Do you have another source of income outside your primary job ?

18841 Views 32 Replies 27 Participants Last post by HorgeLopez, Jun 15, 2009

canabiz

Discussion Starter · Apr 4, 2009

Just gauging the community as to what other sources of income you folks have, besides your primary job. And by income, i mean regular monthly cash flow. Some of the ideas that I have in mind include

- dividends income a la Derek Foster

- rental property

- a second job

- owner/partners/shareholders in a business that generate monthly revenue stream ?

Any other ideas ?

1 - 20 of 33 Posts

lister

· #2 · Apr 4, 2009

Working on the dividend income with the aim to eventually leave my current field for another more enjoyable one that'll likely pass less. The dividend income will supplement the difference if necessary until hopefully I can completely stop working and do whatever I damn well please.

I wouldn't mind a second job. I had a couple of possibilities over the past four years but they fell through. They both were ideal as they wouldn't have impacted the primary job at all. Ah well. If I had either of those jobs or any future second job I would have used the income to pay down the mortgage even faster.

There is the possibility of rental income in the future if the mother-in-law buys a place here for us to live in and then our current place can be rented out.

Lakedweller

· #3 · Apr 4, 2009 (Edited)

There is significant evidence that individuals/families who have diversified income streams make more money from their primary source. The logic is this:if you depend on your job to pay your bills, you want a low risk, low pay job. If you have other income streams to suppliment your primary income, you can afford to take new jobs with higher rewards.
But this dosen't happen over night. And each person will find different opportunities that suit their own skill set. In our "resort" town we have many houses owned by distant owners that need to be managed. This allows us to visit the houses (all within walking distance) on our own time. We have significant equity in our rental property and personal residence, so we are able to leverage that with guaranteed investments. The largest income source is actually the government for us. We have three children, each gets $100 per month which is invested in RESPs that get an extra 20% from the government. As well the Canadian child tax benefit feels like an income source. Our 10,000 of TFSA is working nicely to provide dividend income.

Sources of secondary income:
Rental Property $400/month
Property Management $200/month
Blog advertising $200/month
Leveraged Loans $150/month
Dividend Income $100/month
Government $510/month
Total $1560/month
This doesn't seem significant but this covers our main monthly expenses if I choose to not work the day job. Right now, this money flows straight into investments and debt repayment.
My next project is a barter exchange.
I also have been kicking around having a small fleet of ice cream sellers (anyone remember Dickee Dee Ice Cream) for the summer months.
The repackaging business is getting hot these days. In high school (15 years ago) I used to count spoons while I watched TV. A local company would give me $0.25 per bundle of 100. It paid my car insurance while most of my friends were still driving their parent's car.
The internet is such a vast resource. If you have any skill at all (writing especially) you can make a decent income from selling your stories or from advertising on a website that attracts significant traffic. But it takes at least a year to get noticed and sometimes you need a miracle/controversy to get you name out there.

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Financial Highway

· #4 · Apr 5, 2009

I am working on a post (probably for next week) about diversifying your income, I think in today's world depending on just one income is too dangerous.......Although currently I do not have a large amount of secondary income i have a few:

Consulting for TDSB's ELT program.
Blog
Direct Sales
working on building dividend portfolio in TFSA

CanadianCapitalist

· #5 · Apr 5, 2009

Our main source of side income is dividends. Currently our dividend income covers about 1/5th of our expenses, so we need quite a bit of capital accumulation left to do

Four Pillars

· #6 · Apr 5, 2009

I have a little bit of "side" income from dividends but it is not significant - I think it was $800 last year after taxes.

My blogs are my main side income although their income is not overly significant either.

Bullseye

· #7 · Apr 5, 2009

Lakedweller said:
There is significant evidence that individuals/families who have diversified income streams make more money from their primary source. The logic is this:if you depend on your job to pay your bills, you want a low risk, low pay job. If you have other income streams to suppliment your primary income, you can afford to take new jobs with higher rewards.
But this dosen't happen over night. And each person will find different opportunities that suit their own skill set. In our "resort" town we have many houses owned by distant owners that need to be managed. This allows us to visit the houses (all within walking distance) on our own time. We have significant equity in our rental property and personal residence, so we are able to leverage that with guaranteed investments. The largest income source is actually the government for us. We have three children, each gets $100 per month which is invested in RESPs that get an extra 20% from the government. As well the Canadian child tax benefit feels like an income source. Our 10,000 of TFSA is working nicely to provide dividend income.

Sources of secondary income:
Rental Property $400/month
Property Management $200/month
Blog advertising $200/month
Leveraged Loans $150/month
Dividend Income $100/month
Government $510/month
Total $1560/month
This doesn't seem significant but this covers our main monthly expenses if I choose to not work the day job. Right now, this money flows straight into investments and debt repayment.
My next project is a barter exchange.
I also have been kicking around having a small fleet of ice cream sellers (anyone remember Dickee Dee Ice Cream) for the summer months.
The repackaging business is getting hot these days. In high school (15 years ago) I used to count spoons while I watched TV. A local company would give me $0.25 per bundle of 100. It paid my car insurance while most of my friends were still driving their parent's car.
The internet is such a vast resource. If you have any skill at all (writing especially) you can make a decent income from selling your stories or from advertising on a website that attracts significant traffic. But it takes at least a year to get noticed and sometimes you need a miracle/controversy to get you name out there.

I'd like to hear more about this.

First off, you have three children under 6? Must be a busy guy! I have two, and do the same, put it right into an RESP.

What are these guaranteed investments you mention? GIC rates are about the same as most HELOC rates right now, maybe slightly higher, so maybe you mean something besides that? Or have lower cost of borrowing?

The rental property, is that $400/month net gain all in?

MoneyEnergy

· #8 · Apr 5, 2009

My side income: dividend income and blog income (direct ads, ad exchanges). So far neither will support me without a full-time job, but I'm hoping to just get them up to the point where they will cover my savings and investment program.

UpNorth

· #9 · Apr 6, 2009

For extra money, I teach a night class at the local college. Last year I taught one evening a week for four months and made $4000. All of it goes directly towards paying off my student loan. Ironically, going to graduate school both enabled me to earn more money and forced me to take a second job to pay off my degree.

Alexandra

· #10 · Apr 7, 2009

Here are my secondary sources of income:

- One rental property, and we gave one of the tenants who is handy a small break on his monthy rent so HE manages the place for us now (yay! I highly recommend this)
- Our own house has a tenant in the basement
- Two leveraged loans
- Limited dividend income
- Goverment cheques - child tax benefit and the RESP matching program
- "free" RRSP matching at work

Rickson9

· #11 · Apr 9, 2009

My wife and I have rental income.

Shayne

· #12 · Apr 16, 2009

Other forms of income for my family are two rental properties and I work part time as a Mortgage Associate.

Works great as I get to help my friends and their friends out with their mortgages and in 4 years the plan is to ditch my 9-5 and do mortgages/financial planning full time.

STone

· #13 · Apr 17, 2009

I am the main bread winner in our house but we have been working on some secondary income options.

My wife is a stay at home mom (toughest job in the world IMO). But she was able to find a furniture rep that she works for out of our home (entering orders, faxing, etc.) only about 20-30 hrs/month ($400-$600), but it helps

REIT income $375/month. Went this route instead of rental property.

Eliminated daycare payments when my wife decided to stay home, so the $200/month from the gov goes straight into our pockets.

Ben

· #14 · Apr 17, 2009

No, no additional sources of income other than our day jobs. From reading through some of the forum threads, my interest has been piqued a bit in dividend stocks.

Leading Edge Boomer

· #15 · Apr 18, 2009

For a different story---I do not have a job because I retired at 56.

My income consists of

-a smallish company pension
-CPP taken at age 60
-$3000 of dividends which are very tax efficient at my tax bracket

My company pension is not indexed and will be eaten at by inflation.

But I will still be OK because I have the OAS to look forward to and I have two RRSP plans .

One plan will eventually be turned into an annuity for guaranteed income for life. The other will eventually be converted to a RIF.

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Brad911

· #16 · Apr 20, 2009

I have three main sources of additional income apart from my FT job:

1. Dividends
2. Business/Consulting income
3. Blog income (minimal when compared to the first 2)

jambo411

· #17 · Apr 27, 2009

Additional income comes from:

1)small business from which the wife draws a regular income. We will
continue to pay a decent income to build up her CPP for retirement. In five
years when we 'retire' we will lower income and increase dividends to lower
taxes.
2)Small dividend and REIT portfolio that we are currently ramping up. It is in
DW's name to give her retirement income as I have a DB pension.
3)RRSPs, heavily slanted to DW.

stardancer

· #18 · Apr 27, 2009

My husband and I are retired. So far, we have been doing well with our work pensions, CPP and OAS. Our goal was to have $4000/ month after-tax income. We are at $3700 now and doing fine, as our lifestyle is not rich. Note: we also live in a small town where the living is fairly cheap.

We have $400/month gross rental income and my seasonal job as a tax preparer, both of which go directly into savings. My husband's RSP has to be turned over to a RIF by the end of this year. We have GICs which have been used to save for large items such as renovations. I am in the process of moving them under the TFSA umbrella, but that will take a few years. We also have about $85000 in funds under a financial planner (current value; they were much higher); so far we haven't had to touch them and hopefully can leave them alone as an inheritance for our kids. My husband has stocks, but they are his toy so I don't count on them as income.

I have been saving for so long, through thick and thin, that I find it difficult to stop, now that we are retired. If I can't get my monthly transfers done, I get goose bumps. However, since we have retired, we have been able to 1. buy a new car (in 2005, my retirement dream), 2. renovate the kitchen and living room, new windows included 3. give one daughter $20,000 to help set up her own law practice and 4. slip the other daughter extra $$ as she has two serious disabilities and is living on a disability pension.

I'm not worried about the future; whatever happens will happen and we will adapt.

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Antonia

· #19 · May 2, 2009

I am a medical journalist (and professional blogger for various companies) by profession. I publish a consumer health magazine and have a few other health clients. However, when times are pressing financially, publications are the first to go

This makes me very fearful.

Other source of income is selling my artwork on eBay ($1,500 or so a month). I know of several people doing this and it certainly helps.

I also have a blog, called Fifties Schmifties, which is good for a laugh. I'm hoping to soon make a small income from it. (Actually, I'm hoping to make a large income from it...

) It's skewed female but my husband adds his six cents' worth from time to time.

One other way I make money is by contra-ing blog services. Botox for blogging and the like. This helps keep personal expenditures down. This is a great forum.... Rosina.

Bullseye

· #20 · May 4, 2009

Antonia - what kind of artwork do you sell? That's a substantial income.

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