Most people’s idea of making more money is working for a raise in their salary. I used to think the same way, and would spend my spare time trying to find a better job. It wasn’t until I learned about passive income that my focus changed. Instead of trying to spend my spare time finding more work, I decided to spend my spare time trying to create passive income (in my case, with internet businesses). Passive income streams are those that do not require you to be actively working to generate income for you. There’s a great explanation on passive income from The Simple Dollar, which is a fantastic read in general, that can give you a great overview of what it is and why it’s important in achieving financial freedom.
In my opinion, the key to success isn’t so much based on wealth as it is on time. Being insanely rich would be nice, but not at the expense of your time. My personal goal is to make enough passive income to be comfortable, but have the freedom of time to be able to do the things that interest and excite me on a daily basis (this site being one of them). In our society, traditional thinking used to be that you get in with a company, work for 40 years, and make enough money to have a secure, modest life. In the internet age, all those rules go out the window. Companies that expect you to work for them your entire career are gone, as our current workplace doesn’t support that type of resource model. The strength is in the hands of the consumer and the internet savvy. This is great for motivated people that want to do their own thing, and make their mark on the world. The internet makes it ridiculously easy to create a brand or a business. This is not to say that anyone can just slap up a site and watch the dollars roll in, it still takes hard work, perseverance, and a good idea.
One obstacle of passive income is that a lot of times it either takes a lot of money or a lot of work up front. The majority of people lack the available capital or the time to invest initially to really get their ideas off the ground. For that reason, passive income seems like a pipe dream to a lot of people. The hardest steps are always the first, but if you are able to stay with it and remain motivated enough to see it through, you can be making yourself a steady piece of constant income. Once you are able to create one it makes it much easier to create more.
