So I’ve
been thinking a lot about income and the power it can bring. If you have “financial freedom” which I would define as
passive income to meet your monthly expenditures then you don’t have to work.
Realistically however, I don’t and neither do anybody I know expect perhaps
those who are getting close to retirement. But there are strong moves you can
make to bring this future towards you at an accelerated rate.
I’vebeen
reading a lot about this on various personal finance blogs and it has been a
goal of mine for a while. You can see that two of my main goals for the year
are directly tied to that.
Debt
reduction is key because with debt comes monthly payments that add to your
monthly bills. Home Ownership can be
argued for and against but I hope to be able to get a small house and pay it
off as quickly as possible (no I don’t think mortgage debt is any different
than any other debt except it gets a few perks and whistles just like student
loans), a mortgage does take a long time, but rent never ends. (Yes a home
But
back to income. A lot of the blogs I read seem to assume that people are
spending too much. This can be true but often the real issue in this economy is
earnings. I know a lot of people out of work, or working only part time and
just unable to find anything.
I’m working two jobs and while I’m greatful
for the work it’s a lot harder than it sounds. So if you’re thinking about
this, there are some things to consider. It’s not just a matter of extending
your work day.
First
of all you have to make sure your companies allow it (I’m fortunate, mine allow
it as long as they don’t compete with each other directly. Check your employee
handbook. It might be called “moonlighting”.
Second
you have to make sure you have a plan for this because it’s not terribly
sustainable. I’ve been doing this for over a year and have almost always had
multiple jobs but you wear out and then need to take a breather. There are only so many hours in a day and
handling the demands of multiple bosses gets complicated fast.
Third,
consider non-traditional sources of income as well. Often they can pay better
per hour or build towards substantial earnings later (such as starting your own
business). For examples, as mentioned before, on top of my work I sell AVON. It
cost me $10 to get started and I doubled my investment the first day. It’s hard
work but I get dividends. For example, a client called me the other day that I
hadn’t reached out to in quite a while and gave me an order! It’s not quite
passive income but it’s close. I also do a lot of surveys, try to sell things
on Amazon whenever I can, and I hope to start freelancing soon. Ideally, I’d
like these sources of side income to take over the need for a structured second
job.
If you’re
working two jobs or have a lot of side hustles because you have to, then start a
plan now to make that change make a big impact in your finances. Make sure you’re allocating at least some of
that money to debt, savings or investments! Otherwise you’re just spinning your
wheels for no reason.
