Gone are the simple days when one could rely on one income to get by. With the rising costs of living and inflation, we could be strapped to find any leftover money for an emergency fund after all the payments for housing, cars, and other necessities.
Definitely, if you make above a certain margin, it is feasible to only have one job. But regardless of what bracket you’re in, anyone can benefit from having more than one stream of income.
Relying solely on one job comes with its risks—you’re betting that your place in a company is secured for the long haul. In reality, we don’t have control over extraordinary circ*mstances that might endanger our job security or finances at any given time.
At least if you had another stream of income coming in, you wouldn’t be worried about meeting payments. Having another income stream also gives you the flexibility to take an extra vacation if you want to, donate more money to the causes you care about or invest in a potential business idea without worrying about you being wiped out from it.
Money at the end of the day is not about greed, but is about options and opportunity.
This is how you could create and leverage multiple income streams.
Start small, and see what effect it has on your life
You don’t have to get a second job to reap the benefits of this concept. I recommend starting really small— do something on the side that is within your capabilities, skills and takes up minimal of your energy. Less time, more money types of gigs. If you’re interested in e-commerce or stocks, start investing with a small amount, $500, $1000…Learn, apply, and adjust your methods, until you start to see results.
I started tutoring in college. On top of this, I also had a part-time. I realized that by tutoring on the weekends, I could charge 3x the amount I usually made at my pt, so by putting in only two to four hours, I could save enough for let’s say, a week trip to New York. Though it wasn’t a lot of money, it makes a difference.
I continued this, no matter what job I had I always kept tutoring. It gives me some degree of freedom, especially when work was inconsistent. By budgeting, I could relatively live off my tutoring income—whatever comes in from my job, I get to keep in my savings or invest in my stock portfolio.
Build Towards Passive Income
Once you get the idea and you’re putting away more money each month towards your savings — you can begin to leverage these savings to create even more income. You want an emergency fund just in case anything happens— but there’s really no point in hoarding a bunch of money, it’s better to put it to good use.
Real estate is an option. It’s generally a pretty safe investment, however, this will require quite the upfront cost— the downpayment (this can range anywhere between $25,000 to $100,000 depending on your income and the home you’re planning to purchase). If you’re fortunate enough to not have to pay rent on your own, you could always rent out the property, and it’ll pretty much pay for itself.
Stocks and equities is another option. There’s a whole range of AI wealth investment apps out there these days that make portfolio investing easy, and adjust to your risk levels. For example, Wealth Simple is an investment app that comes with a Robo Advisor that creates a portfolio for you. Consulting an advisor that can explain to you concepts is always helpful. They can help you create a balanced portfolio in which you can expect to see incremental gains in the long run.
Invest in a business. If you have a business idea you want to pursue, you can start saving and allocating funds towards building it. If your idea becomes successful, the income you earn from the business, can cover all your initial costs and a lot more. Be wary though: building a business comes with it’s risks and takes a lot of time and effort, unlike the previous mentioned options. However, the more projects you start, the more you learn, and the faster the process becomes each time. Even if a couple of ideas never see the light of day, if you’re persistent, one of them is bound to work.
Don’t Lose Focus on the Main Job
Hopefully, you get paid to do things in your skillzone. It might be tempting to pick up numerous projects on the side to create other streams of income, but in the process, make sure you don’t get distracted to the point you start delivering less at your main income driver.
Make sure you excel first at what you do best. The extra time you have can be dedicated to pursuing and learning about these other means. Overtime, if you’re lucky, you might end up making more money from one of your side hustles than your main job. It is at this time, you might want to reevaluate whether it makes sense or not to allocate your energy towards building this and leaving your day job.
There’s going to be seasons when we’re blessed with more time on our hands—use this time wisely This can be utilized to developing our other skill sets and creating different means for ourselves to make money.
It took me a lot of time in the beginning to figure out what exactly my students needed to improve. This meant an hour or two of my week was devoted to lesson planning on top of actually being present during the lesson. After a year, I know almost my heart of what to do, that I can improvise activities on the fly. I can teach on autopilot, and I no longer need to dedicate the same amount of energy into making plans. That season is over, so I can focus on my main priority of becoming better as a writer.
Conclusion
Finding creative solutions to make an extra hundred of bucks every month, might not seem like a lot— but it adds up. You can start a business, build a website for it, have some sort of ad campaign for less than a grand. You can invest in all sorts of personal development tools.
Or you can fund special trips more consistently that enrich your relationship with your loved ones. Utilize seasons where you don’t have too many things going on to devise different means to make money. Once, you put in the initial work and research, the rest should follow more easily— and you’ll be on your way to achieving more freedom and abundance in your life.
