Part-Time Money’s Philip Taylor Offers Tips on Building Wealth Through Side Hustles and Passive Income

In a Nutshell: Philip Taylor, CPA, started his blog Part-Time Money as a side hustle he’d pursue after finishing his corporate accounting job for the day. But as the site grew in popularity, he was able to make it his full-time job. Now, he helps his readers with side hustle ideas and passive income opportunities. The site encourages readers to diversify their income streams and build wealth. For instance, Philip discusses how to best leverage credit card rewards as passive income.

After a short stint as an aspiring rapper, Philip Taylor earned the nickname “PT Money” in high school. Though the rapping career didn’t work out, the moniker stuck.

“I thought maybe I’ll do something with that one day,” he said.

Following his father’s footsteps into accounting, Philip earned his CPA before entering the corporate finance world, knowing that he wanted to have his own business someday. For a while, he tried operating a taxes and auditing business, but he was terrible with clients.

He quickly realized that public accounting was not where he would excel. Where he did excel was on the internet, which was booming at the time.

“I was using it to do silly things like market my band’s website, and run blogs, just kind of random stuff. I thought this is the coolest thing; I’ve got to do something on the Internet,” Philip told us.

At the same time, he was focused on solving his own personal finance situation. He’d left college with debt, and he wasn’t managing his money well even with a CPA.

“I stumbled upon these personal finance blogs online that were talking about how much they were saving, maxing out their retirement accounts and paying down their debts. For some reason, it opened up something inside of me,” said Philip.

Soon after, he decided that he needed to be part of the conversation, too. So, he launched a blog that was initially called Primetime Money.

“Everyone just kept calling me PT Money. So I thought, let me just call it PT Money. In the past few years, I’ve tried to move my personal brand away from it and started shifting toward Part-Time Money and a focus on side hustling, and that kind of took over,” Philip told us.

Philip maintained a full-time job for three years while operating Part-Time Money on the side. Eventually, the site grew lucrative enough for him to make it his full-time job. But the years he spent writing the blog while doing something else taught him about side hustles, one of the two main areas of the site.

How does Philip think someone can pick up a side hustle without burning themselves out?

“My general philosophy is to start with the things that are around you or don’t interrupt your regular routines and behaviors. Hey, I’ve already got these assets, I’m going to this park, I play golf. Whatever you do every day, there’s probably a side hustle that fits into your natural environment,” he said.

So, if someone wants to come up with a side hustle, Philip suggests mapping out what they do anyway and their assets before searching for a side hustle that aligns. In his opinion, the best side hustles are those that naturally scale.

Philip himself is always on the lookout for side hustles that can become larger businesses, though individuals can use the same strategy to find additional income sources, as well.

“What do I do with these couple hours? If I do this two hours every night or on the weekends, or early before work, then dabble in some things to figure out what is resonating with you. I’m a fan of online businesses, obviously; they can be done from anywhere, which is another advantage,” he told us.

Part-Time Money also has a long list of side hustles and how to get into them, as well. Consider reading “18 Side Hustle Ideas for 2023: Find Your Perfect Side Hustle.”

The other main focus of Part-Time Money is passive income, defined as revenue streams that individuals don’t have to work to earn. For instance, passive income can be generated through investing, renting out property, and high-yield savings accounts, to name a few.

Philip suggests considering credit cards as a passive income stream. For his businesses, he uses three or four credit cards, taking advantage of bonuses and rewards for each one.

“We spend probably $150,000 a year at a particular hotel, and so, if you’re spending that much money at a Hilton, you’d want the best Hilton status credit card. You’d earn a million Hilton points easily. I think having that also satisfies getting all the rewards we need to buy all my food through the business. And so that’s kind of how we’ve treated credit cards,” he said.

The most important part of using credit cards, however, is paying them off each month so interest doesn’t outpace the benefits.

Philip also suggests that individuals automate deposits from their paychecks into savings and investment accounts. He believes that if individuals have their earnings in hand, either physically or in a bank account, they’re more likely to spend rather than save or invest.

He, for instance, automatically moves his earnings into investment vehicles, including simple online savings accounts, Roth IRAs, and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

“Give me all those things, because they will reduce my taxes, and they’re going to help my future. I just physically couldn’t hold onto physical money,” he said.

If readers are interested in passive income ideas, they can learn more by reading Philip’s article “The Best Passive Income Ideas That Actually Work.”

When Philip started Part-Time Money, he was struggling to manage his own finances. Operating the blog and sharing with others how to be more money-savvy changed his mentality for good.

“I was discovering new tricks of the trade and changing my mindset around money. I was dreaming, and there’s nothing better than having a couple of dreams to propel you forward. That fast-tracked my personal finance success because the blog started actually making some money. Then, I would take that and fast track some debt payments and invest heavily,” he said.

Luckily, individuals struggling with money management don’t have to start their own blogs; they can just read Part-Time Money.

The blog has been a way for Philip to leverage his real-world experience with side hustles and money management into a platform for helping others. In recent years, he also built FinCon, a digital marketing event that helps financial content creators better reach their audiences.

Philip describes the conference as another side hustle, demonstrating the same inclination to find new revenue streams that made Part-Time Money successful.

“I was looking for fun side hustles whether it be flipping concert tickets. My wife and I would look for things around our house to sell to generate extra income. After Part-Time Money took off, a year later, I felt like I needed another side hustle,” he said.

Philip would like to convey this mentality for looking out for new opportunities to Part-Time Money’s readers.

“I’ve always sort of been in that mindset of this thing’s kind of propped up and going. So what’s a little thing we can start generating that maybe becomes a big thing later? I’ve always had that mindset of a side hustler,” he said.