Mr. Nerd and I both hit the $100,000 in investment accounts milestone! And on top of that FZROX, Fidelity’s Zero cost Total Market Index Fund, gained 1% yesterday so I made $1,000- all while having a pretty chill day. Have I mentioned how amazing passive income is? I ❤️ passive income!
We have other streams of income that are fairly passive as well. Our home, for instance, has appreciated 1.7% in the last 30 days. That’s $6,729 according to Zillow. Now compare that to the height of my earning in my former career which was $2,700.49 per month after taxes and health insurance. I worked really hard for that $2,700 per month and I couldn’t have gotten that job without my MS degree. Yes I chose a career that is famously underpaid but my point is… I ❤️ passive income!
Our business also has several products that are fairly passive as well. Creating these products was NOT passive but now that they are made, we make money every month whether or not we make any new sales. These sources of passive income are valuable to us in multiple ways.
- Peace of Mind Having these passive income streams gives us peace of mind that no matter what’s going on with the economy, the pandemic, etc. we can rely on this income. Ya it’s not the biggest chunk of our income but it will cover a good portion of our cost of living.
- Free Time When things slow down with our business I don’t need to stress because I know that I am making money whether I am actively working or not. This gives me mental space to focus on further optimizing our finances, creating new income streams, growing and preparing delicious food, and renovating our home.
- Training for Retirement Since so much of our financial life is on auto-pilot now with passive income streams, automatic bill pay, and a highly efficient lifestyle. I really do have a lot of free time. I’ve started to think of myself as semi-retired. All this free time used to bother me. I would feel guilty that I wasn’t actively working and anxious that I wasn’t working hard enough to reach our financial goals. But we continue to make a really good income despite the often very modest work hours I put in. So instead of feeling bad, I’ve started to learn to enjoy my free time. I think of it as retirement training. After my work obligations are finished I pick something to do with my free hours. I’ve been spending a lot of time just laying out in the backyard, enjoying the breezes and the sunshine. I’ve been reading those really interesting books that are sitting on my bookshelf that I totally meant to read but never had time for. I’ve also been doing more yoga and meditation. I’ve also been making sure to do several challenging bike rides each week. Really the larger goal of all of this is to improve my health and happiness.
- Time for Future Goals From the beginning of our FIRE journey a major motivator was to create a life that was conducive to starting a family. I had a very demanding career and I didn’t see how I could fit a baby into that life. Passive income streams are allowing us to feel confident that we will have the space for a new family member whenever/however that happens.
I’m not technically financially independent yet. As of August 1, 2021, we are estimated to be 3.5 years from our FI goal. Yet thanks, in part, to our passive income I am already enjoying many of the benefits of a FI lifestyle. If you’re looking for ways to grow your passive income, here’s a nice article with a bunch of great passive income ideas.
Once you get started, you’re going to ❤️ passive income too!
