Best side hustles in Singapore

I keep a note on my phone called "the Singapore tax". It is a running list of everything that cost more than I expected when I first moved here: the S$6 kopi-and-toast breakfast that turned out to be a bargain compared with the cafe next door, the S$25 haircut, the deposit on a flat that made my eyes water. Almost everyone I know in the city has a version of that list. And almost everyone I know has, at some point, looked at it and thought, "I should really be earning a bit more on the side."

This guide is for that moment. It is not a get-rich-quick list, and I will not promise you S$3,000 a month for ten minutes of work. What I can do is walk through the side hustles that people in Singapore genuinely run alongside a day job or a degree, tell you what each one realistically pays, flag the rules that trip people up (they are stricter here than in most places), and then, because this is a travel site and I would be lying if I pretended otherwise, show you how to spend part of your extra income on the city you are working so hard to live in.

Before you start: three rules that decide everything

Most "best side hustle" lists skip this part, and it is the part that actually protects you. Before you pick anything, check these three things.

Your work pass or residency status. If you are a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, you have the most freedom, though you still need to read your employment contract. If you are on an Employment Pass, S Pass or Work Permit, your pass is tied to a specific employer and job. Doing paid work for anyone else without the right approval can put your pass at risk. Dependant's Pass holders and students on a Student's Pass generally need specific permission before taking paid work too. The Ministry of Manpower publishes the current rules, and they do change, so read the official page rather than trusting a forum post (including this one).

Your employment contract. A surprising number of full-time contracts include a clause asking you to declare, or avoid, outside work. Teachers, civil servants and people in regulated industries often have extra restrictions. Five minutes with your contract, or a quiet word with HR, is cheaper than a disciplinary meeting.

Tax. Income from a side hustle is taxable income in Singapore, and you declare it to the tax authority alongside your salary. If you run something regularly under your own name, you may need to register a sole proprietorship. None of this is frightening. It just means you should track what comes in from day one, which is the single habit I will keep nagging you about.

What a side hustle really costs you (it is not just money)

When I started doing weekend photography jobs, I calculated my "hourly rate" by dividing the fee by the shoot time. That number was flattering and completely wrong. I forgot the travel to the venue, the hours editing at night, the camera battery I replaced, and the Sunday I did not spend with friends. When I added it all up, my real rate was closer to a part-time barista's.

So before you compare hustles on headline pay, compare them on what I call the true hourly rate: total money earned, minus costs, divided by every hour the hustle took, including the unpaid ones. A food delivery shift looks cheap on paper but eats petrol or e-bike battery, phone data and rain. A freelance writing job looks generous until you count the unpaid pitching. Honest maths early saves you from quitting in month three.

Also be realistic about energy. Singapore weekdays are long, the heat is draining, and the commute, even on a good MRT line, takes something out of you. A hustle that needs your brain on Tuesday night competes with the same brain you need for your actual job on Wednesday morning. I would rather you earn S$400 a month sustainably than S$1,200 for two months and then burn out.

The eight side hustles people actually run in Singapore

These are ranked loosely by how easy they are to start, not by how much they pay. The earnings ranges are typical figures people report, not guarantees; your results will depend on your hours, skills, and luck.

1. Food delivery riding

This is the most obvious one, and for good reason: no CV, no portfolio, flexible hours. You sign up with a delivery platform, choose when to log on, and ride a bicycle, e-bike or drive a car. Reported earnings are often in the range of S$10 to S$20 an hour during busy slots, with lunch and dinner peaks paying best and the odd rainy night adding bonuses.

The catch is the costs. Fuel or battery charging, bag and phone mount, accident risk, and the fact that you only earn while actively delivering. Rules on platform work have been tightened in recent years, with more protections around work injury and retirement savings contributions for platform workers, and active mobility devices must meet safety and registration requirements. Check the latest official guidance, and never ride a non-compliant e-scooter.

Best for: students and citizens who like being outdoors and want zero setup. Worst for: anyone on a work pass that does not allow it, which is a lot of people, so check.

2. Freelance writing, design and editing

This is where people with real day-job skills tend to make the most. A designer who takes two logo projects a month, a copywriter who edits newsletters for small businesses, a bilingual writer who handles English and Mandarin translations: these are the people who report S$300 to S$3,000 a month, and the spread is enormous because it depends entirely on what you charge and how many clients you keep.

The first month is slow. You will pitch a lot and hear back from very few. The second and third months are better if you do two things: ask every happy client for a short testimonial, and write down your process so each job takes less time than the last. I raised my own rate by about a third after realising I was cheaper than people with half my experience, simply because I was afraid to quote a proper number.

Best for: office workers with a skill that can be done evenings and weekends. Worst for: anyone who hates chasing invoices, because you will chase invoices.

3. Online selling and pre-loved resale

Singaporean flats are small and Singaporean consumers love a bargain, which makes resale a natural fit. Clear out your wardrobe, sell the stroller your toddler outgrew, flip sneakers or collectibles you know well. Beginners usually make a couple of hundred dollars from decluttering; people who treat it as a real business, buying under-priced items and relisting them well, can reach S$500 to S$1,500 a month.

The skills here are photography, honest descriptions and fast replies. Good light by a window beats an expensive camera. Be specific about flaws; you will get fewer disputes. And keep receipts, because you need to know your real margin after postage, packaging and the inevitable item that never sells.

Best for: people who enjoy hunting for deals. Worst for: people with no storage space, since stock needs somewhere to live.

4. Private tutoring and skills coaching

Tuition is a serious industry here, and qualified tutors in subjects like mathematics, science and languages can charge well above a delivery rider's hourly pay. The more specialised, the better the rate: exam-focused coaching, music lessons, coding for teenagers, or conversational language practice for adults. Reported hourly rates vary widely with qualifications and level, so look at what others with your background charge before setting yours.

It rewards patience and reputation. Parents talk to each other, and one good result becomes three new students. It is also one of the few hustles where the more experienced you become, the less your time costs you to prepare. Check any rules that apply to your pass or school, and be mindful of safeguarding expectations when you teach children.

Best for: graduates, teachers on approved leave, and professionals with deep subject knowledge. Worst for: introverts who dread talking to parents.

5. Ride-hailing driving

Driving passengers can pay in the range of S$15 to S$30 an hour in good periods, but the figure hides costs: vehicle rental or ownership, insurance, fuel, parking and the mandatory vocational licence from the transport authority, which has eligibility and training requirements. Once those are included, many drivers find the effective rate is lower than it looks. It suits people who already own a suitable car and have a flexible schedule, but it is not a casual start-in-an-afternoon option.

6. Content creation

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and blogging are the dreamers' hustles, and I say that with affection because I have dreamed them too. Income is the least predictable on the list: some people earn nothing for a year, some land sponsorships quickly. The honest summary is that it is a business that pays in skills first and money later, if at all.

Singapore gives you one real advantage: an enormous, photogenic, safe city with a thousand niches. Food, heritage, family days out, budget travel, cycling routes, tech reviews. The creators I see doing well are specific, not general. "Hawker stalls under S$5 in the east" beats "Singapore lifestyle" every time.

If you are curious about the visual side, try doing a photo walk around Bugis and Kampong Glam before you commit to buying anything. The #INSTAWALK in Bugis, Waterloo and Kampong Glam is a good way to see how a guided shoot is paced, where the light falls on the shophouses, and what makes a frame look professional. I did something similar early on and learned more about composition in two hours than in a month of scrolling.

7. Pet sitting and dog walking

Demand is steady because many Singapore households live in high-rise flats where a long weekend away means someone has to feed the cat. Typical rates people mention run from S$10 to S$30 an hour for walking and visits, with overnight boarding paying more. You need genuine comfort with animals and the reliability to show up when you said you would. One bad experience travels fast through a neighbourhood group chat; so do good ones.

Check your building's rules and, if you work from your own flat, whether your lease allows animal boarding. Insurance for pet incidents is worth looking into if you do it regularly.

8. Event and promotion work

Exhibitions, product launches, roadshows and conferences hire part-timers constantly, usually at S$10 to S$20 an hour, with extra for long or late shifts. It is easy to find, flexible by nature, and a good way to meet people. It is also tiring on your feet and the pay is fixed, so there is no way to grow it beyond more hours. Many people treat it as a bridge hustle while they build something with better upside.

The hustles that quietly fit a travel lifestyle

Since I write for a travel company, I get asked a lot about hustles that connect to the thing people love: exploring. A few are worth knowing about, and the key word in all of them is "licensed".

Tour guiding. Walking visitors through Singapore is a real career, and it is regulated. Licensed tourist guides hold a licence from the national tourism board, which involves training and assessment. If this is your calling, start by joining a heritage walk as a participant. I recommend taking Disappearing Trades, the heritage tour built around the city's last traditional bakers and coffee roasters, not to copy it but to watch how a master storyteller uses a few hands-on moments to carry two hours. The same goes for the Chicken Rice Diaries walk through Bugis, where the guide's own family history becomes the hook. Good guiding is mostly good curation.

Local photography for visitors. Couples and families on holiday increasingly book a short shoot, and Singapore's skyline, shophouses and gardens make easy backdrops. It is a hustle where your equipment and eye are the cost, and it works best when you pick a neighbourhood you know thoroughly.

Travel content with a niche. The most useful blogs I read about the city are written by people who tried everything and reported honestly: how long the queue really was, whether the rainy-day option was worth it. If you already take notes when you go places, you are halfway to a hustle.

Language help. Visitors from China, Indonesia, Japan and elsewhere sometimes need help planning, translating or navigating. Bilingual residents can turn that skill into paid conversation practice, itinerary review or interpreting for small groups, provided the arrangement is allowed under their pass.

A realistic month: what S$1,300 of extra income looks like

The old version of this article had a sample plan adding delivery, freelancing and online selling up to about S$1,300. I think the structure is right, but let me make it honest with an hour count, because the hours are the part nobody mentions.

That is fourteen hours a week on top of a full-time job, which is almost two working days. It is doable for a season, not for a decade, and it assumes nothing goes wrong: no rainy week, no client who pays late. My advice is to build a plan that hits half your target with comfortable hours, then grow it only if you still enjoy it.

Where the money should go (my personal rules)

The thing nobody warns you about is what happens to the money. Side income feels like bonus money, so it leaks. A coffee here, a taxi there, a gadget you did not need. These are the rules I use, and they are not original, but they work.

• Split it the day it arrives. Half goes to savings or debt, a third to fixed costs, and the rest is yours to spend without guilt.
• Keep a separate account. It makes tracking income for tax almost effortless, and you will see the real numbers.
• Set aside tax money early. Even if you are unsure what you will owe, a small percentage parked away is better than a surprise.
• Pay for rest. If you hustle for a month, plan something at the end. A reward you have earned is the best way to stay motivated.
• Review quarterly. Is the hustle still paying your true hourly rate? If not, change it or drop it.

Spending the reward: Singapore days out for the person who has been working too hard

That last rule, "pay for rest", is where I get to talk about the city properly. After a month of hustle I like to book one proper day out and not think about money at all. The trick is picking something that does not cost more than a day of your hustle income, so the hustle visibly pays for the break.

If you have been on your feet all week, start somewhere cool and green. Canopy Park at Jewel Changi Airport is one of my favourite low-effort afternoons: gardens, walking trails, and a quiet corner away from the weekend crowds if you go before ten or after five. It suits solo visits as much as family trips, and it is a reminder that Singapore does clever things with small spaces.

Something more reflective? The Changi Chapel and Museum is a deeply affecting visit about wartime history, and it is quietest on weekday mornings. I took a visiting friend a couple of years ago and we stayed far longer than we planned. It is one of the more affordable attractions on the island, and it leaves you with a different perspective on what "hard work" has meant for this country.

If you would rather learn something with your hands, the hawker chef's table workshop teaches you to make local snacks from scratch, which is surprisingly satisfying after a month of screen time. And if you want a proper guided story, About Mr. Lee is a four-hour Saturday-morning tour about the man behind modern Singapore, finishing with a sampler of his favourite foods.

How to get around without wasting your hustle money

Transport is the quiet drain on every Singapore budget, particularly if you are doing deliveries or running between side-job locations. The public network is excellent, and the card system rewards you for using it. If you do not already own a stored-value card, the EZ-Link card is the simplest way to tap through trains and buses without thinking about change; it carries a card cost and some stored value, and you top it up as you go. For anything lengthy where you want a view and a seat, a hop-on hop-off bus pass doubles as transport and sightseeing, and it is a gentle way to see parts of the island you do not normally pass through.

If you have friends or family visiting, a local eSIM keeps everyone connected without the airport queue; the Airalo Singapore eSIM is a low-cost data option for a short stay. Not a hustle tip, but a tip that keeps your guest-hosting costs down, and hosting visitors is where plenty of side income quietly evaporates.

Finding your first clients without spamming strangers

The first ten customers of any service hustle almost never come from advertising. They come from people who already know you. I got my first three writing clients from a former colleague, a neighbour who ran a small bakery, and a friend of a friend who needed website copy. Tell people plainly what you now offer, in one sentence, and ask whether they know anyone who needs it. It feels awkward for about a day and then it feels normal.

After that, borrow credibility. A small portfolio of three honest samples beats a long list of vague promises. A short message that says exactly what you will deliver, by when, for how much, gets more replies than a long pitch full of adjectives. Singapore is a compact, referral-driven market; word of mouth travels fast in housing estate chat groups, office pantries and school pickup lines, so your reliability becomes your marketing.

For anything that involves going to someone's home or meeting a stranger, use common sense. Meet in public first, tell a friend where you will be, and agree the price in writing before you show up. Most clients are lovely. A few are not, and a basic routine protects you from the few.

The seasons of a Singapore side hustle

Demand in this city has a rhythm, and knowing it lets you plan your effort. Tuition peaks before national exams and tapers over the year-end holidays. Event work surges around trade fairs, festive roadshows and the year-end season. Delivery spikes in the rainy months from November to January, when people would rather stay in, and pet sitting surges during school holidays and long weekends when families travel. Resale does well around moving season and before big sales, when people clear out cupboards.

If you map these peaks onto your calendar, you can do most of your earning in a handful of busy periods and rest in between. I know someone who does almost all of her tutoring across three months of the year and treats the rest as time off. That is a very different life from grinding every weekend, and it is available to people who plan.

The same seasonality shapes your reward days. Weekday mornings are calmer at most attractions, which means that a self-employed person with flexible hours often gets a better visit than someone squeezed into a Saturday crowd. That is one of the genuine perks of owning your time: you can enjoy the city when it is quiet.

Scams to avoid when you are looking for extra income

Whenever money is tight, scammers appear, and Singapore has seen a steady stream of job scams aimed at people hunting for extra income. The pattern is consistent enough that you can learn to spot it.

• Tasks that pay you to like, rate or review things. These start with small payouts, then ask you to deposit your own money to "unlock" higher earnings. That is the trap.
• Anyone who asks you to pay a fee to get hired. A real employer pays you, not the other way round.
• "Easy money" for lending your bank account. This can make you complicit in money laundering, with serious legal consequences.
• Offers that arrive by message from numbers you do not know, promising high pay for trivial work.
• Pressure to move quickly, or to switch the conversation to a private chat app.

The rule is simple: if the offer sounds too easy for the money, assume it is not real. Check with official sources, ask a friend, and if in doubt, walk away. No hustle is worth your savings.

Common mistakes I see (and have made)

Starting with a purchase. A new laptop, a camera, an expensive course. You do not need any of it to test whether a hustle works. Rent, borrow, or use what you have until the first few clients prove the idea.

Underpricing. The most common mistake in freelancing and tutoring. Quote what you would be happy to earn for the time, not what you think a stranger will accept.

Ignoring the paperwork. Not tracking income, not setting aside tax, not checking your pass. These are the problems that hurt years later, long after the fun of the hustle has gone.

Doing too many at once. Three hustles in the first month means none of them gets enough attention to become good. Pick one, run it for ninety days, and then decide.

Never resting. People who hustle every single weekend for a year often tell me they stopped enjoying the city. Which is odd, because living here is supposed to be the point.

A simple 30-day plan to start

If you are still reading, here is how I would begin if I were starting today.

Week one: check the rules. Read your contract and your pass conditions. Confirm what you are allowed to do. Write down the hours you can realistically give.

Week two: pick one hustle and set it up. Create the account, the profile or the first listing. Do the smallest version of the job, once, to see how it feels.

Week three: do it for real. Take two or three paid jobs, track every hour and every cost, and ask for feedback.

Week four: calculate your true hourly rate. Decide whether to continue, raise your price, or switch. And book a reward, even a small one, because you have earned it.

What I would tell my younger self

If I could sit down with the version of me who wrote that first "Singapore tax" list, I would say four things. First, your time is the real currency, and it is finite. Every hour you sell is an hour you cannot spend on rest, relationships or the slow, aimless wandering that made you fall for this city in the first place. Sell it deliberately, and sell it at a fair price.

Second, the best hustle is usually the one closest to something you already do. I did not become a good writer by starting a writing business; I became one by writing notes after every trip, and eventually someone asked me to do it for money. Look at what you already do for fun or for free, and ask who would pay for a slightly more polished version of it.

Third, do not let a hustle become your identity. It is a tool for a purpose: a deposit, a debt cleared, a trip taken, a cushion built. When the purpose is met, you are allowed to stop. Plenty of people keep grinding long after the goal is reached because the habit has quietly taken over.

Fourth, spend some of it on joy. I have met people who saved every dollar of their extra income and still felt poor, because nothing in their life had changed. A day at a garden, a tasting walk through an old neighbourhood, an evening on the water: these are small, affordable, and they remind you why you are doing the work. Money that never becomes a memory is only a number on a screen.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best side hustle in Singapore?
There is no single best one. For zero setup, food delivery and event work are the easiest to start. For higher earnings, freelancing and tutoring pay more per hour but need real skills. The best one is the one that fits your schedule, your pass and your energy.

Can foreigners do side hustles in Singapore?
It depends on your pass. Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit holders are tied to their employers and generally need official approval for other paid work. Always check with the Ministry of Manpower before starting.

How much can I realistically earn?
Most people who report income land between S$200 and S$1,500 a month. Higher figures usually come from skilled freelancing or running a small business, and they take months to build.

Do I have to declare side income?
Yes. Income from side work is taxable in Singapore and is declared with your annual tax filing. Keep records of what you earn and what you spend from the first day.

Do I need to register a business?
If you trade regularly under your own name, you may need to register a sole proprietorship. Occasional selling of your own belongings is different from running a trading business. Check the official guidance for your situation.

How many hours a week is sensible?
For most people with a full-time job, six to twelve extra hours is sustainable. Beyond that, sleep and relationships tend to suffer first.

What is a good low-cost way to enjoy Singapore on a side-hustle budget?
Look for the affordable attractions first, then add one splurge per quarter. Garden spaces, heritage museums and walking tours are often much cheaper than theme parks, and you can browse current options and prices on HolidaySG.

Featured experiences in this guide

Chicken Rice Diaries: The Hainan Story in BugisFrom S$188.22 Book →Airalo Singapore e-Sim PackageFrom S$4.24 Book →