{"id":690970,"date":"2026-05-24T17:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690970\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:08:17","slug":"how-passive-income-stacking-became-the-answer-to-the-cost-of-living-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690970\/","title":{"rendered":"How (passive) \u2018income stacking\u2019 became the answer to the cost of living crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Alexa was made redundant from her job in tech sales for the second time in her young career,<\/a> she realised she couldn\u2019t rely on her industry for financial stability anymore. \u201cIt\u2019s volatile, there\u2019s a lot of lay-offs, I wanted to give myself an added layer of protection; a contingency plan,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what company you\u2019re in, it\u2019s so up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old used her savings to pay \u00a31,800 to train as a pilates instructor. Within a matter of months, she was teaching classes five days a week before commuting into London from Buckinghamshire for her nine-to-five. In the first year, she topped up her salary by five figures: \u201cAny money I made, I invested,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very money-oriented<\/a>, as I think you can probably tell\u2026 I\u2019d rather spend my time doing pilates classes than scrolling on TikTok.\u201d <\/p>\n

Income<\/a> stacking (juggling multiple jobs<\/a> at once) is increasingly popular n the UK; particularly among young women<\/a> aged 16 to 29, one in four of whom have worked in more than one job over the course of the last year, according to research published <\/a>by the UK Women\u2019s Budget Group last month, using HMRC payroll and self-reported survey data.<\/p>\n

Social media manager Sophie, 26, started to juggle three years ago when she found herself out of work after unsuccessful probation periods at \u201ctwo pretty rubbish jobs\u201d and needed to buy herself time to figure out her next move. Quickly, she started earning hundreds by selling clothes on Vinted<\/a>, doing research surveys on apps like AttaPoll, Swagbucks and Qmee, secret shopping for brands to test their customer service, and taking part in market research, which would pay up to \u00a3150 for a half-an-hour chat. <\/p>\n

\"AA fiscal stretch: Alexa at her pilates studio before commuting into London to work nine-to-five (Alexa Tunnicliffe)<\/p>\n

Now, Sophie\u2019s back in full-time work; but the easy extra income is too tempting to pass up. She still does surveys while sitting on the train or watching TV. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to stop,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople say \u2018oh it\u2019s just \u00a320\u2019 but that can put petrol in your car. It could be a food shop\u2026 I\u2019m building up my emergency pot, so that I have three month\u2019s salary ready to go if I need it.\u201d <\/p>\n

This desire to stack up multiple-revenue streams is much more than just the second coming of the \u201cgirl boss<\/a>\u201d. In Britain, women are 50 per cent more likely to be in low-paid work than men, while those who work in high-paying sectors, such as financial services, suffer the most prominent gender pay gaps<\/a>. According to The Self Employment Association, even women running their own businesses are likely to be paid far less<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, as the Middle East energy crisis continues and the cost of everything from food to fuel keeps rising, it\u2019s unsurprising almost everyone is scrambling to earn extra cash to cushion the fall. In one particularly alarming survey, experts predicted that should a recession take place, a quarter of a million people will lose their jobs<\/a> by the middle of 2027, meaning putting all your eggs in one corporate basket is risky business right now. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Gen Z who are income stacking. Although working multiple jobs has long been a needs-must for households trying to make ends meet, there are now a record 1.35 million adults in the UK working at least two jobs: the highest level since records began, according to the ONS<\/a>. Of those surveyed, one in six struggle to pay their household bills each month. <\/p>\n

People say it\u2019s just \u00a320, but that can put petrol in your car. It could be a food shop\u2026 I\u2019m building up my emergency pot, so that I have three month\u2019s salary ready to go if I need it<\/p>\n

Sophie, 26<\/p>\n

Alexa and Sophie schedule their second means of making money around their full time job but some remote workers take it further; doing two full time jobs at once unbeknownst to their bosses. This practice, known as polygamous working or \u201cbeing overemployed\u201d, sprouted during the pandemic, with some white-collar employees working from home earning up to \u00a3450,000 a year from double or triple salaries on the sly, Business Insider reports. <\/p>\n

One British influencer, who says they made \u00a3200,000 from two nine-to-five roles, tells her followers on TikTok that it\u2019s all above board: \u201cIt worked for me, it was great. I was able to do really nice things and take care of myself, go to nice places, save up for property. If it\u2019s something that hasn\u2019t crossed your mind because you think it\u2019s illegal, then definitely get rid of that notion. You can absolutely have two jobs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Savvy\u2018Savvy Soph\u2019, who found income streams via Vinted and doing online surveys, shares her money-making tips with others on TikTok (TikTok\/@savvysoph)<\/p>\n

Polygamous working isn\u2019t technically illegal but it can breach an employer\u2019s code of conduct. In December last year, a woman was convicted of fraud for having two full-time jobs, one at Barnet Council and the other at Croydon Council. Separately, a 66-year-old man in Gloucestershire made nearly a quarter of a million pounds moonlighting in four different jobs at multiple councils and was jailed for three years. The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has since started cross-referencing payroll to crack down on public sector polygamous working.<\/p>\n

Those who have assets and prefer to stay on the straight and narrow stack their income passively, by renting out parking spaces, second homes, or spare bedrooms. Twenty nine-year-old Anna\u2019s* parents have long had lodgers; mostly international students from the nearby boarding school who don\u2019t want to fly all the way home for their holidays, while their school accommodation is closed. \u201cWe\u2019re a big family so we love hosting people,\u201d she says. \u201cWe charge anywhere between \u00a350 to \u00a3100 a head per night and with that money we feed them, do their laundry, and take them on trips to London.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helping my parents with the cost of living, especially with the interest rate on their mortgage,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky to have spare rooms in our house since my siblings have moved out but I\u2019d absolutely recommend it to other people \u2013 it\u2019s been really fun showing them the city and it hasn\u2019t been disruptive at all. The agency we work with has made sure everything runs smoothly and we\u2019ve had some really lovely lodgers.\u201d <\/p>\n

But anyone who doesn\u2019t have assets – in 2022-23, only 39 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 owned their homes – <\/a>is left with one thing to sell: their time. Sophie has learned the laborious value of monetising her spare moments. \u201cI realised a lot of my friends would rather give things away than go through the hassle of selling them,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, I put a post out to everyone in my building saying that if anyone didn\u2019t have time to put their possessions on Vinted, I\u2019d do it for them and take 50 per cent of the profit. I wound up with about 15 bags of clothes \u2013 some were even brand new with tags, which blew my mind. I could never imagine just throwing them away. It just takes a bit of time.\u201d <\/p>\n

There is, of course, the possibility of hustle culture\u2019s worst enemy: burnout. Not allowing yourself time to simply do nothing is, fundamentally, not good for your body or your brain. \u201cI\u2019ve decided to drop my classes down by 50 per cent, so I still have my weekends,\u201d says Alexa, who altered her non-stop schedule after her corporate job ramped up and five pilates classes a week became too much to handle. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more strategic and controlled now,\u201d she says. \u201cI can see my family, see my friends and actually spend time on my own, which means I don\u2019t feel exhausted from teaching my classes \u2013 I feel energised from them.\u201d <\/p>\n

*Name has been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-690970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}