There are a lot of experts out there that claim that they can help you become economically independent and there are thousands of guides online on how to build a passive income. Almost all of them focus on reducing your spending and increasing how much you save each month. These methods work but are very hard to implement because they require you to sacrifice everything now for a potential reward in the future. You have to live as an asset for a number of years to be able to succeed. This might be worth it for some but most people will find it very hard to stay motivated.
This is because these methods focus on sacrifices. They forget that there is another way to be able to save more. Increase your income. Increasing your income do not have to be hard and it allows you to save more and still keep a good standard of living. This makes it easier to stay motivated and you can reward yourself as you increase your income. You can use a part of your increased income to improve your standard of living and a part to increase how much you save each month. Your goal should be to save as much as possible of your increased income but using a small percentage of the increased income to motivate yourself can be well worth it.
On reducing expenses
It is always a good idea to regularly go over your expenses and see if there are any expenses that are unnecessary. Expenses that are non-essential and that do not contribute to your quality of life. Examples of such expenses can include subscriptions to newspapers you no longer read, cable TV you do not watch etc. It is always a good idea to remove all non-essential expenses that do not improve your quality of life. Use the money you free to save more or to improve your quality of life.
Removing expenses like this is very beneficial because it saves money and has no downside. You do not sacrifice anything when you end a subscription you do not use.
Most, if not all, of use, have expense such as these.
On increasing income
Increasing your income can be a lot easier than it sounds and can also allow you to spend less. If you spend more time earning money, you will spend less time spending money.
Your longterm goal should always be to try to build passive income streams, to hire people who do work for you that earn you money. It is almost impossible to get rich on your own work. You get rich by investing your money and having others working for you.
To increase your income, you will have to start by doing the work yourself but with the goal to be able to hire people as soon as possible.
The easiest way to increase your income is often to start working as much overtime as possible (provided you got paid overtime). Many workplaces need people who are willing to work extra and you can often get a lot of overtime if you tell your bosses you are willing to work extra. Make sure to initially never turn down overtime when they offer. This will make you into the person they turn to first and will give you a lot of overtime.
An alternative to overtime is to get a second job. Getting a second job does not have to be hard because you are not looking for a good job. Any job that you can do outside of your regular work hours will do. A small increase in income is better than nothing and you can change the job later if you find something better. Make sure that your main work is not suffering due to your second job.
You should also devote time to try to build assets that can make you money while you sleep. Passive income is the key to financial independence and should always be your ultimate goal. There are many ways to build passive income streams. You can invest in, renovate and rent out houses, You can start your own company that is managed by employees. You can build websites that earn advertising revenue and so on.
Some ways to build passive revenue requires very little money and can be a very good way to create your first income stream. Building a website is an example of an income stream that can be built for less than USD 50 if you do most of the work yourself. It does not matter how you build passive income. The most important thing is that you do it in one way or another.
