Benefits of income diversification

Income diversification or multiple incomes seems to be the trend of the month right now. Its seems like everyone is hopping on the bandwagon. I, personally, love the idea and am working hard at finding different routes to be able to feel financially secure.  Let me preface this by saying that I have always been a spender, but I have always worked. Hard work to me is part of the course, but I do get bored rather quickly. So in order for me to stay focused on one task for a long period of time, I need to feel mentally stimulated. Being bored equals sloppy work, and sloppy work is simply not acceptable.

We all have fears, some have completely irrational ones like talking on the phone, some,  like myself, fear being unemployed. I fear waking up and not having a source of income. I fear not being able to take care of myself and therefore relying on others. Actually, I think what scares me the most is relying on others. I bet a lot of people have the fear, but there are very few that do something about it. We live in a culture where being unemployed isn’t seen as a scary thing since people can rely on the social system. I don’t want to think about that as an option. One of my biggest dreams is to become a vega-bond  and travel the globe. While building a passive income stream might not be on the top of my list, I do want to have multiple channels of revenue coming in so if/when I decided to take a sabbatical and go live in Honduras, I have enough to cover my bills.

My friends refer to me as the “do-er”. I like making plans and starting right away. I usually lack the self control of waiting around to mull an idea over. If I think I should do something I jump right in. Thats how I started blogging. I came across a few blogs, read them all weekend, found Yakezie and took the plunge. That is also how I started my side business.

You may have read about the 30K challenge last year. The challenge is one of the ways that I am motivating myself to diversify my income stream.

Benefits of income diversification:

  • Peace of mind
  • Income security
  • Increased income
  • Write-offs*
  • Ability to expedite debt repayment
*Registering your own business is the first step in this process. You’d be surprised at what you can write off.

I like knowing that I can walk away from any part of my work life and still have a steady income. Income that I can increase exponentially based on the amount of work I am willing to put in. Don’t get me wrong working full-time at a steady job is fantastic, but I don’t have the security of knowing that I am my own boss and that my future is in my own hands.

 

Different Sources of income

There are a ridiculous amount of resources available out there that can help provide different channels for secondary income. All it takes is a bit of research. Sometimes you have to fearless to start a new business or become an entrepreneur. There is a bit of luck, a lot of hard work and some foolishness involved, but the peace of mind that comes with it is very worth every second of extra work.

Thirty Six Months

 

23 Comments

  1. I actually hate talking on the phone and get nervous doing so. I am pretty good at it but I prefer one on one. I can’t stand not seeing what’s happening.

  2. You bring up some great points about income diversification. There are fewer safe bets on employers honoring their commitments to their workers, laying off more and more, etc. It only makes sense to spread out where you get your income from in order to protect yourself.

  3. I only blog and have my job – so I guess it’s only marginally diversified, haha. Even if I lost my job, I wouldn’t make enough blogging for it to sustain me, but I know that I could find something else to do.

    1. Daisy, your blog is growing more than you think. Im sure it will bringing in a good chunk of income really soon.

  4. I’m surprised by this statement: “We live in a culture where being unemployed isn’t seen as a scary thing since people can rely on the social system.”

    I think many people ARE scared of being unemployed (which may explain why they stick with jobs they don’t like), and I don’t know what unemployment insurance is like in places other than Arizona, but it’s a ridiculously small amount here. Nothing you could live on unless you have almost no bills. It’s not even enough to pay for health insurance in many cases.

    But, I do agree that income diversification is an awesome thing 🙂

    1. My perspective might differ from yours. Being in the tech hub of Canada, and being actively involved with a lot of self-employed Gen-Yers, its easy to see a paradigm shift.

      Perhaps its just the environment or the fact that we didn’t go through the rescession like US did, but I am seeing more and more people walking away from full-time work to pursue freelancing/passionate work.

  5. I agree Marissa and would go as far as to say that being an entrepreneur with several income streams is a far more stable way of earning a living than having one job. Matters are all in your hands, and if one income stream stops, the rest can carry you through. With a job your financial security could be in the hands of an ego maniac boss, or a badly run company that might go bust.

  6. Income diversification is very important, but I am at a point in my life where I do not have substantially enough income to really diversify 🙁 — Someday though. Maybe my income will pick up a bit in the near future and things will change

    Great post, keep it up.

  7. While I wholeheartedly agree with multiple streams of income, I’ve also seen the downside of this: some people scatter their energy so much they’re unable to make money at ANYTHING. That’s why whenever I have an idea for a new income stream I focus on building one to be sustainable before moving on to the next one.

    1. Your absolutely right from a maximum income building perspective. The great Andrew Carnegie, who Forbes magazine rated as the second wealthiest person of all time said, “Put all your eggs in one basket and make sure nobody kicks it over”. He believed in doing one thing brilliantly, and who am I to argue with this?! However most of us do want a bit of backup, which probably does actually cost us in the long run, but makes us feel more secure.

      1. As much as I really like about Andrew Carnagie, I do not agree with that mentality. I believe that having different options stops one from settling work situations that they are not happy with it.

    2. I swear my ADD kicks in and I want to focus on as many projects as I can juggle. It ends up being a mess.

  8. I think this is an important principle in retirement as well. You don’t want the only income to be social security.

    1. Its sad to see that most people come to that realization too late in life. I think it should be on everyone’s mind from an early age.

  9. Income diversification can be good for most. But for some it is not that good. when you have multiple things to do, you can hardly concentrate on a single thing, that is your main job. At the same time many jobs are not challenging, for those fortunate ones income diversification is always good.

  10. The options are there, we just have to explore them. I’m am so scared of being unemployed – that is not an option that I want to explore. I would prefer to have about ten back up plans so that I would not be fully unemployed.

  11. I laughed when reading the part about jumping right in–that is definitely me!

    I don’t really make anything from my blog (do the few cents from AdSense count??), but I make sure to have diversified income streams through side gigs, part-time work, etc. I’ve written about how I balance it all on my blog, so feel free to check it out.

  12. I believe everyone should invest in some form of passive income. Especially going into retirement. Anything that brings in money like dividend paying stocks or income from a rented property can work for this. I myself don’t have any but I plan to change that soon.

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