TL;DR: Short answer is of course for the money. But it is not as hectic as it seems. Everything happens within that 8 - 10 hours of a normal office work.
Deeper answer is because Covid taught me a very good lesson six years ago.
I founded my current company in 2017. It was a bootstrapped effort since day one. Business was not bad in the first two years. I was beginning to plot my expansion plan including getting a commercial property of my own.
Then Covid struck in the third year of operation (2019) which threw a spanner in the works.
While my business survived the onslaught of the pandemic, it could very well join the statistics of companies that closed down had the pandemic continued for another year or two.
Back then businesses were divided into essential and non-essential services. My company which is in the environmental protection field fell under the latter category which meant we couldn't head outside for sales and projects.
For the 2 years of Covid, our total sales amounted to around $30k. I was basically surviving on the retained earnings from the previous two years before Covid!
Because of this episode, I started to contemplate on having diversified (more) income streams.
I modelled my plan on our national water strategy with the "Four National Taps". If one source goes down I have other sources to back up.
To kick start my plan I thought about what am I good at and what am I interested in other than my main job.
Side gig 1:
I have been active in fitness since young. In late 2020, I went to get myself certified as a personal trainer (PT) to better train myself and to earn some extra bucks.
Despite my zero experience as a PT, a gym chain responded to my resume. Two rounds of interviews later, I got hired.
The boss and my senior trainer are nice guys. They trusted me even though I'm new and my senior made time to give me some practical lessons and tips in handling the clients.
I was initially sent to one of the expat clubs in Singapore to train the clients there. It was a steep learning curve but I learned alot in that one year.
After that I was brought back to the original club where I've been working now for the past three years or so.
For this arrangement, I received a cut for every session I coached. I usually do between 40 - 60 sessions every month.
Moving forward to today, I am also training my own clients outside the gym now.
These clients are usually recommended to me by their family member or friend who shared my service by word of mouth as I do not actively advertise myself.
For this side gig, I only do for weekday mornings.
A side benefit of this gig is that I get to use a top notch gym for free for my own training. Shiok!
Side gig 2:
Somewhere around 2022, I signed up for a Master's programme from NUS to deepen and to bridge the gaps in my knowledge related to my course of work.
It was a part time course held in the evenings which means the time and commitment were pretty heavy.
It was assignments and projects almost every week for that 2 year course.
Since completing the programme in 2024, I have been looking out for opportunities to monetise it. Last year one of my contacts recommended me to an adjunct teaching position in one of our local IHLs.
I am open to adjunct teaching because I felt this aligns with my idea of contributing back to the society. The module is also related to my Master's and my field of work. Importantly, it also allows me to create another stream of income.
So I went for the interview which included a mock teaching session to the other lecturers.
I got accepted by the IHL soon after and upon getting the clearance from MOE, I was offered the contract as an adjunct lecturer.
Salary-wise is quite comparable to what I am charging for my private PT sessions.
I started on this side gig since October last year and I am only teaching two classes once a week on the same day which works out to be four hours of teaching per week.
Other income stream:
To keep this short, the main contributor is from the dividends from my local portfolio.
Currently the annual dividend receivable is about $12k.
Final thoughts:
I'm not a superman unlike what some fellow forummers said. I'm just a normal Singaporean guy trying to future proof myself.
While having three jobs concurrently seem like a busy schedule, the main bulk of all the works happens within 7 am to 6 pm on weekdays with breakfast, lunch and teabreak thrown in. Holidays and weekends are off limits.
This is quite similar to the average employees.
Also what I'm doing are essentially my interests.
My main job and adjunct teaching are related to sustainability. My PT role is related to fitness.
I am doing what I love and I love what I do.
I consider myself fortunate.
Last but not least, not withstanding the above I am constantly exploring other sources of regular income stream. Hopefully the next exciting one comes soon.
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