Do you have a secondary gig? Or residual income?

[Zeze]

I guess all the rage nowadays is to diversify your income stream. Just like anything else, this spreads the risk should your day job or its industry hits the fan.

1. Do you have a secondary gig on the side? If so, what is it?

2. Do you have a residual income? This is $$ you generate passively with minimal work.

I used to do photography and made just enough to pay off my gear- which is good. But wedding photography is way too much pressure and risk. I probably won't do that again. I guess the fire kind of died inside me + time became way too much more precious, so I haven't done this for some time.

As for residual income... none. I don't even know what to do here. Wife and I kind of want to get into investment property, but I'm also getting turned off by having to deal with tenants.

 

[purbeast0]

I have a secondary gig on the side that I'm hoping becomes a full time gig. Right now I'm the CTO of a startup worth $0. Hopefully that changes over the next few months.

I have a little bit of income coming in from apps I've had in the app store for a few years now. They are in a very niche market and at the peak I was bringing in like $500 - $700 a month extra. Now I'm lucky if I bring in like $150/month on them. The money goes straight to my savings account so I don't even pay attention to how much I make from it.

 

[highland145]

The wife has 2 jobs. Does that count?

 

[Timorous]

I have 3 rental properties that make me a nice chunk of change. Intending to get more over the next 3 years and then retire.

 

[edro]

Rental, although its always in the back of your mind.

 

[Riverhound777]

I rent out the Master bedroom in my condo. Pays just under half my mortgage and taxes.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I think I collected about $200 worth of Stock Dividends last year ... Of course I just reinvest it, and I'm buying growth based stocks so not really going after the dividend so much as the share price increase ...

 

[dullard]

My wife and I each earn enough and spend little enough that we can live off of one person's salary without cutbacks if one of us lost our jobs. That is almost the best form of secondary income possible (trust fund baby being better, but that is not realistic for most). That means we save enough to generate money that is worth investing. Our investments are now residual income. It isn't a huge amount of residual income since most of our investments are in retirement accounts, but our stocks pay enough that we could probably live a very frugal life for quite a while just on the dividends.

Investment property is just not worth it until you have at least 4 rentals. With just one or two rentals, you have a huge headache of tenants, maintenance, tax paperwork, etc. just for a small income. Once you have ~4 rentals, the money is high enough that it becomes worth it, plus there aren't that many additional life hassles over 1 rental (you've already done your taxes; figured out the plumbers, roofers, handymen, etc. you want to hire; and are already doing the tenant search). Once you get to maybe 8 to 10 rentals you can just let that be your full-time job.

I wouldn't bother with just one rental property myself. But, if I were to go that route, I'd go with a luxury apartment and a rental management company. The luxury route generally means good, stable tenants that won't trash your place. The management company will skim off $50 to $100 each month, but it means you have to do nothing. Just sit back and collect your income. Most months, you get a nice check, the months where something breaks, you get less, the management company handles the details.

 

[Exterous]

I do have two side responsibilities that generates some income for fairly little work. There is some liability involved and and a requirement for quick response time for some issues so I've been winding those down.

I do realize some investment income to offset tax deferred contributions and lower my overall tax rate

We do have a photography side business but also found weddings\one time events to be too much work\pressure. So my wife does senior pictures and we do real estate photography. Nothing to the level of FBB but its pretty low stress

 

[dank69]

Came here expecting this to be a brag thread. Leaving disappointed.

 

[Tweak155]

Used to run a business selling goods online, but glad that is gone now. Was great money, but mentally it took a lot of my time. Now I work 8hrs / day and don't have to think about anything work related outside of those 8hrs.

If I ever feel like being my own boss again, I might try opening a store-front, but I'm not in any hurry.

 

[NetWareHead]

My wife and I each earn enough and spend little enough that we can live off of one person's salary without cutbacks if one of us lost our jobs. That is almost the best form of secondary income possible (trust fund baby being better, but that is not realistic for most). That means we save enough to generate money that is worth investing. Our investments are now residual income. It isn't a huge amount of residual income since most of our investments are in retirement accounts, but our stocks pay enough that we could probably live a very frugal life for quite a while just on the dividends.

Investment property is just not worth it until you have at least 4 rentals. With just one or two rentals, you have a huge headache of tenants, maintenance, tax paperwork, etc. just for a small income. Once you have ~4 rentals, the money is high enough that it becomes worth it, plus there aren't that many additional life hassles over 1 rental (you've already done your taxes; figured out the plumbers, roofers, handymen, etc. you want to hire; and are already doing the tenant search). Once you get to maybe 8 to 10 rentals you can just let that be your full-time job.

I wouldn't bother with just one rental property myself. But, if I were to go that route, I'd go with a luxury apartment and a rental management company. The luxury route generally means good, stable tenants that won't trash your place. The management company will skim off $50 to $100 each month, but it means you have to do nothing. Just sit back and collect your income. Most months, you get a nice check, the months where something breaks, you get less, the management company handles the details.

There is nothing wrong with just one rental property. Most of the time they are not profitable but that might not be the intention. They can serve as convenient vehicles for creative accounting, deductions and reducing taxable income. Better as an investment but is hardly a business if it doesnt generate profit.

I'd agree with your statement about 4 rentals although it can be done with less than that. I was profitable when I had just one rental and even if it was only a few hundred a month, better than losing or breaking even. And agree 100% with your reasons on the luxury rentals. I have a 2 family house; both units are luxury and I profit over a grand a month on that one property. Luxury brings a better class of tenants with usually less headache and turnover

Our goal is to acquire as many rentals as possible while we supplement our income with carefully selected properties we can flip for maximum return. Eventually start up landscaping and property mgmnt companies so we can take care of our own properties and maybe even external customers.

 

[mike8675309]

I got a check for $100 from google for ads on my videos on my two Youtube channels this year. Took about 5 years of ads to get that check. Took out my wife to Red Robin to celebrate.

 

[Svnla]

I do have a small side gig that would net me about $500 per month (pure profit after all expenses). Plus I also do export to developing countries for the local nouveau rich with American made goods but it is not monthly.

I do think about the Real Estate as rentals but don't want to deal with bad tenants. I might do that later with a multi plex (4-10 units) and I live in one of them and able to keep an eye on the tenants.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I used to have a 3 bedroom house that had an inlaw suite in the back. I gutted the back bedroom of the house, reinsulated it, new sheetrock and light fixtures, new closet door.....then rented it out for $50/month more than my mortgage payment. I took that money and quickly used it to renovate the single bathroom in the front of the house and my roommate tenant didn't seem to mind because I did most of it in a weekend.

After that, I did a total renovation on the inlaw suite and got it setup with a remodeled kitchen, bathroom, and took care of all the building code issues it had with someone living there. I ended up renting the unit out with utilities included so I was then making over double my mortgage payment on that property...

I miss having that extra income, but don't miss living with other people or dealing with tenants. I just made sure I married a career driven woman, so things are going alright for us, but like everyone else....I wish I had some extra revenue without having to put in too much time/effort. I keep telling myself, we'll have 2 of our 3 cars paid off this year and 1 out of daycare (1 left after that). That'll free up around $1500 a month...things are only going to get easier.

 

[madoka]

My parents setup some sort of trust fund for a large 20 acre beachfront property they own for my siblings and me. I think I get something like $5K or $15K a year from it. I really don't pay much attention to it because it's not a lot of money and most of it disappears in taxes anyways. While it is undeveloped right now, my dad thinks that once it is developed, the land will sell for $30-50 million. I guess I'll pay attention then.

 

[Mai72]

I don't diversify. I'm following Grant Cardone's formula for success. And what would that be?

1. Increase Income. As Grant would say, "income is king." Most people don't make enough. Find ways to make more. $100k ain't enough. Consider the government is going to take 35% out of the $100k. You're down to $65k. To take care of your mortgage, house, cars, retirement, leisure, food, emergency fund, etc. If you make $50k find ways to make $65k You make $65, find ways to make $100k. Find ways to make $150k and so on.

2. Live on what you make, put the rest in a sacred account. Could you live on $3k a month? Good. Put the rest in an account you can't touch. Have the added income taken out immediately. You can't see it and touch it for now. So, you make $6k a month. Live on $3k and pack away the added $3k. In 12 months you have $36k. Hopefully, it's more if you've been increasing your income. You save to invest! Not save to save.

3. Don't diversify. Many people are going to disagree with Grant on this one. Grant doesn't diversify. What he's done in his life is when he banked his first $100k he threw it all into real estate. As Grant would say, a $5k, $20k or even a $50k investment is not enough. You have to throw down to see any gains. If you were to invest $20k how much are you really going to see as an investment? Not much. That's why you want to make big plays.

4. Invest in real estate. Multi-family apartments to be exact. Perfect vehicles to make money. Why? Because everyone needs a place to live and the millions of baby boomers are retiring, selling their homes and settling into apartments. Plus, unlike stocks you can touch your real estate as well. Grant doesn't worry about leaky faucets, because he has people who overlook all of his properties. Multi-family is great because you have many doors all in one location paying rent. And, you use their rent payments to pay off the mortgage on your complex. So, if you have a 20 door complex paying $1k a month and you have 16 filled you're still getting $16k a month. That's what makes multi-family so appealing. I find it funny that the people who dismiss real estate as a vehicle for obtaining wealth have never ever owned apartments. Yet, they'll give you advice.

It's all worked for Grant. He has over 4k apartments worth nearly $500m. He also has a sales company worth over $100m. He's a New York Times best selling author with books such as The 10X Rule, Sell or Be Sold, and just recently Be Obsessed or Be Average. He's also worked with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, US Army, All State, T Mobile, Aflac, Microsoft, etc...

I know I'm riding his jock. Much of what he says resonates with me because it's a different way to think about my finances. I've used his approach and I'm doing better financially than ever. I have my job which generates $60k. I also sell on eBay and Amazon. When I taught in South Korea I put away large sums of money. I was able to live cheaply and it's tax free. I'm getting very close to that $100k. My goal is to have multi-family apartments so I'm generating passive income. If it's done correctly, it could be a huge payoff. Why get older with only a little bit of money? I want abundance so I can take 2 month vacations and not have to worry. I want to get to the point that I can take care of my dad without the worry that I only have enough for myself.

You can do it, but you're going to have to change your mindset. If you think rich people are bad than you'll never have financial freedom. If you think getting wealthy is a pipe dream you'll never get there. I live 10 minutes from Avalon and Stone Harbor NJ. Mansions galore. Millionaires everywhere. There is no shortage of money.

Well this is just my opinion. I don't expect anyone to agree. This is the course I'm following because I know deep down inside that it's the correct path. For me anyway.

 

[Exterous]

It's all worked for Grant. He has over 4k apartments worth nearly $500m. He also has a sales company worth over $100m. He's a New York Times best selling author with books such as The 10X Rule, Sell or Be Sold, and just recently Be Obsessed or Be Average. He's also worked with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, US Army, All State, T Mobile, Aflac, Microsoft, etc...

Sounds like a line from one of those 'Get rich' seminars or books. Put all your eggs in one basket - what could go wrong? Also my ability to physically fondle my investment is not a necessary requirement. Not a knock on real estate but come on

 

[dullard]

Grant doesn't diversify. What he's done in his life is when he banked his first $100k he threw it all into real estate.

He also has a sales company worth over $100m.

He's a New York Times best selling author with books such as The 10X Rule, Sell or Be Sold, and just recently Be Obsessed or Be Average.

He's also worked with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, US Army, All State, T Mobile, Aflac, Microsoft, etc...

Seems like the first person to follow Grant's advise should be Grant himself. Why is he all over the place in real estate, sales companies, authorship, motivational speaking, TV, etc? I thought you shouldn't diversify and should only do real estate! Either (a) Grant realizes his own advice is bad or (b) wants to dupe people into thinking it is good.

 

[LevelSea]

Pimping

 

[mike8675309]

4. Invest in real estate. Multi-family apartments to be exact. Perfect vehicles to make money. Why? Because everyone needs a place to live and the millions of baby boomers are retiring, selling their homes and settling into apartments. Plus, unlike stocks you can touch your real estate as well.

You have to know something about buildings if you are going to invest in that. You also need to have an idea of the location and the plans for that location in the future. You can easily get screwed with dead boilers, screwed roofs that leak, fires that take out much of the building.

New buildings with sprinkler systems and updated security near suburban city centers with room in units for compact washer/dryers are were the baby boomers want to live.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a site I have not updated in years (iceteks.com) that still generates a small amount of adsense revenue. FAR from enough to live off of, it won't even pay the hydro bill. I need to get off my ass and expand that site more or at least try to put some decent content that can attract more viewers. I get like 200k+ page views per month last I checked but it's probably mostly bots. It ranks half decently on Google too so it gets lot of traffic from people doing google searches and what not.

I've been wanting to get back into coding and just keep getting lazy. IoT seems to be the big rage right now, and it's implemented very terribly. I might try to get into that, but do it right. Mobile development is a big one to get into too, I need to look into learning that. You can get lucky and make a simple game like flappy bird and pretty much win the lotto. I would love to hit the jackpot like that, just to have an extra assurance if I lose my job. I'd still keep working.

It's crossed my mind to get into real estate - specifically rentals, but there's too many laws and regulations and red tape that make it a pain in the ass. Especially if you end up with a bad tenant. You can't do anything to get rid of them. I imagine if you get big enough you hire a building manager that will take care of all that stuff so it would not be as bad.

 

[TheGardener]

I wouldn't call in a secondary gig, but I have been hired by some focus groups to give my opinions. Unfortunately its been a while now, because I don't seem to qualify. Their interview process has gotten tighter. Also they've stopped validating parking which can be over $30 in the city. Taking public transportation is an inconvenience for me. The best focus group was my local credit union wanted feedback on website changes that they were looking at making. A 6 mile drive round trip, free parking and was paid cash for 60 minutes of my time. They even had free food.

 

[repoman0]

I'm very happy spending my free time as free time and feel lucky to make enough money that I'm totally comfortable doing so. I would not mind some passive income, i.e. investment dividends, possibly property rentals, but I have no intention to quit my job and rot away my brain doing nothing -- after all, math is fun

 

[nerp]

I have two stocks with a decent chunk of shares for dividends. It's nice getting two checks every quarter. It's like getting a performance bonus x2 every three months. Taxes on them are a joke. It's nice being in the 1%.