SHS002: 10 Uber Eats Driver Tips Elijah Bilel Learned From 3,000+ Deliveries In 2026
Intro
When most people think about the gig economy, they think about hopping on an app and making quick money with their car—platforms like Uber, Lyft, and food delivery apps.
In this episode of The Side Hustler’s Society, Elijah Bilel takes a deeper look at one of the most popular entry points into that world: Uber Eats.
With over 3,000 deliveries completed, Elijah breaks down 10 practical tips that can help drivers make more money, avoid common mistakes, and approach delivery driving with a strategy instead of guesswork.
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Episode Overview
This episode is built entirely on experience.
Before focusing on delivery, Elijah originally started in the gig economy as a rideshare driver. Over time, he transitioned into Uber Eats—especially after the platform introduced tipping, which made deliveries significantly more profitable.
One of the biggest advantages Elijah discovered early on was something simple but powerful: driving alone. This allowed him to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and educational content while working—turning delivery time into both income and self-development time.
As Elijah continued delivering, he began identifying patterns—what made more money, what slowed him down, and what actually impacted hourly earnings. Those lessons eventually turned into a system.
In this episode, Elijah Bilel shares 10 key strategies designed to help drivers:
Increase efficiency
Protect their earnings
Avoid unnecessary mistakes
Think long-term instead of just day-to-day
The result is a much more intentional approach to a side hustle that many people treat casually.
Listen to the Episode
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Side Hustler’s Society Resources
The Anatomy Of Financial Success Audiobook
Gig Economy Mastery Free Course
Quick Takeaways
Elijah emphasizes that Uber Eats can be a solid side hustle—but it should come with a long-term plan
Starting each shift with a full tank of gas improves efficiency and prevents lost income
Stopping for gas during deliveries can hurt tips and customer satisfaction
Elijah Bilel explains that frequent “cash outs” can lead to poor money management and faster spending
Investing in a large, neutral delivery bag improves professionalism and can increase tips
Having a “do not do business” list of slow restaurants can significantly boost hourly earnings
Elijah recommends tracking which restaurants are efficient during different times of day
Sending a simple message to customers can sometimes get them to meet at the car, saving time
Understanding how neighborhoods are structured can help drivers complete deliveries faster
The key to making more money isn’t just working more—it’s completing more deliveries per hour
Who This Episode Is For
Beginners looking to start making money with Uber Eats
Delivery drivers who want to increase their hourly earnings
People exploring gig economy side hustles
Anyone who wants a more strategic approach to making money with their car
Key Topics Covered
How Elijah Bilel made money with Uber Eats
Increasing efficiency as a delivery driver
Avoiding common beginner mistakes
Managing income from gig work
Turning a basic side hustle into a more optimized system
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SHS001: The Origin Story – How Elijah Bilel Built Multiple Side Hustles & Full Time Income Streams
Intro
Every entrepreneur has a starting point.
For Elijah Bilel, the journey into side hustles, freelancing, and multiple income streams didn’t start with a perfect plan…
👉 It started with curiosity, frustration, and a desire for more.
In this first episode of The Side Hustler’s Society, Elijah breaks down his full origin story—from working traditional jobs to building multiple income streams through the gig economy, content creation, freelancing, and investing.
This episode sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Episode Overview
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Elijah got started with entrepreneurship
The early businesses and jobs he worked
Why he left traditional employment
How the gig economy changed his trajectory
How YouTube, freelancing, and affiliate marketing became income streams
How Financial Anatomy and Airbnb entered the picture
The inspiration behind starting The Side Hustler’s Society
Listen to the Episode
Check us out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! While you’re there, hit subscribe so you don’t miss our latest episodes!
Quick Takeaways
Elijah Bilel built multiple income streams before going full-time
Early business attempts taught control, marketing, and sales
The gig economy became a launchpad—not the end goal
YouTube, freelancing, and affiliate marketing created scalable income
Strategic pivots led to Financial Anatomy and Airbnb
The Beginning: Jobs, Frustration & Early Entrepreneurship
Before becoming known for side hustles and online income, Elijah’s journey started with traditional jobs:
Janitorial work for his aunt’s company
Walmart
Whole Foods
Amazon
At one point, Elijah was working around 68 hours per week…
👉 Yet only making about $35,000 per year
That realization sparked a major shift.
The First Business: Learning Control
After trying network marketing, Elijah realized something important:
👉 He wanted control
So Elijah Bilel launched his first independent business:
👉 Asili Tiba (Indigenous Remedies)
This gave him experience with:
Pricing
Marketing
Selling directly to customers
The Turning Point: Leaving the 9–5
Even after getting promoted at Amazon, Elijah knew:
👉 He wasn’t reaching his full potential
So he left and went all-in on finding alternative income paths.
The Gig Economy Era Begins
Elijah revisited Uber and started with:
Rideshare
Then Uber Eats
Why?
👉 More flexibility
👉 More control
👉 More independence
The Hidden Advantage: Getting Paid to Learn
While doing Uber Eats, Elijah used his time strategically:
Audiobooks
YouTube
Business content
👉 He was getting paid to learn skills that would later generate income
YouTube + Affiliate Marketing Breakthrough
Elijah started a YouTube channel called The Uber Lifestyle (Later changed To The Side Hustler's Society) focused on:
👉 Uber Eats content
He monetized it through:
Ad revenue (~$100/month early on)
Referral income
Referral earnings:
👉 $500 to $2,000/month
This was his first scalable income stream.
Freelancing with The Rideshare Guy (Major Income Boost)
After learning from Roberto Blake, Elijah reached out to Harry Campbell.
That turned into:
👉 Ongoing freelance video editing,content & channel management work
Income from this:
👉 $1,500 to $2,500 per month
This added:
Stability
Consistent cash flow
Professional experience
Financial Anatomy: Building a Brand
Elijah knew Uber wouldn’t last forever, so he started a new youtube channel:
At first, growth was slow…
But over time, it became a strong income stream.
Earnings from Financial Anatomy:
👉 $1,200 to $1,900 per month
This came from:
YouTube ad revenue
Financial content monetization
Audience growth
Stacking Income Streams (Full Picture)
At this point, Elijah had:
Uber Eats income
Referral/Affiliate income ($500–$2,000/month)
Freelancing ($1,500–$2,500/month)
Financial Anatomy ($1,200–$1,900/month)
Combined:
👉 Multiple income streams working together
This is what allowed Elijah Bilel to fully step away from traditional employment.
Entering Real Estate: Airbnb
From there, Elijah expanded into:
👉 Airbnb hosting
This introduced:
Asset-based income
Real estate strategy
Additional scalability
Now instead of just trading time…
👉 He was leveraging assets
Creating a Product: Becoming an Author
Elijah also created the bestselling book:
👉 The Anatomy of Financial Success
This added:
Authority
Brand positioning
Product-based income
The Bigger Pattern
Across every stage of Elijah’s journey:
👉 Learn → Apply → Monetize
He didn’t wait for perfect conditions.
He:
Took action
Tested opportunities
Built income streams
Why This Podcast Exists
The Side Hustler’s Society was created to:
👉 Help others follow a similar path
By sharing:
Real experiences
Real numbers
Real strategies
Key Lessons from the Episode
1. Start With What You Have
You don’t need perfect conditions
2. Learn While You Earn
Use your time to build future income
3. Stack Income Streams
Multiple sources = stability
4. Focus on Scalability
Time-based income has limits
5. Always Be Ready to Pivot
Every opportunity has a lifespan
Who This Episode Is For
Beginners starting their first side hustle
People stuck in a 9–5
Gig workers looking to level up
Entrepreneurs building multiple income streams
Key Topics Covered
Elijah Bilel’s origin story
Gig economy strategies
YouTube and affiliate marketing
Freelancing with The Rideshare Guy
Financial Anatomy and Airbnb
Watch The Podcast On Youtube!
Work From Home Tips: 5 Habits That You NEED When Making Money From Home
The ability to work from home has become more and more mainstream nowadays. And I'm not going to lie, the recent pandemic of 2020 probably had a lot to do with that. But even without it, there was a gradual push and a gradual change towards more people being able to work from home. Many people with the financial personalities of the The Builder, The Preserver and The Conservative find the ability to work from home very soothing What does that look like though?
Well, your job may actually have features that it can be accessed via the computer. And once the pandemic happened, they just moved everything so that you could actually access to sit fully at home and do your duties at home. If you're self-employed or if you're a freelancer who services are heavily connected to the computer, then you're already working from home. While working from home has a lot of convenient advantages and pros, it will produce a share of cons if you don't take care of them accordingly. In this article, I'm going to share with you five habits to make sure that those cons don't creep up and take you by surprise, and you can just stay benefiting from the pros of working from home. So let's get into it.
Not in the mood to read? Why not watch the video instead?
As someone that's been working from home since the end of 2019, I do have some actual advice that I can give you all in that regards. Now, I say 2019 because that's when I went full-time in it. If we're counting the total amount of time I've actually been working from home for Financial Anatomy, I would say it's about more like 2017 but that's beside the point.
Believe it or not, it's a lot of people's dreams, so to speak, to just be able to get up, not leave their house and generate money from their computer. And it is a beautiful thing, I'm not going to lie but it does produce a share of problems if you don't know how to address these. According to weworkremotely.com, there are three commonly reported issues that remote workers in digital nomads face. Those are loneliness and isolation, anxiety, stress, and pressure to hustle 24/7.
Now these things individually aren't so great, but when you combine them, they have the potential to lead into a very negative emotion called depression. And we don't want you to feel that. Luckily, there are some things you can do to stave off these three things and keep them away from your home, so to speak. So let's get into those habits.
1. Start using voice messages instead of texting
Habit number one is to start using voice messages instead of texting. Now, a lot of people don't actually consider this. If you've been in sales, you're going to relate to what I'm saying big time. Every time you send the text message, it kind of works on your nerves. Now, that's not such a big deal if you're not doing it all the time, but when you're working from home, chances are you're going to be using that keyboard a lot, sending emails a lot, typing a lot, and guess what?
That works on your nerves too, and anytime you're using that for work in any form, you need to give your nerves a break at anytime you can. And that includes when you're just talking to friends or talking to family. So anytime where I'm in a position where I'm not working and I'm conversing with someone, I always try to use my voice.
So that takes the form of I'm going to try and get them on the phone. And if I can't get them on the phone, I just send them a voice message. You can do this by getting the recorder app or you can actually send a voice message via Facebook Messenger, which is my new best friend, because all that typing when it comes to texts really wear on your nerves after a while, and believe it or not, they can actually contribute towards anxiety if you're doing way too much of it.
It also has a secondary benefit of getting you to talk because when you're working from home, depending on what you're doing, you may not actually be opening your mouth that much. Now some people have Zoom conferences, phone calls, that kind of thing to maintain and be involved in.
For those people, this doesn't apply as much but let's say you're a video editor or a graphic designer. You don't really have to talk that much, verbally talk. And if you're not verbally talking, this is when you start to lose your natural communication skills when it comes to talking.
So this has a secondary benefit of just kind of forcing you to talk and keeping those skills kind of sharp, if that makes any sense. And before you knock this, just give it a try, see how much better you feel throughout the day. If you just use voice messages and talk on the phone, as opposed to all that texting. If the people start asking you like, "Hey, why can't you text?" Let them know, tell them specifically why you're not texting and they're going to respect it because they probably just hadn't thought about it before.
2. Plan your day out
Habit number two that you want to develop is you need to make a plan for the day that involves key things that usually get neglected when it comes to working from home. Those times include when you eat, exercise and your free time. They need to be built into your calendar because when you work at home, you're going to have a habit of skipping one or two of these unless it's baked into your daily calendar.
If you need something to keep track of this, Google Calendar is a great way to do it. But however way you do it, it needs to be integrated because if it's not part of the schedule, you'll be working and all of a sudden time has passed and you've lost the ability to do something. You don't want that and these are things that you need to do to maintain your health. It's pretty obvious that you need to eat to maintain your health. I don't need to go into details on there.
When it comes to exercise, you're sitting down all day. So if you don't get the exercise in, you're going to start gaining weight pretty fast. Aside from that, it's not very healthy to just be sitting all day, if we're going to keep it 100%. You need to get out there and do some form of exercise.
I'm not a personal trainer, but I'd also recommend it. If you work from home, you need just a little more cardio in your workout curriculum, as opposed to other people, because you are going to be sitting down most of the day. I would take that a step further and say that you should look into doing Kegel exercises.
This is very important since you're going to be sitting in a certain position all day, unless you have a desk where you're standing up, which actually isn't such a bad idea to switch to from time to time. And this should go without saying, but you need to schedule free time for yourself because that goes to your mental health.
You need to have some way of just unloading, cooling off and it needs to be baked into your calendar. What you do with that free time, that's up to you. You might play video games. You might watch Netflix. You might have a night out on the town. Whatever it is, you need to have some, where you just cool off, and that needs to be baked into your schedule.
3. Separate your work place from your relaxing spots
The third thing that you need to do is less of a habit and more of something that you need to just set up. But once it's set up, it should be good to go. But you want to separate where you sleep and relax from where you're actually doing your work. Ideally, you want to have these in two separate rooms because, for one thing, it's actually going to help with your productivity because psychologically you're answering a work environment. So the thoughts just kind of flow in terms of what you should be doing for work, et cetera. And when you go back to the other room to relax, your brain just kind of wires down gets into that relaxation mode.
If they're in the same room, it's going to be at odds with each other. What's going to happen is you're not going to really get the best of either. Not going to fully be able to relax when it's time to relax, and when it's time to work, you're not going to really fully be in that work mode either because you're not planted to that environmental, psychological advantage that you're going to get from having two separate rooms.
And you might be saying, "Elijah, I don't have another room to switch to." At the very least, try and separate your room into two halves. So you got one half where, let's say, your computer. Everything you need for work is there and then the other half, that's where anything you need to relax is. If you do it that way, at the very least, you're still creating somewhat of a psychological disconnect. So that when you go over here and facing this direction, "Hey, this is work," and when you're over here, "This is relaxing."
4. Maintain a social life
The fourth habit you need to maintain or start is to actually maintain a social life. This is something that many people take for granted. But when you had to drive to go to work, you drive, you go to work, you interact with your coworkers, then you have lunch.
You converse with your coworkers in a more just relaxed environment, and some people actually leave and go to a restaurant for lunch. Lunch is over. You finish off the rest of the day, and then you drive home. Usually when you drive home, you're going to stop by the store. You're going to stop by the gas station. Maybe sometimes you and some of your coworkers may actually want to have dinner at some restaurant after work and just kind of talk, have fun.
Well, all that doesn't have the potential to happen when you're working from home because you're already at home. And going to work and going home, there are so many opportunities that you had to meet new people and to just socialize with your coworkers or with friends or potentially with family. And when you're at home, that's not taking place, so you got to do something to make up for that.
This takes the form of making sure you stay in contact with friends and family even if it's over the phone, ideally you want to try and meet up in person and do something. I understand because of the pandemic that might be kind of... But eventually this stuff has got to be over.
Another easy way to do this is to just pick up some hobbies. What is it you'd like to do? I like riding a bicycle. I love to do 5k runs. I love to shoot archery. I love to visit art museums. I'm just mentioning a few things that I like just to stimulate some thought. But whatever habits you have, I guarantee if you just Google that habit and just, say, near me, you're going to find advanced and local things that you can get into.
So take a look at getting involved in them and they'll help you maintain a social life of abundance because one thing that can happen is if you're working from home and this usually leads to loneliness and depression, which is something we're trying to avoid.
5. Get an EMF for all of your electronics
And lastly, the fifth thing you should do, if you're going to be working from home, you should get an EMF for all your electronic devices. This is actually a problem with Americans in general but we use a lot of technology. A lot of us are oblivious to the fact that this technology we use actually produces a level of radiation. And that radiation is actually linked to certain forms of cancer if you don't deal with it accordingly.
There's a few ways you can deal with it but the easiest way is just to get an EMF also known as the dial and attach it to whatever it is that's producing that radiation. Actually, I have one on my phone. I have one on my computer. Anything that produces that radiation, I just attach that to it. And it actually helps with the electronic device and not getting so hot. So it does have that added benefit. But the main reason that's there is it neutralize that radiation.
Another way of doing this is to keep the sea salt lamps in your room that helps with neutralizing the radiation. But a lot of people are just unaware that this is actually a problem. So you want to make sure that you get those, I've left links to them in the description. And this is something that you'll actually start to see the benefits of like right away.
If you put it on your phone, you're going to notice that your ear isn't going to start hurting the moment you put your phone up to your ear. It's not going to start hurting unless you have it to your ear for like an hour but, normally, it would start hurting probably after like two to five minutes. Well, that's actually be coming from that radiation. What the EMF is doing is, it's neutralizing it as much as it can so that it won't produce adverse health conditions. Like I said, I've left links to them in the description below. If you're not going to get them, I guess the alternative would be getting a sea salt lamp.
With that being said, we covered five habits or things that you should do if you're going to be working from home to maintain your mental sanity, so to speak, and keep the anxiety, depression, and loneliness away from your doorstep. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and if you want to find out which one of the 6 financial personalities that you are, click here.
Ubereats Driver: The 8 MUST have ubereats items!
Although ubereats is fairly easy on its own, would it surprise you to findout there are more things you can do to make it even easier? Below you will the 8 key uber eats items that will make your delivery experience with ubereats run more smoothly. All of the can be obtained by clicking on the photo of the item. (Article not your style? Watch the video below)
1. An Insulated Bag
An insulated bag is a must when it comes to delivering. Having an insulated bag will keep your customers food the same or similar temperature as it was when you picked it up at the restaurant. This means that it will keep their food hot or keep their food cold (If its a cold dish) It is also useful for when you get multiple orders at a restaurant. When you receive big orders, it can be a challenge getting everything out the door. It will most likely demand the use of both your hands, which makes it a hassle to exit and open your car door to put the food in. If you’re like me, you would rather not struggle out or have to make a 2nd trip. Having an insulated bag allows you to all the food in the bag and lace it around your shoulder, making everything easy.
2. A Sharpie
When you get more then one order from a restaurant, most of the time they will have the names on the orders for you. Some however do not. Regardless, having a sharpie lets you have the peace of mind of knowing you can mark them yourself if necessary. Trying to remember who ordered what not only makes your job harder, you risk giving the wrong order to the wrong person. When you get your orders from the restaurant, before confirming your pickup, check to see if the orders are marked. If not, ask the staff which order is which and match up the order numbers with the right name. Then write the name of the person on the food box or bag. It makes dropping off a breeze. Work smarter, not harder.
3. Phone Mount
A phone mount will make your navigation to restaurants and customers easy and efficient. Its also a lot safer since your eyes will never leave the road. I use the mount that attaches to your air vent but there are plenty of choices when it comes to phone mounts.
4. A Car Charger
We need to remember that Ubereats is still an app and like all apps, they slowly drain your battery. The last thing you want is to be out ubering and your phone dies on a trip. Even if it doesn’t die on a trip, your obviously done ubering for the night or at least and hour. You’ll want a car charger and a USB cord to charge your phone while in the car. The one I personally use is available above. There are many other options to choose from if you want to look around though.
5. Portable Battery
If you have a stronger car charger, this one isn’t mandatory but it can be good to have since you can take it with you inside the restaurant and still be charging your phone. Good to have when you decide you want to do some ubering but your phone is almost dead.
6. Poncho
We all have a taste for certain food. You have a mental conversation about if you would like to go get it. Finally, your hunger compels you to put your shoes on and go get it only to open the door and find out its pouring outside! It used to be that one of two things happened. The thought comes “I don’t wanna get out in that!”. So you grudging abandon your taste buds that day and head to the kitchen to cook something or you get out there, get drenched and deal with the traffic on the way. Usually the 1st one happens the most. Now days, you go right to your couch and checkout the ubereats menu! What does that mean? More delivery and money on the table for you and me. I think the feeling is mutual that we don’t have any desire to get wet though. Having a poncho on stand by will let you take advantage of the opportunity for more money without getting wet or messing up your hair.
7. Uber Clothing
As delivery partners, we don’t wait in line. It can be a little annoying to let a staff member of the restaurant know you’re here to pick up food though. Having one of these bad boys on will let the restaurant immediate identify you visually. This sometimes reduces the the amount of time you’re in the restaurant and often it leads to them bringing the order to you before you even get to the counter! Be sure to still double check the order number and names. Usually having one of these is enough for you to be easily identified as an ubereats partner to the restaurants. For the shirts, prefer the polo like one but the more casual option is also an options too.
8. The Upside App
This isn’t technically an item but it is arguable the most useful tool on this list. One of our biggest expenses as drivers is gas. The get upside app gets you cash back per gallon at select gas stations up to 50 cents. That cash back starts to add up at the end of the month and you can use that money for whatever you want! If you want to know visually how it works, check the video out below!
Honorable mention: A Dashcam
A dashcam isn’t as much needed with a delivery driver as it is with a rideshare driver. It can still be good to have for insurance reasons since it can record outside of your car.
The item that is a MUST on this list is the Insulated bag. which is free if you pick it up at your local Uber office. As of right now, Uber does not offer insulated bags anymore. To get one, you can order one off of amazon by clicking the bag picture. You can get one for as cheap as 6$. AN INSULATED BAG WILL EFFECT YOUR BOTTOM LINE! You will find that everything else is complementary. Having all of these will get you the most bang for your buck and allow you to take even more orders because these items will speed up how long it takes to pick up food and take it to the customer. The total cost of all these together is around 90$ to 100$ (Which there’s a good chance you can make that back on your 1st day if you work between 5.00pm and 10.00pm) If its not possible to get them all at once, you can use the strategy i used. Prioritize them and get one item off this list once a week. How you should prioritize them is like this.
Upside App
Insulated Bag
Sharpie
Car Charger
Phone Mount
Portable Battery
Ubereats Shirt
Poncho
If you have any other questions about ubereats, feel free to contact out our Uber Eats Playlist on you tube. If you want to sign up for the Upside app, you can do so here. We’ll catch you in the next article!
5 Reasons To Become An Uber Driver In 2026
Being an Uber driver has become highly controversial in today's time. Can you make a lot of money with Uber or are you actually losing money? Is it safe, or is it probably the most dangerous thing you can do? Well in this article, I'm going to give you five reasons why I became an Uber driver and why you might want to consider it and if these reasons align with what you want.
As someone who has done it for a while and has a whole separate channel on how to be successful with Uber and Uber Eats, I say I'm qualified to talk about it. Unlike certain people on YouTube and the web who just talk about these numbers, but haven't actually got behind the wheel, driven a few people around, and had the experience themselves. So if that interests you, stay tuned and stick around to the end, where I'll be sharing with you exactly how being an Uber driver actually played a role in me making money, how I do nowadays. So, let's get into it!
I'll say this right off the bat. That there's a lot of negative criticism of this way of making money on floating around out there. Some of it comes from drivers, but some of it comes from people who have actually never done it before. I'm just going to be honest, I don't think they're really qualified to talk about it. They'll run these numbers and say that, "Hey, you're losing money per mile," but they don't know a few factors:
They don't know if you're starting your own business and while you're taking people to their destination, they ask what you do. Conversation happens and you just got yourself a new client.
They're not taking into consideration that you just quit your full-time job, you're pursuing something on the side and now you have the time to fully develop that skillset or pursue what you want to pursue.That means within a year or two, you've actually stopped being an Uber driver, because that allowed you to have that opportunity to pursue that.
They don't talk about that probably because they can't relate to it, and if we're going to be honest, the reason they can't relate to it is because they've never done it. All they can do is crunch these numbers in front of you, so I'm here to tell you the other side of the coin, as someone who is in the personal finance niche and someone who actually was behind the wheel, when it comes to being an Uber driver.
Let's get into it and for those y'all that are thinking that I'm saying all of that because I want to get referral money, well, guess what? Uber has changed their policies so that no one person can receive more than 50 referrals. I have more than 50 referrals so I don't qualify to get referral money. In other words, this is someone that's not being financially incentivized either. It's just a personal view and recommendation based on my experience. So let's go ahead and get into it.
1.You make money driving
The 1st reason why I became an Uber driver and why you might want to consider it, if this lines up for you is the obvious one. You make money to drive. Now the rate's going to vary depending on your particular market, but at the end of the day, you're making money to drive and driving is something that most of us have to do in our everyday lives, anyway. Why not just monetize that thing that you're already doing. Regardless of what you hear about it, it's still a way to make money strictly from driving and you could always test it out in your market to see.
2. You make money from socializing
That's a soft transition into our second reason which is, you can make money while socializing. This a great if you're a very sociable person or an extroverted person. Even if you're an introvert, you can still like talking to people. A lot of people think that just because you're introverted, you don't like talking to people. Introverted just means you get your energy from being solitary. In other words, you need your alone moments so that you can recharge. That's all it means. You still might like talking to people and if that's the case, this is something that you're going to enjoy because people get in your car and most people are very chatty and they want to tell you about their day or ask what you do or how your day's been.
And this is an honorable mention, or really just an extension of this one, but if you have other ways of making money, then they're going to ask you what you do anyway. You share what you do, a lot of times they may actually have a need for that service or product that you're selling. I've gotten clients and even sold product strictly just off of people in the back of my car as an Uber driver. They're going to ask you anyway. I say, don't be pushy or bring it up, but most of them ask any way. Share it, and if they're intrigued, they'll ask you more that might even result in a few sales of your services or products.
See, that's something that people online that haven't driven won't actually share, because they haven't done it. Which is ironic to me because a lot of these people were in sales or they have services to offer so they would actually benefit greatly from doing it. They can get some new clients. I just find that ironic that they just crunch the numbers, how much you're making per mile when you can make more money from the service that you offer outside of Uber and they are perfect candidates. They would know that if they actually drove.
3. You’ll know what’s happening in your city
The third reason I became an Uber driver and why it might be appealing to you is because you get the inside scoop of what's going on in your city. I don't care what anyone says. If you become an Uber driver, you're going to know what's going on in your city. Why? Because you're going to be taking people to these events and they're going to be telling you about "This is happening," or "that's happening." Or if someone else is in the car, let's say you're taking a couple or some friends while they're having a night out on the town, they're going to be talking about what they're doing all this weekend or next weekend. You're going to quickly realize, "Man, all this stuff is going on in my city. Do I actually want to attend?" Just something to think about.
To be honest, this is one of the parts that I've really enjoyed about it. I mean, I just have the fond memories of taking people SMU students, which is a college in Dallas in my market from point A to point B while they're having a night on the town. Now I've had plenty of interesting conversations with the SMU students, the typical frat boys where we're talking about ... well, what do you think a bunch of young males are going to be talking about?
4. Freedom & Flexibility
The fourth reason, and probably the most stereotypical is the freedom and the flexibility. You get to work whenever you want and however you want. You might be wondering exactly what do you mean by however you want? You’ve likely heard A lot of the dangerous stuff about being an Uber driver. As far as the crazy YouTube videos that have no shortage on this platform, I'm not going to lie and say, none of that stuff happened. It did happen but I will say that, most of it tended to happen at night. This makes me think that it probably happened during the bar rush. The bar rush is between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. That's when you're taking people to and from the bars. When you're transporting drunk people, there's money there because there's going to be a lot of surge, but you run the risk of running into that kind of stuff.
If you don't want to deal with those types of people because of that scenario that I told you about, you can just take people to and from airports. I know people who do strictly airport runs. They don't take people around the city or none of that. They take someone from the airport, then they put their destination filter on, which filters out certain requests, to try and get a request back to the airport. Then they repeat. There are people that do that and they make great money and they don't have to deal with all that stuff. You know, the stuff that you see on YouTube as far as a dash cam and videos. When you're dealing with people going to and from airports, by default, they usually a more affluent crowd. Lawyers, CEOs, bankers, families going on vacation, stuff like that. They're just are a better quality of customer, if I'm being honest.
I actually have gotten my highest tips from people coming from the airport, too. The reason being is they're going to be in your car for a while, usually, because they're going far. If you got a great personality and social skills, you're going to talk their head off and they're going to appreciate it and show you with the tip.
5. Work hard or don’t
The fifth and final reason why I became an Uber driver and why it might be appealing to you, is because you can work as hard or as little as you want. There are people who are part-time drivers and people who are full-time drivers. As someone that's been both sides of the spectrum, I started out part-time, then I went full time and went back to part-time when some of the stuff I was telling you about started taking off. I can honestly say that it's just beautiful to have that ability, to work as hard or as little as you want.
A lot of times you can use it to compliment something you're already doing. Sometimes I might be having a night on the town myself, so I'm heading to central Dallas around 10:00 PM. Well, I live in the suburbs so I can just put on the destination filter and put it to Central Dallas. I often end up getting a group of young people who are on their way to Deep Ellum. I just take them to Deep Ellum, then I go out to my own night on the town. That means I got paid to drive to Dallas, which is what I was doing anyway! That's the flexibility coming in and I just love it.
Being an Uber driver helped me launch what I'm doing now and the reason it helped is because this is what I was doing largely while I was building my online business. Now I did have things that I could've sold, but I really just liked being an Uber driver. I just kept doing it while I was building this on the side. I gradually started putting less hours in being a driver with Uber and putting more hours into making money in the ways I'm doing now. Eventually the scale tips, so that I'm doing this more than being an Uber driver.
Those are five reasons why I recommend being an Uber driver. If those reasons are something that you can get behind, I still recommend it. Now if you looking for some kind of sign-on bonus, a guarantee, I would recommend you find someone locally, sign up with them because maybe both of y'all could benefit for something.
One of things that I love about being a rideshare driver is the ability to listen to audiobooks and podcasts in between rides. If you decide to become an Uber driver, you’ll get a lot smarter if you do this. If you find yourself becoming an audiobook junkie (Like me), you can listen to my personal finance book for free on Audible here. That’s it for this article. I’ll catch you in the next one!
5 MUST Read Financial Books For Young Adults In 2026
There are so many books come out nowadays, but how do you know which ones actually give you a strong foundation in personal finance? Which ones give you the strong foundation so that any other financial book you read afterwards, you can put it in its right place and use the information? What are five books that lay a firm foundation for young people to build off of since the school system has failed to do so? That's what we are going to address in this article! Not in the mood to read? Feel free to watch the video below instead!
Since the school system does not teach you about financial literacy for the most part unless you're a major in college like business or accounting, these books can also serve as financial basics or financial education that you can just use to build a solid foundation. Any more information on finances you get from there, you can really build off of as opposed to you read or listen to a book and a lot of it goes all over your head or over your head because you don't have anywhere to effectively put it because you haven't had enough exposure.
1. The Anatomy Of Financial Success: The Key To Building Financial Confidence And Destroying Your Insecurities About Money
1st on our list is The Anatomy of Financial Success: The Key To Building Financial Confidence And Destroying Your Insecurities About Money written by yours truly, Elijah Bilel. You're going to say that's a bias putting your own book at first. Being honest though, this book was written specifically for young people because there's two aspects that young people get screwed over in financial society. First one is the school system has failed us.
They don't teach us about finances in school. We know this, but there's a higher component. I don't see many if any financial books that really take your personality into consideration when assigning financial techniques, tactics or ways of doing things when it comes to making money, income, budgeting and spending money. There are techniques that are going to work best for your personality that won't work for me and vice versa.
The Anatomy of Financial Success dives into those techniques, shows you what they are and the six personality types that inhabit the financial world as well as which one you are. From there you can find out what is the best type of income that is best for you to make based on your personality and your emotional wants and needs.
You can find out what's the best way to budget your money as well as your emotional strengths and weaknesses as we all have aspects of budgeting where we just spend money automatically. Like I just spend money here by default but in other areasI may hesitate.
The 6 areas referred to are:
Donations
Business (If you have one)
Investments
Self Spending
Expenses
Savings
We're going to focus on the last four because donations and businesses, they don't come to play here. Out of the last four, two of those you just spend automatically, they're your emotional strengths. The other two of them, you're more emotionally weak in and for whatever reason you may hesitate to spend there. In order to achieve financial success, you need to figure out how to spend that money in a way that you keep moving forward financially. The Anatomy of Financial Success goes into the science of that.
In addition to that, once you know your personality, you're going to be bombarded with financial opportunities throughout your life, whether they're presented to you or you go out trying to look for them. You you need to know your financial personality so you can figure out if that opportunity is going to be good for you based on that personality. If you pick the wrong opportunity, you're going to burn out and waste your time. You may also not get the results you want versus if you pick the right opportunity, it's a license to print money. That's why I highly recommend The Anatomy of Financial Success.
2. Money Magic
Unleashing Your True Potential For Prosperity And Fulfillment
Next up we have Money Magic by Deborah L. Price. Now this book is, it's a different type of book. If I was to put it in a category it's materialistically spiritual. I don't even know if that's a phrase, but it gets into the principles of how to attract money because the whole objective of the book is to become a money magician. You have seven other personalities that you're going to fall in and they all have their pros and cons.
So once you find out what your personality is, you see the flaws that are in there from an emotional perspective when it comes to making money. You then make those corrections. Eventually, you want to become a money magician and then the author lays out a solid foundation that you can build off of based on your emotional strains. This book in particular I feel is a great foundation when it comes to learning some stuff about yourself as far as fundamentals of your emotions go when it comes to making money.
I also like the hierarchy that the book uses which is constructed by 2 pyramids. One is like the spiritual side when it comes to money and the other one is the material side. Anytime you're lacking in one of the tiers on those pyramids, that's saying that area needs more work and they tie it back to the personality that you have. Money Magic also lays the reasons why you shouldn't do certain things with money because it bites you in the butt in a practical way.
3. Increase Your Financial IQ
Get Smarter With Your Money
Coming up next is another Robert Kiyosaki book. It's one that's underrated in my opinion and it's Increase Your Financial IQ:Get Smarter with Your Money by Robert Kiyosaki. In this book, he gets into what he calls financial IQ and he breaks it down in five levels and those five levels are:
Making more money.
Protecting your money
Budgeting your money
Leveraging your money
Increasing your access to financial information
Robert lays the details about each one of those and how to strengthen them. A very direct approach towards increasing your financial IQ as he puts it. Those five levels can be used as staples to measure where you're at financially and which one's your weak at. Once you find out which ones you're weak at, you can make adjustments from there.
This one is one of the more detail oriented in Robert Kiyosaki's books. A lot of his books are too conceptual in my opinion. This one is actually more on the detailed side.
4. The Total Money Makeover
A Proven Plan For Financial Fitness
For our 4th book, we have Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. A lot of you all probably expected that to be on this list. Dave Ramsey is a very detailed author and if you listen to the audio book he'll be scolding you the whole time which in itself is worth a good laugh! The point though is to get out of debt and to build wealth and his whole objective is financial peace.
This includes setting yourself up for retirement, setting your savings up and never using debt again in addition to getting yourself out of debt if you're in debt. I say this is a must read because he gives a lot of details on how to do certain things in life without necessarily needing credit. That's a good side to know. Regardless if you decide to use it or not, you should know that side of the equation.
Included are things like getting a lease without them looking at your credit score. If you do it the right way, they'll look at other things as opposed to your credit score. It also includes how to get things in cash and get a discount because most people in the sales field are so used to having to finance thing, that a cash customer is very appealing since they get a commission on the total sale which by default will be higher in that case.
If you walk in there with cash saying that "Hey I want to get this in cash", a lot of times they'll give you a discount and if they don't you could probably negotiate a discount. it's a lot of good game as far as how to live life debt free in general in addition to not just getting out of debt but also not taking it on. You need to know that side of the equation and if you decide to follow that side, it's up to you. Even if you don't, it's just good to know.
5. Alpha Money Strategies
AMS's Guide Towards Financial And Mental Freedom
The book to complete out list is Alpha Money Strategies by Alpha Male Strategies. I really enjoy this book and the reason I enjoy it is it's a very direct approach towards being financially successful and I kind of see it as the masculine component of Money Magic. I considered the book Money Magic like the yin or the feminine aspect and Alpha Money Strategies the yang or the masculine aspect.
The way Alpha Male Strategies puts it is you need to find your purpose in life and figure out a way to monetize it. In the meantime though you need to develop a trade or a skill so you can make good money and try other things while you find out your purpose. You do all of this while you're setting yourself up for just a nice life, an abundant life. Once you are making good money, he recommends you get involved with the lazy dog portfolio. This is a stock market strategy where you just pick four index funds, the S&P 500, the total bond market, the total stock market, and the total international stock market and put them in a portfolio.
Then you just funnel money in there and as the market rises and falls you'll end up paying the average. He didn't use this term, but that strategy is known as dollar cost averaging where you just keep putting money in and you'll end up paying the average of how much those shares cost, but these shares are paying dividend so it's steadily just building wealth.
Even if you don't find your purpose in life, you're still getting covered, setting yourself up for a nice retirement and just living an abundant life while searching for your purpose. If you find your purpose, you can give it all you have without having to worry with all this financial stuff because of the setup he outlines. I think that that is beautiful and it's underrated in my opinion. It's a very masculine approach towards finance, but it hits the spiritual side too.
Honorable Mention: Rich Dad Poor Dad, What the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not!
First off, we have a honorable mention and that is Rich Dad Poor Dad, written by Robert Kiyosaki. Now I would like to put this in the top five but this time around I can't do that because it's just a little too basic. What it did for its time is revolutionary, introducing the aspect of assets and liabilities and making sure something really serves you. By today's standards though it's way too conceptual. People are demanding useable action, like hey show me how to directly do something.
I feel like that's really lacking in that book. I do like the graphic novel sense it's told in and it does really nail in that concept of assets and liabilities as well as the rich don't work for money. These are strong conceptual things but they don't have enough active things to show you how to do stuff like that. So it's just an honorable mention as it stands, but a good honorable mention at that.
Now this next part, some of you all aren't going to like, but I recommend that you read or listen to all the books at least five times before moving on to the next one. Plus, it would benefit you the most if you listened or read them in a particular order. I can hear you all now. "Hey man, why I got to read/listen in all these five times in a row? I don't have time for that." Well, it's up to you. Do you want the strong foundation so that you can build money or do you want to complain? That's just up to you. Now some of you all might say, well I ain't got time to sit down and read a book five times. Well, great news! All of these books are available in audiobook form so There are plenty of opportunities to sneak in some time to listen to them once you think about it.
So listening or reading them in this order is going to have the most benefit because some of these are over detailed and they will go of your head and some of these are more conceptual and some have a exact balance. if you're going to include the honorable mention, it's going to be Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! This book is a like 75% conceptual, 25% like detail action, but that's needed when you're first getting started. You really need to lay a foundation on what mindset you need to have.
Next it's going to be Money Magic, same as Rich Dad Poor Dad in terms it being 25% like detailed stuff and 75% conceptual. Next is going to be The Anatomy of Financial Success. This is the first book in this little foundation series where it has a balance between conceptual and detail. So it's 50/50 and that's what you're going to need once you start to get a grasp of the financial concepts in general. Then you can get a more balance book where things aren't going to go over your head. The Anatomy of Financial Success is going to lay a foundation to where any book you read in the future, you'll have a place to put that information so it just doesn't fall to the wayside, so to speak.
Next up is going to be Alpha Money Strategies. Another book that strikes a good balance between conceptual and detailed. It's 50/50, so 50% detail, 50% conceptual. It has a very direct approach towards setting up a foundation in a practical way. Then next is going to be Robert Kiyosaki's Increase Your Financial IQ. This is a book that's more detailed and is actually 75% detailed, 25% conceptual. The information will go over your head if you don't read the previous books mentioned before. If you've read or listened to them though, then you're going to be fine. You can soak up all that great game.
Lastly, Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover which is 75% detailed, 25% concept. I mean the concept is pretty much financial peace and staying out of debt period and living debt free. Pretty easy concept. Once you read these books you can make a decision if that's for you or not. But regardless if you choose to use that or not, you need to know the other side of the equation.That's why I recommend his book comes in last, because this is probably the most detailed among all these books. Hence you need more perspective before you tackle that.
And there you have it. We have the five, or if you're going to include Rich Dad Poor Dad, six books, to lay a firm financial foundation that they can build off of. If I'm being honest, you could read or listen to these five books and stop and you would be fine. That would be the equivalent of getting, let's say an associates in quote and quote in finance. And that's good because you need to have this financial foundation. I really feel that information in these books combined really should be required as basics in college. Not that stuff about math, algebra and English and just a retread what we did in high school, which isn't going to serve us in the least in the real world in most cases.
I mean this should be the basics but that's for another article. That does it for this one though. If you would like to get any of the books covered, you can get them here. I will catch you in the next one. Don't forget to get out there and take control of your financial destiny!