Do You Choose Linear Or Residual, Recurring Income?

If you were given 2 financial choices in life, which one will you pick? I’m also assuming that you are already making a living comfortably at work or in your business.

Here are your two important choices.

A. You get paid every day on a fix amount of dollar (say USD0 per day) but you have to work every day to get that amount of money. You stop working and your income stops.

B. You work every day for two years with little to no income at all and sometimes you lose your money, but you are sure that by the end of the third year, you will get more than the person who works every day in the case of option A above. And the money keeps on multiplying regardless if you work in the fourth year and beyond.

Which one will you choose now?

I’m sure many people will choose option B. Who doesn’t want an income stream that will keep on multiplying regardless if you work or not? And, believe me that there is a few ways to do it.

But I also believe that some people will simply choose option A as they can’t bear the fact that it takes so much time, money and effort to achieve their financial dreams.

If you were to ask me, I would not abandon the idea of making a recurring income. At the same time, I would love to get paid every day for the work that I’m doing. It’s just not making sense to choose only option A and leaving option B on the table.

Of course, eventually you want a steady residual, recurring income in your life – the one that will provide you cash regardless if you work or not. At that time, you have the luxury to choose to work or not and even if you choose to work, it is more because you like to do it – not for the money anymore.

Now, the idea of building a recurring income is not new and it is a very exciting concept after all. Let’s look at how Burke Hedges explains this great idea in his book “The Parable of The Pipeline” which tells a story of two cousins who bring back water from a river to their village using two methods.

The first cousin, Bruno, will bring a bucket to scoop the water and carry it back to the village. He’ll be paid for the water. To make money money, he has to double or triple his effort in carrying the bucket and work extra hour. His income will be limited by his strength and time.

The other cousin, Pablo, is quietly making a plan. He is building a pipeline to supply water from the river to the village. It takes time, money and effort to build the pipeline initially. As you can guess, he is not paid a single red cent for this effort. He can see his cousin making a fortune but he knows it will be to his advantage when his work is done in the future.

Finally, his pipeline is complete. The water is supplied directly into the village cistern using the pipe Pablo created. His cousin, Bruno, although making good money, is aching all over after long hour of carrying bucket full of water.

As for Pablo, his work is done and he’ll get paid for as long as his pipeline is working (while he is lazying around).

I’m not going to build a real water pipeline for sure but you can model this concept to create your own recurring income.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Write a best-selling book for a royalty income. Then write some more books in your spare time. You can also write an ebook and sell it online.

2. Buy a property and rent it out. Then, buy a few more to double or triple your income.

3. Deposit your money in bank or invest in stocks. Compounding effect will double your money in 7 years for a yearly 10% interest of your savings. Stock appreciation will increase your money as well.

4. Create a product that requires a license from you. For example, a piece of software can be charged annually for the license. Big corporations are doing it but the small players are seeing this opportunity too.

5. Build a network marketing business. You and your team will build a group of distributors and the bigger your team is, the more money you will get. But, do not confuse network marketing with a get-rich-quick or pyramid scheme.

So, back to the original question, “if you were given 2 financial choices in life, which one will you pick?”

I hope, with the tips that I share here, you can now make an informed decision.