Almost all of us have full-time salaried jobs where we work hard. We offer our knowledge and/or time to work for any given company. In return, we get compensation and recognition, and many of us eke out an excellent career from it. This is an active form of generating income. When we look at any company, how many times have we asked what are different types of products or market segments it sells into? It is good to have a company that has multiple products for continued profitability. Similarly, wouldn’t it be nice to have multiple streams of income? A multiple streams of income will provide us a safety net against our jobs!

There is a very popular notion of “passive income” that floats around the blog-o-sphere. The essence of passive income is; it is the money earned with or without our involvement. Once it is setup, the recurring income will flow in continuously. In my vocabulary, there is no such thing as passive income. Just because we do not see the effort does not mean it is passive. Instead, I like the term “alternative stream of income”. I am always curious to understand how individuals can create alternative streams of income and how they execute it. Following are few alternatives that I have thought about and tinkered with in recent past.

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