Unsure about savings, teachers are among groups picking up second jobs

With a new year comes resolutions, and many are looking to side businesses this year.

"It looks like a soap but it's actually a lotion," said Natasha Watt.

It's made of coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax, and essential oils -- but the main ingredient in Natasha's success is passion. While she can educate you on the right lotion for you, her main job is a school teacher. She thought long and hard about making a unique passion project into a side hustle, or second job. It's working. 

"I love teaching but I've always had the sound in my head: I want to do something else, that urge to do something else for myself," she said. "I thought to myself this could be something that I can make, create and give to other people."

She makes it in her kitchen and business is taking off. 

"It feels great to know that I started this on my own, it's a different feeling than getting a paycheck from being a teacher to making money on something that I started from scratch," she said."

Andy Bass, chief wealth officer at Telemus, says the side hustle is picking up steam for a few reasons.  

"One-sixth of all teachers have second jobs, Seventy-eight percent of the country feels that they don't have enough in savings and how are you going to get savings in today's world? Most people can't afford to change their lifestyle or they don't want to change their lifestyle so getting a second job or finding a second source of income is critical," he said.

The feds say close to 20 million Americans have side jobs and that doesn't include people who are self-employed. It's common with the younger generation. Millennials are working two jobs to try to match the lifestyle their parents are living. Doing it off one check doesn't always make room for vacations and luxuries they want.  

Some teachers are even doing online tutoring for kids in China looking to learn English.  

"Early in the morning or late at night here in the U.S. which is prime time in China, having online access to the students and doing one on one tutoring," he said.

For Natasha, her products are flying out of her Huntington Woods home and there's no looking back.  

"I just told myself 'this is what I think I'm going to do and I'm going to do it' and hopefully I can show my girls what is possible if you set your mind to something," she said.
  
One last note to set your mind to if you do decide to pick up a side hustle in 2020:

"Do not do a second job solely for saving because then you become disenfranchised with it. If you're not doing something with that extra work and enjoying it. So spend some, save some," Bass said.