Looking for a quick comment on rise of side hustles for I Paper

As a financial planner we have seen an increase in the side hustles. We have clients who buy and sells vinted clothes and make around £500 - £1,000 per month gross profit from this. It is encouraging to see this, not only because they have an extra income, but also for many it represents an important way to learn about economy, marketing, and investing and they will engage better in the financial planning process as the end result.

Multilevel marketing is one of the worst routes people are being pushed into under the promise of passive income, but there is nothing passive about it. On paper it looks like easy money. In reality, most people earn very little, and many end up out of pocket. There's almost always an upfront cost. You're asked to buy a starter kit, stock, or training before you've made a penny. Then comes the time drain. People spend hours messaging friends, posting on social media and chasing leads, often for a single small sale or none at all. Once you work out the hours put in against the money coming back, the hourly rate is often well below minimum wage. The companies make their money from recruitment and stock sold to sellers, not from genuine customer demand. That's why so few people at the bottom ever turn a real profit. If you need a second income, you're almost always better off with honest paid work. MLM thrives on hope, but for most it costs more than it ever pays.

The rise of side hustles is less a sign of entrepreneurial optimism and more a signal that primary income is no longer reliably covering the cost of a stable life. When people are running Vinted resale operations, freelance work or digital services alongside full time jobs, the underlying story is wage pressure meeting rising living costs, not simply a cultural shift toward enterprise. There are benefits including diversified income, digital skills and financial resilience. But many side hustles sit outside traditional protections with no pension, sick pay or stable earnings. The deeper risk is structural. A workforce increasingly dependent on secondary income is absorbing economic pressure that employers and policymakers have not resolved. It also challenges lending, affordability and retirement models still built around one stable income.

Given the dire state of the UK economy and the highest tax take this side of WW11, nearly half of Brits now maintain at least one side hustle, with Gen Z and Millennials leading the charge. The average earner nets an extra £360–£500 a month — a handy 10–15% top-up on a typical salary. The appeal is real: autonomy, upskilling, and a financial cushion that can go straight into savings or mortgage overpayments. But the downsides bite hard. Side hustlers work an extra 9–10 hours weekly, fuelling burnout and contract conflicts. HMRC's £1,000 trading allowance catches thousands off-guard, turning casual Vinted sales into unexpected tax headaches. The bigger picture is uncomfortable. Around 30% of side hustlers are simply covering basic living expenses rather than building wealth. The traditional salary has decoupled from the cost of living. A side hustle is no longer an ambition; for many, it's a vital safety net.

Side hustles have become more common as a result of the ever-climbing cost of living. On the one hand, it is great to see people taking their earnings into their own hands and being entrepreneurial. On the other hand, it can also be taken to demonstrate the precarity that so many people live with. A full time job isn't always enough to achieve one's goals. Side hustles can be brilliant tools when it comes to saving for something like a holiday, but people should remember to keep track of their income and pay any necessary taxes – otherwise using that money for something like a house deposit could be difficult. And if people intend to use side hustle money as part of any credit arrangement, like a mortgage, they'll probably need to demonstrate that income is sustainable in order for lenders to consider it.