Things You'll Need:
- Self control
- Gumption
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Step 1
The fist step is to research methods by which you can earn a residual income, that is a monthly and continuous payment for work you've already done or for work you must do to maintain your revenue stream. For the sake of this article I will use eHow as an example but there are many other avenues of passive income: some people purchase high traffic ad supported web sites, others buy and rent out real estate, there are those who invest in dividend paying stocks, but there are some who prefer to write articles and create content for sites like eHow, associated press, bukisa, infobarrel and hubpages. I prefer the latter as there is much less risk involved (but the less risk comes with more work). No matter what method you choose it is important to start thinking of residual or passive income as a viable and necessary means of achieving your financial goals.
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Step 2
Next you need to formulate a plan of action. Using our eHow example: let's say that I want to achieve $100,000 in six years. I could resolve to write three articles a day for three years, or roughly 3285 articles. If I underestimate the average return of each article at $1. a month then we'd be talking about a little over a hundred thousand after six years total and this wouldn't even include how ever much I accrued during the three year production time. On top of the $100,000.00 I'd also have a residual income of a little over $3000.00 a month. Now this example is a little oversimplified of course; it doesn't for instance take into account the importance of diversification in building my residual empire. But you can at least glean the power of utilizing residual income for the sake of achieving your financial dreams. If you are willing to devote a few hours a day it allows you to save a formidable amount of money without having to draw from your normal salary.
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Step 3
Stick with the plan. Whatever methods you decide to pursue, stick with the plan and do not deviate from it unless some part of it proves itself to have been poorly conceived and needs revision. You will need to devote some time to your endeavor every day and you will need to be self-motivated this is not a 'get reach quick' plan of action. It'll require hard work. Be prepared for a slow start.
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Step 4
Don't spend the money. It is important that you don't spend the money accrued by your residual income endeavors. I find it easy to have all or most of the money forwarded to my Paypal account. I even allow tenants to pay their rent via Paypal. I then try not to think of the Paypal money as real, spendable money; I view it as merely a steadily increasing amount of capital, almost like some kind of delightful money making game that I am winning.
As stated above this mode of saving a great deal of money is certainly not for the get rich quick crowd. But if you have the ability to make a plan and stick with it you have everything you need to successfully implement these money making techniques to produce relatively low risk, gradual returns on your effort that will reap amazing rewards in a much shorter time frame than more conventional methods.
