Tuesday, September 14, 2010

There is NO such thing as Passive Income !?



21st century personal finance is moving away from saving and focus into the income arena. In short, the gurus are now educating public that saving is NOT good enough, hence sourcing for passive incomes on the another hand is a BETTER solution, than just saving alone.


While the concept is definitely true and correct but unfortunately as the hypes go bigger and bigger, the idea of passive income has been abused and more scams started to appear in the market, as if they were the gurus as well. Except the 'passive income' they refer to is barely promoting their own original same old products. The personal finance market has become so competitive that even some real gurus have no choice but to go beyond the line in their marketing effort - Robert Kiyosaki is no exception in spreading "Saving is bad".


Although passive income is very well defined here using income ratio 1:100 but is there really such thing as Passive income ? When I looked up dictionary, these words come up


PASSIVE : not participating, inactive, not reacting, inert or quiescent.


None of these words correctly describe a well implemented passive income. I use my best judgement to find a good location, a value property and a pay master tenant. I setup a profit take target and an exit strategy in my investments before I leave and let them auto pilot. All of these are very participating, actively applying my knowledge and experience, reacting appropriately when necessary etc.


The word "Passive" also gives people a psychology of No Need To Do Anything; As if an easy to get rich scheme with a better cover.


Hence this article wants to pursue all readers to stay away from the term Passive Income. Its negative, misleading and now abusive by the over-stress marketing effect. Instead, think of Smart Income !


There is no hard and fast rules for Smart Income. Any income can be earned the regular way or the Smart way !




An employee can use minimum of his time effectively to earn the highest salary or benefits. A self employ can easily leverage on Internet to earn income repeatedly. A business owner can employ a system to run his business. An investor can setup an autopilot mechanism.


So no matter which income quadrant you are in, it is possible for you to turn that income into a smart one. Its a matter of HOW you earn your income, NOT WHAT you do.


Are you pursuing smart income ?