Passive streams of income are a total must do. At the end of the day each individual needs to dig within themselves to find what their strengths are and then make it work for them

Thanks for your articles.
greetings diane

So far, I have listed that I like to talk and can speak well, I am an excellent administrator-i can plan, organise aanything, I can type really fast, if you give me an idea I can blow it up 10x bigger and show new ways of making it better, I take really copious readable notes, I can sing & dance well, I love to write, I love to help to do anything.

Right now, my husband and myself are both self-employed and own 3 small businesses between us, which are our only source of income except for some very small mutual fund shares. We have come to realise that when our streams of income aren’t doing so well that it affects us financially straight across the board, as then we have to think about not only supporting the needs of our family but our businesses as well.

Thank God we don’t owe any bank etc. but we would love to own a home without the worry of an additional mortgage payment-we see this as a burden.

So I am very interested in hearing how I can go about creating multiple streams of income without adding stress to a life which is just simply busy running our 3 small businesses, taking care of our 5month old and 3 year old, and volunteering in a charitable organisation and further without adding yet another “payment” to our current list. we simply cannot afford it.

The article was great. Thanks a million

I read your blog avidly. There is something I would like to get your thoughts on.

What is your take on the ethical side of a part time job? Many of us work irregular hours, i.e. starting time is fixed, but ending time is….as and when we finish our jobs.

How do we do justice to both jobs, if the timing factor is not so clear. This will also hold for starting a side business, I think

If you become completely debt free and start to build a small inventory this will not be as critical however for 95% of America it is a good recommendation.

For example we now have more food around our place because we buy in bulk to save 10-25%, find stores that offer discounts when you buy by the case. It is nice to also know that come an emergency like income loss or natural disasters we won’t be worrying about what we’ll do in a day or two…imagine if everyone in New Orleans had a one week supply of food and water, the whole dynamic would have changed.

After considering all this, I get so overwhelmed that I never really start. I think it is a problem of keeping my motivation and finding the time outside a full time job and volunteer work.

Any suggestions?

consider making curtains – that is my income, as I’m mostly a stay at home mom, but can do it in my spare time, and it pays far better than making/altering clothing.

And I started so cheap that I wasn’t making much, but people were paying so little that they were very forgiving of my mistakes. Eight years later, I work only on referrals, not a bit of advertising, and I stay REALLy busy.

Just another idea, for a fellow seamstress!

@Mrs Micah – you wouldn’t believe my schedule right now…thank goodness semester break’s just a couple of weeks away. =) i got to cut back though, i’m feeling exhausted lately.

@Barbara Stanny – it might not be obvious with my tons of commitments, but i agree with what you said that generally,
“Underearners tend to scatter their energies in too many directions with too many projects.”

jack of all trades, master of none. i’m still in the process of figuring out what i’m really passionate about

I’ve been thinking about the multiple income stream idea for a while, and I guess my chief concern was that raised by Barbara Stanny above. I figured I’d earn more by focusing on my highest-income pursuit – my day job – rather than diversifying my human capital, since nothing else I could do would earn me as much per hour of effort as my day job, not even close, especially with overtime factored in.

This post got my cranial juices flowing, though. What if I break out of the time-for-money paradigm? Right now I’m working on developing an information product related to cooking that could generate a passive income that could scale WAY beyond the number of hours I put into it. That was already in the works. What THIS article got me thinking was: why don’t I start a personal chef / small-scale catering business?

I already do the majority of my cooking 1 day a week…what if I just doubled, tripled, or quadrupled the quantity (which does not increase the level of time and effort by the same amount) packaged it into meals, and sold it to folks who want home-cooked meals without the hassle? This is turning my greatest passion – cooking good food for people who appreciate it – and turning it into an income stream. I figure at the very least, my passion for cooking will start to pay for itself, and what I learn from this business may improve the quality of my info product.

The punchline: I posted an ad on craigslist earlier this evening. If anyone’s in the Minneapolis area, search for “personal chef”. Bon appetit.

Don’t ever make a documentary (or other kind of film) with your own money unless it’s really costs next to nothing to make. Seems like it should be a no-brainer but artistic passion sometimes has difficulty listening to financial reality.