Creating Space Series: Income

by
Is Your Income Enough?

Is Your Income Enough?

Often times, people don’t believe that their income is sufficient.  The problem isn’t the income, it is the spending.  That point aside, we do highly value income, and increasing income but not the way most people do.  We believe in using income to generate more income, and this new income is money that you DON’T have to work for.  Hopefully that caught your attention.  You can actually generate income for doing nearly nothing!  This income is referred to as passive income.  Passive income is a highly regarded idea with us here at the Wealth Artisan and we write about it extensively.

Passive Income

The basic idea behind passive income is to turn your actively earned money into an asset that continues to provide new income with minimal effort.  Over time, this passive income should outpace your active income and then, all of a sudden, working isn’t so important any-more.  Obviously you can continue working, or switch to a job that you might enjoy more, but the idea is to make your income grow without flexing your muscles to do it.

Many people believe that they need more income, and they need to work to get it.  You can do that if you want, but why continuously change jobs, and work until the day you pass on?  Get focused, invest properly and build your income.  There are a number of ways to increase your passive income such as:

There are lots of ideas out there, and you should discover the ones that suit you best.  Income is an important aspect of financial freedom, but we believe that passive income is the most powerful.  Become a master of passive income and you will receive a lot more free time as your reward.  It does require upfront investment of time and sometimes money, but if you are patient, the investment will greatly pale in comparison to the return you receive!

Is Active Income Really So Bad?

If you have a lot of debt, like we discussed in the last installment, then increasing your active income temporarily in order to pay the debt down more quickly is very acceptable.  This will save you on interest costs as well.  In addition, there is nothing wrong with increasing your active income if you will be using it to increase your passive income.  The only time we’re really “anti-active income” is when it is a person’s answer to freedom.  Active income, by its very nature, keeps you tethered to the job that is providing it, and that is not freedom.  On Wednesday we will discuss retirement stress as we continue the series on Creating Space.

Self-Reflection Questions:

  1. Is your answer to your financial woes to earn more income?
  2. Have you ever tried to earn passive income?
  3. What has stopped, or is stopping you from earning passive income?
  4. Do you believe that you can cut your spending down?
  5. What areas would you cut your spending?
  6. Do you think a financial advisor would help you get where you need to be?
  7. How much thought have you put into your financial picture beyond this month?  Disregard 401(k) contributions and be honest with yourself, how far ahead have you planned?