Sovereign Individuals Need a Multiple Income Portfolio

Here’s a simple truth, without multiple and diversified income streams, you’re not a Sovereign Individual. This is because with only one form of income, you’re at the mercy of that source of income. A prisoner to your boss, your client, or your solitary income producing asset. Whether you realize it or not, a single income creates a lifestyle that is easily stifled. It impacts your decision making ability and the freedom that defines a Sovereign Individual.

Think of a Sovereign Individual like a spider, it can survive even when it loses multiple legs because the others are able to pick up the slack. In this way, a person with multiple sources of income can still survive even when one source of income is removed. And this is a critical element to secure personal sovereignty.

If you want to become a Sovereign Individual, your goal should be to build multiple streams of location-independent income and accumulate distributed assets. In doing so, you cultivate freedom, security, and independence. All of which are essential components of the Sovereign Individual’s lifestyle.

Here’s why multiple income sources are important and how to start building them.

Cultivating Resilience in a Changing World

We live in changing times. And whether you like it or not, you must adapt to these changes or risk financial ruin.

• Nationalism is on the rise which brings protectionism and an increase in rules and regulations
  • This means restricted globalism and reduced free trade which impact local economies
• The 2020 Pandemic shows no true signs of abating – lockdowns continue, vaccine issues persist, and society wide financial problems compound
  • it’s likely that Covid-19 is similar to the Flu – it’s going to become a recurring seasonal challenge
• Because of rising nationalism and the persistent pandemic, digital immersion is going to take a more dominant role in our lives
  • Some forms of income will be more secure than others in this digital landscape
• Automation has been a trend that will accelerate as businesses look to secure business processes and supply chains against persistent pandemic outbreaks
  • Many jobs will disappear while new careers will form to service changed economic processes

These changes create a likelihood that your income could be disrupted at any point in time. And these global and macro forces are moving quickly, in the backdrop of our everyday lives. The changes are likely to cause unexpected turmoil for society. So even though you may have a reasonable salary from a seemingly secure full time job, it still makes sense to seek out secondary forms of income.

You want to earn as much as you can, as long as you can, and deploy those financial resources towards asset accumulation. Multiple income streams and capital assets give you financial options and cultivates financial resilience in unsure times.

How To Create Financial Resilience

With more than one source of income, you can begin to expand your toolkit for approaching economic uncertainty. Using a mixture of these incomes to live your life as you want while better preparing for uncertain times.

Financial resilience is the ability to survive and thrive in unexpected and changing times without worrying about your finances. In short, if one source of income disappears, you can rely on another to sustain your lifestyle.

But this strategy isn’t just about preparing for unexpected challenges. It’s also about improving your existing financial situation.

With multiple incomes, you can pay down debt faster, take larger positions in the assets you already purchase, and you make new types of investments with different risk profiles. With more income you can expand and secure your wealth at a greater velocity with concentration and diversification.

Benefits of additional income:

• making larger stock positions with more frequent dollar cost averaged purchase
• acquiring digital assets like websites, e-commerce businesses, and crypto-assets
• collecting rare assets like art, sports memorabilia, and Non-Fungible Tokens
• buying real estate – a second home or income producing rental properties
• the ability to pay down student loans, car loans and credit card debt with greater speed
• secure better rates for your loans for mortgages, margin rates, or business acquisitions

Secondary income allows you to reposition your mindset from being a prisoner of debt to viewing it as credit/leverage to grow your assets. ie: from “I can’t lose my job because I have a student loan” to “I want to buy a rental property and can afford to find the right renters”.

You can argue that a mortgage straddles both sides of this mindset (a burden and an asset). But ultimately, a mortgage should be viewed as a business would view credit in a leveraged buyout.

Financial Security and Freedom

Secondary income also provides an element of security. Whether an unexpected expense arises, a pay cut, or loss of the primary job. Accumulating multiple streams of income provides a safety net for the unexpected life events that are probable.

As everyone can attest to, life frequently throws us curveballs. By building a portfolio of incomes, you are better positioned to handle the unexpected challenges of life.

It also provides a sense of freedom. Providing new financing for vacations and expanded quality of life expenses. Better food, clothes, educational materials and so on. And it provides a sense of freedom to walk away from employment situations that challenge your personal belief systems. Walking away from the boss you can’t stand, the irritating rental tenant, or the profitable business investment that challenges your morals.

How To Execute a Multiple Income Strategy

Start small and focus on scaling your systems remembering that time is finite. As you pursue secondary income, learn about the difference between selling your time and selling products.

You could work an additional 20 hours a week for a set wage or you could work 20 hours towards building a product. Here’s the trick, products can generate asynchronous value. ie: they earn money while you sleep. As an example – I’m working on writing and selling an e-book about the strategies and tactics to become a Sovereign Individual. It has an upfront labor cost that can produce asynchronous income. My goal is to promote it online to a global audience.

To that end, focus on your income like an investment portfolio. Create a diversified mix of time oriented income and asynchronous income sources.

You should also diversify your income portfolio beyond “work” and level up with investment income. Stocks, bonds, real estate, digital assets (yield farming, NFTs).

Finally, you should develop a plan for how you will maximize the value of your new income streams. Will you pay down debt? Or use the new income to expand on a preexisting business? ie: you could use new income to buy ads for a product you’ve developed and grow it’s audience. Regardless of how you use your new income, you want to plan to use it productively while avoiding unnecessary lifestyle creep.

Recommendations on Where to Start

Some brass tacks for getting started from scratch with secondary income.

Start by identifying your skills and experiences that can support freelance project work. Categorize your unique value proposition and sell your time on gig websites like Upwork & Fiverr to get yourself started.

You can also use a personal website to create portfolios of content writing and passed projects. This supports your ability to generate future freelance gig work. It also functions as an audience capture point by potentially attracting recurring visitors via email subscription. In time, subscribers can be monetized through via new services, advertising revenue, and sales of information products like e-books.

As you accumulate more income generating assets you can diversify to real estate via passive limited partnership style real estate investing. Or more active ownership of properties to rent for income through platforms like AirBnB. You can try your hand at crypto mining, which is an interesting new way to accumulate and sell crypto assets. (There is a relatively steep learning curve) And of course, there are many traditional passive style investments with dividend income to focus on.

The Bottom Line

You cannot be a Sovereign Individual without the freedom and security of a diversified income portfolio. To be self sovereign means to possess an ability to make personal decisions without the influence of outside forces. It’s an ability to walk away from any situation you find unsatisfying. Fortunately for us, we live in the Digital Age with access to the internet and a global audience of consumers. It’s never been easier to find and secure secondary income. All you need is the right mindset to get started.

---

I’m building a digital age worldview. And every Monday, I write and curate a publication called The Sovereign Individual. A weekly newsletter that includes news roundups and analysis to help digital age workers adapt and thrive in our changing society. Topics intersect at geopolitics, fintech, crypto, individual responsibility, and personal freedom. Don’t get left behind, subscribe below.