This 34-year-old woman says she makes up to $167/hour as a nanny for the super-rich — claims she'd 'be fine' working just two months a year. 3 brutally simple side hustles to start now

She says she doesn’t even need to spend so much of the year nannying to get by. “I could nanny for, like, two months at the top of the year, and I'd be fine for the rest of the year,” she told CNBC Make It.

Side hustles are becoming more and more common. In fact, roughly 39% of American adults have at least one side gig. However, in today’s economy, gig work isn’t just for extra spending money. Most Americans report they need the cash to cover everyday living expenses.

The best side hustles are often low-lift efforts, but come with high rewards. With that in mind, here are the top three brutally simple side hustles to explore in 2023.

Online tutoring

Teaching a subject that you’ve spent years learning, or a skill that you’ve organically developed, could be a relatively easy side hustle.

Complex subjects like physics, chemistry and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) are particularly lucrative, says ZipRecruiter, but not so easy unless you have a passion for the subject.

If that’s not an option, consider teaching languages like English to kids from wealthy families in other countries. English teachers can make up to $5,000 a month in countries like the United Arab Emirates. And with remote learning, this can be done from the comfort of your home.

Executive virtual assistant

Virtual assistance is another lucrative gig. But it’s best to focus on high-value tasks for C-suite executives to come away with big money. If you can ace jobs like project management, web development and IT problem-solving, you could be charging clients $50 an hour and up, according to Upwork.

Meanwhile, a freelance marketing assistant could make $50 to $200 an hour and business coaches can bring in up to $500 an hour.

Real estate

Unlike other gigs on this list, real estate is perhaps the most passive way to generate income. The gross rental yield for properties across the U.S. is 6.1%. You could generate that with just a few hours of work every week. Those hours could be trimmed further if you hire a contractor for maintenance and an accountant to deal with payments and taxes. In fact, if you hire a property management company you could generate returns completely passively.

Owning commercial property also gives you the option to deploy a triple-net lease, which means the company renting the office or retail space from you has to pay all the expenses on the property, like real estate taxes, building insurance and maintenance (this is on top of rent and utilities.) The benefit of a setup like this? The tenant is responsible for all things property management, leaving you more time to focus on your day job.

Good rental yields for commercial properties in the United States — anything that falls between 5% and 10% per year — are significantly higher than those generated from residential spaces, which usually sit around 1% to 3%. It’s a lucrative option and a fairly passive income source, yes, but it’s also capital-intensive. So keep in mind: it might not work for everyone.