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?
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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
@ 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.
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’
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!
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
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.
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
It is my goal to support myself via passive income.
Thanks, Pat, for showing the way.
Passive Income is definitely a big goal of mine. Its interesting to read this article knowing some of how it worked out for you. Hope you don’t mind me going through the archives to see the journey from the beginning.
That’s an interesting way to compare a 9 to 5 job with online income. If you consider it this way, making a living online is the absolutely best option available.
Like Dustin, I’ve decided to go through your archives and read about your journey from the very beginning. I’m unemployed, and I’ve decided a few months ago that I wanted to make a living online rather than work at a 9 to 5 job. For several months, I’ve been struggling to do so. Like you, I created a blog (Cash Campfire) to record my successes and failures during my online journey. My blog is also a way to help my readers through certain tasks I’m struggling with.
I hope that, by emulating your progress, I’ll also make a decent online income in the months ahead.
Like Christina and Dustin, I too am scouring your archives. Thanks Pat for the podcasts and the website. I’ve not done anything substantial yet to earn me passive income, but armed with your experience and knowledge imparted, I shall brave the rough but rewarding seas
It’s great to read these old posts to see how far you’ve come mate.
Great post. I’ve been reading your blog (sporadically) for awhile and am finally going through all your posts (from 2008 till now). It’s great to see that someone is genuine, honest AND successful.
Keep up the awesome and inspiring work
Happened to stumble upon this blog, which totally rocks! I was on my way to financial freedom and you really motivate me to move on. Right now I encountered obstacles, guess I’ll continue to read to seek my answers!
Keep moving!
I am at that time when I am considering leaving my full-time employment and concentrating on Internet marketing. I enjoy reading your blog and I appreciate your frank and honest views.
Boy, it will be good to get rid of that 9-to-5 feeling.
Cheers,
Pete
PS. I am a member at Internet business mastery, thanks to your recommendations. Those two have a good couple of guys.
Hey Pat,
I’ve decided to do like Christina and Dustin. I will be reading your blog posts as if it was a book (from start to finish).
I currently do make some money online but I can’t say that the passive portion of it is enough to pay the bills or a mortgage. I’d like to change things a little and I tough I would use your blog as inspiration because you’re doing what a lot of us are aspiring to do.
I guess what’s keeping me from growing online is fear and time but deep down I know that these are just excuses that I need to get over to reach my dreams. I feel like I’m sleeping on my knowledge at times.
I’ll read less and do more because… “progress is success”.
I have been playing with the though of going into passive income a some years back but was always discouraged to go online because of the fear of the unknown. I had no idea how to start it nor how I would maintain it.
I have been searching all over the web ways of generating passive income. There are a lot of information in the internet. Most are inspiring but I cannot find a way to start off on a good first step.
After reading some of your latest articles for a few months, something inside me awoke once more. The hungry desire to set up a passive income, plan my life, work to get off work, then live the life I plan. The amount of information available is overwhelming that I decided to take it slow and take it one step at a time. Starting from Day One.
What you mentioned in your first post is exactly what I have in mind right now. I have to work for 9 hours, travel for 2 hours total, sleep 6 hours, (sometimes less), do household chores for 2 hours total, steal an hour to do what I whim for 1 hour (to keep the sanity in check), then spend the rest as quality time with my wife.
Not exactly how I want to live a fulfilled life and it is a struggle to get out of it.
Finding time to get out of the routine is a feat in itself but I HAVE to find time for it. I’ll look into your past archives and see what you do and use it as a guide.
You are not me but we share the same dream (your are already living in the dream life I have in mind). Your are a beacon to where I want to go but truth be told, there is still a vast horizon beyond us.
I’m very inspired by all those making “passive income”. I just think it should be easier for people with no background or experience. That’s why I started my new project. When I’m done anyone can earn a “passive income” with very little effort and no experience.