The 15 Best Ways to Make $5k a Month (Real Life Examples)

What are some of the best, most realistic ways to make $5k a month?

While still slightly below the nationwide median income, earning $5000 a month (or $60,000 a year) is a great financial milestone to shoot for.

In this post, I’ll share the best ways to get it done as either an employee or an entrepreneur. The suggestions are based on:

• Interviews with over 500 side hustlers and entrepreneurs
• 15+ years of my own side hustle experience
• Feedback from the 50k+ member Side Hustle Nation community.

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Get a Remote Job

FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site.

With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.

Unfortunately, you can’t filter by salary, but based on industry and experience you’ll find lots of options at that $60k per year or $5k per month level and above.

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

2. Salesforce Consulting

Salesforce is a popular CRM (customer relationship management) software used by thousands of businesses and non-profits around the world. 

Where the $5,000 a month comes in is becoming a Salesforce admin professional or consultant. Even if you don’t have a technical background, entry-level certified Salesforce pros are landing salaries of $60,000-$70,000+. 

For example, Anita Smith was laid off during the pandemic, but took the opportunity to skill-up in a new career. After just a few months she landed a new Salesforce job at double her old salary! 

Check out this free challenge to see if a similar path is right for you:

3. Print on Demand

Print on demand is a “hybrid” product business because you’re selling physical goods but you never see or touch them. You don’t have any physical inventory to hold. You’re just uploading digital designs, which makes this a super low overhead business to start.

Heather Johnson of HeatherXStudio.com sells a wide variety of t-shirts and other products on Etsy. Each design is low risk to test out — she doesn’t have to buy the product until she has a paying customer!

When we connected, she was selling around $15,000 worth of clothes every month, which translated into $4,000 – $5,000 in profits.

4. Real Estate

Rental property investing has long been a popular side hustle and way to build long-term wealth. We can all grasp the basics:

• Buy a property
• Rent it out
• Profit on the spread between the rent and the monthly expenses

For example, my friend Dustin Heiner owns a portfolio of rental properties and was able to retire in his 30s from the cash flow.

But it can take a while to get to that $5k a month mark. If you profit $250 per property per month, it will take 20 to get there. If you profit $500 per property per month, you’d only need 10 houses. 

Make a goal to buy one a year, and you can completely change your financial future in just a decade.

Now to be fair, the road to real estate riches is paved with burnt-out landlords sick of dealing with problem tenants, vacancies, and unexpected repairs.

As an alternative, you might take a look at a platform like Arrived, which lets you invest in cash-flowing rentals for as little as $100.

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

This is a great way to make money without leaving the house.

5. Reselling Items

One of the fastest ways to make extra money is the age-old business model of “buy low, sell high.”

Stacy Gallego is a master of this, earning several thousand dollars a month from her part-time product flipping business. She sources undervalued inventory nearby, and then taps into eBay’s audience of 135 million potential buyers.

Among her favorite places to source are:

• Yard sales
• Thrift stores
• Facebook marketplace
• Local buy/sell apps (like Offerup.com)

Some of her profitable flips include:

• a motorcycle side car
• a collectible skateboard
• several Sleep Number beds!

Related: Here are some of the best items to flip for a profit.

To learn more about this business, Stacy recommended checking out Flea Market Flipper. Here’s a free training they put together on how to get started.

6. Reverse Logistics Reseller

If the needle-in-the-haystack search for profitable inventory doesn’t sound like fun, here’s an easier option.

As a part-time Sharetown rep, you’ll pick up gently-used furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.

Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. For example, Chris Torres reported earning $150-400 per item.

And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.

Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more.

7. Buy a Business

Business owners are retiring every day, they really only have two options: shut the business down or try to sell it.

Shutting it down would mean walking away from potentially $100,000+ of equity, so many opt to sell.

Where the side hustle comes in is on the buying side. And buying a business that’s already profitable is way less risky than starting one completely from scratch.

For example, Hannah Ingram bought a self-service car wash in Tennessee. Even better, she negotiated a seller financing sale so she was able to close with no money down. (She paid for it from the cash flow of the business.)

After taking ownership, she set out to improve the operation and now earns around $5k a month — in exchange for about 30 minutes of work a day.

 Sites that list businesses for sale include:

• BizBuySell
• LoopNet
• Crexi

With SBA financing, you can acquire a profitable business with as little as 10% down.

8. Digital Activity Guides

Jodi Carlson has spent more than two decades of her life involved with Girl Scouts—first as a scout, then as a troop leader.

The magic happened when she began to transfer some of her dedication and passion for the topic onto a website. She posted her troop’s activities and soon enough, other scout leaders discovered the site and started reaching out with questions.

Jodi created digital activity guides for specific badges and started selling them on Teachers Pay Teachers and her own site. When we spoke, she was bringing in $5k a month on the side from her day job. 

9. Self Publishing

All of my self-publishing experience has been in the non-fiction space, and I’ll admit the $5k months are few and far between.

However, if you love to write, this could be a great side hustle option for you. For example, Derek Murphy’s book portfolio brings $5k a month, mainly in the young adult fantasy genre.

Derek started out editing books and designing book covers while completing his Masters and PhD in literature. Having an interest in reading fiction and wanting to get away from client work, Derek started writing fiction books.

When comparing fiction to non-fiction, Derek says, “there is a lot more demand, and it’s possible to make a lot more money.” 

10. Consulting

Is there a particular software, skill, or process you’re a pro at? Other businesses pay people like you to accelerate their growth.

According to long-time consultant Jonathan Stark, the key to your first $5k as a consultant lies in finding an expensive problem, and solving it. 

Jonathan’s a pro at finding these expensive problems, having run a successful online consulting business for years, focusing on mobile-ready web development.

11. Tutoring

Tutoring and test prep is more than a billion dollar a year industry!

You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!

For example, Matt Fuentes charges $100/hour for remote college admissions test prep tutoring, and reported earning $1,000 a week on the side from his teaching job. At that rate, he’s working just 10 hours a week with students, so if you have more time to tutor, you could easily get this to $5,000 a month or more.

12. Unconventional Rentals

I love business models where you can get paid over and over again from something you buy once. One of my favorite examples of that is Steve Nadramia’s portable hot tub rental business.

When we spoke, he’d built a “fleet” of 25+ hot tubs that he rented out on a weekly or monthly basis. The business was generating thousands of dollars a month in profit, on the side from his day job as a teacher.

Other rental ideas include photo booths, bounce houses, or even extra space around your house.

13. Car Detailing

A mobile detailing side hustle is a great way to make some extra money on the side, especially if you’re a “car guy.” Not only can you choose your own hours and work around other commitments, but the job itself is simple yet rewarding.

With the right set-up and some basic knowledge of car care, anyone can get started in this side hustle.

Typical rates are $200-400 per car, and you can stack 2-3 jobs up on a Saturday and make pretty good money. For example, Josh Belk reported earning up to $6,000 a month with the detailing business he started with his brother.

14. Build a Helpful Website

If you enjoy writing, blogging is also another viable way to earn $5000 a month. I started blogging as a creative outlet, but it’s turned into a money-making venture for me.

It’s an awesome business because I can do it from anywhere and have complete control over the time I put into it.

In fact, one of my sites was earning around $5k a month for years before I sold it in 2020.

Website income depends on your topic and the amount of traffic you can attract to your site. Delilah Orpi, a former teacher in Florida, reported earning $8,000 a month from her blog about curly hair.

She monetized her site with a combination:

• advertising
• affiliate partnerships
• her own products

Next Step: My free 6-part video course will walk you through how to set up your site for less than you might think.

15. Teach Online Classes

Several Side Hustle Nation members have built an extra income stream teaching others what they know.

One platform to sell your courses is Udemy, a peer-to-peer marketplace with over 50 million students.

For example, Teresa Greenway is a mother of 10 who went from working part-time in a bakery to making $5k a month doing what she loves – baking and teaching others how to bake the perfect sourdough bread.

Teresa has built a really cool business around this niche at NorthwestSourdough.com.

While Teresa mostly tapped into a hobby market, Rob Cubbon created a series of business-focused courses on topics like:

• Graphic design
• WordPress security
• Photoshop
• and more

Is there a topic your friends or colleagues are always asking you for help with? Maybe you could package up that knowledge into a helpful online course. 

How to Make $5k a Month: Your Turn

What’s the best way to make $5k a month? 

Of course the answer depends on your unique skills, interests, and goals. 

My hope is the ideas on this list sparked some curiosity and inspiration to try something new and take action!

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.