Imagine, you’re sitting at the cafe overlooking a lake, a row of ducks swim leisurely with their family in tow, you watch admiring the beauty of nature, a waiter brings you your breakfast of poached eggs on spinach with salmon and hollandaise on the side, along with your favorite coffee, a flat white made with half milk half water. You’ve just been made redundant, but you don’t care because the bills are still getting paid, and you can afford to sit back and enjoy the day for what it is. That’s just one of the benefits of having multiple streams of income. Here are ten more.
1 – Pay off your debt quickly
Having multiple income streams means your debt can be eliminated much quicker than if you’re just relying on your day job. An extra stream of income means that while your day job covers the minimum repayment, your additional income stream helps you make extra payments to save on interest and eliminate the debt burden. And who doesn’t want to get rid of their debt as soon as possible?
2 – Increase your savings
Multiple income streams can help you grow your savings more speedily. I don’t know about you, but the snail’s pace of my savings account growth drives me insane. I’d love to see the numbers rise faster. An extra income stream is the best solution. There’s only so much you can cut in your budget until you’re driving yourself insane, living off two-minute noodles and saying ‘no’ to every outing you’re invited to.
3 – Create financial freedom
Financial freedom is one of the most popular goals for personal finance bloggers. Financial freedom means being able to do what you want, when you want, without having to worry about paying bills, losing your job, or not having enough for the little things. More income streams equal more freedom, and there’s no limit to how much you can earn.
4 – Less reliant on your day job
Wouldn’t it be nice to never have to worry about unemployment? The news often spread fear about rising unemployment resulting in employees stressing about their positions and employers looking at making their stuff redundant. If you rely on more than one income stream, redundancy will not be an issue for you. It might be a mild annoyance, but you can continue with your lifestyle because you have cash coming in from different avenues.
5 – Ability to follow your passion
Creating multiple income streams means you can have money coming in while you focus on pursuing your passions. The things you love doing may not necessarily bring in money. If you’re having your bills paid by your share dividends, your retirement accounts topped up by the rent your tenants are paying and make your play money create niche websites. If you absolutely love knitting sweaters in pink, yellow, and green, you can go ahead and knit without having to worry that you won’t survive financially.
6 – Return to university as a mature aged student
The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. If I didn’t have to work full time, going back to university to study is something I’d definitely consider doing. I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, but I’d be happy to study inevitably. Creating multiple income streams means returning to university becomes a serious option. Maybe you’d like to commit a few hours a day to master Italian before spending a month drinking wine in Tuscany, or perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn Japanese and spend six months immersing yourself in the culture. Creating those extra income streams means you can do all that and more.
7 – Spend more time with family and friends
The older I get, the more time I want to spend with family and friends. Now that I’ve become a mum, I want to spend as much time as possible with my son and my husband. I just don’t see the point of having a family and spending most of my day at work, making someone else rich. I want a few more hours a day at home with my child cuddling, singing, playing ball, exploring the great outdoors, learning, teaching, laughing. I want to have leisurely lunches and dinners over glasses of wine or vodka shots discussing everything from silly TV shows to politics with my family and friends.
8 – Reduce your stress levels
Stress is a killer. Financial stress even more so. It sucks when Christmas is around the corner, and you’re analyzing your budget to try to make room to buy some Christmas presents. It’s frustrating when you work so hard, make a savings plan, and then get pounded with half a dozen bills in one month. If you work on building a few income streams, you reduce those stress levels, which means you can start stressing about whether your employer will give you an extra week’s leave for that Thai holiday instead.
9 – Do what you love every day, not just on weekends
Weekends come slow and go quickly. Two days is just not enough to get everything done, let alone have time to relax and unwind. Imagine having a few positive cashflow rental properties up your sleeve, a share portfolio paying dividends, an online business bringing in weekly deposits into your bank account, and a few freelance writing gigs here and there. Would you really need that day job cutting into your free time?
10 – Give more to help others through your time and money
We live in a world with several billion other people. Some are better off than us; others are worse off. One of the great things about having more than enough to meet our own wants and needs means the ability to help others. Giving money is easy. Giving time is much more challenging. Time is a precious commodity, especially if we’re always working. Having a few income streams means we can take the time to volunteer at a dog shelter, we can assist in cleanups after a cyclone hits a nearby town, we can do the shopping for our elderly neighbor, or participate in a fundraiser.
There are many reasons to create multiple streams of income. While it mightn’t be easy, anyone can do it, but not everyone will. I want to be one of those that will.
What are your reasons for creating multiple streams of income?
