Most of the people think that they earn an academic degree and get a good corporate job to make money. They will climb the corporate ladder and earn more money. They think that they have solved the money problem for them and their family. This is all wrong! To solve the money problem and be financially free, you need to make money work for you. Earning money is only half way done, you need to find different ways through which the money by itself work for you and earn you more money.
The problem is nobody will tell you this hard facts about the money until you realize it by yourself. And believe me to realize this fact, you will need lot of time and patience. By the time you realize this fact, you have already lived more than half of your life in the corporate world.
Making money work for you is the most important thing you need to master in order to be financially free. Not only it will make you financially free but also, it will help you to achieve your financial goals like dream home, car, vacation abroad, children’s higher education and so on.
So let’s not waste time and find the ways that make money work for you all the time. This should work even when you are sleeping. Below is the famous quote from Mr. Warren buffet that points exactly towards the passive income.
How to Make Money Work for You?
Now let’s understand how to make money work for you. Well, there is no rocket science behind it. You just have to earn from the assets that are making more than the inflation rate. Secondly, you need to control your expenses to the minimum. Now this minimum doesn’t mean that you stop buying groceries and food that you eat. It means to control the unnecessary expenses or the impulsive buying habits. I can give you a formula to think that actually you are in dire need of the stuff you are about to buy. You simply have to ask yourself a WHY questions to determine that you actually need it or not. For example, I am already having a laptop since last 4 years and it is reasonably working fine. I saw an add on the television about the latest model of laptop with all the features I wish I could have it in my laptop. Moreover, they are offering a heavy festival discount and EMI facility. Should I buy this laptop and dump my existing one? Let’s check.
- Why you want to buy a new laptop?
- Mind Thought: It has the latest features and also available on discount and EMI.
- Why is that your existing laptop is not sufficient to carryout your work?
- Mind Thought: It is carrying my job, but it is outdated and slow, I guess!
- Why do you feel that it is out dated?
- Mind Thought: Well, I bought it before 4 years and electronic items become obsolete quickly.
- Why do you think that your existing laptop become obsolete?
- Mind Thought: Because it is 4 years old and….???….????….????
Just observe the above conversation with my self. At some point, I will get stuck and not able to find the answer for that WHY. There is where you will realize the whether you REALLY want a new laptop or not.
By using this simple WHY questions, I am able to save lot of money that otherwise I would have spent on the stuff that I actually don’t required. This will help you to differentiate between NEEDS and WANTS.
Now, let’s get back to our main topic of how to make money work for you. So here are the ways that will help you not only achieve this but also automate the money generation for you.
Find Passive Income Source
The first and foremost way to make money work for you is to find a passive income source. There are many ways you can make money without leaving your core source of income (job or business). Few of them are as below.
- Start a blog : Well anyone can start a blog and publish it on the internet. It is free of cost at the initial phase to start a basic blog on your own and start writing on the topic of your interest. Blogging is all about consistency in:
- Your topic
- Your schedule
- Your writing style
- Your writing length
Once you have a good audience who read your blog regularly, you can start Google AdSense ad or any other ways of monetizing your blog. People are also earning revenue out of affiliate marketing and selling products through the blog.
Save More Money: You must have heard “Money saved is money earned”. It is true that whatever you save is the residual income you have at your disposal. You can use this money to invest in fixed deposit, Government bonds, equity market, mutual funds etc. to earn extra buck. The extra money is always good and will add value to your life. You can even use it to pay off your ongoing debt and save interest on it.
While paying off the debt, you need to do a little bit of math and check the opportunity cost of the money. For example, I have Rs. 1 lakh as a saving and I am paying an interest of let’s say 7% on my on going home loan. I also have an opportunity to invest this money in to mutual fund which can earn me around 10% to 12%. Now, here paying off my home loan debt is a foolish thing. I should rather be investing the money in to mutual fund and earn more money then I can save from paying off my home loan.
Invest in Real Estate:
Investing in real estate is the second best investment option available after equity long term investment. Real estate has high potential to earn you good returns. In a layman’s language, the land on the earth is a scare natural resource and no one can produce it. So as the demand for the land increases, the shortage of supply will be there. By applying a simple economic rule of “Demand and Supply”, the price of the land tends to go up and up with the time.
Who understand this simple calculation are investing into real estate and will get the benefit of price hike of that asset. Secondly, the real estate has a potential to earn money for your by the way of rental income as well. So if you combine both the things, rental income and asset price appreciation, you will realize its potential.
Here you need to make sure that you are not investing in real estate with borrowed money. Because, the interest you will have to pay against the loan will eat up the gain you will have from the real estate.
Convert Your Hobby into Income Source:
If you like photography, you can become a photographer who can take and upload pictures on the various websites for sell. There are various websites like Etsy, Pixabay, Freepik and so on. Nowadays, people even make money by uploading their photos on the Instagram. So the point is, there are tons of ways to make money out of your hobby. The other thing is you are monetizing your hobby, so you will enjoy it more than anything else. I have seen people who have started a side hustle and made that the way for living.
You can even become an Instagram influencer and market various products and earn money by brand tie-ups. For doing all these things. If you are good at writing, you can write a book and publish it and earn royalty from the publisher. Start your own digital course and sell it on the internet. Start your YouTube channel on the topic you have good knowledge and earn money from ads. You do not need to have any academic qualification or degree. You and your hobby is enough.
Invest in Stock Market: If you think stock market is not your cup of tea, you are wrong. You can easily learn about the stock market and start investing into it. It is like starting a new academic year at the college where you will learn about the particular topic. Same way treat stock market learning as your academic degree.
If you find it difficult investing into stock market directly, you can invest through the mutual fund route. Mutual funds will lower down your risk and can earn you moderate returns from the stock market. You can sharpen your skills and then start investing directly into stocks by doing research on the fundamental and technical analysis of the particular stocks. Good news is that, there are many websites who provides you a ready screener to filter out stocks based on the certain parameters.
Invest into good fundamental stocks which are giving high dividends year on year. Dividends are like earning interest on the capital employed. So here you have double your opportunity for earning through investing in stocks. 1) earning dividends 2) Stock price appreciation. Believe me, stock market has the highest potential for returns on the capital employed. No other investment option can fetch you the returns you can earn from the stock market. People fail in the stock market is due to their FEAR and GREED only. Investing in stock market is the emotional game, if you can master your emotions, you can make good money out of it.
Become a Freelancer: This one is my favorite and I have tried my hands on it. It is a good way of earning extra bucks by completing a task assigned to you. You need to first identify your skill and sharpen that skill first before you approach anyone for the work. There are platform like Freelancer.com and Upwork where you can create your profile and start getting freelance work that you are offering.
You need to invest your time to complete the task in time. But that you can do in the free time like in weekends or at evening when you are back from your job/business. Well, you have to work hard for earning that extra buck as nothing in life comes easy.
Why you must ensure your money work for you
In general, there is a belief that one should study hard and earn a good degree. Get a white color job and earn money. Then make more money, again make more money, again make more money, retire and die. This is the general life of most of the people in India. The person strive hard all the time to make money in order to fulfill his and his family’s dream of own house, new car, foreign tour, child’s education and so on. These basic needs are keep on coming one by one and person will spend his whole life fulfilling these needs.
We call it a “Rat Race”. The never ending race to fulfill the needs of the family. Now if you don’t find a way to generate passive income or side income, you will never ensure that your money work for you. You always have to work for the money to fulfill these needs.
Finding a ways to ensure that your money work for you instead of you work for it is the only way to achieve financial freedom. You will get the mental peace if you achieve financial freedom at any age. Don’t spend your entire life in fulfilling the needs, rather find a way that can help you earn more/extra money that will help you to achieve your financial freedom.
Conclusion
Above mentioned are only a few ways through which you can earn extra income that will help you achieve financial freedom. You need to work hard in order to get the extra buck in your pocket. There is no shortcut except for gambling or theft through which one can earn fast money. As per me, there is nothing called fast money. They are mostly a scam!
Hope you have found this article helpful. If so, please share it with your family and friends. Let me know in the comment box in case you need my help in setting up any of the above ways that ensures your money work for you and not vis-versa.