How To Build Multiple Streams Of Income In Your 20’s

It has never been easier to build multiple streams of income in your 20’s so why do people make it so difficult? We have more access to information, people, and opportunities than ever before. Unfortunately, people overcomplicate this process and think they need to be a full-blown business before they can make a dime. This isn’t the case and I’m going to tell you how you can start making some extra income.

Building multiple streams of income in your 20’s comes down to doing these five things:

1) Understand you’re laying the groundwork
2) Take advantage of what you’re good at.
3) Let people know your intentions
4) Be creative
5) Take action

There are dozens of articles online about giving you ideas for ways to make more money. While I will give you some personal examples later on ultimately it comes down to you. Just because I find a way to build another stream of income doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

We are different people who enjoy doing different things. It’s easy to get a short-term income boost but that’s not what we’re about. I want to teach you how to build multiple streams of income in your 20’s that will last you a lifetime.

If you take one thing away from this article I hope it’s this quote from Peter Shallard:

Shut the **** up and go DO something. Make it something worth other people talking about.
– Peter Shallard

Laying The Ground Work

If you think that I’m about to give you a secret recipe to make you rich in a couple of years then go ahead and close this article. I don’t believe in get rich quick schemes and neither should you. They don’t exist and anyone that tells you they have an idea that you can’t miss out on you should slowly turn around and run.

To build multiple streams of income in your 20’s you need to lay the groundwork now. You’ve probably heard the analogy of building a house of how you need to pour the basement before you can start assembling the structure and this is no different. Your 20’s is about pouring a rock solid basement and in 5, 10, and 20 years you’ll have a big beautiful house. This one will be a little different though since it’s putting money in your pocket.

Self awareness and patience are key to building this solid foundation. In the past I’ve been frustrated when a stream of income only makes me $5 in a given month. With patience and a long-term point of view I know that it will eventually grow and they have.

Instead of feeling discouraged by the little amount it may be now. You’ll want to think about how great it can be in the future. You’re young and still pouring the basement.

Do What You’re Good At

We all have different interests and that’s great. What I think is misunderstood is you can make money off your interests. It’s not as crazy as you may think.

If you are good at something and can provide value to someone else by doing it then you can make money.

All too often people focus on what other’s are doing and try to copy them. This may work in the short-term but I promise it won’t last. Been there, tried that. We get fancy, yet cringe-worthy, ads pushed in our face every day about people making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you’ve ever watched a YouTube video in the last 10 years then you may have seen one of these advertisements by Tai Lopez. While I respect Tai, I think he sells people false hope and doesn’t portray the reality of how hard this is. He then goes on to sell them a course on how to make money a specific way. It may work for a few but for 99% it’s a waste of money.

Instead, if these people focused on whatever they were already good at and found a way to monetize it they could save themselves a ton of time. Not to mention the money saved as well from not buying a cookie-cutter course.

Did you know it’s possible to make money just by taking surveys online? You can be the most boring person in the world with no hobbies and still make money by giving your opinion online in surveys.

Let People Know Your Intentions

It’s no secret when you write your goals down and track them you are more successful. The percentage of success goes up even more when you use an accountability partner. What you may not have known is that telling people, specifically people you don’t know, actually decreases your chances of reaching your goal.

This is a crazy concept to some but Peter Shallard in his article, Why telling people your goal is a fatal mistake, describes it in one word: Orgasmic. Yes, you read that right. He goes on to explain that when you tell people about your goals you are usually describing the best case scenario. Doing this makes you feel good on the inside almost like you’ve already actually reached the goal. But you haven’t?

When you do this you ignore the actual plan to reaching that goal. Then a day later when you’re coming off that high of telling people about the end-goal you become overwhelmed by the amount of work that lies ahead.

Talk About The Plan

Instead of telling people your end goal tell them the plan you have to get there. Building multiple streams of income in your 20’s isn’t something you can just wake up one day and choose to do. It doesn’t take a week, month, or even a year. Like I described, in the beginning, it’s a grind and you have to have a long-term point of view.

Take for example this blog, at the beginning of the year, I said I had goals I wanted to reach with Young, Dumb and Not Broke. If you read the article you may think I’m talking about my end goal but I’m not. My end goals are way more far fetched than most people can imagine and I like it that way. My content, weekly newsletter, and info product plans are just steps to reach an end goal.

To add some clarity here are some examples:

End Goal	Plan For Goal
Own 10 rental properties.	Start budgeting to save up for my first rental property next year.
Release an eBook on Amazon.	Write 500 words a night for a month.
Make $10,000 from freelance work.	Apply for 5 freelance jobs a night.

When I tell people about my plan for this site I still get excited but I also know that I can conquer them. Don’t get me wrong I’ve talked about my end goal to a select few and it is crazy to think about. Crazy isn’t the right word, terrifying fits better. Having self awareness of this and taking it one day or one task at a time I know I can work towards them.

The chances of you building a $1000 per month side income in a month are low. Not impossible, just unlikely. But the chances of you building a $1000 per month side income over a year isn’t easily possible.

For most people an extra $12,000 a year would go a long way. To get there let’s open up your mind and get creative.

Be Creative

There are countless ways you can build multiple streams of income in your 20’s. As I write this article I can think of almost a dozen ways I’ve made money in the past. Here’s a short list of things that come to mind. All of these examples I’ve made at least $500 doing.

Freelance Microsoft Excel work
Fitness and nutrition coaching
Selling an eBook
Loaning other people money (wouldn’t recommend)
Real estate investing (House Hacking)
Manual labor (Tree trimming, landscaping, etc.)
Affiliate marketing

Maybe this list got you thinking about what you could possibly do. The possibilities are endless as long as you can provide superior value.

I promised, in the beginning, I wasn’t going to make this a list post about different ways to make money so If you need some inspiration then check out Michelle’s post, 80 Ways To Make Money On The Side in 2019. She does a great job of giving a gigantic list with some details next to each one.

Take Action

The fact of the matter is none of this matters if you aren’t going to take action. It doesn’t matter if you fail miserably you’re going to learn something and be even better in the future. From the list, I showed you above about all the different things I’ve tried 90% of them I no longer do. This is a combination of failure and it just being something I didn’t enjoy.

To build sustainable multiple streams of income in your 20’s yo need to make sure it is something you like. I enjoyed coaching people remotely on fitness and nutrition but I realized it wasn’t scalable and wasn’t what I wanted to do long-term. From doing it though I improved my people skills, excel skills, and overall knowledge on the topics. Yes, it made my wallet a little fatter as well but the skills were much more valuable.

Everything I’ve tried has translated into helping with another. Doing manual labor has made me a better landlord. Doing freelance Excel work has given me the ability to understand the nuances of YD&NB better. It makes no sense on the surface but trust me, I’ve made 10x more through lessons of failure than I have any book or YouTube video.

The Bottom Line

It’s time to stop over complicating the process of building another stream of income. You have the skills necessary to do it you may just need a plan behind it.

It’s not easy, and it’s not always fun. But when you see that first check come in I promise you’ll have a big grin on your face.

Eventually, as you progress in building another stream of income you’ll realize that your time is finite. This is where you’ll want to move to more passive streams of income which I talk about quite a bit in Young, Dumb, and NOT Broke?!. To get to that point you must start here though. I’m a firm believer of being in the trenches for a couple years then eventually reaping your rewards.

Get out of your own mind and try something. If you fail, big deal but you may just stumble into something that greatly boosts your potential income.

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How To Build Multiple Streams Of Income In Your 20’s