21st July 2026 - 7 min read
It’s no secret that a single salary doesn’t stretch the way it used to. Between your home loan, car instalments, groceries and endless bills, a lot of us are watching our salary disappear before the next payday. If you have the energy and will, a side hustle can ease that pain, and well, everyone should have a side hustle of some sort.
There are plenty of ways to earn extra money out there. The hardest part is finding one that fits around your day job without leaving you more drained than the extra money is worth.
The difference between a side hustle and a part-time job is control. A part-time job has fixed hours and a roster to show up for. A side hustle is yours to shape, so you decide when you work and in the best cases, how much you charge.
Freelancing is the most common type, where you sell a skill you already have, such as writing, design, tutoring, or translation. A side business is a step up, with stock to buy, costs to cover, and maybe registration to sort out. You’ll most likely start at the freelance or casual-selling end, since it costs little to begin and you can walk away whenever you want. You need something low commitment and on your own hours that you can put down when life gets heavy.
Three things are worth weighing up before you start. Your time, your energy, and whether the money you’ll earn is worth the hours. A hustle that pays well but eats into every weekend wears you down fast, especially after a full week at the office.
The work that’ll last fits into time you already have, does not use your rest, and scales effort to reward, so a slow month never feels like working for free.
Watch out for hustles that look flexible but are not. Food delivery lets you log on whenever you want, but the people earning decent money do so during the lunch and dinner rush, which is also when you want to eat and rest. What matters is how much you keep per hour after costs, and whether you can work at it for months without dreading it.
These are some ideas that suit limited spare hours, roughly sorted by the time they ask of you.
| Side hustle | Rough hours a week | Monthly earnings (early) |
| Creative and digital skills (writing, design, tutoring) | 4 to 10 | RM300 to RM1,500 |
| Business support skills (bookkeeping, invoicing, SST admin, social media) | 4 to 12 | RM400 to RM2,000 |
| Hands-on services (event and booth crew, babysitting, pet sitting) | 5 to 15 | RM300 to RM1,200 |
| App-based gig work (delivery, e-hailing) | 10 to 18 | RM400 to RM1,00 |
| Selling online (Shopee, TikTok, preloved) | 5 to 15 | RM100 to RM800 |
| Renting what you own (room, car, gear) | 1 to 5 | RM200 to RM1,200 |
| Content (YouTube, TikTok, print-on-demand) | 5 to 15 | RM0 to RM200 |
The same money earned can cost very different amounts of your life. Ride food delivery on weekend evenings, around 18 hours a week, and you might gross RM800 a month. After RM180 for petrol and wear, you keep about RM620, or roughly RM8.60 an hour across 72 hours.
Tutoring at RM35 an hour, five hours a week, works out to about RM700 a month, for far fewer hours. So what you keep per hour after costs matters more than the figure on the app.
The figures in this section are rough illustrations of scale, not guarantees or RinggitPlus data, and real earnings vary widely.
Each type of side hustle has a few well-known places to start. Platforms below are accurate as of June 2026.
| What you’re offering | Where people usually start |
| Creative or business skills | Freelance sites like Upwork or Fiverr, or word of mouth among small business owners |
| Hands-on services | GoGet for event crew, promotions and odd jobs, or local community and parents’ groups |
| Time for gig work | GrabFood, foodpanda, or ShopeeFood for delivery, Grab for e-hailing, GoGet for chores |
| Things to sell | Shopee, Lazada, or TikTok Shop for new stock, Mudah or Carousell for preloved |
| An asset to rent out | TREVO for your car, Airbnb for a spare room |
| Content you make | YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram |
You don’t need all of them. Pick the one that matches your skills, set up a single profile or listing, and take your first small job before worrying about the rest.
Whatever you pick, be wary of anything that asks you to pay upfront to begin earning. A real side hustle usually costs little or nothing to start, so MLM recruitment, paid dropshipping courses, and guaranteed passive income offers are typically selling you a dream rather than real income. If someone makes more from signing you up than from the work itself, walk away.
Once you’ve picked the right kind of work for you, box it into set hours, say two evenings and a weekend morning, so it does not eat into the rest of your free time. Keep the earnings separate from your main pay too, so you can see what it brings in after costs.
Knowing when to pull back is as important as starting. If you’re skipping sleep, snapping at people, or dreading work you used to enjoy, it is costing you more than it pays. The same goes if the income keeps shrinking while the hours stay the same. A side hustle should add to your life rather than take over your evenings. There is no shame in dropping a gig that is not working, or stopping for a while.
Usually you are, but check your employment contract first. Many include a clause about outside work, conflict of interest, or needing your employer’s permission. The common rules are not competing with your employer, not using company time or equipment, and not letting the hustle affect your day job.
A weekend baking business is rarely a problem, while freelancing for a direct competitor can be. If your contract is silent, being upfront is usually safer than being found out. Civil servants face stricter rules. Under the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993, they generally need written permission from their head of department before taking on outside work.
Side income is taxable like any other income. You are required to file with LHDN once your annual income after EPF deductions passes RM34,000, or if you already have a tax file. Keep a record of what you earn and spend from day one, which makes filing far less painful. RinggitPlus has a full guide on filing taxes as a freelancer once your side income grows into something regular.
Your day job already comes with EPF and SOCSO, but your side income does not add to either. If you want that money working toward retirement, you can top up your EPF voluntarily through i-Topup, which earns dividends.
For injury cover while you work, PERKESO’s Self-Employment Social Security Scheme lets gig and freelance workers contribute from a low monthly amount based on the earning tier you choose.
If your side hustle is platform work like Grab or foodpanda, there is one more change to know about. Since the Gig Workers Act 2025 came into force in March 2026, SOCSO contributions are mandatory for gig workers and deducted automatically by the platform, so check what yours already covers. Neither EPF nor voluntary SOCSO is compulsory for a small side hustle, but both are worth knowing once it becomes a real income stream.
Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for the latest money tips and updates.
Christina writes about personal finance with an eye for making the complicated feel straightforward. She is drawn to the everyday money decisions people face and genuinely enjoys finding the clearest way to explain them. Between articles, she is probably napping, on a hiking trail, or terrorising her sister’s cats.
Subscribe to our exclusive weekly newsletter and we’ll bring you the week’s highlights of financial news, expert tips, guides, and the latest credit card and e-wallet deals.
Stay tuned for what’s to come next in the personal finance world
Comments (0)