What do you mean multiple streams?

I get asked often “what do you mean multiple streams?” Well this comes from a book I read awhile back that discussed Multiple Streams of Income. Most people have their main jobs which produce their income and they are content to go through life that way. Others strive to find other sources of income to complement their primary source and to speed them ahead towards financial freedom.

The idea is to have these other streams be more of a passive nature, as in they bring in income without any or little work on your part. Lets face it I could go become one of those sign spinners part time earning another income but this would take time away from other things and the income would be kind of small (nothing against those that do spin signs).  You want to put all the work you need to do upfront, setting up the stream and then hopefully walk away after some time and it will continue to produce. With some minor maintenance of course now and then to make sure it keeps producing.

One of the simplest and the first method to do is to put your money to work for you. This can be as simple as a savings account. Yes the interest you earn is a ‘stream’ of income (Just ask uncle sam, he taxes it right?) Its not much these days but its something. Another option along these lines is Dividend Investing, that is investing in stocks that pay dividends. Do your homework and you can get a return that will be much better than your savings. You can also put both these on autopilot with automatic money transfers and re-investing, so it takes very little work on your part.

You can also turn to your hobbies for income. Many people are crafty and then there are those that are not but like crafty things. My wife enjoys crocheting to relax and can only make so many sweaters for the family. She also makes some of the hats and items for props in my photography. So I have encouraged her to make and sell them for others as well. If you like to write there are many opportunities such as blogging, PLR articles, or content writing for websites.

I bring the last ones up as it leads into one of my streams of income, creating niche websites. Creating websites focused on a particular subject with either pay per click ads or promoting an affiliate product. Idea is to create these sites, get them ranking high on google thus gaining traffic and at some point they will earn you income with very little maintenance (more on this in a future post).

When you are budgeting for savings and/or debt reduction there is only so much you can cut back on in terms of spending and budgeting (and I really don’t want to give up my cable tv), but there are really unlimited ways for you to add to your income. Some may take more work, others are completely passive paying you while you sleep. Just up to your imagination and drive to make it.

How do you produce extra income?