Believe me, I’m all for having a reliable income stream, but you should not depend on your job for income. In today’s rapidly evolving economy, relying solely on a single source of income – your job – can be a risky strategy. The concept of a “side hustle” or alternative income streams has gained significant traction, and for good reason.
I used to depend on my job for income and it was by far the most stressful time of my life. Sure, over time I got comfortable but eventually, the company decided to enforce mass layoffs and I ended up being unemployed with no clear direction of what’s next.
It was one of the toughest times I went through because my wife just gave birth to our Daughter and here I am, the provider of the family… not…providing?
I was told that you’re supposed to get a safe job, get a paycheck you can count on, save up, invest in your 401k, etc.
All of that seems great until you realize the biggest risk you can take is not creating a financial buffer for you and your family.
The salary is the price you pay to give up on your dreams.
The moment I started to remove myself from depending on a paycheck, the more peace of mind I had.
This post will dive into why diversifying your income is more than just a financial buffer; it’s a strategic move for long-term financial security and personal growth.
The Risks of a Single Income Source
- Economic Vulnerability: In an uncertain economic climate, job security can be fragile. Industries evolve, companies restructure, and jobs that once seemed secure can become redundant. Relying solely on your job for income puts you at risk if the unexpected happens.
- Limited Earning Potential: A regular job often comes with a capped salary. You might get raises or promotions, but these are typically incremental and at the discretion of your employer. Alternative income streams can break this ceiling, offering unlimited growth potential.
I know this life too well. You are nothing more than a number with most companies and no matter how “irreplaceable” you might feel, your company has NO problem finding someone to take your job and maybe even save some money in the process.
It’s a sad truth in corporate when you start to find value in your job title and your work only for it to get removed based on a “business decision.”
The best thing I’ve ever done for my financial future is find alternative ways to earn an income (outside of corporate)
Real quick, we’re going to cover some of the high level benefits of multiple streams of income and then we’ll dive into some of my favorites.
The Benefits of Multiple Income Streams
- Financial Security: Multiple income sources mean if one stream dries up, others can help cushion the blow. This security can be crucial in times of personal or economic crisis.
- Opportunity for Passive Income: Investments, rental properties, or online businesses can generate passive income, earning you money even when you’re not actively working on them.
- Pursuing Passions and Interests: Side hustles can align with personal interests or hobbies. This not only makes them enjoyable but can also lead to unexpected career paths or opportunities.
- Learning and Skill Development: Managing different income streams often requires new skills, from digital marketing for an online business to understanding real estate for rental investments. These skills can enhance your professional value beyond your primary job.
- Flexibility and Freedom: Multiple income sources can eventually provide the financial freedom to make choices about your primary career without the pressure of financial dependency. This could mean transitioning to part-time work, taking a sabbatical, or even early retirement.
How to Start Diversifying Your Income
- Identify Your Skills and Interests: Look at what you’re good at or passionate about. Can these be monetized through freelancing, consulting, or creating a product?
- Research and Education: Learn about different income-generating avenues. This could be real estate investing, stock market investments, starting an e-commerce site, or creating digital content.
- Start Small and Scale: Begin with manageable projects that don’t require a significant upfront investment. As you grow more comfortable and understand what works, you can scale these endeavors.
- Network and Collaborate: Connect with others who have successfully diversified their income. Networking can provide valuable insights and opportunities.
- Balance and Time Management: Initially, managing multiple income streams alongside a full-time job can be challenging. Effective time management and setting realistic goals are key.
My Favorite Income Streams
Real Estate
Real estate investing has created some of the wealthiest people in the entire world. While there are some Industries like Tech or Financial services which result in more millionaires, real estate has a lot of extra benefits that many other Industries don’t. You can choose to invest in a Reit which is a lower-cost way to invest. essentially a Reit gathers hundreds or thousands of investors all over the world by taking their contributions to put into a pool that goes towards investing in properties. Some platforms like Fundrise invest in large multi-family or commercial property deals and they provide dividends upwards of 12% annually. To date, my trial run investment 3 years ago of $1,000 is now up to $1,942.5 which is an all-time return of 12.4% If you wish to sign up for Fundrise and get all advisory fees waived for 180 days, check out this Link.
On top of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Performing a house hack is financially one of the best possible Investments you can ever make to reach Financial Freedom extremely fast.
The house hack is where you purchase a multi-family home or a home that has a garage apartment attached to it. You live in 1 unit and you rent the other parts out.
You can also live in a single-family home with multiple bedrooms, live in one and rent the other ones out. Some investors take it to the extreme and live on the couch while they rent the other rooms out or while they sleep in a camper outside the house.
There’s so much flexibility with this strategy I could write an entire post on that alone. But essentially the point is to reduce, illuminate, or profit from your housing costs monthly.
Where you might normally pay $2,000 a month on your mortgage, the house hack allows you to live in a great neighborhood for maybe $200 a month, nothing at all, or even make money every single month. In some instances, investors are not only living for free, they are making upwards of $1,000 a month in passive income from this strategy.
The reason why this is such a valuable strategy is that oftentimes, there is no bigger expense in your life than housing costs. We often spend 30% or more of our income on housing.
So just imagine what could happen if you put all of that money back in your pocket. You would essentially be giving yourself a 30% pay raise expediting your path to Financial Freedom. House hacking is one of the best passive income strategies out there.
My preferred method to rent out a part of my house is on Airbnb. If you have a part of your home you’d also like to rent out, Airbnb is a fantastic place to start.
Getting paid to live in your own house? Sign me up!
If house hacking is not an option, you could always consider traditional real estate investing. When starting out, it’s best to purchase multi-family homes as they give you more bang for your buck than a single-family residence. Ideally, you could invest in a quadplex which is a 4-unit, live in one unit and rent out the rest.
If you ran your numbers right which I can do in another blog post, you should have a 10% or greater cash-on-cash return. Ultimately what that means is if you put in $120,000 to the property including repairs, closing costs and everything else, you should be getting a return of $12,000 or more annually.
Cash flow is King in this game but it makes more sense to look at what your return is in terms of what you put into the property. Most experienced investors out there make upwards of 70% cash on cash return.
Let’s say a property is bringing in $3,000 a month in rent, you put in $50,000 for the down payment and all the rehab expenses. Your annual income is $36,000 compared to the $50,000 you put in, that’s a 72% return which means you’ll make your money back In less than a year and a half.
Not including appreciation and principal pay down that comes with paying off properties, again, real estate is one of the best ways for passive income and Financial Freedom.
Digital Assets (Youtube Or Blogging)
Youtube has a ton of benefits that many people aren’t fully taking advantage of.
On youtube, you can shoot a video, edit it and upload it to then watch it grow over time.
Youtube is extremely different than other social media platforms simply because it is directly tied to Google so it favors keywords and other factors that boost it in the rankings.
Since Youtube is Owned by Google, it gets treated as another search engine so each video continues to gather attention long after it’s posted.
Unlike Twitter or Instagram where 90% of your viewership occurs within the first 24 hours. Oftentimes, your video on Youtube might go viral simply because an event happened that causes people to watch those videos.
A great example is when people started to work from home, home workout videos exploded along with products to help out with home workouts.
Even though those videos may have been posted years ago, youtube started recommending them because they recognized that’s where the attention was going.
Youtube is a great passive income stream since once you hit a point in your viewership, revenue from your videos will start to increase. From there, the more traffic you have, the more passive income you get.
So by having more engaging, high-quality videos that increase watch time (the most important metric) the more passive income you make. So aim to post videos that you know, love, and could do for years without expecting any sort of money.
After dedicating yourself to it for months or years, you can then enjoy the fruits of your labor as youtube is often a higher passive income stream than any other industry once it’s built up to a certain point.
That being said, mixing in other passive income streams is still a great idea. If you are considering getting into uploading videos on Youtube, consider using TubeBuddy as it shortens the learning curve on what to do for each video you upload.
Another really great revenue stream in the digital assets field is through blogging.
I love blogging income because when you’re posts are public, there’s essentially no ongoing maintenance to ensure they’re optimized. Unless you have links that need updating or statistics, you’re hands off moving forward!
I like to host my blog on WPX as they’re an extremely server with a great customer service team. I also use a VPN to compliment it so that I can work anywhere in the world without restrictions.
As time progresses, your blog will become more and more popular and it will get picked up by people and increase in rankings. Eventually, the google algorithm will push your pages more frequently to the top and your income will increase as a result.
Blogging is a SLOW game but a fun one nonetheless. I view it as more of a passion project than anything.
Online Coaching
While this may not be necessarily passive as you have to do something in return to make income, there are ways to make it become a passive income stream.
Some examples might include doing a subscription-based coaching platform, or a way for students to send questions, requests, or videos, pay you, and then you get back to them whenever you’re able.
While it might take you a few minutes to send a response, the basic principle is you make money anytime, anywhere, and you’re doing what you love.
This is a great business model for those that have something valuable to give back to the community but don’t have time to answer each and every request. The goal with coaching is to get the highest dollar per hour output as possible. So if you spend 100 hours building something to only make you $100, that $1/hr doesn’t seem too awesome.
Likewise, if you spend the same 100 hours to learn everything there is to know about a particular subject which truthfully isn’t that long. (it’s just an example so bear with me) Let’s say you end up making $10,000 through group coaching 10 people for $50 a piece, that’s $500 a call, in 20 days you’ve earned your $10,000.
Again while this isn’t exactly passive, you’re leveraging your knowledge in group lessons to make it more affordable for everyone. Ideally, you can record the entire coaching session and sell those off for $10 to access if you wanted to further your passive income stream.
Vending Machine Business
The Vending machine business is one that I really like. I prefer the vending machine over many investments simply because if you have a high quality location, you can make thousands of dollars every single month. Even if you only have 3-4 high foot traffic locations, it’s not unreasonable to make $6,000-$10,000/month consistently.
The really fun part about the vending machine business is that you can sell the vending route in the future for a 10-12X monthly revenue multiple.
Speaking from experience. I just sold my Vending Machine Business for 12 months income and i’m going to use that to invest in properties. That being said, the vending machine business (when done right) can be one of the best ways to create additional income streams in less time.
Where most people spend months or years to build their revenue streams up to $2,000/m, I was able to accomplish that within 3 months of starting my business. The ability to scale is much higher than most other investment opportunities.
A great way to multiply your income streams in vending is with a credit card readers. I really like using Nayax Credit Card Readers as the product has plenty of intuitive features. The dashboard you can pull sales reports from is also top notch. If you’re planning on getting into the vending machine business, please feel free to message me as I’m happy to help!
Conclusion
Diversifying your income is more than just a safety net; it’s a proactive approach to building a robust financial future and a fulfilling career. By not solely relying on your job for income, you open doors to new opportunities, financial freedom, and personal growth.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Also, if you haven’t already, I’d recommend joining the pistachio community where we chat about all things personal finance, updates I’ve run into and our best learning lessons on the path to financial freedom.
