Passive Family Income » Family

An Important Ingredient to Online Success – Your Family

John S. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:05:04 +0000

This is a guest post by Pat from The Smart Passive Income Blog. Please check out his blog and consider subscribing to his RSS Feed.

When I was asked to write a guest post on Passive Family Income, I was thrilled because PFI has been a regular read of mine since I started my blog a few months back. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the receiving end of some really nice comments from PFI, so it’s an honor to have the opportunity to hopefully add some helpful and thoughtful content of my own.

What comes to mind when you hear the words “passive income”? Money, automation, the Internet? I bet the word “family” isn’t at the top of your list, but it should be.

I know that family is really important to all of us, and if we had a choice to work hard all day and never see our loved ones, or earn a passive income and spend more time with them, there’s no doubt which one we’d rather do.

In order to get to that point, however, there is a vital ingredient to your passive income success that you must realize: the support of your family. It’s funny because while you’re trying to create passive income streams to support your family, it can’t really happen without your family’s support.

Passive Income is Hard for Some to Understand

Earning a passive income takes a lot of hard work at the beginning, and a lot of time and patience as well. This makes it hard for many people to understand why we’re sitting in front of our computer all day, or working on projects that don’t currently produce any income.

The world is unfortunately used to the idea that X hours = Y dollars. The more hours you work, the more money you make. True in 9 to 5 land, but that sucks.

In the passive income world, you put in some hard work, but your income can continue to grow even after you stop because it’s not limited to how much time you spend working – just the quality and preparedness that you put into your work.

I’m a very lucky person because my fiancée understood that I needed to work hard in order to spend more time with her later, and she fully supported me right from the start. I put in the hard work and now earn enough money so that both of us don’t have to work 9 to 5 jobs. We can spend more time with each other and devote our time to fully planning our upcoming wedding. I would not have been able to work if I knew I was doing something that she thought was a waste of time. For her support I am forever thankful.

If You Don’t Have Complete Support

If you have family or friends that have a hard time understanding exactly why you’re “wasting time online”, it could be because they’ve been so engulfed in their 9 to 5 jobs that they don’t realize the opportunities and rewards that can come from working for yourself online. It’s not their fault; so don’t get mad at them for that.

Other times, we don’t receive complete support from our family because we’re doing things that are completely new to them, or something that isn’t of “the norm.” It’s your job to explain to them exactly what you do and how everything works. Educate! If you’re not quite sure how to explain it, well then you’d better educate yourself first.

Also, think about what motivated you to start make money online? I recommend that you share this with them too. If you have any examples of success stories, or even if you’ve made a dime from eHow or with Adsense, share that with them and show them it’s possible.

Lastly, genuinely ask for their support. They may not realize how involved and serious you are about what you do online, and a simple request such as this may help them understand that.

I’d like to finish with my favorite quote that motivates me to work hard for a passive income each day: “The harder you work, the luckier you become.”

Thanks everyone!

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Live Frugal – But in moderation

John S. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:01:17 +0000

My wife and I recently returned with our children from a few days away attending a funeral for a family member. During that time we spent 3 days in a hotel, filled up the gas tank a few times, and had to go out to eat for lunch and dinner (breakfast was provided at the hotel). Obviously these were not planned expenses in our monthly budget. The total costs for this trip could have easily rang up to $500. Fortunately, all of these costs (except for our gas) were paid for out of the trust that was setup years ago for this family member. In fact, all of the funeral expenses were paid from this trust as well as the hotel and food costs for the other family members who came into town. In times like these I don’t want money to get in the way of family and loved ones, but I felt better when we realized we didn’t have to come up with money to cover these expenses.

The family members funeral that we attended was for my wife’s grandmother. A few years ago, most of the immediate family realized she could no longer live on her own, so they moved her into a nursing home. While the family was going through her things and getting the house ready to sell, they realized she had accumulated well over $1 million in assets. I had become very close with her prior to these events and had realized that she was one of the most frugal people I had ever met. She had lived through the great depression and knew what it was like to struggle to eat and survive each and every day. My wife’s grandmother had ended up living her entire life with those principles. In the end, she and her late husband had accumulated a lot of assets (at least to me) and sat on them as a feeling of protection. They had never really told anyone of their hidden wealth and continued to live their frugal life.

When the family had realized that their parents/grandparents had secretly accumulated all of these assets, it sparked a debate internally with my immediate family. My wife’s parents were upset (understandably) that these grandparents had acted like they never had money and instead had a very large nest egg. They felt that the grandparents should have done more with their grandchildren – taken them to Disney World or on vacations. Their feelings were that they should have spent a good portion of this money enjoying their grandchildren and making lasting memories. In addition, they felt they could have helped pay for their grandchildren to go to college or put a down payment on a house, etc. I can’t say that I really blame them for feeling this way. After all, both grandparents are gone now and most of their money is still sitting there. Some will go to the government (unfortunately) and the rest will be split up amongst the remaining family members.

After those events, my wife’s parents swore they would not treat money the same way as their parents had – instead spending some of it to make lasting memories with their children and grandchildren. Since that time, they insist on paying for almost 100% of the expenses when we are together. They spoil their two grandchildren as well. My parents have similar feelings and prefer to pick up the tab at a restaurant or for other expenses when we are with them. My wife and I use to feel bad about this and would get in arguments with our parents about always picking up the tab. We have since changed and no longer feel guilty about letting our parents or other family members pick up the bill. We don’t expect it, but honor the fact that our parents really want to pay. They actually want to enjoy spending their money on us and their grandchildren. They want to make lasting memories. They understand that it is only money and you can’t take it with you in the end.

While my wife and I are still very frugal people, we understand and accept the balance between a frugal life and spending some money to enjoy certain things in life. I practice and preach frugal living every single day. However, as with anything in life, I think you have to live frugally in moderation. You can’t overdue it or you will end up like my wife’s grandparents did. They continued to worry about money and paying for things up until the end of their lives. Meanwhile, they could have spent some of their wealth while they were still here making lasting memories with their loved ones.

What are your thoughts on balancing frugal living with spending money to make lasting memories with your family and loved ones?

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