Higher borrowing costs can make financial stability harder to maintain, especially for households carrying debt or relying on credit. For some Americans, bringing in additional income has become another way to manage rising costs without taking on more debt.

In 2026, one-third of Americans have a side hustle, and 61% of side hustlers say their lives would be unaffordable without the additional income, according to a LendingTree survey . The average side hustler earns $1,242 a month, while 49% say that income contributes to their long-term financial security.

For Latinas, additional income exists alongside another financial reality. Hispanic or Latina women working full time had median weekly earnings of $902 in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Against that backdrop, I spoke with three Latinas about the side hustle ideas they have used to create additional income, financial security and, in some cases, 5-figure months.

Side Hustle Idea #1: Social Media Consulting and Workshops

Social media has created new income opportunities for Latinas, from creators building businesses around their audiences to professionals turning their expertise into consulting services. For those with social media experience, the opportunity can be less about becoming an influencer and more about monetizing the professional skills they use every day.

That’s the case for Thalia LeBlanc, who has worked as an editorial content producer and now works in senior social strategy for a large publication. Outside her 9-to-5, her side hustles include one-on-one consulting, group workshops, user-generated content (UGC), brand deals, and traditional brand partnerships.

What started as another way to use her professional skills has increasingly become a source of financial stability. LeBlanc estimates her side hustles represent about 40% of the income she needs each month. “In the last probably two years, it’s felt like a necessity,” LeBlanc said. “You could pay your bills with your regular job, but what about everything else?” She describes herself as a first-generation Afro-Latina, the eldest daughter, the child of Dominican immigrants, and the one responsible for creating a financial safety net for herself. With much of her family in the Dominican Republic, she has never felt she had one before.

How To Make Social Media Consulting A Side Hustle

When LeBlanc started, she said her side hustles brought in around $2,000 a month. However, at the beginning of 2026, she began reaching a higher amount per month, with fluctuations when she combined her usual one-hour consulting calls with the offering two- to three-hour group workshops, allowing her to help multiple people during the same block of time.

For someone considering a similar side hustle, the starting point is identifying a professional skill others are willing to pay to learn or access. On social media, that could mean one-on-one consulting, group workshops, content creation, or brand partnerships. LeBlanc’s experience also shows how moving from exclusively one-on-one work toward a mix of services can create more ways to generate income without relying on a single offer.

Side Hustle Idea #2: UX Writing And Content Design

Writing skills can generate income beyond traditional editorial, marketing, or communications roles. User experience (UX) writing and content design apply those skills to digital products, from the language customers encounter on websites to the information that helps users navigate a product.

Marisel Salazar has been side hustling in this field for some years now bringing in multiple five-figure incomes. Salazar is a cookbook author , cook, television personality, and content creator who has built a career around food and storytelling. But she also works as a content designer and UX writer, and has contracted with technology companies including Amazon, Google, and Etsy.

Salazar had already been helping restaurants with websites, emails and social media when someone recognized that some of what she was doing could translate into UX writing. “I saw the hourly salary they were offering me as a contractor, and I was like, they’re paying this for writing?” Salazar said.

What began as a side hustle eventually became a second career. Salazar said her tech work consistently brings in more than 5 figures, while her culinary and media work can also produce 5-figure months. On the culinary side, she said a sponsored recipe video can pay around $4,000 to $5,000, while some satellite media tours have paid approximately $10,000 for two days of work.

Salazar grew up in Panama City in a single-parent household where, she said, financial decisions sometimes meant choosing between expenses such as a mortgage and health insurance. She started working around age 12 or 13 to save for college and things she wanted and those experiences still shape how she approaches income today. Rather than depending on one industry, she views her two careers as a “plan B” and “safeguard” for each other.

How To Make UX Writing And Content Design A Side Hustle

Salazar’s experience started with identifying the overlap between what she already knew how to do and what another industry needed. She leverage her writing skills in addition to the organizational skills she used in her restaurant career to find a gap in the tech space she could fit in.

For someone exploring a similar path, that means looking at existing experience in a new way, whether that is a different role or a new industry. Writing website copy, organizing information, developing customer journeys, or helping users understand what action to take can all be relevant skills when building a UX writing or content design portfolio.

Salazar’s experience also shows why a side hustle doesn’t always need to remain secondary. Her tech and culinary careers have alternated as her largest income source. During a period when she had no tech work, her culinary, writing and media work supported her. In 2026, she said tech is again producing more income.

Side Hustle Idea #3: Freelance Graphic Design, Photography And Web Design

Creative skills such as graphic design, photography, and web design can become side hustles because you can sell them project by project while maintaining a full-time job. The challenge is that freelance demand and income can fluctuate, making it important to identify specific services people will pay for and, in some cases, combine complementary skills to create more opportunities.

Brenda Hernández has worked full-time as a senior legal assistant for nearly nine years while freelancing in graphic design, photography and web design. She is also a founder of LA FEM Lens , a resource-sharing ecosystem for femme and nonbinary filmmakers and content creators, and is involved with Central American Voices , an organization focused on amplifying Central American filmmakers and storytellers.

Hernández earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, but entering the creative job market after college was difficult, so freelancing became one way to continue using her creative skills while maintaining the stability of her legal career.

Freelance income wasn’t always predictable. Hernández encountered clients who wanted to pay low rates for graphic design and her work in general. To make ends meet, she eventually added photography to her services as another way to generate freelance income.

How To Make Creative Skills A Side Hustle

Hernández’s approach starts with turning a broad creative skill into a service someone can actually purchase. For a graphic designer, that might be a logo, website, or other visual materials for a small business. A photographer could offer portraits or event photography. Combining related skills can also expand the types of projects available when demand for one service slows.

Unlike Salazar and LeBlanc, Hernández did not provide a specific monthly income figure for her side hustle. She describes her freelance earnings as additional money rather than income she depends on to cover her basic monthly expenses. Hernández said the extra money allows her to save and provide additional financial support to her father.

Her definition of financial stability is also connected to her family’s experience with money. Hernández said her family lost nearly everything during the 2008 recession. Growing up, she also watched her father help family members financially when they needed it.

Those experiences have influenced how she thinks about her own money and she now focuses on saving, contributing to retirement accounts and thinking about how she can eventually build generational wealth for her family. Her side hustle therefore serves two purposes: It gives her an additional source of income while allowing her to continue doing the creative work she originally studied.

With borrowing costs elevated and many side hustlers already saying they depend on additional income to afford their lives, building another income stream can create more financial flexibility. The experiences of LeBlanc, Salazar, and Hernández show that it isn’t necessary to start with a completely new skill or immediately build a full-time business. A side hustle can start by identifying the skills you already have, finding who will pay for them, and using that extra income to create more options when one paycheck isn’t enough to meet your financial goals.

Alejandra Rojas is the founder of Brown Way To Money , a financial education platform, and the host of the Brown Way To Money podcast . Alejandra blends financial strategy with a trauma-informed approach to guide business owners toward financial stability.

The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace professional financial, tax, or accounting advice.