In most of the financial blogs I read, their owners have multiple income streams. They don’t always share specific numbers, but they all talk about their various streams of income. I want part of the action! Which is why I’m looking at multiple income streams.
The most obvious reason for this is that I don’t rely on just one income, which is a salary paid by someone else. Whilst the benefits of this are that it is steady income and tax/pensions/student loans are all sorted at source, so I don’t have to worry about that. However, I’m also reliant on that one income, and should anything happen to that, life would be very different pretty quickly.
The genius with different income streams is that there is no limit to how many you can have! Your income per month can be whatever you want it to be, provided you work for it. Another bonus with income streams is that they can arrive on various days during the month, so you don’t just have one payday, you can have several. Who doesn’t want that?
The income streams I’m looking at are:
– Dividend payments – I haven’t actually taken the plunge into investing as yet, purely because so many places warn about losing money and it scares me slightly! But, I think that when I do, I want to be a dividend growth investor. More on that in another post!
– Online income – whether this will be writing posts, managing blogs, advertising, social media management or something else, I think this would be a very exciting journey to go on. I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready to start this journey (just yet) but I’m excited about the challenge whenever it arrives.
– Tutoring – as a musician, I’ve been looking into teaching instrumental lessons privately. Again, I haven’t done anything about this, but there are people who live nearby who make a decent living by doing private teaching.
– Write an ebook – this is a secret dream of mine to write and sell an ebook but again, I don’t think I’m quite at the stage where I’m ready for this. I have a few ideas and I’ve started one, but this will probably be a long term aim for me.
– Interest on savings – now, this is such a small amount of interest on our savings at the moment (think pennies!) but if our savings grow, which they should, then interest on savings will eventually be another source of income.
These are the various income streams I’m looking at, though at the moment, I have not started on anything! But, I’m hoping to change that sooner rather than later, so that we can meet our aims more quickly. I will have to look at the tax implications and get my head around those before I start, but I’m looking forward to the journey ahead.
Do you have multiple income streams? Are there any that I’ve missed? I’d love to hear from you!
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These are all great ideas! I’m also interested in dividend payments once we get our student loans out of the way. I’m sure you could easily break into tutoring – that sounds like a great side hustle. I think Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income) has a free ebook on…writing an ebook, if you’re interested =).
Thanks for mentioning that – I shall go and see if I can find it 🙂
Having multiple sources of income is a key way of securing our financial well-being so I’m glad you’re considering it Nicola. I have done/currently do pretty much every thing you listed save the E-book which I wouldn’t rule it out someday if I felt compelled to write one.
I think the secure aspect is so important, I just need to get started! 🙂
At the moment, interest does not accrue too much due to low interest rates but that could change. We definitely have investment income and I’ve started a very very tiny bit of on-line income. Our other income that you don’t have is rental income – we rent our basement to a university coop student, a new one every four months.
I could probably do math tutoring but I don’t really feel like it. I should probably reconsider this though.
The only problem with rental income is that we need to have enough money to buy somewhere first! Hopefully it’ll be something to think about in the future 🙂
This is absolutely the way to go! I love having multiple streams because it feel safer. 🙂
I know – only having one income source is a bit scary.
That is a very good plan of attack and I agree that we should look into multiple income streams. Hopefully eventually online income will appear, but in the meantime I will also be working on building passive income as well. I haven’t consider the ebook or tutoring routes myself.
I will watch your journey with interest 🙂
I’m in the process of developing different streams of income. I loathe only having one primary source of income. It’s very scary.
It is scary! I shall watch your journey with interest 🙂
My wife and I have been trying to create multiple income stream as well. Interesting thought about tutoring. I used to do that when I was in high school, maybe that’s something we can look into. 🙂
It’s just finding those contacts I guess – good luck if you decide to go down that venture 🙂
You cannot be scared of dividend investing. It is an incredible compounding way to build an ever growing income stream. Stick to high quality names, diversify, don’t chase yield and nibble on stocks instead of gorging. Take it slow and invest a few hundred just to start. Open an Loyal3 account and buy for $50 or less. You know there are many great dividend investing blogs to seek advice. Just my 2 cents.
Don’t think I can get a Loyal3 account as I live in the UK, but I do know I need to just take the plunge and start investing. I will, promise!
Tutoring seems like an interesting and often overlooked way to make some extra money! I was thinking of using my English literature and linguistics Master’s degree to teach 12-16 year-olds during the weekend.
I’ve seen that most people pay upwards of 25 euros for an hour, so that would make 100 euros every weekend when tutoring only 4 hours. That’s €5200/year!
Let us know if you decide to go for it!
That seems like a good idea on a weekend – let me know if you decide to do it! I’ll keep everyone updated 🙂
You might be interested in checking out my new finance site.. I’m trying to do the same sort of thing starting from zero. Your best method from all these options is interest on savings, i think. It depends how much you have to get the interest. Wish it was easier though hehehe
Currently I have the start of multiple streams. I have my day job, my site (say about $100/month in affiliate income), a rental unit (that just pays down the mortgage), and a little bit of interest. I intend to get on dividends at some point. And if I did lose my job, I could tutor for up to $50/hr. I don’t “bank” on anything but my day job, but it’s a nice little bit of gravy with the other smaller pieces. It is in the process of working itself out.
Sounds like you’ve got a good start 🙂
All sound like good ideas! Tutoring is something I’ve thought about on and off, but haven’t taken the plunge yet. Keep us posted!
Will do! 🙂
Nicola,
Some great ideas there!
I diversify via online and dividend income, which I feel really comfortable with.
I’d love to write a book one day, but it’s tough to find the time!
Good luck building each one of these income streams. 🙂
Best regards.
Thanks – it’s the time it takes that’s the problem at the moment. Thanks for stopping by!
Great ideas, you could also consider a simple eBay or Amazon selling business in a field that you are interested in e.g. you could sell antique music scores or something. Someone I know is a maths teacher, he made a website and put revision methods and maths help on there, then he made a load of maths help videos on youtube and he makes money off the ads that go with his channel. Perhaps you could do something like that with your music?
Best Wishes