My plan is to eventually leave the working world behind by the time I am 40 (or sooner). Ever since I was young, the household motto has always been “work hard, save your money.” When my parents, mostly my Mother would say this, she truly means to get a job and work hard and do whatever it takes to reach the top. I realize that is what was ingrained in her growing up, so it is at no fault of her to pass this along. As I have experienced, her motto does not fit for me. Why? Well 1. The corporate world is not what it once was. No longer is education, work ethic and behaviour the only factors to success, rather who you know, political factors (diversity etc) and what you will do to get what you want come into play. 2. There is no loyalty from the company’s perspective any more. You, or you job can be eliminated at any time, almost for any reason. 3. Maintaining a job really means that you will never be financially independent.

Therefore, now more than ever it is important to really determine what your passion is and start to earn a passive income to supplement your current regular income. Passive Income; is money that you receive with little to no actual work involved. It is different from having your own business and being self employed.

Some methods of creating passive income are as follows:

1. Being the owner of a business that does not involve your direct impact. Generally an unlikely situation, you would have had to create the business at some point in your life and have stepped down. However this is one possibility.
2. Property Rental: renting out your property to people does create a passive income. However, usually the rent money does go toward the mortgage payment. Once the mortgage is paid in full, and you continue to have renters pay, this is the passive income each month.
3. Advertisements: Creating a website, suited towards your passion (animals, finance, celebrity information, travel etc.). If you build it, people and advertisements will come.
4. Interest: Interest income is passive income that is generally re-investment into the account/fund; however it can be withdrawn to provide income. For example, if you have a general savings account with $5000.00 that earns 4% interest, you will earn about %16 per month. If you had $100,000.00 in that same account, you would earn about $335 per month. As you can see, the more money you have to invest the larger your passive income will be.

So why is passive income important for everyone? Well, you earn money without really putting any time into it. It allows you to reach financial independence that much sooner and it may open up other doors for you in terms of expanding your network and methods of earning income.

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