Why I have 5 Income Streams

At the age of 22, I am very lucky to have managed to build five separate income streams which now pull in money on a regular basis.

Of course, this hasn’t happened over night so I thought that I would give you a bit of a background into what these income streams are and how I have built them.

Earned Income

This is my biggest income stream, and for many of you will also be the largest stream of income that you receive.

I currently work as an accountant on a full-time basis and am one exam away from being chartered.

My earned income from this job has grown substantially over the last 4 years from when I joined my firm as a school leaver on an apprenticeship programme.

My plan is to continue to grow my income as my career in accountancy progresses over the coming years.

Business Profits

I currently have a few different “businesses” that I take a profit from on a regular basis. The largest being The Bank Engine which has been slowly seeing profits increase on a quarterly basis since starting it back in late 2020.

I also include my side hustles such as matched betting and sign-up offers within “business profits” as it is money that is generated in a very similar way to running a business.

I plan to continue growing the profits from my businesses by re-investing back into them with both my time and my money.

Capital Gains

My capital gains (or losses, as far as 2022 is concerned so far) are generally left unrealised within my investment portfolio as I am a long-term investor who is looking for growth over a period of 20 to 30 years.

Over time, as my portfolio increases in size I am hoping that this capital growth will allow me to eventually drawdown from my portfolio without eating up my capital, thanks to the Rule of 4%.

Investment Income

Separate to the growth in valuation of my investments, which includes listed companies, private companies (start-ups), cryptocurrencies, and Lego, many of my investments also provide me with a regular income.

This comes in the form of dividends which are paid to me as a share of company profits.

This may not be a substantial amount of money currently, but as my portfolio grows over time I anticipate that my dividend income will also continue to increase.

Interest Income

My final income stream comes from holding cash deposits in bank accounts.

Whilst this seems similar to investment income, there is a far lower risk from doing so, but also a much smaller return on my money.

I hold cash in bank accounts for emergencies (Emergency Fund) and also for my house deposit for my first home.

As a result, I earn a small amount of bank interest on a monthly basis from a number of different accounts.

Why?

My plan is to become financially free as soon as possible, and by increasing the amount of income that I am receiving on a regular basis it means that I should eventually be able to cover my monthly costs without having to work for my money (earned income).

This is not a short-term plan and certainly won’t happen overnight but in the coming years I hope to see my income streams begin to grow substantially.