How This Engineer Quit His Job And Now Earns $189K A Year Working 3.5 Days Per Week

When Josh Ellwood got an engineering job for an oil company in 2017 that paid $98,500 per year right out of college, he thought he had found his dream job.

However, after seeing senior leadership at the company working 60-hour weeks, Ellwood began experimenting with side hustles.

"I set a goal to make $3,450 a month (after taxes) from my hustles in order to support my lifestyle. As soon as I’d achieved that, I decided, I would quit my full-time job," Ellwood recently wrote.

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Sticking To The Plan: In February 2021, Ellwood stayed true to his plan and left his engineering job to commit to his side hustles on a full-time basis. In 2022, he reported $189,000 from these seven income streams:

• YouTube (Google AdSense): $82,349
• Fulfilled by Amazon: $13,886
• Patreon (coaching): $33,114
• Fiverr (product research): $29,014
• Affiliate marketing: $29,496
• Rental property: $1,272
• Taxable dividends: $639

Ellwood now earns the income he needs to support his desired lifestyle and works just 22 hours per week. He typically takes Thursdays and Friday afternoons completely off to focus on his family and other interests.

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Advice For Side Hustlers: Ellwood's story is a classic case of working smarter, not harder. He also tells anyone looking to replicate his success that failure will almost certainly be part of the process.

"With my early side hustles, I tried acquiring rental properties, then started placing ads in the backseat of Ubers and renting out my three-wheeled Polaris Slingshot motorcycle on Turo, an online car-sharing platform. But none of those businesses were successful," he said.

He also said eliminating debt was a top priority to provide himself with the financial freedom he needed to pursue his endeavors.

Ellwood said anyone running a side hustle business should figure out ways to make their products or services stand out for competitors. For example, he said his Amazon sales numbers jumped once he started taking his own product photos and using custom packaging rather than using generic packaging and stock photos.

"No matter what your business is, decide what makes you memorable and invest in it," Ellwood said.

This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

Image by NikolayF.com from Pixabay