My friend J$ (no, that’s not his real name) taught me about the importance of a side hustle. What, you may ask, is a side hustle?

A side hustle is the stuff you do in addition to your real job to make extra money.

J$ says everyone should always have a side hustle. A side hustle can help you:

• Save more money
• Pay down debt faster
• Diversify your income
• Protect yourself from job loss or changes in the market
• Keep learning new tasks
• Expand your network

All good things, right?
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I like to think of myself as a bit of an adventurer. I roam the country with no permanent address, working here, there and everywhere to provide my family with organic food and changing vistas. We fancy ourselves minimalists. It all sounds very romantic to me - right up until the point that I have to convince another adult that I’m a dependable grown up.

Last week I had the arduous job of finding my family a home to rent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More specifically, it was my responsibility to talk a landlord into letting me pay them to live in their property.
It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had anticipated.
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Here in the United States, today is Independence Day. In my family, it is also my husband’s birthday. To celebrate, we packed up the kids last weekend and drove three hours to my dad’s house. (Because doesn’t everyone want to celebrate their birthday with their inlaws?) We’ve been fishing, swimming and gorging on grilled meats - and that’s before the holiday officially arrives! We’ve also been working.

As usual, I’ve taken my job on the road with us. Jared has recently started working from the comfort of his laptop, joining me in my “full time, all the time” lifestyle for the moment. That means we’ve had to make two mobile offices in my dad’s home this week.

What does that look like?
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