Multiple Sources of Income

Once upon a time, you went to work every day and at the end of the week or month you got paid for the work you did. You had a relationship with your employer that once established, you would remain with the same employer for the remainder of your working life. This did not mean that you remained in the same position, but generally people stayed with the same company until retirement. Then, you would have a big retirement party, and spend the remainder of your time enjoying life, living off of your retirement check possibly with some assistance from your Social Security check.

If you didn't notice, those days are now long gone. Companies now hire and fire at the drop of a hat. In their defense, employees come and go just as quickly. Many employees now come into a company, learn what they want to, and then jump ship for another opportunity that will pay more. You do not get the dedication of workforce that you used to, from either side. As you are all well aware, when the going gets tough for companies, they look to the staff and either reduce the hours paid, or let people go in order to save costs. Very rarely will you see upper managemet trimming their ranks. That would only occur if a company was acquired by another. Your retirement plans are also basically gone unless you personally invest in a 401(k) and hope the company matches your investments. Most companies have either gotten rid of their retirement plans and rely on you to start a 401(k) or as you have seen in the news, some companies can't even pay out the retirement plans they have in place.

The upshot of this whole thing is that now, more than ever, we need to have more than one stream of income. You can no longer rely on your one company job to keep a roof over your head and food on the table. We are not even talking about paying for your children's college education, or getting them vehicles to drive around in. If you take a good hard look at the rich, they do not have expectations that all their money comes from one source. They have multiple sources of income. Multiple sources of income also provide additional income and the added security so that if your main income stream stops, you have a plan "B" or "C" or "D" etc.

The biggest trick to managing multiple streams of income is not in working at multiple jobs. Working for someone, you trade time for money. The key is to develop another income stream that does not take large amounts of your time, but with a little invested time, will pay dividends down the road, essentially, passive income. Another advantage of multiple streams of income is that if one of the streams starts to slow down, you can easily shift to another income stream and start building that one up. You are able to shift your focus without worrying about going bankrupt.

We will continue this discussion on multiple income streams tomorrow, digging deeper into understanding 'passive' income and how to get it started.

Until tomorrow...