This side hustler gave away 50% of his belongings

Phillip Keller is a minimalist, zero-waste side hustler. He's building not one, but two products on the side while working a full-time job and raising a family. And he recently made $6k in three days with his launch.

Let's take a peek at his finances. 👇

Give your stuff away

💰 "My wife and I sold and gave away 50% of our goods. Now, we only have necessities in our house." — Philipp

Philipp’s wife has always appreciated a simple life. The real impetus behind giving away their belongings, though, was the amount of tidying up she was doing.

💰 "Less stuff = less work." — Philipp

He says she started by going through rooms where she was “the boss”, like the kitchen and bathroom. Whatever she didn't need, she gave away. This piqued his interest and he started doing the same.

Soon, their storage racks were empty, so they gave those away too. They even considered moving when one of their three floors was emptied out, but their kids weren’t on board so they stayed put.

Pretty impressive, but they didn’t stop there. They’re zero wasters too.

💰 "Money is secondary. Our worth is not represented by money. And rich people are not happier." — Philipp

Zero waste

💰 "We only produce five bags of waste each year. We believe that we have a duty to look after our planet. We want it to survive another few thousand years and we see that a consumerist lifestyle will not allow that." — Philipp

They’re big advocates for the zero-waste way of life. They aren’t politically active, but he says they try to model it by being “the guys next door who choose to live a responsible life.”

So that means they bring glass jars to their butcher for cheese and meat, and they bike to a local farmer to buy milk. They use hard soap for both body and hair instead of liquid soap. Instead of buying cleaning products, his wife makes her own with baking soda, soap, or vinegar. And much, much more.

They even sold their car. They challenged themselves not to use it for a month and it was easy so they extended the challenge. After a few months, they decided they needed to use the car after all, but the battery was dead. They figured it didn’t make sense to have something they use so rarely, so they sold it.

💰 "We've tried many zero-waste ideas, but we stick to what make sense in our lives." — Philipp

If you want to give it a shot, he says the easiest way to become a zero waster is to start in the bathroom.

Hard numbers

💰 "I'm trying my best to not fall into the "get rich fast" trap. It’s just a hamster wheel." — Philipp

Here's what he's bringing in:

• Combined revenue: $2-3k/mo

• Other income: Full-time job (undisclosed salary >$10k/mo)

• Founder pay: $0

• Personal savings: Undisclosed (low 5 digits)

• Business savings: N/A

The variable revenue above is due to SEO Kickstarter taking one-time payments. That, by the way, is where he made $6k in three days.

It started last month with a tweet that got 100k views. He was selling it for $29, but quickly increased that to $49 when people started telling him it was too cheap.

Within 24 hours, he had 100 customers and made $4500. The next couple of days were slower, but he made another $1500. Now, after the launch craze, his revenue is evening out and he’s trying other marketing channels.

He doesn’t touch the revenue now, but says that eventually, he’ll want to reinvest it. Possibly by buying some video equipment or outsourcing some work.

Here are his business expenses:

• SEO (Semrush): $130/mo

• Server: $10/mo

• Loom: $15/mo

• Twitter Blue: $8/mo

He pays a small sum each month for Twitter Blue and says he doesn’t get much out of it, other than the long-form tweets. But he’s happy to pay because Twitter has been so helpful to him.

He’s been on it for 1.5 years and already has 6.7k followers. He says he’s made lots of friends and he attributes much of his success to his Twitter network.

Here are his personal expenses:

• Rent: $2,800 rent/mo

• Utilities: $200/mo

• Food (family of 4): $1,500/mo

• Medical costs: $1300/mo

• Charity: 5-10% of income

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Tighten your bootstraps

Philipp and his wife are very tight budgeters, with specific sub-budgets for categories like household, clothing, pocket money, expenses, and so forth.

And they revise their budget once every year. There are three reasons for this.

First, as mentioned, they’re zero wasters and minimalists.

Second, they want the money to be used responsibly.

💰 "We believe that we are stewards of this money, and we take it very seriously." — Philipp

And third, they don't want to argue.

💰 "Money comes with conflicts. If my wife had no budget, she would buy lots of clothes. If I had no budget, I would buy lots of gadgets and online services. And then we’d get angry with each other about how much we're spending. By preparing a budget once a year, there’s only one money conflict a year." — Philipp

He says discussing the budget regularly leads to productive, cool-headed conversations about money, instead of hot-headed disagreements.

They use Goodbudget to keep them on track.

Be a good steward

If you noticed his comment about being stewards of the money they have, that comes from his religion.

💰 "Money is not something we own ourselves. It's given to us 'from above'. I'm a Christian and I believe that God has given me money to be a good steward." — Philipp

That’s why he gives 5-10% of his income to charity.

💰 "With money comes responsibilities. I live in Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world. With my wealth, I want to support others." — Philipp

He’s in contact with Christians who live in poorer areas and he likes to support their schools and education.

Don’t worry so much

💰 "Don’t be too concerned about the future." — Philipp

Philipp doesn’t invest. He just doesn’t feel comfortable with the risk involved.

He dabbled for a while, investing about $2k into stocks, but he and his wife felt uneasy about it so they stopped.

This decision is at least partially due to where he lives. Switzerland has a three-pillar system to take care of its citizens, and his job is matching his retirement contributions, so he says he’s well prepared for the future.

Build on the side

For now, Philipp will just continue investing in his business. And he's happy to do that on the side while working his full-time job.

One day, he'll take the leap, but not anytime soon. He says he'll wait until his MRR is at least at the level of his current salary, possibly more.

💰 "Try side hustling. Don't make the jump and hope that you'll break even. I've seen too many people burn out with this pressure." — Philipp

Check out Philipp’s products, SEO Kickstarter and backl.io, or find him on X.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!

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