Leaving a reliable job that pays steady income in hopes of earning more and saving time is no easy decision to make. 70%+ Americans only choose the path of one income source because itâs reliable yet majority fall victim to assuming it will work out forever with a good boss, commute and hard work ethic.
But how reliable is it? Nothing can go bad with a great job?
Every job in the world isnât completely reliable or stable. I donât want that to scare you but face it, even being a doctor during Covid, prime season, you could still be laid off. When you get older, an office needs fresh new blood and if a pandemic hits, no matter how strategic and brilliant you are as a CMO or a janitor, if the budget doesnât work, budget will always take precedence over you.
Thatâs how business works. They unfortunately donât put people in front of business because money plays a big emotional and physical toll as it adds up quick. But instead of being a slave to your wage and worrying if youâll be keeping it the next time a recession hits which is historically every 5â10 years, give yourself the true life of financial freedom and invest in whatâs important instead guaranteeing passive income no dreaded salary that robs your time.
Investing shouldnât be some hard mind game made out for quant nerds. Itâs for any everyday citizen to take part in earnings of successful companies. It used to be for the institutional investors and they still make up 80% of the stock market, but now with the boom of retail trading, which I highly donât recommend since it is solely based on predictions, guessing, memes everything I appose about day trading, this new investing era is raising awareness about how crucial it is to not rely on one income source.
Whether you are a graduate, student, 80 year old, âhi grandma!â, having disposable income and letting money work for you not your time will give you endless peace and harmony.
Itâs the same feeling you get when you pay off your mortgage or last dollar of your student debt. You arenât beholden to the government or bank anymore, you feel free and have less incentive to work towards paying anything off to finally enjoy life. This may or may not be a good thing since you now feel you can throw away the diligent spending habits you kept since college, but at least now you are free.
So why is a job a problem?
A job is necessary to propel a living, not sustain one. The thing is, when you apply for a job, you are applying with your knowledge that you hope to utilize for the companyâs benefit. Yes, you learn at work but what they are looking for isnât an environment conducive to learning, they want to take advantage of you. Companies are looking for all the cheap labor they can get. The easier it can be on their hands, the more profits and more likely they will like you.
Itâs all based on money and competitive advantage. Theyâre selfish brats.
A job isnât horrible, its just not realistic if you want to feel entirely free, take on risk, and earn money in your sleep.
As Kevin OâLeary, a.k.a Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank states,
âA salary is just the drug they give you when they want you to give up on your dreams.â
What does he mean by this?
At work, you are working towards someone elseâs goal. No matter how much you love the job, it cannot be your passion because you arenât growing anything for yourself.
You arenât learning when profits and salary is on the line and we all know that the best investment you can make is in yourself. Education is more powerful than wealth, three day weekends or free Friday lunches at your work because you will be able to take advantage of things that businesses used to do to you.
That leads me to the first step to creating passive income.
Take Advantage of You
You are on this earth for a reason. Learning doesnât have a destination and cannot stop when you graduate. This mentality will make or break you from earning more.
No one cares about how smart you are or your GPA in HS, they just want to make sure you can do the job and how efficient you are at it. Books, mentors, coaches, making mistakes and taking advantage of your time will teach you endless lessons that can help save you time rather than trying it on your own and wonât allow you to memorize facts that go in one ear out the other like in school. Applying skills on your own will teach you fundamentals that can be optimized and personalized to you not your boss. Thatâs what growing wealth is all about.
To grow wealth you donât apply to get a job and act smart.
The stock market doesnât care where you come from or discriminate anymore. Positions do.
You have several income streams, manage tenants, earn royalties from intellectual property as a efficient and mediocre investor person.
Iâm proud to say Iâm mediocre, boring and basic. I never want that high IQ or book smarts with no soft skills, EQ or people skills. Thatâs not what the world is about.
To earn passive income, itâs negotiation, getting your mind right and cutting corners the right way.
Money rewards those who are chasing after it for the right reasons not beholden to every dollar in taxes.
The number one reason what is most likely holding you back from creating supplemental income or starting that new gig is based on what economists and teachers tell us which is: thereâs scarcity instead of surplus. Redirecting your focus on knowing there is plenty of money in the world for you to have will help you understand that making money isnât hard, itâs all built in systems that you must find and uncover.
So what are these types of systems?
Letâs go check them out.
Iâll Be Ranking the Best Passive Income Streams Based on This Criteria:
Risk
Return
Liqudity
Fesability
Taxes
Passive income is known as the âholy grailâ of personal finance because if you have enough passive income to cover your desired lifestyle, you are truly financial free and with only 40% of Americans able to cover an unexpected $400 expense, this has to be their priority, not Netflix.
Passive income takes several foms but the only way to use your passive income is really through building a taxable investment portfolio which means investing in real estate. You donât have to have your own tenants and property to lease out, you can now take part in crowdsourcing where you can take a share of commercial, art, judicial, etc. real estate owned by property managers.
(No particular order)
#1: Saving
This is the easiest way to achieve finial freedom. This doesnât just mean following a harsh budget that isnât sustainable, you must be able to save enough money to buy what you need when you need it. After saving money, you must be able to build passive income which entails knowing how to properly invest in savings not just save in itself.
Ultimately saving isnât just enough
A farmer who makes half of what an investment banker makes is worth more because he saves 80% or more of his income and doesnât live in a high tax state such as NYC or California having Uncle Sam take away all his income.
Itâs not how much you earn, rather how much you keep.
Ultimately, if you can max out of your IRA or 301k then save an additional 30%+ on your after-tax, after-retirement contributions, then you are able to achieve the ultimate goal to save upwards of 50% of your after-tax income or more. For an individual not nearing retirement, saving 80% or more of your income is key and more than sustainable without needing to eat Ramen and sleep in your car.
#2: Real Estate Types
Physical real estate can be a pain upfront to manage, deal with maintenance, broker and renter insurance fees and back check tenants, but once that hassle and paperwork is done, it is the most stable, lucrative passive income out there besides dividends from the stock market.
Even if you own a business, real estate is doomed to do better.
No wonder Iâm more bullish on real estate than on stocks! Theyâre guaranteed to last and always in demand. Someone will forever need a home, maybe two and home prices during this pandemic have only risen roughly 30% in some midwestern states!
It is the only tangible asset that appreciates this much.
Compared to stocks, real estate:
-Can use leverage
-Reocurring postivive cash flow
-Always in demand unless we start sleeping in our cars
-Tax advantages-you can deduct your expenses from your business to pay less in taxes
-The first $250k in gains is tax-free per individual and if married itâs $550k upon sale.
-Thereâs an ability to exchange a property you own for another property via the 1031 Exchange so you can bypass the capital gains tax.
Thereâs no better time than now with low mortgage and interest rates, great value in the heartland of America where WFHomers are fleeing and a preference for more stable recurring income and less volatility form the markets to rack up some income through properties.
Real Estate Crowdsourcing
Compared to commercial or crowdsourcing real estate where you can purchase a share and a percentage of properties that managers own and take care of on your behalf reaping the profits, physical real estate is a lot of upfront work that many donât have the time to afford. Yes you can hire a manager but that dips into profits.
If youâre stuck with this problem and donât want to own physical estates, crowdsourcing may be the best for you. It used to only be available to ultra high net worth individuals or institutional investors, yet now the average Jack and Jill can buy a percentage of commercial real estate project. This potentially yields roughly 7â13% annual returns. You donât have to worry about tenants or maintenance, brokers or evictions, crowdsourcing is completely digital!
Due to inflation, to own a residence you should ideally keep it for at least 5â10 years, otherwise you are spending more than you made off the property when you sell. Renting means you are shorting the market and only after buying more than 2 properties you longing real estate.
Choosing either option will allow you to reap the benefits.
Owning real estate is the top passive income source for the rich.
#3: Fixed Income and Bonds
As interest rates go up, bond prices go down. Why? Bonds are a debt security, and the cheaper the price is, the more people are able take advantage of it and this lures the lender into assuming they wonât be able to pay back due to great rates and demand. The lender is obliged to pay them interest (the coupon) or to repay the principal at a later date, termed the maturity date. Buying a ETFF bond, fixed income bond or municipal bonds help stabilize income or you can buy treasury bonds through any online brokerage.
Although bonds generate less and have lower historical performance than stocks, with the lower volatility, guarantee and appreciation and higher coupon payments, bonds are vital in an uncertain environment such as the one weâre living in today.
Long term bonds have actually outperformed stocks in the last 20 years. Yet, as interest rates get higher, bonds will decline in value. Yet, staying long term bullish is best. If you hold the bond to maturity, you will get back your initial principle and coupon payments.
#4: Intellectual Property and Royalties
Real estate is for the hustler and individual who enjoys getting their hands dirty. Creating products and services to lease, sell and receive royalties and commission from are for the creativities in the world who like to get dirty as well yet prefer to stay clean away from the crowd once established.
Creating stuff is a steady flow of passive income that could possibly serve you for as long as it stays relevant. Just like with real estate, thereâs upfront costs, but after that, if thereâs a need for it and it keeps advertising on its own or through your occasional efforts, youâll be making money forever and while you sleep.
Thatâs the true definition of passive income. Letting the money work for you. But you must be patient. Just look at famous painters and singers such as Van Gogh or Michael Jackson. They are making more dead than alive due to royalties.
#5: Cryptocurrency
Hedge against inflation is the new currency. Every-time the US government prints more money, which has never been at this accelerated pace, the value of the USD goes down.
This process is called quantitative easing, when printing money is at an uneprecented rate and instead of prices inflating immediately, we are in the stagnant zone.
Although it is arguable that BitCoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum, digital currencies are manipulated by the market and have seen their value rise not due to true demand but rather speculation, these are deflationary currencies similar to precious metals like gold that hold value. They hedge against inflation which is good for your wallet.
#6: Dividends
Dividends are the most guaranteeable passive income source. Is that a word? Guaranteeable?
Anyway, most blue-chip, reliable companies issue dividends because their management doesnât know what to do with the retained earnings. These companies have demonstrated consistent returns yet it still isnât much to live off of. The payout percentage is typically 3â10%.
So if a company earns $1 a share and pays out 90 cents in the form of a dividend, thatâs a 90% dividend payout ratio. Utilities, telecoms and the financial sector tend to make up the majority of dividend paying companies and they follow the 10 yr Yield.
So if interest rates are low, so are dividends. Compared to growth stocks, they certainly arenât as beatable when it comes to accelerated profit, but if you are looking towards the conservative side, possibly nearing retirement, they are your best bet. Or even just to earn a few hundred dollars per month doesnât hurt.
#7: Peer-to-Peer Lending (P2P)
This is one of the most riskiest sources because as it states in the name, peer-to-peer lending is to help denied or low credit score borrowers get loans at lower rates rather than working with banks or larger financial institutions charging them high interest in fear of not paying back.
This does seem like a risky business since those who participate either have a bad credit score, are either too young or want to take out a loan or mortgage with loads of debt.
Defaulting on loans sucks and you must be aware of them from these folks.
Scams and payday, shark loans are mostly lended to these individuals but P2P lenders claim investors make an annual return between 5â7% better than an average CD!
Proceed with caution. Thatâs all I say.
#8: Certificate of Deposit (CDs)
If you hate cash, like all of us do but know you have to have some locked away in case of an emergency, putting them in a CD is your best bet to earn some percentage instead of letting it deflate due to inflation. Savings accounts are just not worth it these days as youâll only be lucky to make a few dollars per year.
Yet with CDs, thereâs no income or net worth minimums to invest and you can go to your local bank and open up a CD and put as little or much cash as possible earning a decent return of around 2%.
Preferably keep 20% out of your portfolio of cash into a 6â12 month emergency fund.
It takes quite a bit of capital to create massive passive income with savings because CDs provide barely anything over 2%+ but still better than a few cents from the bank.
#9: Private Equity Investing
Last but not least, this is a risky move, but not as bad as P2P as it can certainly provide the most profitable source of capital appreciation investing in startups and valuable companies projected to become unicorns. Private equity is seen as more valuable than real estate, unless you own a one of a kind property left on the market that will only increase 200% in a year.
Private equity is restructuring and reinvesting in companies in hopes that they would become profitable. It only takes 1 company out of a million that have failed to be successful.
These private investments though are usually restricted to accredited investors ($250K income per individual) and there is a lock up period for private investments so your money isnât liquid. Lastly, when you directly invest into a private company, you are unable to receive zero dividends or distributions until the period is over.
Whether your dream is to quit your job and live off of your investments or have both, it is more than attainable in any circumstance. Most of these donât require money upfront, just patience, grit and luck manifested on your own.
What are you waiting for?
Letâs build that cushion of wealth!