One Income Isn't Enough Anymore (+ side hustle) | Day in the Life of a Software Engineer

Hey guys. So, I've been thinking about

something a lot and I feel like it's

finally time for me to do something

about it. So, I feel like relying on one

income doesn't feel like it's enough

these days. Unless you happen to make

like upwards of $250,000,

I think you should be fine. But for the

majority of us, I feel like one income

isn't enough anymore. As someone who

works a standard 9 toive job as my main

source of income, I want to talk about

why I feel financially unstable right

now, just having a single source of

income and what I'm doing about it. But

first, I'm going to make some coffee to

get the day started.

I've been recently having this Thailand

coffee from Trader Joe's. It's a medium

roast and it has notes of cherry and

dark chocolate. It's actually not too

bad. I would probably get it again.

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For those who are new here, hi, I'm

Andrew. I'm a remote software engineer

and I've been working for almost 4 years

now. And over the course of my career,

I've survived I think almost four

layoffs. It is kind of scary just seeing

how volatile the tech industry is. So

because of this and the growing concerns

of the economic state, it made me more

aware of how unstable my financial

situation is. When I was working on

Amazon, I remember some of my co-workers

were joking about how they would get

laid off if someone couldn't get access

to an account or something. they would

joke and be like, "Oh, I guess this is

how I found out I was laid off." In

reality, it was just an authentication

issue. And to be honest, I think about

that a lot nowadays, uh, if I'm having

login issues as well. But in reality, I

think this joke is like a coping

mechanism to when it actually happens. I

used to think that, oh, if I do get laid

off, I can just get another software

engineering job. But in reality, with AI

being pushed and the current state of

the job market, I feel like it's pretty

tough to get a job in this market right

now.

And so all this fear led me down a path

to figure out ways that I can make money

on the side outside of my 9 toive job

and maybe it could even replace my 9

toive job um if it goes well. But with

the skills I have now that led me to the

path of app development. So I still

think being able to code and solve

problems are still valuable skills to

have now and vibe coding can only get

you so far. My YouTube algorithm has

been showing me recently other creators

who have been making apps and been

making, you know, several hundreds to

thousands of dollars each month. And so,

being the curious person I am, I looked

into those apps and I found that they're

pretty simple. There's nothing much to

it, but it does solve a specific

problem. So, for example, I saw a guy

create like an organizer to organize the

chat conversations, and it's basically

just like a UI thing on top of the chat

website. But yeah, shout out to the

YouTube algorithm for coming into

Clutch. Again, this has been something

that I've been wanting to do for a while

and I feel like I wasn't qualified

enough or I didn't have the credentials

to even do something like that. But with

the help of Cloud Code and just seeing

how other creators are creating apps for

themselves, it's been pretty inspiring

and I'm more motivated than I ever was

to create something of my own. But yeah,

stay tuned for more progress on the app.

I'll keep you guys updated. But now it's

time to do some actual work. So, got to

get started.

[Music]

I remember the days early in my career

where I was afraid of code reviewing

because of the responsibility because

what if their code breaks and you're the

one responsible to overlook that code.

But yeah, over time after tons of code

reviews I've gone through, I've got used

to the process and it does help to see

how other people code review as well. So

I kind of model my code review with

theirs and now I'm not too concerned

about code reviewing. I think it's still

a critical process in shipping code.

Good thing we have like AI tools now

that can overlook our code and our

changes. But yeah, over the course of my

career, I had to pick up a lot of things

and I'm lucky to have some other

engineers to help me guide through the

process of software development. It's

always a consistent journey of learning

and figuring things out. But right now,

I got to pack up because I'm doing

something pretty exciting. And I'll

share more about it in a little bit

here.

So, right now, I'm going to be packing

up um because I'm going to a spot that

I've been always wanting to go to,

but as a trial run, I'm just going to go

there and see how it's like to live

there. And I feel like I wouldn't be

able to do this if I weren't working

remotely. And having that flexibility

working remotely and working from home

is really coming in clutch here. Lately,

I've been realizing that I've been

having life happen to me rather than

letting life happen. And I feel like

this trip is a pivotal moment because

this is what I've been wanting to do for

a while. In the same way, I've been

wanting to create apps to hopefully

generate some income. And lately, all of

this has been just on my mind of

actually doing the things I want to do.

So, I'm going to pack up here because

I've been slacking and it's actually

coming up pretty soon. So, I got to make

sure that I have everything that I need.

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So, I just finished up work. Now, I need

to continue packing because I'm going to

bring a lot of stuff. I'm actually

taking my car and driving it all the way

down to that location. And so there are

just a few more things I want to bring

um and make sure that I pack because

I'll be staying there for a while.

[Music]

So I just finished packing up a bit. Uh

there's still a lot more packing I need

to do, but but stay tuned for the next

video because I'll be at a different

location and I'll share more of that in

that video. So, I'll also be working on

my app pretty aggressively. I don't want

the app to become something that I just

hold off on and put it on the back

burner because that eventually, you

know, leads to the graveyard of projects

that I have. So, I want to try to stay

as focused as I can on that. So, stay

tuned for more and uh thanks for

watching. I'll see you in the next

video.

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