Hello people! Welcome to Post #14. Summer is here in Winnipeg (at least it feels like it’s here) and I’m back to working at least 6 days straight because I have bouncer deliveries at least one day each weekend now. I’m definitely not complaining though! I’m healthy, kids and wife are doing good, and business is good too! I’m working each day for my dreams and I hope you all are too. This post is about having multiple streams of income. You shouldn’t solely rely on one source to make money, because if something ever happens to that source you might be in trouble if you don’t have any other way(s) to pay your bills.

I already talked about investing and an easy and straightforward way you can start here. Once your investments have reached a certain amount, you can certainly live off the interest without the need to put as much or any into it anymore. For myself, that number is $742,000. With interest gained from my TFSA averaging at 6%, that amount should generate enough interest to cover all my bills for a year. Now, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I definitely don’t have that saved up yet, so I need other ways to help generate income. One of the other ways that I’ve already talked about is starting a bouncer business. I’ve estimated this year to make a few thousand from bouncer services, and we might actually turn a profit this year, even though we investing heavily into a photobooth over the winter.

Another way to make extra income that is also residual (meaning it generates income) is through rental properties. In Winnipeg especially it’s a very good market to get into if you are somewhat handy or at least know someone who is handy so you can pay them to fix your houses. You’d need to find someone who charges a fair rate as there are literally tons of people who can do renovations for you and the quality varies from person to person. If you look at kijiji Winnipeg you can see what I mean. There are pages of people who are offering their services at various rates and I myself know a number of people who can help fix up things around your house. You’d also need to be able to screen people properly before you rent to them. You’d have to interview them to judge their character and shouldn’t be afraid to ask for payment stubs to make sure they have a job. I’ve heard it’s extremely hard to evict a person who hasn’t paid their rent, and that rent money will be lost to you.

Despite the issues I’ve listed about renting, I would 100% tell you do try it! The property you purchase will gain in value every year (as long as you have properly screened the tenants) and you will probably make some extra income after covering the costs of the mortgage and the the insurance. Oh, you can also write off a portion of the tax on the mortgage each year. Depending on how you structured your mortgage, and if you have a tenant as long as you own the property, you might be able to pay off the mortgage in 10-15 years and know you’ll both own the house and be able to keep the extra money that you don’t need on the mortage anymore. And if you want, you can sell the house and keep all the profits to help pad that retirement fund you’ve been working on. Not too bad an investment that only costs you the down payment! In my case, I own a single rental property that I bought for $179000 and it’s currently worth $230000. I think it should be paid off in another 15 years and then we’ll have the option of selling it or keeping it for the residual income.

I forgot to tell you guys one last thing: if you really don’t want to maintain your rental property on your own, you can always hire a property manager. They take 10% of the rent, but they handle getting the tenants and letting you know if the house needs and repairs. You still need to have people to help you repair it if needed, but at least it’s one less thing to worry about!

And that’s all I have time for today! Have a great week folks! If you guys need a hangout bag, I’ve revamped my online store at www.thelazyshopper.ca. Check it out if you’re into the outdoors or just want to see some awesome gear! Free shipping in Canada! I’ll talk about my store in a future post.