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As a work at home mom, passive income streams are a necessity.
These types of income streams are those that don’t require work once they’re set up. This isn’t blogging or traditional affiliate marketing. It’s setting up a stream of income that routinely brings you in money without you doing extra work.
One quick example would be a membership subscription. People pay each month to remain part of your membership. Yes, there is work you’ll do within the membership subscription, but you may have hired people to run that part of the business for you.
Some blogging can end up being a passive income stream. I have articles that continue to pull in $20–$30 per month without me doing anything to them. I don’t promote them and haven’t updated them since they were first published. But they keep attracting an audience. I have at least 10 of these articles, pulling in $200–$300 per month without extra work.
But why do you need these passive income streams?
You need to take time away from your business for schooling
You’re possibly homeschooling your children right now. I have to take time out of my business during the day, making sure my kids can access their Google Classroom, that they’re listening during their meetings, and managing their tech problems for them.
It’s not easy. And if I didn’t have my passive income streams, I’d end up worrying about my business.
Because I have passive income options, I don’t have to worry too much about stepping away from my business during the day. The work for the day can wait for after school is over.
I have no idea how long the homeschooling is going to last. By the time you’ve read this, the pandemic could be over and the homeschooling stress is a thing of the past. But for now, it’s all about the passive income to help bring money in even when I’m not at the computer.
You’ll want to book a vacation in the future
Even once the kids are back at school, I won’t want to be at the computer all the time. You don’t want to be running your WAHM business 24/7. That’s not why you got into this.
Vacation time is essential for good mental health and a work-life balance. You’ll want to set up some passive income streams to help with this.
One thing that can be on my mind is that if I’m not working, I’m not earning. I need to make sure I have content going up regularly for my blogs. If I get back into vlogging, I’ll need to make sure there’s fresh content there. How can I have a vacation if I’m worried about money coming in when I take time off?
You shouldn’t need to worry about it.
Instead, set up some passive income options and you’ll be able to take a vacation without the financial concerns. You’re earning while offline.
MORE: 5 signs you need to rework your WAHM idea
Passive income streams help when you’re sick
Then there are the times you’re sick.
I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. Most of the time I’m fine, but there’s always that time when I’ve overworked myself and my wrists end up hurting a lot.
Taking time off can be stressful. Even if it’s not for a vacation, taking a day off can be hard.
With passive income options, there is still money coming in. It’s not a lot, but I know I can rely on the articles that pull in a few bucks per day. (And that’s not the only passive income I have, by the way.) I know that I’m not going to be completely broke just for having to take some time off to recover.
It’s possible to work smarter not harder
You may have heard the saying “work smarter, not harder.” I love the saying. It was the saying I needed when it came to making a few changes in my life.
I am a workaholic. I can find it very hard to take some time off.
In fact, over Christmas, I found it extremely hard to go the whole four-day weekend without working. I snuck in a day over the New Year weekend because I just can’t do it. But I chose to do that. And what I worked on was something that would add another passive income stream to my business.
The important thing is that I did take some time off. And I could because of the income streams I’d previously set up.
When you are working, you need to be doing it as smartly as possible. Passive income streams take time to set up, but they keep running when you’re not working. You can take more downtime, and you deserve that.
You’ll be able to retire earlier
Your passive income streams will require a little bit of work now and then. You’re not going to be able to completely set and forget.
I keep an eye on the passive income articles I have. I make sure they’re still performing well and get ready to make any changes if that comes to it. In the future, whenever it come to retire, if those articles are still going (I’m expecting something to run its course soon) I’ll continue to keep an eye on them.
Full retirement isn’t likely possible, but it’s not really going to be work. It’s going to be an hour or two a week to make sure things are still running.
And it will be worth it for the income that comes through. I’ll still get plenty of time to do what I want to do.
You should look into that too. If you want to retire early, get the passive income set up now.
MORE: It’s okay to say no as a WAHM
What are you adding to your business as passive income streams? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
