First and foremost, Happy New Year you all!
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
Early Years
I remember being asked in kindergarten class, what do I want to be when I grow up. When you ask a 5 year old what they want to be when they grow up, their response almost aways reflects the characteristics of their personal hero.
Even though I couldn’t comprehend my parents’ professions at age 5, I simply responded by saying I don’t know and my teacher said, how are you going to pay for the things you need? Without too much deliberation, I responded, my parents have money and they are going to pay for the things I need.
Growing up I, was surrounded with a hard working family. I remember going to my grandfather’s tailor shop to visit and have a “tulumba” or two while waiting for him to close the shop. My grandmother’s frame shop was located in old town Skopje, Macedonia. I was super excited to visit her at work and enjoy some of the best “kebapce” in town.
My parents worked very hard until their retirement in 2013. My mother worked as a Dermatologist, and my father as an Electrical Engineer. Both of them worked long hours, and my father oftentimes traveled for work.
My sister and I, had everything we needed from food and clothes to shelter and love. Nothing fancy or luxurious, just the right amount of stuff to live a normal life.
Perfect Environment
Fortunately, being surrounded with so much talent in my early years, set the stage for the perfect learning environment. Being able to watch and learn first-hand the art of making money was true blessing.
In those days, I learned mostly through imitation. I watched the way conversations were conducted, work ethics implemented, and tasks being done in timely manner. I learn through imitation nowadays too; it is a great human trait that we are all born with.
You have it too, think about the times you wanted to play like your favorite football player, dress like your favorite movie star, talk like your favorite hero, or play a guitar like your favorite guitar player. These are all traits of imitation.
During my teenager years, my friends and I all had a side-hustle or two. There were great stories shared among us, and many life lessons learned, along the path to earning a few bucks.
Making Money
Wanting to make money for as long as I can remember, I needed to figure out a ways to generate my own income early on in life.
Education has always been a top priority for me, so I took care of school first, before engaging in any kind of work related activities. This is not to say I did not or would not want to work in between.
In high school, while going out on the weekends, I decided to make a buck by distributing flyers for nightclub venues throughout the city.
I held several part time and full time jobs throughout my college career. I started as a dishwasher in Union, MO, in the late 90’s, then became the catering manager at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA, in the early 00’s.
During summers, beginning in 2002, I worked as a freelance interpreter while the Macedonian Army conducted drills with their US counterparts in Baton Rouge, LA. I also did a little bit of web design for a few hours a week during my last semester at LSU.
Post graduation, I moved to the Washington, DC area, in the spring of 2005. I had a sales job for few months before I decided to become a lifeguard. It took a while to go through training and get the proper certification, but in the end, it was all worth it. A lot of the pools are on the building rooftops overlooking the city. Obviously, lifeguarding is a seasonal profession. That said, even though I got to stay physically fit, it was time to look for something else.
Most of my undergraduate degree focused on information systems and I decided to put my knowledge to the test. In order to keep up with the ever changing IT world, I had to keep my skills sharp.
I landed an IT job for a small life insurance company before finding a more permanent role in one of the top 3% of private elementary schools in the nation.
By now, you see my approach to work. I was not afraid to try new things and learn as much as I could on the job. I have met and interacted with all sorts of people. I’ve learned a great set of skills, from personal development, to leadership; all the while, earning a paycheck. Most importantly, I learned how to value, control, and save my earnings.
I liked spending money, but at the same time always looked for ways to make more money. Perhaps that is one of the driving factors that made me realize it was time to look for multiple streams of income, in case one stream dried up.
Present Day
As of this writing, Leslie and I are both working, I work full time and Leslie works part time.
Over time, we have had conversations on how to create lifelong streams of income. I even discussed this subject with my parents years ago. After we had a firm savings strategy in place, discussed in this post, it was time to look for ways to have residual income streams.
My imagination ran wild; from becoming a landlord to owning my own business. This was not something that came to my mind overnight. It took years of observing and learning from life’s events. Discovering the FI community was my eureka moment. I was able to find answers to all of my questions in a simple and yet efficient way, all in one place.
Even though it is still a work in progress, here is a break down of where we stand:
Full time job
Having full time job keeps us accountable and in line. Having a steady flow of income gives us the latitude to venture out and try new things. After all, we like working.
Part time job
In order for us to achieve financial freedom sooner, 70% of Leslie’s earned income is being invested. We plan to increase our savings rate, leveraging the part- time income Leslie brings home.
Stock Market
The stock market is our principle tool for wealth accumulation, steady flow of interest and dividends distribution, on a monthly basis. However, all of our dividends and interest are reinvested back into our portfolio until retirement. To date, this is our primary residual income stream.
Tax Lien Certificates
Our newest adventure that we are exploring, are TLC’s. Collecting interest by paying other peoples’ property taxes. Stay tuned for more on this as we are in the process of setting up an LLC before we can do anything with TLC’s. This is going to be a second residual income stream for us.
Blogging
So far the blog is not generating income, but we do participate in affiliate advertising programs. Extra income is always welcome, however our focus right now is to set up this blog as a learning platform for us and our children.
Rentals
Looking to expand our income streams, Leslie and I are actively discussing the possibility to become landlords. Our plan is to either move out and rent our current place or buy a rental property and remain in our current home. If set up correctly, this could potentially be our third source of residual income.
To Sum It Up
Well, there you have it. We have six income streams lined up that we are quite excited about and plan on using them to our advantage while creating truly residual income from the stock market, tax lien certificates, and rent.
It is never too early or too late to try something new, especially when it brings you personal satisfaction and growth. If you want something to last, it requires great amount of effort on your part as well as consistent maintenance. Only then you can truly value it!
Everyones vision of creating income streams is different and that’s alright. As long as you are thinking about it, you are on the right track. Take action and stick with something you truly like doing, give it time and enjoy the benefits.
The legendary Warren Buffet once said “The more you learn the more you earn.”
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