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Millennial Employees’ Lifestyles Depend on Side Hustle

Millennial Employees’ Lifestyles Depend on Side Hustle

by | Jul 5, 2018 | Blog

A recent survey from Bankrate shows that Millennial employees are increasingly taking on side hustles to save money and keep up with rising living costs.

It turns out that having one job doesn’t always make ends meet.

Millennial employees across America are taking on second jobs — more commonly called “side hustles” — to pay their regular bills each month, according to the latest research.

Nearly four in ten Americans have a side hustle, and they earn about $700 a month on average from these second jobs, according to a recent survey from Bankrate. But for Millennials, the numbers are even higher. More than half of Millennial employees are partaking in the gig economy, reaping extra income from their efforts, according to the survey.

Kathy Kristof, an award-winning financial writer who runs the site $ideHusl, said taking on a second job can help people save money and keep up with rising costs. $ideHusl is a website that consolidates information about various opportunities in the gig economy and scores them according to a proprietary rating system. Sample side hustle offerings featured on the side include tutoring and driving gigs as well as opportunities to take care of elderly patients, cook for families, or rent out parts of your home or even its furnishings.

The biggest appeal of a side job, Kristof said, is the money.

“With Millennials, I think a lot of them graduated college with a lot of debt,” Kristof said. “The Millennial generation is also extremely entrepreneurial. They’re looking for various ways that they can work for themselves, either full- or part-time. A side hustle is a good way to start.”

The Bankrate survey found that a majority of respondents considered money earned from side jobs as disposable income, and they work these odd jobs inconsistently. Only 11 percent of respondents indicate that they work their side jobs on a weekly basis.

Deloitte, a professional services network, and Prudential, a financial services company, also recently released surveys that both echoed BankRate’s survey findings as well as revealed other trends about the gig economy, including:

  • Deloitte found that having flexible hours and a better work/life balance were among the top reasons for why people would consider joining the gig economy;
  • On average, the Prudential survey found that gig-only workers earn only about 58 percent as much as traditional full-time employees annually, though the survey acknowledged that gig workers only put in a median of 25 hours per week, compared with a standard 40-hour work week for full-time employees;
  • Fewer than 20 percent of Millennial respondents in the Deloitte survey outright rejected the idea of taking on short-term contracts or freelance work to supplement or replace existing full-time employment;
  • 62 percent of Millennials in the Prudential survey believe it is somewhat or highly likely that over the next 30 years, traditional full-time employment will largely disappear, and freelance jobs will come up in its place;
  • 62 percent of millennials who would consider gig employment cited a need for “increased money/income,” according to the Deloitte survey.

Kristof predicts that the gig economy will continue to grow at a rapid pace, and that America’s workforce will have an increasingly difficult challenge to differentiate between great side hustle opportunities and platforms with exploitive terms and conditions. She encourages anyone looking to get into the game to research different offerings before wasting time or putting assets at risk.

“There are gigs in almost every industry, so look for what you really like to do, because you can find something that you like and something that will pay well, all at the same time,” Kristof advised. “And that’s kind of the ideal, right?”

 

How to Help Prevent – and Recover From – Identity Theft

How to Help Prevent – and Recover From – Identity Theft

by | Oct 12, 2016 | Blog

Financial stress in the workplace often comes directly from worries about the unexpected: job loss, surprise expenses or injuries. Identity theft and fraud are becoming an increasingly common source of financial worry for employees.

According to a recent survey from Bankrate, 41 million adults in the US have been a victim of identity theft and 49 million more know someone who has been victimized. This crime is sometimes unavoidable and recovering from it takes a serious toll, both emotionally and financially.

Here are some of the ways identity theft causes stress for employees and some steps employers can take to help educate their workers.

Financial stress from identity theft

The number of ways identity theft and fraud can happen are startling – from a parent running up debts in a child’s name to a stranger abusing personal information from a data breach – and once an employee is victimized, the financial stress sets in.

A recent survey reported by HSB showed that more than a third of Americans had been the victim of a cybercrime in the past year, including the hacking of their personal information and their data being held for ransom. In nearly a quarter of these incidents, the victim spent up to $5,000 of their own money repairing the damage, while more than half spent up to $500. In fact, $15 billion was stolen through identity fraud last year in the US alone. This sudden major expense causes extreme financial stress for victims, in addition to the emotional anxiety of having their information abused.

A long recovery means drawn-out stress

This stress is often prolonged, as victims of identity theft face a difficult path to recovery that doesn’t happen overnight. If an employee of yours had their identity stolen, they might have their checking account emptied, debt transferred onto a credit card in their name or a mortgage opened using their credit. Their recovery process could include getting a police report, filing an identity theft report, ordering their credit reports and requesting fraud alerts or security freezes, even dealing with debt collectors and loan servicers looking to collect payments for fraudulent accounts, all while having to keep a careful eye on every one of their financial accounts for the foreseeable future.

It can take years for a victim to restore their credit and finances, often without any sort of explanation for how they became a victim. The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent report claimed 68 percent of identity theft victims had no idea how the perpetrator got ahold of their personal information, leaving them still feeling vulnerable. If your workers are dealing with this kind of stress, whether it’s an ongoing abuse of their identity or paying thousands of dollars to restore the damage caused by fraud, the anxiety doesn’t go away once they arrive at work.

Steps for employers to take

Your employees would certainly appreciate your understanding if they’re facing these issues, but they can also use your help. Workers of all ages can be victims and the less familiar they are with digital security, the more at risk they’ll be. Educate your employees about good digital habits – like using strong, unique passwords for every account and reviewing accounts on a regular basis for fraud – that can be applied to both the workplace and their personal lives. We’ve already seen that regular reminders can help change your workers’ habits, so encourage them to change passwords frequently and stay on top of their financial accounts.

You can also talk about risks like computer viruses, phishing attacks and ransomware, all of which can be used to steal data in or out of the workplace. Prevention is a major part of protection against identity theft and the more your workers know, the more prepared they’ll be to react appropriately and manage the financial stress that accompanies this crime.

Your workers can’t make the right decisions if they don’t have the knowledge they need both before and after their identity has been abused. When financial stress hits, having a guide is helpful, which is why providing the right resources is one of your best options to assist them.