Despite what you may have heard, you can earn a living by working from home; however, you may be surprised to learn that very few home-workers support themselves by working real telecommuting ‘jobs’ with regular hours and a set wage. In fact, the majority of those who earn a living by working from home will tell you that they do so by bringing in small amounts of money from a number of sources. These small amounts accrue over time in order to generate a desired income.
Imagine that you are currently working outside of the home, and that your monthly take-home is $2500 per month. That is a singular (albeit large) stream of income. But what if you wanted to work from home and bring in the same amount of cash through various means? This is the idea behind Multiple Streams of Income (MSOI).
You may have seen or heard of this concept before. Essentially, MSOI means taking your eggs and putting them in several different baskets- and it is a preferred method of earning money by many, due to the stability involved. In fact, you will probably find that you’ve gained far better peace of mind when surviving off of multiple streams of income than you have in the past working a full-time job.
To elaborate: Again, imagine you are living off of a single income and your take-home pay is $2500 per month. If you were to lose this job for whatever reason, you’d lose financial security with it until such a time that you were able to find a new job. But what if you were surviving off multiple, smaller streams of income? Perhaps you earn $500 per month making and selling jewelry and another $1400 per month providing daycare for two small children. Maybe you also run a small website, and earn $200 per month in advertising revenue. That’s $2100 per month of income. Now say you start attending yard sales, and selling what you find on eBay. Say you earn $200 this way- that’s $2300 per month. And now you’re getting pretty close to what you would be making at a full-time job.
Now, worst-case scenario: What if you were to lose one of these streams of income? Perhaps one of the children you provide daycare for moves away, and you lose half of that $1400 per month income. In a situation like this, you’d be out $700 per month… but you’d still be bringing all the other income. As you can see, there is often much more security to be had with MSOI than there is with full-time employment.
In a world where real telecommuting jobs are few and far between, multiple streams of income are critical to being successful as a work at home parent. Try a variety of different methods to earn cash, and don’t be disappointed if some of them only bring in an extra $100 to $200 per month. After all- that’s cash you wouldn’t otherwise have, and it accumulates quickly.
Best of luck!
Warmest Regards,
Lynne Whiteley
