Four Ways to Earn Income

4. Investment Income, (your money earns money)

Trading time for money, (see post from Nov. 3rd), doesn’t provide the long lasting financial comfort and abundance most of us are seeking. To achieve this you must couple trading time for money with at least one other method of earning income, “Investing”.

When you invest money, you become the beneficiary of multiplication. You tap into what Einstein called “the most powerful force in the universe”, Compounding Interest. Every dollar that you have invested is a small “clone” of you earning income.

If I offered to pay you 10 cents each year that wouldn’t be all that exciting, but if there were a million copies of you, and I paid each one of them 10 cents a year, now that would be something! ($100,000 per year) “But”, you say, “I don’t have a million dollars to invest”. You could. If you knew and applied a few basic principles, a million dollars would not be difficult to achieve at all.

Did you know that most people in the U.S. will earn more than a million dollars in their working lifetime? If you earned $22,300 each year of your working life, (age 20 – 65), a million dollars will have passed through your hands during that time period. If you set aside $50 each month during that same time period, it is possible to accumulate over a million dollars. 50 dollars a month!

The average American family spends $250 a month on fast food, (not counting their normal grocery bill). Last year I met a nice young couple who were spending $1400 a month eating out and they were not putting anything away for the future.

The truth is, you can save $25, $50, $75 each month. It has been my experience that most people who say they don’t have any extra money to save, basically are not aware of where the money is “leaking” to. Try this, for just one week, write down everything you spend your money on; every last cent. (Be honest). I have found that having a self-awareness of your behaviors is the first step toward personal change.

Once you made it through the week, go for a second, then a third. By the time you begin the second month, you will have made some important discoveries about you and your family’s spending habits that will surprise you. The only thing standing between you and financial abundance, is commitment.

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