I’ve decided my next step involves passive income. This summer was tough, financially. And it’s still tough. I’ve been looking at finances and while I’m still floating, I need to land some serious work over the next few weeks to keep that state. At the same time, when I ask myself what I really want, the first answer is always travel, adventure — things that don’t come easily while working.
I’m incredibly grateful for the work I’ve had over the last few years. Looking back at the beginning of my freelancing and the goals from that time, this has given me so much more freedom and financial reward than I could have expected four years ago. That we were able to live well all the way through Latin America while staying in decent hotels and beautiful apartments — I’m incredibly grateful.
But I’ve also known that coming back to Chiang Mai wasn’t an endgame goal, just a stop along the way. I’m glad now to have a home and stability, and looking for a balance, but I also know that my current situation is too tenuous; I want to be able to travel for a few weeks, or take off some time to help with my family, and not feel like I’m risking my financial future. The only way I can see to achieve that is to create passive income.
A few years ago I read a great article on that subject on the Steve Pavlina blog. The guy has some weird ideas about some areas (his open relationship series isn’t for me), but he does have some great psychology regarding starting a passive income source, so I’m going to be following along with his series on creating your first passive income stream. I don’t know exactly what that will be, but I do know the first step: creating a goal.
Passive income goal: $100 per month in passive income by April 13th, 2019, my 35th birthday. Stretch goal: $1000 per month in passive income by August of 2019, one year from now.
Interestingly, looking back on my old posts as I imported them from wanderlustadventurer, I was struck that my freelance business started almost the exact same way.