The world teaches from an early age that the only way to make money is via a job and an employer. We need to fill out an application, submit a resume, attend an interview, and be chosen by a human resources representative.
When your job goes away, then it’s on to the next one. This process can be stressful, especially if you have mouths to feed at home. We gear everything we do in life to finding, keeping, and succeeding at a job or career.
Heck, sometimes we may feel building our career is more important than family. As ridiculous as this may sound, it can happen because we are hard-wired to focus on these careers above all else.
The Business of Being Busy
Hey, I played the corporate game for over 22 years (and still counting). I climbed the US Marine Corps ladder from recruit (E-1) in 1999 to Master Gunnery Sergeant (E-9) in 2019. I am not bad-mouthing anyone—yes, and I lost my sense of priorities at some point. That’s life, and hopefully, you can keep your family long enough to see the truth of the matter.
So why did I go on the rant? I want to give you an alternative to this employee-minded future. Yes, you will most likely need to work a job—there is nothing more efficient than getting a paycheck to pay expenses.
However, instead of depending ALL of your life on your job, you can travel a different path. The alternative is called Passive Income. Passive income is money that you can make while doing anything else you want. The HUGE caveat is that it usually takes a large amount of work upfront to achieve that steady cash flow.
Last month, my wife and I made $650 in passive income from royalties, dividends, and crypto interest. Oh yeah, and $2,000 in rent from our three rental properties. Yes, life is good; and we are re-investing this cash into more dividends to bring us more money.
We have been building our passive income streams for roughly 2.5 years now and have no plans of stopping anytime soon. This is a lifelong journey that we will pass on to our children. How did we get to this point? Grinding.
Blogging to Financial Independence
I wrote an article about three months ago titled “The Passive Income Grind.” The article talked about the backbreaking work and dedication it will take to build an income stream. Most people in the world (95%) will never achieve their own income stream. Yes, some people will save money into a 401K and use that through retirement, but is that truly an income stream?
Make no mistake about it; when you learn to build an income stream, you learn to create money from thin air. That’s the difficulty of building an income stream; it goes against everything they teach us from childhood. You don’t need a boss, a W-2, or a job to make money—you can do it all from your brain.
But you must configure your brain to create wealth—that’s the grind. The process can be long and frustrating. I started my passive income journey in June 2019 by learning about dividend growth investing.
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Dividend growth investing is the perfect way to start your journey because it is very slow. Only the patient person can stock with this method of building wealth. In my first month of dividends, I earned $0.25 from Papa John’s. Yes, I said 25 cents for the month. Two years later, we made $550 in one month. Crazy.
That is the power of time, compounding, positivity, and discipline. You will need all of these things moving into any income stream, including buying and renting properties. Dealing with tenants and housing issues is beyond annoying, but you want to be rich, right?
When I wrote “The Passive Income Grind,” I was mainly focused on building a business or royalties because that is the true grind. Learning how to create a product that an audience wants, and doing it consistently, is difficult.
We all can create whatever we want, just don’t expect anyone to buy your product. The market demands what the market demands, and the market is a cruel mistress. I want to review my grind and then tell you how to relax moving forward.
21 Passive Income Ideas
My Passive Income Grind is all about writing and releasing books. I started releasing books about ten months ago, and it has been rewarding—to say the least. I first had to learn how to write, so I read “On Writing Well.”
Then I needed to learn how to design, so I read “The Non-Designer’s Design Book.” Next, I learned about advertising from the book “Ca$hvertising.” I read books about being an author, including “How to Make A Living with Your Writing,” “How to Market a Book,” and “Creating Income Streams.”
In total, I have read 68 books in roughly a year—and still going strong. In addition to reading 68 books, I published 620 articles on my blog and published 250 books on Amazon. I am just getting started.
Passive Income for Christmas
I grinded for 5 hours a night on work nights and 12 hours on weekends and holidays. I never knew when to stop grinding because I never knew how to end the process. When you learn how to create money, you don’t want to stop creating money. I never permitted myself to take a break for over a year.
I felt guilty watching Netflix or playing a videogame because I could always be doing something more productive. To a certain extent, this was true. Netflix, video games, news, and politics are a waste of time. But…
However, I then read a book called “The Relaxed Author” that sort of changed my life. The book is from two authors that talk about the longevity of being a writer. The long game is vastly more important than the short term.
Write Book Reviews for Passive Income
I reflected on this book for quite some time. It’s deep stuff. You can create money on a whim, yet, you don’t have to do it all day, every day. It’s okay to give yourself permission to slow down and enough of the fruits of your labor.
For us serious people, it’s hard to slow down. We see the future, and we want to do everything in our power to protect our family and set everyone up for success. But at some point, we have done everything we can do for the moment. Time and consistency are more important than a gold rush.
Now, don’t get me wrong, you’ll need to grind upfront. It takes 10,000 hours to get proficient at something, so the more you can accomplish upfront, the more enjoyable the ride.
Listen, I am only talking to three percent of the people in the world. It is not normal to spend your free time writing, reading, creating, and building wealth. Most people would rather go to the beach or a drive-in movie.
You’ll Need $20,000/Month in Passive Income
But wouldn’t it be nice to go to the beach and drive-in movies with wealth from dividends, rents, interest, business, and royalties? I am living the dream right now, at age 40. I have, hopefully, 40 more years to enjoy the passive income lifestyle with my wife.
So I am giving myself permission to relax. Sure, I am still putting four hours a day into my writing and books, but that also includes the weekends. I write the same amount on weekends now, so I have ten hours to spend as I like. I used to grind for 10+ hours on the weekends.
It is hard to go back to “semi” normal, but I have done the work. Now, I just need to maintain the operational tempo for the rest of my life. Personally, I know I can. I get very excited when writing and creating, and it is something I can do forever.
I hope this article made sense to you. You will have to grind super hard at first, but once you see a clear path, it is okay to slow down a little. Longevity and consistency are more important than the initial gold rush. Jump in, learn, test, build, and create a long-term strategy that can last a lifetime.
I love the process. If you want to learn more about building passive income, please follow me on Twitter or my Facebook Page. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
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