Passive Income Streams

As I have gained knowledge and confidence in my journey I have realized the importance of passive income streams. Streams of income that pay me no matter what I’m doing. Who the hell would not love that? Ok but there has to be a trick right? No, at least last I check I’m no magician. But that would be cool, and one hell of a great side hustle.

What’s The Trick?

The trick is, this is the holy grail of being able to retire early and never have to grind for money again. Imagine it’s Monday and instead of having to wake up to sit in traffic to go to a job you instead get to spend your day however the hell you want. Talk about empowering being In complete control of your time and life. No more 10 am meetings unless it’s something you scheduled. You see the more passive income you get the more you can control your time.

How?

How might be on your mind? There are arguably infinite how’s on creating passive income streams. Let’s cover my 5 passive income streams I’m planning and executing on. Could you have more or less? Yes, you can it all depends on your needs and situation.

My 5 Passive Income Streams

Right now I’m planning and making an actionable blueprint to passive income. As I mentioned above my ideal is around five.

W-2 Income

Well, this is pretty self-explanatory. My W-2 income is my full-time career which is as an active duty Marine. I can’t complain about the pay for most days. I’m currently a little over 16 years of service. I know it’s not super passive as I go to work to earn it. But I had to include it for a few reasons. First, it has allowed me to fuel the other passive streams. It’s allowed me to build this blog, my Youtube Channel, and future endeavors. It lastly has given me more perks than just income. Like healthcare for life for cheap, free flights, free college, reduced CC annual fees, free food, VA mortgage loan and so much more.

Capital Gains

Capital gains are a dream come true for me. They allow my investments to just keep growing even when I do nothing. Capital gains are basically, the profits earned when I sell an investment that has increased in value. You also have these capital gains as your investments rise in value over the years. This is personally my money machine so to speak. The more I invest the more this wealth machine produces more passive income for me. I really love M1 Finance for their simple pie approach and fractional share options.

Dividend Income

Dividends seem to be a love-hate relationship in the financial independence community. I see some people hyper-focused on it as a passive income stream, and others not so much. I’m always going to love free money. Yet I must admit my focus is not dividend investing. It just so happens I get dividends in the funds I use. It’s super passive as I get paid to own funds I would own even if there was no dividend. While my current passive income stream of dividends is not huge it will only grow as my investments grow. The more I invest and with more time they will become even more a hard warrior for my wealth kingdom.

Interest Income

Interest income is the lowest income stream on my list. This is because well cash does not pay great interest and I keep very little cash as I like my money working hard for me. Well, that was until I actively looked into ways to grow this stream of income. Unconventional thinking leads me to my crypto. Yes, that is right I said crypto.

Crypto actually can pay you interest and pretty dam good interest at that. BlockFI allows you to gain interest in your crypto. I have only been doing this for a few days and already almost $20. I’m estimating I will see about $100 a month from this going forward. Of course, this depends on the account balance which goes up and down depending on the market.

Pension

This is one of my bigger planed passive income streams. While I don’t have it yet, I will once I retire from the Marine Corps. I will retire in less than 4 years. My pension will give me a cool $34,000 a year and it’s inflation-adjusted. That $34,000 is based on retiring in 2024 value-wise though. My plan and thoughts to see if I can solely live off of the pension and keep everything else as icing on the cake so to speak.

5 Passive Income Streams

Some of these streams are not passive but will be replaced. Like my W-2 income, I have a few ideas of ways I can replace that stream of income.

  • Rental Income
  • Free Lance Jobs
  • Monetize The Blog
  • Coaching Gigs

My goal would not be to try and match my W-2 income. Instead, the idea is to optimize potential income from passions that I love doing. That to me is the point of FIRE is work optional and if I do work at all it’s to get paid to do something I love.

Final Thoughts On Passive Income Streams

Most millionaires have several passive income streams. Not all passive income streams are created equal. Some actually take a bit of work, others take no work, and some a ton of work. Here are 5 passive income streams that will more than cover your expenses forever.