The 7 sources of residual income

When looking at income in the future, shouldn’t we be looking at what is going to happen and determine if that is what we want life to look like? We need to work backward from that point until we reach today, viewing our decisions with money as the pre-cursor of tomorrow? The reason we even talk about residual income is that’s the goal of retirement or what we like to call time freedom.

When you retire, your Social Security income plus pensions, if they are left, plus dividends and interest off of your investments and maybe an income annuity will meet your needs and hopefully exceed them, so you can walk away from your day job.

Dividends and interest are a form of residual income. Social Security certainly is, the government takes money from us every paycheck and we get a small piece back when we retire (even though it is taxed in retirement again).

So, if the goal is to have residual income when we retire, which seems based on Social Security rules to only be possible in our 60’s, and the government has mandated penalties before taking our money before 59.5, wouldn’t it be prudent to start investing in sources of residual income now that maybe don’t have an age limit into our 60’s? What guarantee do we have that we will make it that long?

Furthermore, what control do we really have over Social Security and our 401K’s? Looking at the sources of residual income, let’s take a look at other high-level places we could diversify. Who knows, maybe you could start generating residual income now and step into that time freedom sooner than your 60’s?

What are the 7 Sources of Residual Income?

• Royalties
• Network Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing/Subscription Models
• Business
• Investments
• Real Estate
• Uncommon Banking

Taking stock of where you are at is so crucial. Are you currently doing one of these seven? Don’t be confused, not all businesses or investments are residual, in our opinion.

Let’s dig in and define what we are talking about first.

Residual income has two real definitions. Let’s look at those first. Residual Income is income that continues to be generated after the initial effort has been expended. Compare this to what most people focus on earning: linear income, which is “one-shot” compensation or payment in the form of a fee, wage, commission or salary. The other definition for residual income is not actually a type of income, but rather a calculation that determines how much discretionary money an individual has available to spend after most monthly bills are paid. We believe that income that exceeds your expenses is called PROFIT! So, we are going to use the first definition for the sake of this document.

Since all income is documented on your tax return and we have to file our taxes, let’s look at what the IRS thinks. According to Investopedia.com, the American Internal Revenue Service categorizes income into three broad types, active income, passive income, and portfolio income.

Active income is income for which services have been performed. This includes wages, tips, salaries, commissions, and income from businesses in which there is material participation. Passive or Residual income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.

Portfolio income is income from investments, dividends, interest, royalties and capital gains. Portfolio income does not come from passive investments and is not earned through normal business activity. Typically, income from interest on money that has been loaned does not count as portfolio income.

Now, looking at the sources of residual income, we are going to move from the ones that we think are the most difficult to create to the ones that are the easiest to create. Here we go.

7. Royalties: the creation of music, books, inventions, machines, patents. A royalty is something you have sold or created and put it on a platform that you do not run and then receive compensation based on when the item is purchased or used. Most of us do not have the potential to quickly create royalty streams. Not to say you couldn’t specialize in something and write an ebook or if you are musically inclined you couldn’t write a song, but to create true residual income, that is going to take a lot of effort and skill. This is the purest form of passive residual income, if you can achieve it.

6. Network Marketing: Network marketing is a unique business model and has made more millionaires than any other business. The industry as a whole is growing and more companies are trying to leverage referrals or direct sales to increase revenue and market products. However, the industry as a whole is confusing to most and requires a tremendous amount of mental and emotional fortitude to make residual income possible. Furthermore, the sustainability of that income vs. the effort you must put in is important to consider.

5. Subscription Models: Subscription models/Customer Hubs/Member Areas – These are businesses like Netflix, Costco, Sam’s Club. The subscription model has become almost its own category. But it has considerable cost and you must continuously create and cultivate content and value. The income is residual and combines loyalty and education with community.

A good book that explains this model of residual income is The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow. He walks you through, in plain English, the various styles of subscription models and how to potentially apply them to your business.

Affiliate marketing: Getting paid to tell people what you like and showing them where to get it. As a Dad, I tried 3 high chairs before finding the “Bumbo.” Now if I blog about the Bumbo and link to it to my Amazon account, and someone buys it, I can earn a commission. This is also a great way to build money over time, but it requires new content, staying top of mind and driving lots of traffic.

A great example of this is Pat Flynn at PassiveIncome.com as he walks you through how to set up your own system to maximize and profit from your passion.

4. Business: As I mentioned, not all businesses are created equal when it comes to residual income. Let’s take a look at a local taco stand. Sure, that taco stand might have loyal patrons and make the best damn steak taco you’ve ever had, but they also have to wake up every day and turn the lights on and fire up the grill to get paid for their special tacos. Versus, I own my own financial services business and we charge an asset management fee. So, literally tomorrow I am going to earn a fee whether I go in or not. Sure, I have to maintain relationships to keep earning that fee, but truly the income is residual because once I sign up one client I am going to make money off of their money perpetually. See the difference?

3. Investments:  Most people have 401K’s and IRA’s, so I am going to leave that for the investment side.

Now onto the Power 2!

Why do we call these the Power 2? Because these require less specialization and expertise, and with the leveraged use of smart debt, they can work together.

2. Real Estate: Real estate is #2 for one simple reason, leverage – using smart debt and other people’s money. When looking at real estate rents and the potential for income real estate provides, it is the trifecta of residual income. First, a home or rental property can appreciate, so capital appreciation is the first long-term benefit of owning a home. Second, rent. Other people are paying the mortgage, insurance, property taxes and maintenance while you own that piece of real estate. Third, tax protection. Rental income is taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income and you can depreciate real estate by taking a paper deduction on your annual tax return not to mention expensing the cost of mileage, mortgage interest, and updates to the property. Rentals done right can generate almost double what the stock market can in dividends and interest. The fourth and maybe most hidden, but important benefit is that over time rent’s rise, protecting your cash-flow against inflation, while your mortgage interest can be at a fixed rate potentially.

1. The final and most powerful form of residual income, in my opinion, is Uncommon Banking. Within that, I think our Foundation Freedom Phases is by far the easiest, safest and most powerful tool for several reasons: a. It is contractually guaranteed, so the terms cannot be changed once it has begun. b. It is truly residual because the cash-value growth is guaranteed and you don’t have to create, leverage, train, hire, rent or do anything but flow your money through it to get it. It requires no specialization or mastery, it’s just banking.c. Everyone does it. To survive, life requires you to bank in some fashion, meaning you earn money in some way, hopefully residually and you spend it. That will happen until the day you die. d. Our strategy takes advantage of that cash-flow and allows you to earn residual, passive, tax-free income forever. I can’t stress this enough. This is the easiest, riskless way to earn truly passive, residual income. e. Investing can be residual, but it takes more effort, skill, and planning. Further, there is the element of taxation and losses that take away and limit the consistent potential of our strategy.

Still wondering why we call them the power 2? What if the money and capital used to start our cash-flow concept were used as a down payment to fund real estate rental projects? Yep, that return is better because your money is earning interest in two different places.

So, there you have it. That is really it at a high-level. So, how do you move forward? Are you interested in our Foundation Freedom Phases? Click here. At the core, all it requires to obtain and master residual income is time, mastery and specialization and then to communicate that across a business model suited for your skills and vision. By combining profits from a business of any kind to our money momentum strategy and real estate you can leverage three streams of residual income with the same cash-flow and profits, all at the same time. That is how you build net-worth faster, with safe leverage and tax-protected liquid cash.

If you want to know… You can.