Earning and Art are two completely different terms that are rarely put together. But if you look at the richest people around you or across the world, it is easy to understand that their way of spending and saving is entirely different. I read in a finance-related book that the only way to grow rich is by putting your money to work for you. Being rich doesn’t mean having billions in your bank account. It means having enough to meet your ends without any struggle. Alternative income is a concept that is gaining prominence in recent years and with the current situation where jobs across sectors are at stake, it becomes a necessity to have multiple earning options.
Let’s understand alternative earning in its full concept. Every individual whether working or student, has a primary task. It could be a primary job or going to classes. In either case, alternative earning serves as a source to meet requirements or have an added source for increasing the savings. There are two ways you can have savings. One is where you cut a part of your salary for your monthly expenses and deposit the rest into the bank account as savings. Another one is where you accumulated the part of salary left after expenses with the alternative income and deposit it at a place. In the latter case, your savings are going to increase automatically.
Normally people have their day divided into three parts. They wake up, do their daily chores in the first part. The second and the longest part in terms of time is consumed in the primary task be it job or education. The last part is where they relax, watch TV, kill time and go to bed. In case of alternative earning, you will need to divide your day into four parts where you take out a few hours before or your primary task (depending upon shift or timing) and dedicate it another task for creating another income source. Basically, you’ll have to manage and divide your productive time into 2 segments where you dedicate the shorter span to your alternative income plan. It may appear to be a complex task in the beginning but will eventually pay-off.
Now, there are basically three ways of second or Alternative income.
- Freelance Income: This is the most common form of alternate earning and you must be familiar with the term. This is where you take out some time from your busy day and dedicate it to another earning task. People habitual of working for longer hours can easily adapt to this and start earning extra.
- Profit Income: You might have heard people talking about side business. Well, profit income is just the way where you invest some time in the field you love or are passionate about and find out ways to make it a profit-making business. This is a sustainable model that can transform into a full-time business over time and you can actually have the luxury of leaving your old job after your side income transforms into a major profit-making entity.
- Investing Income: Investment is another way of getting wealthier however, it does involve some risks. You don’t need to work every day in this case. Just find businesses or funds that appear to grow and invest a certain amount and see it grow over time. Just an important tip: “Invest the amount that you are willing to lose”. This is the golden rule of investment. But if you remain alert and invest smartly, you can remain on the profitable side.
Also Read Why are Business Ethics crucial?
Now the question that arises is, Why do you need an alternative income?
Life is full of uncertainties and you can’t rely on your job forever. Our requirements grow with us and no matter how much we earn, there will be moments where financial support and security becomes mandatory. From health emergencies to certain other emergencies, money is the only asset that can bail us out from such problems.
Having an alternative income is not related to greed. It is about getting financially independent and empowered. When you start earning even a small amount of money as an alternative income, you have the comfort of fulfilling your requirements without taking too much load. There is also a scope of scaling it to the next level and boost your earnings. Once you manage to divide your time into segments and use it for generating alternative income, you slowly become comfortable with the new schedule and you are able to take your earning model to the next level with time.
