Make $500+ Extra Each Month

The couple that side hustles together stays together, right?

If you and your partner share the common goal of improving your finances, a side hustle is certainly one way to do it. And when you work together, you may be able to strengthen your relationship at the same time.

Struggles with money are the leading cause of stress among couples, and sometimes the best solution is to simply make more money.

But starting a side hustle as a couple can put a new strain on your relationship. Your business is a new “baby” to find time for, to nurture, and to share responsibility of.

With that in mind, here are our suggestions for the best side hustles for couples. We picked these based on their earning potential, time required, and the “togetherness” factor.

1. Reselling Mattress and Furniture Returns

You know how every new mattress seems to come with a “100-night-better-sleep-or-your-money-back” guarantee? It turns out 7% of those bed-in-box mattresses get returned.

In those cases, the companies don’t really want the product back. So instead they partner with Sharetown, a “reverse logistics” company, to pick them up, clean them up, and sell them on secondhand marketplaces.

Where the side hustle for couples comes in signing on as local Sharetown reps. For Staci Aburto and her husband, the side gig adds $2,000-4,000 a month to their bottom line.

She described earning $150-$250 per item, and they don’t have to pay for the inventory until it sells.

2. Furniture Flipping

Furniture flipping is another great side hustle for couples. The typical process might include:

• Sourcing a piece of furniture worth flipping on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist, or in local buy/sell groups
• Picking it up
• Refinishing it
• Photographing it and listing it to be sold — at a profit

Ryan Cron reported that he and his wife routinely earned $150-250 per flip and enjoyed the sweat equity of working with their hands.

His advice? Start with simple items like dressers to practice your skills.

With an eye for what’s popular and some workshop space, this can be a great money-making hobby.

3. Start a YouTube Channel

Starting or growing a YouTube channel can be a good option for couples who love capturing moments together and teaching others.

There’s a lot of work that goes into producing great video content, but many couples find it to be a fun, creative outlet.

For example, Amon and Christina are the husband and wife pair behind Our Rich Journey, a popular YouTube channel. The couple retired early from their careers and moved their family to Portugal.

Their YouTube channel, which focuses on personal finance content, earns an estimated $500 per video.

To monetize your channel with YouTube ads, you’ll need to hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time, but if you’re creating evergreen content, the income can become quite passive.

And ads aren’t the only way to make money. Other video creators monetize with:

• affiliate partnerships
• brand sponsorships
• their own products and services

Thankfully, there are websites to edit videos that can help with the overall content of the vlog.

What interests do you share as a couple? Each of those could be a potential topic for your channel.

4. Create a Podcast

Another content-based platform that can be an excellent slide hustle for couples is to start a podcast. For example, I connected with Garret Kruger and Sabrina Ricci, who co-host the I Know Dino podcast.

It’s a podcast that shares the latest dinosaur news!

The couple just loves talking about dinosaurs — they even had a dinosaur-themed wedding. The podcast makes money from sponsorships, product sales, and a listener-supported membership through Patreon.

You don’t need to be the world’s leading expert on your topic, either. (Neither Garret nor Sabrina are paleontologists.)

Creating a podcast is less work than YouTube, and can still be a powerful way to build an audience and strengthen your relationship.

5. Credit Card Rewards

Taking strategic advantage of credit card sign up bonuses has made my wife and I thousands of dollars over the years. You just have to be responsible and pay the balance off each month.

Related: Credit Card Rewards 101: How to Earn Free Cash and Travel by Spending Smarter

6. Real Estate Investing

One of the most popular ways for couples to build wealth is through real estate. And though there are many different types of real estate side hustles, most couples start with a single rental property.

As a landlord, you profit on the spread between the monthly rent and your carrying costs, which include:

• mortgage payment
• property taxes
• insurance
• maintenance expenses

When looking for houses, keep the “1% Rule” in mind. If you can get 1% of the purchase price in monthly rent, it’s likely a decent investment financially. (For example a $250,000 house would need to rent for $2500 a month.)

In more expensive real estate markets, that’s simply not realistic. That’s when a platform like Roofstock can come in handy—it lets you search for pre-vetted investment properties across the country.

The other advantage of owning real estate is you can potentially write off your mortgage interest and property depreciation on your taxes.

7. Renovating Houses

Or, if you and your partner don’t mind a little hard work, you may be able to find a fixer-upper house to flip for a profit.

Flipping houses gets a lot of attention, but it’s also a lot work. It’s called “sweat equity” for a reason!

You’ll need to:

• Locate a house
• Estimate the repair costs
• Determine the fixed-up value by checking recently-sold comps
• Negotiate the purchase price to leave room for profit after repairs
• Complete the work
• List and sell the property

This side hustle is perfect for couples with a background in construction, crafting, and design. (Or, if your budget allows, managing contractors.)

But it’s not for everyone. You know your partner best—if a fixer project is a recipe for drama and fighting, try something else on this list!

One alternative: The live-in flip. This is where you buy a house that needs some work, but plan on living there for at least a couple years. That way, you don’t have the time pressure to complete your renovations as quickly. You can take your time and stress less. And if you live their for at least two years, your gains when you sell are tax-free.

7. Build a Helpful Website

This isn’t the best side hustle if you need to make extra money quickly, but can build into a full-time income stream over time.

The days of blogging as a personal journal are over. Instead, a common path is to create a website that answers people’s questions or helps them with their decisions.

For example, Raffaele’s site helps people take better care of their houseplants, and earns $10,000+ per month. The income comes from a combination of display ads, affiliate commissions, and his own products.

This is a good side hustle for couples who enjoy research and writing.

8. Start an E-Commerce Business

My friends Chris and Julia Tunstall were disappointed with the selection of quality bar equipment online. So the couple decided to make their own and sell it. (Or more accurately, contract with specialist manufacturers to make it.)

Starting with cocktail shakers, ABarAbove.com is now a 7-figure business that sells through Amazon and its own storefront.

Is there a product you’re having a hard time finding? Or are the existing alternatives too expensive? Maybe there’s a similar opportunity to create something better or more affordable.

9. Print on Demand

It’s not a huge money-maker, but selling print on demand products is one of my wife and I’s favorite side hustles.

How it works is we upload designs to sites like Redbubble and Merch by Amazon, and then the platforms handle the rest. We set the price, and when someone orders, the site handles the printing, shipping, and fulfillment.

I’m usually the one to come up with the idea, and she creates the design, usually using Canva.

It’s a fun, creative way to earn a little extra money.

10. Offer Online Courses

If you or your partner have some subject matter expertise, you may be able to start a side hustle teaching it online. There are a couple routes to take here. The first is what’s called “self-hosting” your online course through a platform like Teachable. In this case, you’ll set your own price but also be responsible for marketing and selling the course.

Top online course sellers using this method can make tens of thousands of dollars a month, like Jacques Hopkins, who teaches people how to play piano fast.

The other option is to put your educational content up on a marketplace like Udemy or Skillshare. In this case, you’ll earn usually a much lower rate per student, but potentially reach a much broader audience.

11. Teach an Online Group Class

The fast-growing Outschool platform lets you create and host an online group class on whatever topic you like.

The site is geared toward students in grades K-12 (and their parents), but your topic doesn’t need to be strictly academic.

For example, Devyn Ricks reported earning $4,000 a month teaching group video game classes part-time!

12. Flipping Products

Flipping flea market finds turned out to be a great side hustle for Jack and Joan Ferrell, a semi-retired couple in Florida.

There’s a treasure-hunt element to this—constantly being on the lookout for interesting and profitable items to flip. In their case, they mentioned reselling some Sprinter van seats, a set of troll dolls, and even a 5th wheel hitch.

All told, they’d sold about $17k worth of products in the last 30 days before we spoke.

If this “buy low, sell high” model appeals to you, I encourage to you check out the free Flea Market Flipper training to learn more.

13. Become Virtual Assistants

If you and your partner have strong administrative and organizational skills you might make great virtual assistants. In this work from home job, your tasks might include:

• scheduling business trips
• responding to customer service requests
• running reports
• managing someone’s calendar and inbox

Being a couple of VAs can be a great chance to earn together, especially if you live in a remote area or just need a side hustle you can do from home.

Typical rates range from $20-40 an hour and up, depending on your skills. The more specialized your service, the more you can charge.

Upwork and Fiverr are two of the biggest freelance sites where you can connect with clients. Still, you may be better off tapping into your own network or proactively looking for business in the communities you’re already a part of.

As one example, my friends Mish and Rob run a virtual copywriting service for online business owners.

14. Start a Cleaning Business

Even if your own house is a mess, starting a cleaning service can be a great side hustle for couples.

Why?

It’s in-demand. Some reports show the residential cleaning industry is growing by 20% a year!

And you may not even need to do the cleaning yourself. Anthony and Jhanilka Hartzog have an interesting business model in which they contract with local professional cleaners to help them fill up their schedules.

They’re essentially playing matchmaker — marketing for customers and connecting them with qualified cleaners — and earning 40% of every job. When we spoke, they were doing $20-25k a month in bookings, and have grown significantly since then.

15. Backyard Nursery

Gardening and growing plants is a rewarding activity for couples to do together. Where the side hustle comes in is in actually selling some of those plants to your neighbors.

Craig Odem is a pastor in Tennessee, but sells around $10k worth of plants from his backyard nursery every year!

If you already have passion for plants and the space to grow, this can be fulfilling way to add some “green” to your bottom line.

16. Self-Publishing

For Justin and Alexis Black, their self-published memoir, Redefining Normal, turned into a full-time business.

In addition to author royalties, they also earn money public speaking and doing training sessions based on the book — up to $8,000 a session!

The beauty of self-publishing is that anyone can turn their ideas and expertise into a product on Amazon with very little upfront expense. It makes sense to invest in editing and a quality cover, but after that you have a product you can sell over and over again for years.

Or if you have some creative ideas, maybe you’d like to create a children’s book. Amazon makes it very easy and affordable to publish both Kindle and paperback versions of your book.

17. Start an Etsy Shop

Crafty couples can build a viable side hustle selling on Etsy. The marketplace is best-known for custom, unique, and handcrafted goods.

For example, Kara Lamerato sells a variety of vineyard-themed wedding décor, including wine cork placecard holders.

You can also sell print on demand and digital products on Etsy. The appeal here is you can create the product once, and sell it over and over again without having to physically build a new item each time.

On The Side Hustle Show, Rachel Jimenez shared how she was earning $10,000+ a month selling printables on Etsy. These are digital downloads like:

• meal planners
• budget templates
• wall art
• customer intake forms
• chore charts
• and more

Most are created in Canva or Microsoft Word. If you have some basic design skills and get excited by researching what’s hot on the marketplace, this could be a fun and rewarding side hustle.

18. Pet Sitting Services

For pet-loving couples, you might consider starting a dog walking or pet boarding service. If you already have a fur-baby (or two) of your own, it may not be that much extra work to add another dog to the mix.

Rover is the leading platform to connect with pet owners in need of these services. Boarding rates are often in the $30-60 per night range, and top hosts $1,000 a month or more.

Working as a couple, you can handle more pets than a solo operator.

19. Voice Over Acting

Voice acting is typically a solo affair, but Dom and Nicole Draper from TheVoiceoverCouple.com have made it a family business.

Starting a side hustle, the couple now earns thousands of dollars a month from home. If you and your partner have any radio, podcasting, or acting experience, voice over is a relatively low-risk, low startup cost business.

Dom and Nicole both landed their first gigs on Fiverr. Since then, they’ve scored work through Voices.com and through their own talent agent.

20. Photography and Videography

Photography is my wife’s side hustle, and occasionally I get recruited to be her second-shooter, or assistant. We’ve done a couple weddings together … and a wild super sweet 16 party with some very wealthy teenagers.

For Vincent and Elizabeth Pugliese, photographing weddings and corporate events was their ticket to paying off over $100,000 in debt. The pair were already skilled photographers—journalists, really—but just started applying their skills to better-paying clients.

Rates depend on your portfolio, clientele, and location, but can easily be $4,000 for a wedding or $400 for a family portrait session.

21. Store Other People’s Stuff

House hacking is a great way to reduce your living expenses, but as a couple, you might want a little more privacy. The alternative to consider is Neighbor — the website and app that pays you to store other people’s stuff.

How it works is you rent out the extra space you have, like a:

• driveway
• side yard
• shed
• attic
• garage

Top Neighbor hosts earn hundreds of dollars a month, relatively passively after the initial drop-off. Check out our full Neighbor review to learn more.

What are the Best Side Hustles for Couples?

The best option for couples to make extra money depends on your interests, needs, and goals. For some couples, a side hustle flipping houses might make sense. For others, that might sound like a nightmare.

My hope is this list got your creative juices flowing and introduced you to some new possible side hustles. For my wife and I, the biggest shift in our thinking was when we came to recognize financial independence as a team sport. We started working together toward that common goal and it made all the little decisions along the way a lot easier.

Happy side hustling!