Overtime or side hussle

Is it better to work the overtime or find a part time job? The taxes are really a killer, and i do injection mold repair work, its not exactly easy on the body either.. just debating the ideas. Overtime im making 30+ an hour but more taxes...or side job?

Does it pay off or even out?

Taxes are the same no matter how you earn it. If your getting a big refund every year change your w2

Side jobs are usually cash. At least for me anyways

You probably won't find a side job that pays as good as our OT rate. A side hustle can make good money if you're doing it yourself but I don't know how to do that without spending time and money advertising and promoting your services.

I've known guys who were not embarrassed to constantly promote their side hustle. Every time you meet them they remind you that they detail cars or pressure wash decks. These guys probably do pretty well with their gig. That's not me.

I've been salary for years and rarely work more than 40 hours weekly. When I was hourly OT was about $40/hr. When I side got I usually quote at between $60 and $80/hr.

Still the law to pay taxes on cash jobs. 22

Side jobs should always be more money and less work, if not, work the OT.

Def OT.
You don't have to travel or expenses so less costs. Taxes being more with OT is a myth. You are only paying more taxes b/c your making more money. It doesn't cancel out the way everyone thinks. Even if it looks like it on your paystub b/c they run your payroll goofy it washes out on your refund. Your check being higher helps you to contribute more % to your 401k. Depending on your job etc working OT may get you closer to your retirement date.

With that said I guess it would depend on the particulars of how much you would make in OT verses how much you would make on the side doing whatever you are thinking. For me OT is the answer. To the point where its more cost effective for me to stay at work and to pay someone to do things around the house sometimes.

Its like my one buddy says. Don't worry about the mule, just load the wagon.

I would also consider what working the OT buys in the eye of the employer. Leadership, dependability, ambition.

I'm with you there. I've been the guy with 2-3 jobs throughout most of my working life and was constantly learning new facility protocols, taking multiple classes to stay employed at each place, and adjusting to their specific way of providing healthcare. I've found myself now down to only one job and I grab as much overtime as I can. Don't work any harder than normal and make enough to live a pretty comfortable lifestyle with the overtime as an added benefit. I've worked at minimum 48 hours and at most 60 hours a week since March without trying very hard. It's nice not having an auto loan, etc. etc.

yeah, not to get out of paying taxes but it just seems like my paycheck is ridicously goofy as if thrown in a higher tax bracket or something wierd,but i agree 100 with both of these statements, just want to double check unless im missing something. lol. i got to thinking about a sec job....the time to travel, etc.. just do the overtime. thanks for the input.

If you need some help spending it MTP, PCS and FnT are having some nice specials this month.

Back in my earlier years with the company, they’d have to tell me to go home. Now, I’m happy with just 40. I remember some weeks I’d be in DT by Thursday and then work 10-12 hours Friday and Saturday. Time is more important now than money. In answer to your question, I have more fun on the side job, but make WAY more in OT.

pfft

Yep , Loyalty goes a long ways

If you're the first to bail out when needed because you have more important things to do .......well someone will remember.

Why not both?

When I see what is being done with my tax money ..... I would suggest a side gig as your main income.

A lot of folks feel the same way, including yours truly. This is why the crooks want to go to the no-cash system.

That's rarely true anymore and hasnt been in a very long time. Employees/Staff are numbers on a spreadsheet. You should view your employer the same way.

Maybe in WI, here in the east it’s still a thing. lol

On my day job I had insurance and added to my retirement. I did not have to drive home and drive to another job. Live on you day job not on your over time, it may bit you some day when you no long are getting it, and you upped you standard of living with over time. JMO

It all depends if working OT will cost you at tax time. The only way you pay more in taxes is if the overtime at the end of the year puts you in a higher tax bracket. I know people make a lot more that i but OT pays me $37.50 an hour and I'm not passing that up very often.
I've been working 10 hrs a day and 7 hrs on Saturday and my checks are awesome. Besides the more I make the more my wife let's me spend on hunting,trapping and tools, you know the good stuff.

On the few occasions I worked for other people, I always took all the overtime I could get. 50% more an hour for doing the same work seems like a no brainer to me.

Keith

for strait money , OT for me

however sometimes I just can't stand myself if I work to much OT to many oncall shifts without a break makes me stir crazy and generally sleep deprived

I don't really have a side hustle

Of course it is. No one would not pay taxes!

OT on the job is often best, unless the side gig is a Beaver or bat job where you can get $500 in one week.
That is how my adc business started actually

I say get a side hustle that you own and can keep the profits from. It also helps at tax time with write offs. My boss gets 40 out of me and then I go work for myself.

You guys sound like a bunch of nerds comparing the amount of hours you work in a week.

Lol

You make me squint.

Lol that’s what my Mom says lol.

If a nerd calls you a nerd is that basically a double negative meaning you are a manly man?

What does Dave Ramsey say?

Dave would say work both, eats red beans and rice.

Then do the baby steps

I work at a job where I get paid by the day. I do my best to work the least amount of hours as possible. After reading the above, I feel like I might be doing something wrong?

For advice on taxes and earnings, you should ask our member, Coonman. He has lots of experience.

It never feels good to me to have all my eggs in the same basket. But that hasn't always served me well.

Well I am self employed and even if I say so myself good enough at my job to be able to get by with working 4 to 5 days per month. The rest is my time. If I want or need something. I tag on another day or two of work in order to be able to do that.
So another way of looking at it is. Get good at what you do , charge accordingly and work less ...or get wealthy.

I take the overtime. Sometimes cause I am thinking of buying something big but as of late I have been working it cause we have no other choice. Our teams are short staffed. I am filling 3-5 overtimes a week. That is with 9 people with 2-4 of them on vacation, so figure 6 people. It does not take long to get to the bottom of the list and get mandatoried for a Friday night or a Saturday. FYI, it really sucks when you have to mandatory yourself for one of those days.

Another reason I take the overtime is I have enough hobbies competing for my time. Also, once you turn something that you enjoy into a job it tends to take all the fun out of it.

Now, if I raked concrete for a living my view would be the opposite. I have raked enough yards of concrete to know if that was my main job I would be getting a side hustle.

I wish I could get overtime, I have to flex my time when I go over 37.5 hrs in a week. I have to use that time within 6 months or I lose it.

Good thing I’m a wife moocher and don’t have to worry about OT or side hustles.

I do plow snow a few days a year in the winter, but that isn’t often so I don’t consider it a side hustle

Another thing to consider is ... without turning this thing political ...... wait what happens in November. I know for a fact that if the Communist party wins however they may achieve that goal. A side hustle is all I am going to have as I will resolve the company. Your milage may vary on that.

I’ll help..

The second amendment, hunting and trapping will be very important topics on November 3rd.

Sell your body out. Cash only. Use proceeds at a later date in your life.

if your wife had 2 jobs you wouldn't need a side hustle.

“It’s a lazy man that can’t find his wife a second job.” lol

X2

I use to work 66 hour's plus for many years at a mill , own and ran a pallet shop with 9 employees for 20 years that is part of the reason ,I'm so worn out it's hard on the body , I say get a good job an live with in your budget , an enjoy your young year's ,

I pick the one that I enjoy doing more. Depending on how well you like your job, most people need to do something else after their normal hours are up. The extra money is nice but the opportunity cost isn't worth it.

Then again I make more more hourly on my side jobs do... unfortunately I don't get enough hours if those to make them my full time job.

Wise words right there!

I must be the laziest husband. I havn't even found her one job. Poor girl.

that borders on abuse

Here are the tax tables. Every $50 you make you pay say $10/$14 in tax. At no point do you make an extra $50 and have to pay $60 in tax. I work with alot of people that think if they work too much OT that there check will be for the same about as a without OT b/c of all the extra taxes coming out b/c of the OT. That simply isn't true. I had to watch telling people that though b/c some peoples HR payrol program may be goofy and do something stupid like that. Point is though at the end of the year you only owe so much taxes if your paystub was screwed up a few times it all washes out in the end.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf

You'd have to be bordering on the next tax bracket to lose money on taxes if you cross the threshold.

Yep, a lot of people say they can't trap or hunt, or fish or some other physical activity now because they have to work but will do it full time when they retire. Your body might not be able to do any of it by then. Unless you've had a desk job your whole life and didn't play sports at all. Don't know if my body will make it the way it feels now and I've got at least 30 years before a normal retirement.

How can this be legal. If you work 40 hrs one week you have 2.5 hrs flex time, if not used in 60 days you don't get paid for that 2.5 hrs? Can any employer force a person to work for nothing?

I’m not an hourly employee, and I’m not a salaried exempt employee. I get paid a set amount of money per year, I have to work a minimum of 37.5 hours per week. Anything over is accrued as compensation time. What I usually try to do so that I don’t accrue too many hours, is flex my time. So if I work over on a Thursday or know I will have to work Saturday I’ll take the day off before or after. So my time evens out.

They don’t and can’t force me to work for nothing, I would be required to take the time.

No matter how much overtime I put in my allowance is still the same every week. Of course I buy stuff all the time with the credit card and just put the bill with the others.

The way I understand it you would only be paying tax on the money that was in that next bracket. Say the next tax bracket started at $80000 at 20% and you and you made $85000. You would only be paying 20% on the $5000 you made in that bracket, the rest would be on the lower brackets.

My ex gets holidays off, but has to use PTO hours to get paid for the paid holiday.

I sit at a computer most of the day and pretty much have overtime anytime I would want it but I won't take it. After 19 years at the same place, I would rather have a side job that makes less money than spend more time at my normal job. I've always found a weird sense of freedom swinging a hammer or running a chainsaw! Did tons of overtime when I was younger and have never been without a job since I was 13. Just don't make your entire life about work, take time to actually enjoy what you work for.

Excatly right...

That is how it works. You only pay the extra tax on the amount above the threshold, not on the whole amount.

That is how it is for my wife, just doesn’t make sense.

That's how it is here but the compromise was that we accrued more PTO so it balances out.

Yeah same here, still weird to me anyway.

It makes payroll easier in the computer so the only issues is the few people that have to work the holiday. Computer just has to look at how many hours you're supposed to work and how many you did work and and difference is taken out of your PTO. Doesn't matter if you left early (with permission) or had the day off or it was a holiday.

Makes sense looking at it that way.

All depends on the side gig and what you put into it. Would rather work on side gigs that create passive income that keeps on paying after the original effort is made. Lots of ideas out there, pick one and get after it. Passive income is taxed at a lower rate than earned income. A friend's wife took notice that I trapped and hunted all fall and much of the winter and asked him how this was possible. He told her I had rentals. That was 10 years ago. They now own 11 rental properties and keep investing in themselves instead of a 401K that could be gone when markets tank. They will be standing in tall cotton when they decide to retire and LIVE.

i always set a limit at 50 hrs on stage a week when i was young and credit that to my lengthy career before retiring.

But why did you always prefer a Sumac Pole Jake from state farm?

how much do ya'll set aside for retirement, dave ramsey says 15%. Do even half of you put that much away? i maxed the 6 percent from the company and then do 300 a month in an ira...

how much do you really need to retire on once you hit your 60s? is have any of you thought of taking the penalty and collecting early instead of 68? Atleast my age group...

“Take time to actually enjoy what you work for” - WV Danimal said it best.

I have a work hard play hard attitude. I farm full time with my uncle on 900 acres , split 50/50 between corn and soybeans. Also run a small gill net boat in the early spring , do nuisance work, and plant food plots for a few out of state deer hunters in the fall before our harvest begins. Plenty of work for me.

However, I still make a point to enjoy some time. Push it a little harder and work longer one evening so I can hop in the boat and fish till noon the following day.

Work hard so you can play hard, I enjoy all seasons, turkey, waterfowl, deer, dove, trapping, fishing, etc, just like a lot of you. People say they don’t have time?! Well make time, cause time is ticking.

As far as OT vs side job, I’d say do whatever suits you best. If you love your job, work the OT. If you get burnt out after 40 hrs, and always find yourself looking at the time clock, well find a side job to mix things up. Personal decision for you and your family, whatever fits your lifestyle best. Good luck!

John