>, 66% of Americans are living month to month, unable to save for the future or even for potential emergencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our survey backs this up. 39% of Americans with more than one job say they weren\u2019t making enough money to meet their needs with a single income stream. And when we asked people why they started their side gig, 40% said they simply started it to pay for holiday gifts and expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As concerning as that is, by adding a second income stream, 72% of our survey respondents say they feel more financially secure and 67% feel less stressed financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only that, they seem to be happier, too. 72% of multi-job Americans say they enjoy working for themselves rather than a corporation. And 66% say they are happier having multiple jobs than focusing all their energy into just one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What arose from necessity for many Americans seems to be driving new opportunities for Gen Z and millennials. For them, moving away from single-salaried jobs is often more about pursuing goals than paying bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, while 49% of our Boomer respondents said they weren\u2019t making enough money on a single income, that number was only 30% for Gen Z, who were also 15% more likely than Boomers to say they picked up a second job simply because they had extra time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other top reasons for getting a side hustle included more money for non-essential purchases, like travel or eating out, and a desire to pursue a passion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 21, DeNard already knew he wasn\u2019t cut out for corporate America. He had seen what his parents\u2019 generation put into it and, by comparison, what his own generation was getting out of it. Instead, he chose to tour with a metal band that eventually got signed to a major label \u2014 one that had signed bands he listened to growing up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But even being a member of a rising band wasn\u2019t the right fit. \u201cI didn’t like the demanding lifestyle of always being on the road, enriching other people’s pockets,\u201d DeNard says. He and his wife decided it was time for a change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They started selling crafts at every farmers market and music festival they could, paying upwards of $1,500 just for a spot and grinding all week to sell all weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There had to be another way to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was a hippie back then,\u201d DeNard remembers, \u201cand being on Etsy was the cool thing to do. If you had a successful handmade Etsy shop, you were ultra cool.\u201d So he turned his sights online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The emergence of online marketplaces opened up a new business model \u2014 one that had never existed before. There was no need to pay for a spot at a fair, festival, or convention. Online business wasn\u2019t limited to weekends. And platforms linked creators to customers across the country and even around the world without leaving home. Creators like DeNard only needed an Etsy page, a little marketing know-how, and a way to ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the customers came to them\u2026 in droves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For DeNard, what started as a side gig very quickly became a full-on hustle. Just three months after launching on Etsy, he had enough money saved to buy a house. \u201cOn the West Coast, mind you,\u201d DeNard notes, \u201cwhere prices are not friendly to a midwestern kid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, he\u2019s turned that success to helping others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, he launched his YouTube channel, AddToCart<\/a>, where he started showing others how to make a living selling on Etsy, too. (One recent video is titled \u201cI helped This Etsy Seller Get $1,000,000 Sales Her First Year<\/a>.\u201d) Not only does he find it extremely fulfilling to help others, but he\u2019s been able to build a second income stream on his own terms. Now, he says he makes much more than people his own age and even more than many older than him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What DeNard and thousands of people like him have discovered as they built those multiple income streams is that once they reached a certain level, they could make more money and<\/em> work less \u2014 the holy grail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They no longer needed to depend on some larger entity for a salary \u2014 with increases doled out slowly in the form of incremental raises, promotions, or leaving one position for another. Increases that may barely keep up with inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, according to our survey, the people who have found this kind of success with more than one income stream are more likely to have built an emergency fund that can last them 4 months or more. Given the number of Americans eking out a living from one paycheck to the next, that\u2019s a huge statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For independent workers who are truly thriving, retirement isn\u2019t a goal anymore. It\u2019s a reality. Working or not, they\u2019re living their retirement dreams right now. Even workers as young as DeNard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He and his wife have backpacked Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina on their own dime and time. They just got back from a dream trip to the Greek island of Santorini. At one point, they even bought a massive class-A RV, drove it from Michigan to Nevada and back again, all over the course of three months \u2014 something he says they would never have been able to do with traditional 9-to-5 careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of this, though, is to say that it all came easily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are times when you must hustle, yes,\u201d DeNard says. \u201cI’ve created something that works for me, and maintaining that is easy. But if you want to force growth, you do have to work hard. The only difference is that I am the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More money. Fewer hours. If 49% of Gen Z and millennial Americans with more than one job can claim this over a single-salaried job, that still means 51% aren\u2019t there yet \u2014 but maybe they\u2019re on the way. There seems to be a generational shift in that direction, with the end goal of finding happiness through financial independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what defines the independent workers who make it? Is there a formula for success? \u201cDevelop a talent first,\u201d DeNard says. \u201cDevelop it, and believe in it. That’s the thing with a lot of people. They don’t have faith or confidence in themselves. You have to make a decision that you will succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it really that simple? If the key to success is good old American grit, maybe things like inflation and housing prices aren\u2019t as insurmountable as they seem. Maybe we\u2019re still living in a land of opportunity, where a new way to make money pops up every other week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe all we need is the courage to go after it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These independent workers say they\u2019re working less and making more than traditional nine-to-fivers. But is it real? Our latest survey data says yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":7910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"The Great American Gig Shift: More Money. Fewer Hours. Better Life? | Quicken","_seopress_titles_desc":"These independent workers say they\u2019re working less and making more than traditional nine-to-fivers. But is it real? Our latest survey data says yes.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-business"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/freelancer-with-a-laptop-in-his-hands-works-on-vacation.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7914,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions\/7914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When corporate salaries just aren\u2019t enough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gen Z and millennials want to do more of what they love<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A digital revolution?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Saying goodbye to corporate America<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In pursuit of a better life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n