Reader Beware
Be careful when you read Kiyosaki, Robert Allen, or any of the army of gurus preaching that passive income will end all your troubles. The overall concept of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is profound, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Don’t quit your day job yet.
When I first read Kiyosaki, I was immediately hooked on the concept. I read all the books and they blew my mind. I bought the game Cashflow 101
Young Passive Income Warrior
I went out and started my portfolio. The economy was on still on a real estate bender, so I was able to buy a rental house with no money down, no proof of income, and no credit. I stuck in a tenant who paid me $100 more than I paid to the mortgage company and thought to myself: …damn I’m good.
I got the idea to start a bulk candy business for passive income. We bought ten machines and placed them in ten restaurants in Austin. Just like that, we added $250 a month to our passive income.
When we were ready to move to LA to give the entertainment industry a shot, I started scanning the internet for bulk candy vending businesses in Southern California. I found a guy who was willing to let go of 40 machines in decent locations for next to nothing. I almost covered the acquisition cost on my first day in LA. Just like that, I added another $500 a month in passive income.
I thought… damn I’m good.
King of the Anthill
At this point, I pretty much decided that I had made it. All those suckers moving to LA, struggling to pay the massive cost of living increase had nothing on me. I had $850 a month in passive income. What did they have? …a crappy job? Kiyosaki taught me that jobs were for suckers.
Hero Fallen
I went to see Kiyosaki once at the Real Estate Wealth Expo in New York City. It was an event where hundreds of real estate gurus all got together to give speeches, sell books, CD’s, and boot camps. Robert was one of the headliners and I could hardly contain my excitement to see him.
With my girlfriend at my side, I proudly stood up to greet him along with hundreds of others in the auditorium as he entered the stage. My perma-grin turned to puzzlement as he put his right hand on his forehead in the shape of an “L”. “Losers!” he yelled and the crowd cheered.
“What is he talking about?” my girlfriend asked. I wasn’t sure, so I continued to listen as he explained to the crowd that working a 9 to 5 job was the mark of a loser. Over and over again, he stuck his hand to his forehead and repeated the chant: “Loser!, Loser!, Loser!”
Wait a minute, I thought. I bet 95% of this audience has a 9 to 5 job… and they’re cheering.
Steady Ahead
The experience had taken Kiyosaki down a notch in my eyes, but I still believed strongly in his concepts. To me, he was a brilliant “big picture” guy who left something to be desired in the category of tact, humanity, and details. I didn’t need him to be a good guy to know that passive income was for me.
I found sporadic work in Hollywood producing small-time pieces for TV and internet, but never pursued full-time work. Why would I? 9 to 5 was for suckers (but not losers).
Soon after, I started GeniusTypes and added another $750 a month to my cashflow. My passive income streams were over $1500 a month. I thought: …this just keeps getting better.
The First Sign of Trouble
Life should have been good. I had done everything the books had taught me. It was almost as if everything I touched turned to gold. I had money coming into my bank account even as I slept… Big pimpin’ …right?
As I explained all of this (with great pride) to my girlfriend, something weird started to happen. I was telling her how great everything was and somehow, she was ticked off!
I don’t remember the exact conversation, but it went something like this:
Her: Your stupid “passive income” isn’t helping us pay the ridiculously high cost of living here!
Me: What are you talking about? I make that money in my sleep!
Her: Who the hell can live on $1,500 a month in LA?
Me: But it’s passive!
Her: That’s the freakin’ problem: you need to get your butt into action!
Me: But it’s passive…..?
Her: (shut down)
Something had gone terribly wrong.
Starting Over
Now you have the long version of why I stopped posting on GeniusTypes. I went out and got a job… Actually, I got two. I worked 60 to 80 hours a week in order to make up for the long period of time that I was quote/unquote “self employed” (which really means unemployed). It was the antithesis of everything that Kiyosaki had taught me.
I also went looking for guidance. Instead of believing in authors and trying to do it on my own, I found people who had achieved the success that I wanted. I found some mentors.
The Right Map
The first thing they taught me was something I didn’t want to hear. I wouldn’t have bought their book if they were selling it like Kiyosaki because it kind of sucked…
They agreed that passive income was the ultimate, but everyone needs money to survive. If I couldn’t pay for my monthly expenses with passive income, then I must do the next best thing: get a job.
…But Kiyosaki says jobs are for Losers!
…Who’s more of a sucker: Someone who works full time and supports their family, or someone who quits their job and gives all of their remaining money to Kiyosaki fpr books, CD’s, and boot camps?
Wow. That was kind of harsh.
Leverage Your Time
I re-learned the concept of leveraging time. Kiyosaki had taught me that passive income was a way to leverage other people’s time in order to free up more of my own. He was accurate in that assessment, but he left out a crucial detail:
When you don’t have enough passive income to pay your bills, the best way to leverage your time is to get a job.
Think about it. If you have no money, is it better to spend your time chasing passive income or to get a job? The answer is to get a job… but the advanced correct answer is to get a job and use your nights and weekends to build passive income.
Large in the Margin
The ultimate goal is to get enough passive income to cover your bills; but in the meantime, it’s important to view passive income as a marginal profit center. This means that passive income should be above and beyond your regular operating income and expenses.
Everyone has a minimum cost of living. No matter where you live in the U.S., it costs several thousand dollars a month to stay afloat. If you have no money, your only option (if you want to remain independent) is to get a job. Passive income would only help you if you had enough to cover your basic expenses.
Believe it or not, a job is the best way for a broke person to leverage their time. Think about it: what activity will yield me the greatest number of dollars for forty hours of work a week? If you have no money to invest, the answer is to get a job.
After the hours you need to spend to pay for your basic cost of living, the next highest leverage activity is to gather passive income. Any passive income you make from now on will be in your profit margin. When I was making passive income without a job, I had no profit margin. I was taking a net loss every month on my basic expenses.
Passive income is most beneficial when it’s in your profit margin. $1,500 a month in passive income won’t pay your bills, what if it was extra? That’s $18,000 a year that you could use to invest in real estate. Do you see what a tremendous difference it makes when you take it from primary to marginal income?
Your Credit
Another great reason to get a job when you’re broke is your credit. If you want to accumulate passive income-generating assets, you’re going to need the help of a lender. The wealthiest people I know are in real estate. In order to purchase real estate, a bank wants to know that you have steady income. If you are quote/unquote “self-employed” with no real income, the bank isn’t going to budge.
Check Your Ego
It was a bit of a reality check when I realized I wasn’t above working for the man. In fact, working for the man was the only way that I stood a chance to succeed.
Creative types are highly intelligent (which comes with a little bit of ego). It’s hard for a really smart person who thinks they know it all to realize that he can’t break the laws of nature. You might have the greatest idea in the world, but great ideas alone don’t pay your rent.
Build a Foundation
You can’t fight for financial independence until you have a foundation. Even though there are many ways to create passive income with little money, everyone needs a minimum amount of money to survive.
Furthermore, the best ways to create wealth (real estate) require money. If you don’t have any to start with, the best way to get some is to work. Work enough to pay your expenses and put away some to invest. That’s what my mentors taught me. It’s boring, but it’s proven.
This is a great article and very true – I have experienced similar. I read Kiyosaki’s first book and felt that much of the advice was rather common sense.
Having said, the general theory that jobs are for losers is largely correct – If your sole ambition is to work for someone else who controls your time, income, actions (More or less), and general livelihood is a very misguided path.
The big picture of Kiyosaki’s advice is to become self-reliant and yes, this is not a guarantee of “The good life”, but the premise is that if you are going to commit to something you should gradually build your way into a level of accumulated independence.
If your objective is to have a passive income, this is best built as supplemental – it never begins as an immediate replacement for a lifestyle; Nor, is this preached in Kiyosaki’s material as a such.
Conversely, if your objective is to become wealthy (As Robert purports) it can be achieved, but not by working in a conventional job. You must create a position of leverage which can allow you to take advantage of opportunities (ie. Become a business owner – which would eventually provide you with additional income to invest in bigger/better such as Real Estate).
The books are about the benefits of ‘Why’ you need to create passive income as a strategy to achieve wealth from his point of view, and are not necessarily intended to be step-by-step instructions on how to go about creating a passive income stream.
I wouldn’t say that Jobs are for loosers and I don’t even think that Kiyosaki mentioned something like loosers in his publications. But, After reading this article I am really surprised how easy comparing to Europe is to make passive income. I’ve met a lot of people trying for the same here but not quite successful. And I didn’t even heard about.
1500$ In LA (passive) are not enough to live from? Well you should move to Prague, 1500 would make out really decent living 🙂
Hmm. I’ll consider that,
Brian,
Oh, that was fun to read and I’ll continue to keep working until I think I can replace all of my income with…. you guessed it, passive income. $1500 helps, but it is NOT full-time income and perhaps you need to keep adding other sources of passive income or open your own business and work on your terms 😉
But no, keeping a 9 to 5 is definitely not for losers and it’s a shame your hero was an ass about that. People work hard at these jobs and it takes a great deal of committment and mindset to wake up every day and earn money.
I’ll be making rounds more often!
Thank you Mark! It’s nice when someone really gets what you are trying to say…
I wish this article could be included alongside Robert’s books. I too ate up everything he said (and still love his concepts). It is so easy to see how people can get excited and miss the key point Brian makes about keeping your day job.
Thankfully, i kept mine long enough that I didn’t fall into this trap. When my day job dried up, I had built passive income from my vending business to the point i could live off the 2000 or so machines I had at that time.
Kiyosaki’s concepts are great. Just don’t jump out until you have an ample cushion to fall back on.
Thanks for the thought provoking stuff on here!
Passive Income, I didn’t thinks so.
Passive income is great, but there is something to be said for having a job that you love. And of course you can always start your own business as well. A little more work up front, but not dissimilar from real estate investing. You’re either fixing up one to flip, or building one from scratch.
If you live near a big city why not try to expand your bulk candy route? You could turn that into a full time job. Depending on how efficient your route is you can make anywhere from 40 to 70 an hour. That’s up to 2800 a week!
That’s great, Passive Income. It sounds like you’re using the concept of chunking.
For me, passive income is that extra ‘icing on the cake’. My wife and I use what little truly passive income we make each month to throw at the mortgage. One day, that should pay off HUGE dividends!
I hav’nt any experience with passive income but it sounds tempting. Which book would be the right one to start with for a firsttimer?
cheers Peter Hurtig Lån
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I agree with Sean. Who in their right mind would quit a job to pursue PI, with out any capital to float them until things took off? Yea if what you do is “work”, than you need to change an out look and or your job. Any one starting a business knows the risk involved and the statistics on opening a business. Im all about PI and having that carry your life style, but be smart about it.
Well, what you said is pretty much common sense, ofcourse you’re passive income would need to cover your bills, what’s the big deal?
A person can quite easily have both types of income. Having a job is a great way to start to bring in cash to maintain your living expenses (even Kiyosaki mentions this in his third book). Once you have some savings the next step is to begin to build a passive income in your spare time.
Looking around genius types, I would say that it looks as though you could focus on the two main ‘passive’ income streams you have built (Pareto Pinciple, 80% of results from 20% of your efforts, namely, your blog and candy vending) and focus on managing and growing these in your spare time while still holding down a full time job. Leo Babauta from zenhabits.net has three income sources: a full time job, freelancing, and income from two blogs.
My mentor and I have been discussing ways for me to grow my income and I am being advised to start to focus on building $100 a month to begin with, then to increase that amount. It looks like you are on your way and could continue to build these income streams in your spare time until a point when it becomes unmanageable. You then have some options: sell your part-time business, cut back your working hours (if on a per hour basis you are making more in your business), delegate tasks in your business for an hourly rate lower than your working rate, etc.
Just a thought, but I would not buy into Kiyosaki saying jobs are for losers, especially when hybrid entrepreneurs (those with a job and a business) seem to have more security than a number of people without a job or a business income.
Best of success.
There is no denying the power of passive income but how much passive income is actually income when you deduct expenses?
In return on investment terms a job provdes a massive return as there is no investment and little cost required, other than time. To generate $50,000 per year at say 5% return would require an investment of one million dollars and if inflation was say around 4% then the return is negligable.
The issue with a paid per hour job is that your available time is finite so your potential income is also finite.
However marginal additional income that is in excess of you costs can be put to good use if you can find a low risk high return investment. This is far from a simple task. Millions of people have been burned on all kinds of investments this past year.
Assuming that your not fired you can survive the recession pretty much intact.
It is hard to start a business because of the time/money trade off. More of one means less of the other. This is where passive income comes in.
There is an opportunity cost (with or without a regular job) of the avenues you are not free to pursue.
glad to see you back.
thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.
yeah, passive income is great and is the ultimate goal for everyone, but we need to remember what our expenses (monthly) are. what comes in, needs to at the very least cover what’s going out. your girlfriend is a wise one.
Brian,
I’m glad to see you back in action.
Don’t listen to the critcizers because they aren’t going to pay your bills for you. Good honest work is always positive and the money and benefits don’t suck either. Losers are people who expect a living from providing no value.
Keep the faith and thanks for the inspiration. I’m certain that a genius like you will grow your passive income to a comfortable level in the future.
Thanks for your post!
One commenter mentioned the business idea, but I’ll mention it as well. The option I have chosen for the past 3 years is to run my own web design business. I am looking at several internet-based businesses, but the only one that gives me CASH NOW, is the one where I provide a service for someone else, who already HAS money, and needs that service done.
I made a little chart – one axis is earning potential, and the other is time … all the other ideas show LOTS more potential over time, but the website business is the only one that starts out with MONEY NOW being greater than $0! And as I see you are saying, that’s an important distinction! Along with everything else, we have to have enough money for food, shelter, and materials — at all times, we have to have enough money for those things, or the system crashes.
After 3 years of running the web design business, I understand enough about how to run it to START to make a profit. I also understand why people who run businesses seem so ruthless in their pursuit of … profit! I started out all idealistic, and although I still am, I am now much more interested in:
* Charging a good amount of money
* Focusing on services that tangibly affect the client’s bottom line immediately, such as a very strong focus on increasing sales and leads
* Looking at ways to start outsourcing
* Profitable markets in a recession
And then, agressively going after *all four* of those things at the same time! I think that I am in the position, with all of that, to make a good amount of money in 2009, while reducing my work hours quite a bit! But, it has required a lot of that aggressiveness.
A big distinction between a job and a small business: Potentially, the business could make you a lot more money, but could easily make you a lot *less* money, while sucking up all your time! It’s another option, but you have GOT to be on the right end of that equation, in every way you can! And, there is a whole spate of skills, BEYOND the skills required to do the thing you’re doing (marketing, sales, accounting, hiring, etc.) to make it work.
Good post Brian. Glad you’re back at the blog.
I don’t know all the details of your situation, but with $1500/month of income you should have no trouble paying the bills. Maybe you just needed to move out of LA to a cheaper area. Generating passive income is only half the game, you also need to whittle down your expenses to leverage your time freedom.
Regarding your point on it being impossible to get a loan from a bank without a job, you’re darn right! But a much better way to get financing is to circumvent the bank entirely and find private lenders/investors. This could be family, friends, acquaintances… and you can secure the loan by assuring them you’ll find a job to pay them back if it comes down to it. I actually just picked up this idea at a Rich Dad event put on by one of Kiyo’s underlings.
Brian! So glad to see you back on the tubes =D
In addition to the somewhat bitter truth you’ve presented here, I must add that if you put effort into creating/finding the “9-5 job” that really suits you, it really isn’t just the “9-5 job” anymore!
In three semesters of college, I’ve been through 4 different jobs and am about to start #5. The kicker is that each time I leave a job, it is for something that is A) More related to what I am studying, B) Better able to make use of my talents, C) More deeply involves my passion (Web Development).
By continuously striving to change my work into something that I love doing and take pride in, I no longer get up and go into work in the mornings — I get up to have some fun creating stuff that helps people. (the pay is just a nice bonus!). It may tick off employers that I leave every semester, but I’ll be darned if it doesn’t make my life a whole lot more enjoyable.
Can’t wait to see what you’ve got up your sleeve next!
Kudos.
Thank you for sharing the truth with us. Ive read many books on wealth building and passive income was often a component of investing (putting your money to work in order to create more money). And yes, many people have gotten rich through the means many have labeled as Passive Income…. but I would dare to say what we call PI is really just another business model that “appears to be independent” of your full time efforts. Which of course is false, often times it takes even more effort than having a 9 to 5.
With that being said, the principal that seems to hold true is “its not about how much money you make , its about how much you can keep to save and invest.”
Wishing you all the best in 2009
Nice to see you’re back online.
Starting a business is simple but never easy. You just have to believe in your self, work smart and always be practical.
Shannon and Billy, you both have good points in that Kiyosaki is not specifically telling people to quit their day jobs. It’s just not abundantly clear and many overly-aggressive types will tend to make the leap without thinking about it first.
On the same token, I don’t think that this article contradicts the theme of this blog… it just makes abundantly clear that you have to have a foundation before you can start thinking about passive income.
Like Lucky and I found out, Kiyosaki’s material is heavy on concept and soft on details… he probably wants it that way so you have to keep purchasing up to keep chasing the details.
He would probably sell fewer books if he emphasized that you have to keep your day job. That’s not as flashy as “jobs are for losers.”
When I went out and found mentors that already had more passive income than their expenses, I appreciated it when they flat out told me up front: get a job first and then come back to us to talk passive income.
I wrote this article to pass the message on to you.
Brian,
I admire your honesty and bravery to tell you story on your own blog even if it does conflicts with the main theme of genius types.
But it does need to be told and it took alot of BALLS to be honest and I’m sure many of your readers can appreciate that as I do.
F.Y.I In “Rich Dad’s Guide To Investing” on page 289 that chapter is called “Keep Your Day Job & Still Become Rich” and it says basically once Robert decided to build his business, his next problem was that he had no money to build his business, and no money to live on.
When he consulted his rich dad with his problem his rich dad said immediately “GO GET A JOB” he said you still have to put a roof over you head and eat.
Then he states “if you need or want extra money you should keep your day job and start your business part time” where as most people go get a part time job which keeps you in the E quadrant and trading time for dollars.
Glad to see you’re back and well.
Hey Brian, welcome back to the blog world.
I want to say that late last year I found your blog which inspired me to work for passive income. In February, I went to a Rich Dad workshop and learn the things you did, was pumped up to put the knowledge to work. Unfortunately the market had already tanked.
I wait patiently on the sidelines and work on repairing my credit even more than I have already. I’ve been out of work for 17 months and thanks to my debt free life and the $1400 per month of passive income that I make, my savings is hardly even touched.
I have to say that Robert Kio is quite arrogant and I believe a lot of his story is made up. I did learn a lot from the workshop and I have to correct you in regards to the working aspect.
In the game Cashflow 101, to get out of the rat race, you need to have enough passive income to cover your expenses.
I’m trying to finding a job for sometime now, but no one is hiring. My wife and I keep adding to our stable of websites to increase our income. With any luck, I won’t have to go back to work.
I’m glad to see you back on your blog and look forward to reading about passive income and other knowledgeable things you have to offer.
When I first read rich dad, poor dad, I fell in love with the idea he presented. I also got the game cash flow and then started to read his other books. I noticed that his books were all basically one idea and a ton of fluff that at the time that you read it is somewhat motivational but turns out to be almost useless because he doesn’t give any information on how to do anything. Buying a house and renting it out for more than your mortgage sounds good but is a lot more difficult than he makes it seem. I really lost my taste for Kiyosaki when I went to one of his “free” seminars which turned out to be a 2 hour long commercial for his weekend long seminar. I did a little research and found out that the weekend seminar was just a commercial for his next product and then an pitch to use more of the rich dad services including using one of their investment advisors who convinces you to buy a useless piece of land in the middle of nowhere because it will make you an “international investor”.
It’s great to read the books and get motivated but that is only the beginning of the journey. Read some other books, speak to as many people as you can so that you can be as informed and as educated as possible when you finally decide to do something for yourself. Make your own plan that fits your needs and lifestyle because it is you that will have to live with it. Hard work pays off and nothing that is worth having comes easy.
Hi! Great article and I’m glad to see you back…
Brian,
Thanks for your candor. I am one of these people who has decided to follow my heart and work in the non-profit sector (i.e., I can pay my bills, but will always have a low income ceiling). I am 25 and on the verge of marriage. The idea of passive income is very appealing to me. I work a job that is very flexible, but is also a passion. I find it hard to carve out the time to pursue passive income strategies, while remaining dedicated to a calling and passion in my life (which fortunately for me pays my bills, but barely). My life just isn’t compartmentalized into 9-5 blocks. It’s good to see someone be honest about this, instead of flaunting how well they “make money in their sleep”. It is also good to see someone who recognizes the opportunity costs involved in passive income strategies. What do you think are the best ways to minimize that opportunity cost?
Wade, your situation is very similar to the artist’s dilemma, which I am very familiar with. If your chosen path is to work your passion at low pay, then you only have two options:
1. scale back your lifestyle to create a margin to invest. (live with your parents, live with roommates, eat mac & cheese, ride your bike to work, etc.)
or
2. get a second job to create a margin to invest.
I’ve talked about several different ways to generate passive income without a lot of money, but the most effective ways (like real estate and starting a business) require capital.
Reading these comments, it seems like a lot of readers read the same books I did and quit their jobs; only to find that it complicates matters.
I’m by no means saying that working a job the rest of your life is the only way to get ahead. I’m merely saying that when you have no money, a job is the fastest way to get some.
This whole site is about starting businesses to generate passive income, so you hardly have to argue to me that it’s a good idea. I can tell that the whole gist of my concept is having trouble breaking free of my words here (maybe I’m a little rusty).
So many people read the gurus and immediately go out and quit their jobs; which creates several problems.
1. Businesses take time to grow. Jeremy had a good example two comments up that his businesses took three years to get where he wanted it. He may have had three years of savings to back him up, but if he didn’t; he would have been in deep trouble.
2. Businesses are risky. Even if you pick a high-percentage business, you have to run it well to succeed. If you don’t have any savings, you can’t afford to go through several models until you find the right one.
3. Relying on business income puts you in a desperate situation. If you need the business to succeed in order to put food on your plate, you act differently than you would if the profits are marginal to your basic needs. Less pressure often means that others are more willing to do deals with you.
I’m also a big proponent of not quitting (I’ve written articles about it); but one of the first things that my mentors taught me was to get the right map (a la Steven Covey). It doesn’t matter how long and determined you work, if you have the wrong map, hard work will only get you to the wrong place faster.
There are a handful of people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that struck it rich by quitting their jobs and working in their garages; but we don’t know their entire story. Did they have financial backing to pay their bills? Did they have savings? …or did they just get lucky?
A person who starts a business by finding investors to pay not only for the business, but for his salary, has a pretty good thing going if you ask me. It’s the person who quits their job with no money to try and get lucky like Bill and Steve that is putting themselves in a tough position.
This is a really important piece of the puzzle that a lot of newbies don’t get and just about all the “gurus” aren’t telling. Thanks for being so forthright.
I have to say, I don’t agree with what you said.
I do in a way, but only about 1/2.
A regular old job is NOT the answer to everything.
What about starting a business?
Having a few vending machines and having 1 piece of real estate that hardly pays you anything, plus a blog that brings in a few hundred bucks a month isn’t a “real business”. It is in a technical sense, but in my mind it’s not.
If you want more passive income there are 2 options.
1) Work at a regular, normal job while working on the side and socking away money into something that will give you passive income
or
2) Build a business that you start by yourself (preferably the thing you start from the money left over from your job). Once things get rolling, start outsourcing more and more until it becomes “mostly” passive and all you have to do is do maintenance, check up on people, etc.
The only thing stopping anybody from not achieving what they want is quitting.
It took me 3 YEARS of working while going to school full-time and doing a side business on the side to get to where I wanted to be.
As for what you said here – “If you have money to invest, you can get into more and more passive deals such as real estate. If you don’t have money to invest, how do you get it? a job.”
You don’t get it ONLY by having a job. You can also start a business. That’s up to your own unique personality and your threshold for risk.
Brian, are you back in the game now and trying to create more passive income for yourself?
Jeremy
Loving this post, as I did the same thing. One thing that passive income doesn’t generally pay for is benefits. Of course, if you make enough, your profits can cover individual insurance plans, funding to an IRA, etc., but it’s much better to let someone else do that for you, while you utilize some of your free time (and if work is slow and you can do it, some of your free time at work also, but don’t abuse it) to further your passive ventures.
I don’t agree with M!hai, because it seems like a lot of us got caught up in what we saw others do, and often when you’re not the first, you don’t realize the profits that they get. Sometimes it hurts to realize you have to become “normal,” but that should not stop the pursuit of working smarter, not harder in order to enjoy life on your terms. I stopped posting on my blog as well, but hope to breathe new life into it in 2009. Thanks for this post man, and good luck to you in your ventures. I’ll be watching!!
Long time reader. Glad to see you post again. I found this post very encouraging actually. I work a 9 to 5 but also have a handful of passive income streams via bulk candy vending (thanks to you) and some online ventures. I also freelance on the weekends.
You’d think that would be enough for my wife and I to live well. The problem is, we weren’t budgeting anything. We’ve recently created our monthly budget and the opnly money we are allowing ourselves to use is what I make at my day job. That means everything else is free for investing and saving. Your article makes me think that we may be on the right track.
I recently heard Kiyosaki’s loser talk on a commercial for a speaking engagement he was doing and was really turned off by it. Sure he’s a smart guy and he might have tons of money. But it still seemed like a d-bag way of getting his point across.
I wish you all the best in all you endeavors.
I understand how you feel for it’s the same for me. I have been so focused on building passive income that I sometimes lose focus on what’s important – and that it to survive the present moment.
I’ve quit my job and tried my hand on business and freelancing. But after some time, I realized that the passive income I need will not come by that fast. So I went back to doing work, part time, while I continue to increase my passive income.
No problem implementing them. Just realized that you have to pay your bills first.
Reading your post I also wonder what is more work: Doing a regular job or chasing for “passive income”.
I don’t think that passive income is always sooo passive. E.g. maintenance of candy machines may be necessary which means active work.
Martin, you bring up a good point. The less money you have, the less “passive” your passive income options are.
(Read How Passive is Your Income)
If you have money to invest, you can get into more and more passive deals such as real estate. If you don’t have money to invest, how do you get it? a job.
After you read all these awesome articles about business and passive income on this website is really hard to hear that the author of these articles has problems implementing these ideas.