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Why I Will Quit My Job for a Passive Income

There are many reasons why we all want to quit our 9 to 5 job. But how many reasons are there for you to believe you can honestly do that? The answer is: millions. Millions of dollars, millions of opportunities and millions of ideas are just waiting for people like us to embrace. I’ve put my foot in the water, and I have to say, the pool is nice and warm – and I plan to dive right in. Are you coming with me?

The Power of the Internet

Imagine that you own a store in your local mall that sells, i don’t know, vitamins. You go to work at 8:30am, check the inventory, lay out new merchandise, and open your doors at 9:00am. The mall closes at 7:00pm, and you stay later to clean and do some paperwork. How many people walked into the store during those 10 hours? How many of those people actually drove to the mall just to buy your vitamins? Probably not too many. The doors were open for 10 hours, but you actually stayed and worked for 14. Probably not your idea of starting your own business.

Now – imagine you have a product. Let’s say, a how-to book you wrote called “The Best and Healthiest Vitamins to Lead a Better Life.” Better yet, it’s an e-book (electronic book) that you wrote on your computer.  You start a website and start to sell your book on it.

How long are your “online store doors” open? 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.

How many people are on the internet and can easily visit your site? Anyone who has a computer. Billions.

How much money did it take to open your store? Just enough to start the website.

Who visits your store? People who want to know about vitamins.

How much paperwork do you have to do? Almost none whatsoever.

How much profit do you make on each book sale? 100%.

Lastly, how much time do you need to be “attending to your store?” Again, almost none.

The Beauty of a Passive Income

Earning a residual income is much different than earning a standard paycheck from a 9 to 5 job. Obviously in a 9 to 5 job you work for 8 hours, so you get paid for 8 hours. That’s that. A residual income earns you money non-stop. You may have put in 40 or more hours of work into the source, but the source is now earning money for you while you do little or even nothing. Then you can keep adding new sources and have multiple streams that put money into your pocket.

The best part is that you are earning money and still have your time. You aren’t at work, stressing under your boss’ orders. You could be going to the gym, playing with your kids, running errands, all while earning money at the same time. Isn’t that a crazy thought?

That is why I really want to quit my job. Not so much for the infinite amount of money that I could earn (depending on how hard I work), but for the freedom I would get as a result. Freedom from a boss, freedom financially, and freedom to spend time with my family and friends.

A Question to You:

So what’s really keeping you from earning a passive income online? If you already earn some extra money online, what was the hardest thing to do when starting?

9 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)

  • Reply Caleb Nelson on October 20th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    I was talking to my mom about retirement. She’s really far behind considering when she wants to retire. I posed her the question:
    Would she rather save $700,000, or would she rather find ways to generate $3-4,000/month. I think that when you think about your retirement it is allot more valuable to think in passive rather then sum. Besides, passive income continues to build long after your gone. Look at Sam Walton.

    Caleb
    http://www.mefinanciallyfree.blogspot.com

  • Reply Pat on October 20th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

    @ Caleb,

    I agree. Especially today, when so many people have lost almost half of their retirement accounts, earning a passive income using their experience and wisdom in life could be the key to living a pleasurable retirement.

    By the way, I’ll be reading your blog, I enjoy what you have to say.

  • Reply Nevermind. I Just Got Laid Off. | The Smart Passive Income Blog on October 21st, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    [...] I had said how I was planning to quit my 9 to 5 job when I earned a certain amount of income online. Well, today I just got laid off. I guess my quest [...]

  • Reply Andy @ Retire at 40 on November 6th, 2008 at 2:15 am

    I think it’s hugely important to find extra ways of generating more income. My own journey towards getting more passive income has just started and hopefully I will start seeing benefits soon. Even if I don’t, I’ll keep at it and see where it takes me. Better to fail a few times and succeed once than to not try at all :-)

    Andy @ Retire at 40´s last blog post..‘Living it Down Small’ instead of ‘Living it Up Large’

  • Reply HallyZ. on November 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Well, I’m writing to you from one of my passive income sources right now- my financial blog. I earn a little bit of cash from that, some residual income from my published articles, and a little bit of dividend from my stocks. I think that, at this point, what’s keeping me from generating even more passive income is my job. I’ve a few good ideas for e-books, for example, but I do way too much freelance writing, blogging, and article publishing to stretch my time any further. So, it’s my job that must now be put on the chopping block, so to speak. I don’t want to entirely quit at the moment, but I do want to cut down my hours. I’ll see how that works out very soon. Thanks for keeping up this great blog!

  • Reply Azad Shaikh on December 16th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    So this is your first post. Liked it. Now i am thinking of dropping out of college. My semester exam are starting from next week and i am still not started my preparation. I do not like going to college any more. i love to work with wordpress and php.

    Azad Shaikh
    http://www.internetgeeks.org

  • Reply David on January 29th, 2010 at 8:38 am

    Its a shift in how you get paid. Either you get paid based on the hours you contribute, or you get paid based on the VALUE you provide. I like the latter since it makes more sense.

  • Reply Ms. Freeman on January 29th, 2010 at 10:12 am

    I’m not sure why I didn’t go on the hunt for this post when I first found your blog a couple of months ago. But, the more I read your blog the more I am coming to the realization that passive income is the golden ring-so to speak. Although I enjoy working for myself when I am completing service requests for my concierge business, in the end it is still a manual job and it is wearing me out.

    The new year is still fresh so time for a change in my game plan. Still keeping the concierge business going, but now my focus is more geared towards the dreaded “making money online” goal.

    UGH..I am glad I figured it out early on in the year. LOL :)

  • Reply Why I Will Quit My Job for a Passive Income « Catholic Personal Finance on February 3rd, 2010 at 8:52 pm

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