Jonathan Green · Follow
13 min read · Mar 8, 2018
Whatever your pay or compensation package, it seems it is never enough. there are individuals who make $20,000 a year and those that make $200,000 a year and continue to want to find additional means of income. so, whether you are 18 or 81, this article is for you. there are ways to add income both short-term and long-term.
We will look at the added benefit of other comfort and security, maybe financial freedom in investing. Whatever your reason, something has brought you to this article at this time.
Let us begin
Read on.
1. Invest regularly
The reality is it is not hard to add income to your existing compensation. Many of us work paycheck to paycheck. the principal is flawed.
By making regular small deductions from our paychecks pre-tax, we can put more money away into different investment account such as a 401k, where the money is continually reinvested and allowed to grow.
An 18-year-old that starts investing $100 per month, every month, with a 10% annual return by the age of 70 will have accrued over $1,861,766. while this is not the fastest route, the extra $5,000 a month, is potentially available around age 35, if they were to cash out with the $60K in the account. The money could be put into other Investments that would produce an income as well as continue to grow in value. this requires a more proactive approach to achieve success. Or let the money continue to grow, not touching it.
If the individual started investing $100 per month from their paycheck at age 18, and thereby increased their investment by 10% of gross income every year, based on the current compensation package, they would achieve the million-dollar mark far sooner. A little proactive planning will go a very long way. Many companies when you work full-time may have their own investment plans or match your contributions, thus doubling your money. Consider that if you invest $200 per month at the same 10% annual return rate until age 67, the accumulated value of the account is $3,723, 532. If you can get a better rate, for example 12% the investment grows to $8,098,147, the number more than doubles. Add to this if you continually increase the investment from the original $100 per month. Minor adjustments make a dramatic difference.
- These numbers were calculated using the Investment Calculator at: https://www.daveramsey.com/smartvestor/investment-calculator
2. Create progressive active passive income
The principal here is to create multiple streams of income. By developing a product or service, that is developed once but can continually be resold, you will create a passive stream of income.
Little ongoing administrative work is necessary to continue to grow this income. This could be a book, or a recorded video series, a recorded class, a service, or a product.
In recent years online products have become increasingly popular, due to ease, convenience, and low overhead to produce.
Information sells well. An individual can become an expert or consult with relatively little external knowledge. The consultant has critical specific information and research.
The research is tested and complete, Individuals will buy your comprehensive report so they do not have to take the time and energy to research the topic themselves, much like this post.
There are multiple ways to develop a progressive, passive income. the topic is beyond the scope of this article. The remainder of this article will address more active ways to develop income both short term and long term. For more passive progressive income please review the library of articles by Jonathan on this topic.
3. Start a business
Starting a business may sound daunting. This does not mean that you must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a brick and mortar business, or start from scratch, having to buy inventory and then hire people.
You can start a business for under $100.
There are many online opportunities to start a business. You could open an Amazon or eBay store. Many will not even carry inventory but are more of a middleman for a wholesaler, where the product can be drop shipped, and you make a commission from each sale. This is a very popular way to raise extra cash.
There are micro entrepreneurs that will start a business, raise it to a certain level then sell it moving onto the next challenge.
There are entrepreneurs that will build their online businesses full-time and operate many stores and different product areas of sales. From electronics and technology to clothing and jewelry. these are often larger ticket items such as cameras, computers, furniture, repurpose items, with a significant markup that allow for a greater percentage of the profits. The approach does generate greater revenue.
A little homework can create a far greater income than just starting with something that sounds good.
Do your research first as to what are top products. They do not have to be products that you would necessarily use. People are willing to purchase and pay a premium for all kinds of products.
Online shopping is continuing to grow in popularity and accessibility. You too can be an individual that can capitalize on this growing trend that is not likely to go away anytime soon.
4. Sell product
Develop, create, and sell your own products. Certainly, you can find other people’s products as we have discussed selling theirs. A common approach is if we develop our own product, we have to go over the overhead and inventory.
We develop and produce the product, we control the profit margins. We use someone else’s products, we are at their mercy as to cost, profit, and availability.
We have better control over the products and inventory when we are the developer, manufacturer, and sales of the product. Should you choose to use someone else’s product. We can often become an alliance partner, or affiliate in using their product, and having it drop shipped to the client. If they have a reputation or following, you offer your products expanding their inventory, while you build form their customer base.
Do not directly compete but supplement what they offer. This can be a very fruitful way to quickly build a customer base and build an alliance partner. This reduces our overhead, placing greater profit margins into our account.
What is something that you can make and sell to make a profit.
It is strongly encouraged to develop a product one time and continue to resell it. Items such as a book, or newsletter, even a recorded seminar or interview. A tip sheet, or hot sheet of different facts and figures that you have done from your own research on a given topic.
People are willing to purchase this information as it will be a time saver, and possibly a cost-saver for them over doing their own research.
If you have unique access to certain databases, that will not compromise your current position, or integrity, this can be a very useful tool. For example, if you teach at a university and have access to their research databases for articles, you can find information that might not be available to a non-student, or university personnel.
If you work in an organization that has information through professional associations, you may have inside without providing inside information that is available Whereas, the ordinary person outside the organization and Industry might not have this.
You have opportunities by using the resources, be sure to be reputable and ethical while supporting your integrity in this process.
5. Sell services
Similar to developing a product, you may have a service that you can provide that you already are an expert or highly proficient at.
For example, if you are good at bookkeeping, you may be able to offer your bookkeeping and accounting experience as a virtual assistant with expertise in this area. Some small businesses may not be able to afford a bookkeeper. They would like to have someone professional with exceptional knowledge look at their books to make sure that they are above reproach.
You can provide the services at a reasonable rate with relatively low overhead online, and on your own time.
Perhaps you have unique skills in manufacturing, production, law, or teaching. You may be able to consult and contract out your services to provide a specific service, or training for an organization, for a family, or individual. under this approach.
You set the price, though check what market value is for the services as an independent contractor in your area.
You may also have to look at providing some degree of insurance or bonding depending on the services you are offering. You can lower your prices to let them know that you may not be licensed or able to work under a particular license that you have in your organization, as an independent contractor the rules can be a little different. Check the laws in your state or municipality.
You could also develop classes, webinars, audios, or videos that provide the services. While it would be important to maintain an updated version. Once they are made, they can be sold over and over again creating a actively passive income with little ongoing effort.
There have been individuals that create one video that they have posted on YouTube or Pinterest, that at first did not make any money. After so many views, the companies contacted them about monetizing this video in order to place ads. The individual now makes a few hundred dollars a month and has for the past two years. This is not an exceptional story. But it is quickly becoming the rule. One student about 2 years ago, his You Tube channel drew over 300K views per month. You Tube paid him to use for advertising and affiliates.
It is time that we shift our Paradigm at the how we look at producing income. We can produce several small streams that produce a raging River of income if we are willing to do the work and change our paradigm.
6. Partner, acquiring additional work, team projects.
Developing resources is an essential part of building added income. Income can come from many resources. There are two ways to do this isolated and independent, or collectively and collaborating. Both methods work well. The choice is yours.
One reason business opportunities such as Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is so popular is that it is a collaborative.
There are those that strive to build such an operation alone and do, however it takes 100% of the one to achieve the goal and keep the goal. In a Network Marketing business this would be nearly impossible to achieve the higher levels in the system as an essential element is building teams.
One might sign enough members and clients to reap tremendous rewards, while leaving so much more on the table. The same is true in building other businesses.
There are those that will become an island and build the business independently with very minimal assistance.
Others will develop relationships with like-minded individuals. It may be people working towards a similar goal or similar skills. They turn to those with successes under their belt. The principle of success breeds further success, the principle or teams working together towards the same goal, breeds greater success, where Together Everyone Achieves More, being, acting, and thinking like a TEAM.
7. Network
Building resources and alliances in order to extend our income opportunities becomes a vital part of the process. There is principle that has been studied for years that it is better to have 1% of 100 people rather than 100% of one person. This goes to the example that we have used previously as to the power of 1 versus the power of many. It can be very difficult for example to start a business as an independent individual. Many times, we will start a side business on our free time. We may be able to commit a couple of hours a week.
The reality is if we can find multiple individuals that are willing to dedicate just a few hours per week maybe 3 to 5 hours per week but we have five to seven people that are helping us to do this which is ideal for developing a group 14, we now have approximately 20 hours per week to work with.
We can achieve far more. Those in the network of supporters, also bring in their own network of individuals. Exponentially growing the potential within the business.
Some entrepreneurs will work for resources or visibility.
Other entrepreneurs work for monetary compensation.
There will be those that will work to display their work and align with the business opportunity, to build their own business. this process of helping each other to be successful and showcase our own businesses, products, and services. This process exponentially grows the business requiring less energy per individual or collectively.
Building a network is a rapid way to develop resources as well as to give your resources and services a niche market within your area.
The network might be geographic. The network can be virtual, by selectively choosing and network building tools such as through social networking, or networking groups.
The groups require face-to-face presence as well as online using a more hybrid approach you can reach a greater number of individuals while maintaining that physical contact a face-to-face.
A high-tech touch of reaching those that are not in your immediate area however would receive help from your services.
You also will benefit from their services. Remember it is important to bring value to the network. If all you do is drain the network, the network will not be a viable resource to you for long. You must continually replenish and offer your own feeders to the resource whether it be giving referrals, providing product or services to strengthen the network and its result.
8. Start an informational website
The internet is a very powerful tool. Is clearly becoming a dynamic communication tool as well. The internet is used for research of a formal and informal nature. A consumer may do their own searches on a product or service before they choose to buy or contact the company or salesperson for more information.
A savvy investor, a knowledgeable and well-informed customer, can make the process much better. The organization must be prepared for this new level of service. To be honest it can be very difficult to stay current on all the different channels of information that come in.
Publications, and trade associations are constantly putting out new information regarding services, products, referrals, and resources. Regulatory agencies are putting out information for advocacy, and consumer information.
A business owner already wears so many hats. They hardly have time to spend time on the internet staying current on this information. They must choose between servicing the customer and reading up on the latest result in their field, they are likely going to spend the time on the customer.
This is a tremendous opportunity for the individual that is willing and able to spend the time on the internet scouring for the information that others are not willing to or simply do not have the time to do so.
9. Start a blog
There is implicit knowledge that you have that is yours alone. We each come from a different background, experience, and knowledge base. We live in a world of wanting an endless flow of information. The image of Johnny 5 comes to mind wanting more input. We are becoming a world of information junkies.
We look for ways to cure our insatiable appetite for more information.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of information that is intangible. It has little value. It becomes white noise blocking out the true information.
A knowledgeable, clearly communicated message can be conveyed through the means of a blog. A blog could be a written blog, or even a video version of a blog.
By creating a blog, we can share a wealth of information come it in a relatively short period of time come a using different communication methods. This is a way that we can bring in new information, offer perspective and editorial for this information to gain a greater understanding. This can be a great teaching tool, it can be a great learning resource.
There are some tremendous blogging resources out there. A few of my favorites are looking at:
(1) Problogger. The site will help you to business tie is your blog as to how to pool money and resources out of the work that you are doing.
(2) Jon Morrow’s Smart Blogger. Smart Blogger offers incredible information, and value for the individual trying to build their blog either full time or part time.
Both of these sites will talk to you about building a business and how to monetize your website.
If you need a slightly different approach you could look at:
(3) Pete and Heather Reese’s 30 Days to Building a Blog Income. Heather and Pete are very relatable on a personal level. While they are business, they incorporate a more family inclusion feeling as friends and may be a good neighbor or sibling.
All 3 of these resources are excellent and have their own approach to teaching. All 3 I believe will help to make you successful, however it will be a matter of what you are willing to invest, and white approach fits your needs best.
10. Other consulting.
We have discussed many different options for adding income to your current income. The resources that we have discussed can supplement and even replace your current income. These resources can be building blocks and a starting point to building a business of your own that could even replace your income and surpass your current financial situation.
As you build these out, you gain additional knowledge in your specific field as well as business building tactics that have allowed you to work part time while you maintain your current financial situation through either full-time work or multiple part time work.
You may already be consulting or contracting out your services. You might look at taking different aspects of what you do and specializing these areas. By doing so, you should not be competing with your current employer, however you would be building brand recognition in a given field that needs added resources and experience that only you can bring. It has been demonstrated time and again, that the individual that has specific knowledge, gains a greater income potential by having a laser a focused approach. However, with that you must build your network in the areas that require that service or product that you offer.
Let’s wrap this up.
Thank you for joining me through this journey of 10 tips for adding $5000 a month to your income. I hope the information has been practical and very useful to you.
Tips and tools for actually developing out each of these areas are plentiful on the Internet.
I may at a later time go through each of these in individual blogs and talk about them further.
It is important to seek out your own resources as well. By doing so, you are able to find the approach that works best for you.
I sometimes need the information given to me very directly. Other times I might do better having an example given to me. Depending on the situation in what it is I need to accomplish, the approach will be different. This was one way of presenting the information.
There are multiple ways, to acquire these tips and tricks for adding income to your current financial situation. What we have talked about in easily give you a 1000, 2000, or $10,000 a month.
Much of this decision is left to you.
What are you willing to do?
How far are you willing to take this?
How much time are you willing to give this? And will you dedicate your efforts to the success of these tips and tricks?
It may require giving up comfort, and maybe some leisure for time to provide a greater quality of life, however you measure that period thank you for joining us. I look forward to your comments and feedback. Let us start a discussion, I am 1 person, you are many.
To your wealth.
Jonathan
