Caroline O’Donovan (@ceodonovan), BuzzFeed news reporter, got first hand insight into the daily life of a group of middle aged San Franciscans who are self-employed, making a living completely off the sharing economy. The group of seven, aged 22 to 34, live in the outer Richmond district, sharing a house and rotating turns off the only sofa available in the home.

Through TaskRabbit, an online platform that allows anyone to outsource household errands, skilled tasks, and pick up job listings, the group works random gigs and to avoid the forced nine to five desk job.

TaskRabbit allows people to work on their own terms, set their desired hours and rates, while allowing for flexibility in choosing which tasks to take on. These tasks can range anywhere from working coat checks at raves, to delivering hundreds of donuts to an event, to installing doorknobs and so on.

What makes this group successful is how they effectively build off one another, asking for help on various tasks, and offering unwanted gigs through a connected running thread of group texts. Working together allows the Taskers to call on one another when backup is needed, rather than putting the responsibility of finding someone on the customer; resulting in sharing skills, receiving higher ratings, tips, and wages.

“The Taskers have created for themselves a system with some familiar-looking perks: training, the ability to effectively call in sick, even wage negotiation. They’ve figured out how to replicate some of the most salient perks of the nine-to-five job — the very thing they joined TaskRabbit to get away from — without, they say, taking on any of the drawbacks.”

Of course, there are the downsides to living solely off the sharing economy. There is no health insurance, job security, 401K, paid vacations, or pay for sick days. While some of the Taskers are aware of the temporary benefits the platform has to offer, others live vicariously off the day to day unknown and plan to stick with the online platform until there is no longer a demand for it.

TaskRabbit allows workers to experience first hand, the luxuries and wealth that come from corporate lifestyles. At one gig, as Gonen was unwrapping prized trophies for the CEO, he described his experience as such:

“I was unwrapping trophies,” he says, “and he was the most miserable man I’ve ever seen in my life. I was like, ‘I’m happy as fuck, and you’re miserable, making the most money you can.’ It was kind of an epiphany.”

This group embodies the true benefits, flexibility, and happiness one can earn through the sharing economy. The group is able to live off of a day-to-day mentality, while others require job security and structure. Whether you’re looking for extra income, a second job, or even a full time job, the opportunities are endless when it comes to making money in the sharing economy.  

“One of the great joys of the on-demand economy,” he says, is that “there’s unlimited work. You can work as much as you want, save as much as you want. You can literally like rent you car on GetAround when you’re not doing jobs, make money that way. It’s insane the amounts of ways to make money in this city.” says Laughlin.