I seem to be writing about income streams a lot recently—probably because I am in the middle of building one as we speak. I can say from experience that it isn’t a cakewalk. However, I see the value in creating your own brand and platform.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master anything. So, if you want to be a great writer, you’ll need to write for 10,000 hours. How about a great YouTuber or musician? The same 10,000 hours. How long is 10,000 hours?
10,000 hours equates to roughly 416 days. Wow, so in a little over a year, you can be a professional! Yeah, right. You’ll need 10,000 hours JUST working on your skillset.
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Right now, I write and design about five hours a day. Using this formula, I will need 2,000 days to reach my 10,000 hours until mastery. That gives me about 5.5 years until I can consider myself a successful writer.
I officially began taking my writing seriously in January 2021, so roughly ten months ago. Therefore, in June 2026, I can be one of the writing elites! Wow, only five more years. But, I am having a great time. Every day is a challenge in this world.
Why am I writing about how long it will take to master my writing career? Because I just finished an article about why you need a job. If you think you can just retire or stop working and build an income stream, you are sadly mistaken.
Why does it take so long? Building an audience is a long road. Entertaining your audience, and keeping them satisfied, is just as hard. You’ll need to be at the top of your game to build and grow an audience.
As much as I wish that we are great at our skillset right out of the gate—that’s not the case. Your audience is unique to you. Building YOUR audience is something only you can do. Every single person has their take on a niche. Your audience comes to you for a specific reason.
Start now. You may not know your niche or how to convey your message to your audience, but start trying now. I am a massive fan of creating daily content. Getting your brain into the habit of creating will pay dividends in the long run.
Creating Passive Income for Retirement
The best way to stay motivated is to understand why it is vital that you have an income stream throughout retirement. Yes, we can build a dividend portfolio and have rental income, but having another source of passive income will be magical as we age.
Getting started. Knowing that it may take 5.5 years to gain any form of success can help us lighten the burden of the unknown. Creating an income stream is supposed to be difficult, or else everyone would be an author or YouTuber.
Nope, only about 3% of the population has what it takes to grow an audience or business. If the idea of working for 5.5 years for free doesn’t bother you, then you are well on your way to success.
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Choosing your form of media is the first step to creating an income stream. Will you be a blogger, write books, publish videos on YouTube, create art, or build music tracks? I am a huge fan of writing because it is accessible to everyone.
Next, you’ll need to choose your content niche. You can drill down as small as you want. For example, I would love to write about Pokemon TV episodes and video games—this may be my retirement income stream.
Start the grind. Now that you have your form of media and your niche, it’s time to start your content grind. There is no easy way to say this—it’s difficult. Remember, nobody owes you anything.
Just because you put out 300 YouTube videos doesn’t mean you’ll gain any form of attention. First, your early content will suck—it’s a part of the process. Second, people want to know that you are serious. You’ll need to prove to them that you have the longevity to stick around.
I read that it takes Google about eight months to incorporate your article into its index and search results fully. So, it’ll be a year before you’ll even start to make a dent in the rankings. This path is a long game.
6 Types of Income Streams
Build a platform. The good part of taking the long road is that you will build a platform. Your old works will remain relevant, and your new works will gain attention. People love to go back and see how you began your journey.
With 5.5 years of content, you’ll have enough media to last a lifetime. Then, you can convert, modify, and leverage your media as you see fit. For example, I have 600+ articles on my blog. I can convert each of those into a YouTube video.
I can also translate each of my 220+ books into different languages, audiobooks, or podcasts. There is so much there that I get excited just thinking about the possibilities. However, now is not my time. I will consider branching out once I have 1000+ books on the market.
Get into the right mindset. Through all the “pain,” it is essential that you keep the right attitude. I always like to think that I’ll need $20,000/month of passive income through retirement.
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The work I am doing now WILL pay off in the future because I write with love. The book “The Practice” says not to expect anything from your work. Separate yourself from the results of your actions. Yes, it’s nice when someone buys your books, but it’s not why I write.
You won’t survive long if you do this for the wrong reasons. Yes, we are doing this to build an income stream, but you have no idea how to monetize your work. You may write books, but you may give them away for free by selling advertisements.
Content, content, content. Finally, you will need a never-ending stream of content to give your audience. Luckily, I have two articles by the same name. Read “How to Create a Never-Ending Stream of Content (and Part II),” and prepare yourself to read, take notes, and study.
As you build your income stream, you will start to lose friends. Don’t worry; that means you’re doing something right. How many friends do you think the top 3% of the population has in their life?
Some Ideas. If you are starving for ideas on what kind of media or niche to start, here are some ideas I have written about over the last year.
1) Write Book Reviews. Reviewing books or video games is an excellent way to get started. The book or game has the content and an audience; you just need to make your opinion unique.
2) Create an Ebook Series. Writing every day will give you tons of content. Why not put it all into an eBook series? I created Financial Independence Magazine, which is now on episode #41. After about a year, I have roughly 40 followers in my ebook series. I release an episode every week for free on Amazon. I am so happy just to have my 40 readers. As I said, it’s not easy to build an audience.
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3) Create Affiliate Marketing Content. Affiliate marketing is where you create articles and videos around a product. For example, I wrote an article about my favorite Chromebook and new Kindle. I was doing well with affiliate marketing before Amazon deleted my account by accident.
4) Become a Designer. I love, love, love designing. Creating my book cover artwork and article covers are the highlight of my day. I am sure there is a way to build a lifestyle about designing book covers, article covers, business cards, templates, etc. The book “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” is an excellent place to start. Don’t forget those 10,000 hours, though.
5) Create content around Physical Lifestyles. Whatever you do in life, you can document by creating content. I wrote some articles around this concept. For example, “Create a Community Garden,” “Start a Herb Garden,” and “Harvest Beneficial Insects” will all be great ways to leverage your media chops.
Conclusion. I hope I scared you a little. Starting an income stream is supposed to be intimidating. If you are nervous, that means you are taking this very seriously, as you should. The people who think it will be easy are those that tend to fail and give up quickly.
I hope that you are in it for the long haul—we can do it together. Follow me on Twitter, my Facebook Page, or join my Facebook Group if you want to chat together as we work through the process. Executing your 10,000 hours will be an exciting time for you!
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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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