Residual Income Beats 9 to 5

(c) Kristy Taylor 2006

Imagine yourself in a life where the money you make doesn't depend on the time you put in or the work you produce; where you keep making money after one initial sale or effort. This is called residual income, or passive income.

There are many benefits to earning a residual income rather than depending on your employer to pay you for all the hours you've put in. A typical 9-to-5 job, for example, only pays you for the hours you've worked-it's a one-shot deal. When you stop working, you stop getting paid.

With residual or passive income, on the other hand, you keep getting paid, over and over, for a one-time effort. It's income that doesn't require your direct involvement. You have no set 'hours' to put in, you have no Boss to report to, and you can take time off whenever you want without worrying about how it will affect your business.

One example of earning residual income is an insurance salesman who sells insurance to a customer once and keeps getting paid, year after year, every time that customer renews his policy-without any extra work on the salesman's part. Another example is a writer who writes and publishes a novel. Every time the book is sold, the writer earns a royalty.

Some people quit their jobs to freelance, enjoying flexibility, becoming self-employed, and being their own boss of their own business. But they still only get paid for the time they put in, the work they produce, or projects they complete. And even though freelancers can essentially take time off whenever they want, they don't get paid for it.

You need to switch your thinking from 'employee' or 'freelancer' to 'entrepreneur.' Until you can stop becoming directly involved in the work that creates income for you, there is always going to be a limit with how much money you can make.

With residual or passive income, there is no limit-you can keep earning, without having to work more!

Sound good? Of course it does. But the question is, is earning residual income attainable for the average worker, or does it require some kind of special skill, connection, business knowledge, or investment?

While some of the more traditional forms of earning a residual income are either difficult or undesirable for the average person (selling insurance, inventing, investing in real estate, earning royalties off music albums, acting, writing novels, etc .) the good news is that in this day and age you don't have to be ultra talented or a business guru to tap into the residual income phenomenon.

The idea of residual income is definitely not new, but more and more people are realising that they, too, can have a piece of the residual income pie instead of leaving it for the salespeople, celebrities, investors, and business experts of the world.

The Internet has become a hot house for residual income opportunities. Whether you start your own online business, set up a website and sell digital products like eBooks, join an already established online venture, or become an affiliate and promote other peoples products or services, you can find an opportunity to suit you and allow you to get paid over and over for work you did once.

Soon, you too can 'fire your Boss' and quit your day job, and say a final farewell to 'working' for a living.

About the Author

Kristy Taylor is a syndicated freelance journalist with articles strewn across all forms of media. Join her plus 1000's of real people worldwide who are building their own 'Income for Life'