Never Do This if You're a Busy Mom Trying to Pay Off Debt

TransUnion reports that as of the fourth quarter of 2023, U.S. credit card debt hit $1.05 trillion. And an estimated 169.9 million consumers owe money on a credit card balance.

If you're a busy mom who's trying to pay off debt, you may have tried cutting expenses from your budget. But if that didn't work, well, it's not so shocking. There may only be so many bills you can slash to free up money, especially when you're dealing with child-related expenses.

For this reason, a better road to paying off debt may be to pick up a side hustle. This is something you can try to do on top of a full-time job, or it's something you can try to work into your schedule as a stay-at-home parent with young kids afoot.

But there's one specific side hustle it really pays to steer clear of. Not only might you end up wasting your time and not making much money, but it could also be a gig that causes you to alienate friends and loved ones.

Do not fall for an MLM

When you're pressed for time and don't have a ton of flexibility in your schedule, you may decide that selling a given product, whether it's skincare items, cookware, or handbags, is a good gig to pick up. Often, you can advertise the items you're selling on social media, take orders online, and get paid without having to leave your house.

If you're a mom with an infant and toddler and no child care whatsoever, a side hustle that requires you to leave the house during the day may not pay off. You might spend as much on a sitter as you bring in. So in that sort of situation, an MLM might sound like a smart bet.

If you're not familiar with MLMs, or multilevel marketing businesses, they go something like this: You're recruited to sell a product to the people you know (and the people you don't) via a number of channels. You could host parties showing off your wares, attend local craft fairs, or simply stick to advertising your products on social media and sending email blasts to your contacts.

Under this type of setup, the more products you sell, the more commissions you earn. But the way to really make money with an MLM is to recruit people to sell products under you, because you then get a cut of their sales.

But it's this very setup that often makes MLMs a waste of time.

First of all, the commission you earn on a per-product basis may be quite small. Part of the reason is because the person who brought you into the business is getting a share of your profit. So unless you either sell a lot of products or build a team under you, you may find that the money you make from an MLM is so minimal that it virtually does nothing to help you chip away at your debt.

But that's not the only issue. Not only might you waste a lot of your time with an MLM, but you might also alienate people in the process.

If you're constantly nagging your friends to check out your new products or pushing people in your life to make purchases, it could make them extremely uncomfortable. That could impact your relationships and potentially get you excluded from social plans. After all, who wants to deal with a sales pitch for a jar of $60 face cream over what's supposed to be a casual dinner?

A better route to take

There's nothing wrong with picking up a side hustle to chip away at your debt. But don't make that side hustle one that requires you to sell products (often, overpriced products) and effectively badger people into helping you dig your way out of a hole. Instead, find a side gig that works for your schedule, even if it's a busy one.

If you're a stay-at-home parent to young kids with no child care, but your partner is home in the evenings, you could try finding a gig you do at night, like waiting tables at a restaurant in your town or driving for a ride-hailing service. And if you prefer a work-from-home gig, look at things like doing product reviews, data entry, and blogging, if you have the skills.

Another thing that might help you pay off your debt is consolidating credit card balances into a personal loan. That way, you lock in a fixed interest on that debt, leaving you with predictable monthly payments.

It's definitely a hard thing to be in debt. And it's respectable to try to do what you can to work your way out of it. But pushing products on your friends and family whose sales barely yield you any money probably isn't the best way to go about things.