7 Painful Lessons to Avoid While Pursuing Multiple Sources of Income

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Soren Kierkegaard

In the book, Multiple Sources of Income, Robert Allen presents 10 sure-fire ways to generating more than $100,000 a year, on a part-time basis and with little or no money. If the topic interests you, then by all means buy his book. However, should my personal experience be anything to go by, allow me to share that some of my best tips in the pursuit of multiple sources of income.

Well, my tips come from having made many unwise decisions in finance, stock trading and buying into “make money quick” schemes. In the last two decades, I have ventured into many opportunities: from investing in Bordeaux wine in a French vineyards, physical gold holdings, foreign exchange, property in the States and elsewhere in the world, and so on. I have also explored a few business models online, only to realise later that they did not work out.

Although my losses were massive for some of my decisions, I was prudent enough to cap my exposure. It is through learning what not to do that I now know about how to allocate and manage money much better. And so, I would like to share with you what some of my most painful lessons are. While these are nothing new, I always believe that it always helps to be reminded on the things to avoid – in the face of new tempting but very deceptive offers by your wealth advisors.

7 Painful Lessons To Avoid

Learn what the 7 sure-fire ways to leaking money – quickly and foolishly – in the hot pursuit of multiple sources of income are:

1. Base Your Financial Decisions on Greed

Greed is my biggest lesson. In one situation, I naively put our hard-earned money in pyramid schemes only to realize that they were all a scam. We had chased opportunities based on greed, only to regret later.

The lesson: Never let greed be in charge when it comes to money decisions. Any opportunity that promises a return that is too good to be true needs to be carefully researched upon. You also got to understand that the bigger the perceived returns, the bigger the risk. Only use excess funds – and not funds for your everyday living needs – for going into options that are rather risky.

2. Becoming Sentimental about Your Out-of-Money Financial Pursuits

You are afraid of materializing your loss position and so you choose not to sell. Your thinking goes like this, “if I don’t sell, it is not considered a loss”. You eventually find yourself holding on to a position year after year, longing for the day when you can recoup your capital. Shelved are your dreams about making a killing or even a profit.

The lesson: Consider the opportunity cost by holding on to an out-of-money position for far too long. Avoid getting sentimental. It is not as if you are married to it. You could be better off recouping part of your capital and putting the funds into investments that are of better quality.

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” Warren Buffett

3. Relying on the Advice of “Financial Experts” Without Doing Your Homework

Who would have thought that it would be folly to rely on the advice of “financial experts” exclusively? Just because your adviser works in a bank or financial institution does not mean that you need to hang on to every word he says. Let’s just say that if he is capable of predicting the markets, he won’t be working as an employee.

The lesson: You need to do your homework on any pursuit that you would like to go into. Be responsible in doing your due diligence, rather than shift the blame to someone else. It is your money and you had better have a good idea of the instrument and the market that you are putting it in.

4. Doing It Alone – Not Paying For Education

You can spend years trying to do things on your own and making tons of mistake. Or you can save yourself time by investing in your own education.

The lesson: I have found that the cheap or the zero cost way is not always the best. Consider all expenses for appropriate workshops as investments in yourself and your own education. Your investment in education and in yourself can save you plenty of heartache and lost time and money.

“Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.” Brian Tracy

5. Not Diversifying to Minimise Risk and Increase Returns

Heard of the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” In portfolio management, we learn about balancing risk and returns by diversifying. Not unless you are absolutely sure, refrain from putting all your bets in one single source.Many of my “sure bets” turned out disastrous. My fingers have become so badly charred with each repeated lesson.

The lesson: Over the long run, having a diversified portfolio allows us to sleep better at night. Also if you are running a business, the concept of diversification can help to increase your profits through new product lines and promising market segments.

6. Failure to Having a Financial Plan

Not having a financial management plan in place is the failure to take adequate responsibility. You need to think things through like family insurance, amount allowed for investment, planning for retirement and major purchases, etc.

The lesson: Having a financial management plan helps you to think forward. For instance, with forced savings, you know that you will have the required amount of money when the time comes. Best is to make appointment with your financial planner immediately, if you have not already done so.

7. Failure to Align with the Intuitive Heart

Pursuing opportunities based on material gains to satisfy the ego – rather than on the intuitive heart – seldom leads to fulfilment. Consequently, you jump from one opportunity to another – yet finding success an elusive dream. You could end up feeling so disconnected, like how I felt at one stage. (In the end, my decision was to allocate more funds into investing in my own business rather than put all into investing in other people’s businesses, ideas or dreams. )

The lesson: You waste more time and money if you go for ideas that are not truly congruent. Hence, listen to what your heart says. Be guided by your intuition. Go for ventures that align with your values, dreams and passion. See how you can weave purpose for the business that you enter. You will be a lot happier!

Solve Your Money Patterns For Multiple Streams of Income

While reviewing my lessons, I realized that a big part about them was due to the failure to address the root cause of my issues early on. These include:

– a lack of emotional mastery,
– self-love and esteem issues and
– limiting beliefs.

In other words, if we do not solve these issues, we could have a hard time making money easily even while we hope to multiple streams of income. We will find ourselves going round and round, without making any headway. Achieving the millionaire’s dream becomes that much harder for us.

If the above situations are what you are going through now, it is time to do things differently.

Reading my book Abundance Alchemy: Journey of Gold or contact me – if you need assistance with shifting mindsets – is a great way to start 🙂

Love and Abundance Always,

Abundance Alignment Coach

Share Your Lessons

Share the lessons that you have learn while pursuing multiple sources of income in the comment box below.

Download Your Free eBook on 3 Mindset Strategies to Turn Self-Doubt into Confidence When You Subscribe