A catch-22 of phrases per say, but if you break it down word by word then it makes complete sense. As I get older, I hope to work less and less but also hope to keep earning more and more money as the years go by. Sounds backwards, doesn’t it?
In America, people commonly associate more work and longer hours with more $. The more you grind away and the more time you spend “working” then more $$$ you will make. It is sad to say, but I guess in corporate America this is the way to reach the “top” and earn financial success. I really feel like this is a race to the bottom and you need to step back and really analyze how you spend your time and the things you want to accomplish as you continue to grow older. My goal is to increase my passive income every year so I can spend more time enjoying life but also making more $ at the same time.
Investing in the stock market is great and everything, but do these investments produce significant cash-flow? 5 years worth of gain in a position can be wiped in minutes on the stock exchange. (Disclaimer: I do own large blue chip dividend paying stocks primarily as a hedge against other ventures, but as I grow my real estate interests and equity investments in businesses then my stock holdings will become less and less.)
I am constantly looking for passive income opportunities. Passive income is defined as “Earnings an individual derives from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which he or she is not actively involved.” The most common form of passive income opportunities are real estate investment properties that spit off cash-flow, equity investments in businesses you are not actively running, oil and gas royalties, or establishing and building a “muse” famously coined and defined by Tim Ferriss – click on his name to learn more about the process.
Americans and other investors in general love the stock market because the ease of access to the everyday investor is insanely easy. You could set-up an E Trade account right now, read some articles on Seeking Alpha, convince yourself your a pro, and invest $25,000 this afternoon.
On the contrary, finding passive income opportunities takes a lot of time and effort. There is not a “stock exchange” to easily identify and search for these opportunities. You have to research, learn, network, and take some risk to see the reward in these ventures.
Good luck in your passive income ventures, and please share any success stories/ideas/comments below!
-Sam Sawyer
