Is It Better To Have Multiple Streams Of Income Or Focus On What You’re Really Good At?

Having a fat paycheck feels nice, especially when you started rock bottom and rose through the ranks. But while some people prefer to just have a single source of income, others are better off hedging their bets and trying to put their time and effort into a lot of things.

Whatever they can get their hands on—as long as it generates them money—they will do it and without hesitations as long as it adds to their multiple income streams.

With freelance service sites like Upwork and eLance giving people access to multiple streams of income, anyone can easily be a jack of all trades and master of none. However, is creating multiple streams of income more productive than having a single steady money source?

Is It Better To Have Multiple Streams Of Income

Work smarter, not harder

Financial expert Fitz Villafuerte cautions people against having two or more income streams. According to him, it is perfectly fine for people to find more ways to set up other sources of income. However, a lot of people seem to encounter the same problem in terms of prioritizing their income streams.

“Having multiple sources of income is not bad, I actually encourage it,” he says. “But this does not mean that one should grab every income opportunity that comes along without doing a proper evaluation of how it will affect you.”

For people to find out what works for them, he recommends evaluating the cost of each stream of income and check if it the money coming in is worth the effort.

He says the following should be the key factors in creating extra income:

  • Take care and give more importance to your high-income earners.
  • Study and develop income sources that can potentially become passive over time.
  • Increase productivity and efficiency by leveraging on technology, processes and manpower.

You should learn to identify your income streams that generate you the biggest and most frequent money and learn how to maximize them more, Villafuerte adds.

Once stable, you can finally be confident in exerting more effort to improve your skills and boost your multiple income sources.

Some of the best side gigs

We may already know that having multiple incomes isn’t for everyone. But for those who can manage to juggle more than one job, it is highly encouraged to do so to make your extra time more productive.

If you’re looking for passive income sources to widen your cash inflow, here are just some of the lucrative ideas you may want to try:

Real estate. We have been raised by our parents to buy properties since they’re good forms of investment. However, the real catch in earning via real estate is to make sure that the property generates money regularly and not just sitting liability that doesn’t bring you anything.

Robert Martin, an American expat settled in the Philippines, bought properties in the Philippines and made apartments for other travelers to rent. According to him, a unit can generate P13,000 to P15,000 per week without him doing anything at all.

Blogging. Think Pesos owner Billy Ramirez highly encourages people to blog, which may require some effort to maintain but yields some serious bucks if you put an effort in it. He said that blogs can easily earn money through advertising, selling of your own products, and affiliates.

Online marketplace. Instagram, Facebook, OLX, and Lazada made it easier for marketers to hawk their products without opening a physical store. If you have enough time to burn through online selling, prepare your items and make sure they’re presentable enough to catch the eye of potential customers.

Read here how you can earn via online marketplaces a gross income between P50,000 and P100,000.

Stock market. To the savvier people looking for extra money on the side, take your money and learn how to make more money through dividends on the stock market. Institutions like COL Financial made stock market trading more accessible to everyone.

While it seems like an attractive place to make money, make sure to learn about the stock market first before you dabble in it.

These are just some of the most common ways on how to create multiple income sources. While it is highly advantageous to have more money than your usual nine-to-five job, it also matters that you know how to make your greatest assets shine and help you create more money, rather just taking in side gigs until you get swamped and no longer deliver what you’re expected to do.