Editor's note: Not everyone can be the next billionaire-entrepreneur, like Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates. But there is an easier and more practical way to create wealth...
It's how Mark Ford – founder of our corporate affiliate The Palm Beach Letter – went from an annual salary of $35,000... to raking in $6 million in 2013 alone.
Mark didn't get rich by earning pennies in a savings account, investing in stocks, or even selling his businesses. He did it by developing several fully functioning, nearly automatic cash streams.
Even if you're older and have fewer than 10 years to generate the income you want, you can do it. You can still reach financial independence. But you must get started now...
The Simple Concept That Made Me $6 Million Last Year
By Mark Ford, founder, The Palm Beach Letter
On Monday morning, you get a message indicating there is a new balance in your PayPal account. You check and see that while you were at the beach over the weekend, more than $6,500 was deposited into your account.
On Tuesday, you receive a check from a client: $4,000, which is what he sends every month.
On Wednesday, you receive a statement from your brokerage account. It shows that you made an extra $475 the day before.
On Thursday, your spouse comes home with the cash she's collected from the little vending business you started together last year. She plops down $1,400 on the table.
Then on Friday, your property manager e-mails you to let you know that he collected last month's rents and he's depositing $11,500 into your account.
"Not a bad week," you think, sitting by the side of your pool.
Of the many ways to build wealth, entrepreneurial equity (i.e., direct ownership of a start-up business) offers the greatest potential. This is how the richest of the rich – from Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates – acquired their vast fortunes.
But today, I want to talk about the second-best way to create wealth – a way that in some ways is easier and more practical. It is also the primary way I developed my wealth.
I am talking about the strategy of developing multiple streams of income.
As I said, this isn't the way to create billions. Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates made their vast fortunes by focusing on a single business.
If they were coaching, they might tell you that you would get richer by focusing on a single wealth-creating opportunity, as they did. And they would be right – if you were as smart and fortunate as they were.
But most readers aren't in a position to create billion-dollar businesses. They are too old, too committed, too busy, and/or too poor. At least, that's how they may feel.
And in any case, I can't tell you how to do that. I can tell you only what I know how to do. And I got rich by developing multiple streams of income.
If you are not ready to become the next Bill Gates, this essay is for you.
How I Got Rich
I never had any ambitions of becoming an entrepreneur. In fact, I never had any interest in business. The financial path I ended up on in life was more the result of temperament and accident than it was of design.
I have, as you may know, been involved with dozens of entrepreneurial businesses, but the wealth I acquired never came from selling any of these businesses. It came from the income these businesses generated and how I put that income to use.
I've been developing extra income flows for more than 25 years. I've tried dozens of things. More than half of them didn't pan out. But my method was always to start very small and test the waters quickly.
If it looked promising, I pushed the throttle. If it started badly, I pulled out quickly.
I recommend that you do the same thing. Find an opportunity that intrigues you. Give it a quick but smart try. If it works, run with it. If it doesn't, shut it down quickly and move on to income opportunity No. 2.
Using this strategy, I have developed the following fully functioning, nearly automatic cash streams today:
| 1. | My rental real estate portfolio. |
| 2. | My international real estate portfolio. |
| 3. | My income from dividend stocks. |
| 4. | My income from bonds. |
| 5. | My income from options. |
| 6. | My income from my consulting work. |
| 7. | My income from owning more than six profitable companies. |
And this doesn't count my hard assets – the real estate, the art, the gold coins, etc. – that I have stashed away. They're something that grows "automatically," too, once you begin.
Last year, my total income from these automatic cash streams exceeded $6 million. I earned that without ever having to go into the office, without ever answering to a boss, and without ever doing anything I didn't want to do.
When I began – when I made up my mind to become wealthy – my yearly income was $35,000. I doubled it the first year. And then it climbed exponentially afterward.
The Advantage of Multiple Income Streams
It is, of course, much easier to end up with a multimillion-dollar income if you start in your early 30s, as I did. But even if you are older and have fewer than 10 years to generate the income you want, you can do it. But you must get started now.
We know from surveys that many Palm Beach Letter subscribers are not yet wealthy – or as wealthy as they'd like to be. The financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 devastated many of them.
Some are starting from scratch. Others have to delay their retirement plans 10-15 years.
They all want to know what to do to assure that they can retire comfortably without worry. The single best answer I can give them: Generate extra streams of income.
"Your problem isn't that you are getting only 0.5% on your bank account, 3.5% on your bonds, and 8% from your stocks. The problem is that you don't have enough cash!"
Stop and ask yourself if that is true for you.
What will change your financial life in a dramatic way? Getting an extra few percentage points on your current investments or bringing in thousands of extra dollars in cash every month?
I've said this many times in past essays, but it bears repeating now: You cannot reach financial independence through stock investing and options alone. You need to increase your income through different avenues and opportunities.
In tomorrow's essay, I'll show you how to compound your investment returns and easily start generating a second or even third stream of income. There are more than a dozen proven ways to generate extra income – without even quitting your day job. Stay tuned...
Editor's note: Mark and his team at The Palm Beach Letter have developed a new program to help you dramatically increase your wealth. It's called the Wealth Builders Club. The money-generating strategies it teaches have nothing to do with the traditional investments you're familiar with. But Mark says by investing just a modest amount of time and effort into this program, you could build a million-dollar income stream. Learn more here.