I had a fun dream last night – the day that my full-time job is not my main income. I was thinking to myself if I would still keep my job if it was no longer my largest income stream. I thought how great it would be to not need my salary as income, but then I also thought that there is no reason to give up my salary either if I don’t need to.
Let me give you some stats:
- I work 40-50 hours a week at my salaried job.
- Right now my side incomes generate only about 15% of my total monthly income, not including my wife’s salary.
- I spend roughly 10 hours a week on my side projects.
Another big thought was what would I do with myself if I didn’t have to get up and go to work everyday. I feel like I would get bored, and I also would probably become less productive with my side projects, such as blogging.
So, in the end, I don’t think that I would leave my day job, even if my blogging covered everything and more. Since I enjoy my job, I think it would be too hard to leave to just do nothing. Plus, I don’t know how I’d fill my time.
Readers, what are you thoughts? What would you do if your side incomes exceeded your primary income?
This post was written by
Robert is the founder and editor of My Multiple incomes, a personal finance site dedicated to highlighting how anyone can create multiple income streams and diversify their cash flow.
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Keeping your “regular” job has many benefits. Not only a secure income, but health benefits and possibly even retirement. Those are two major contributors. I think if my side gigs ever start earning me twice as much as my regular job (or close to it), I will focus on those and probably quit my day job to build it up even more.
That’s a good call out on health benefits. They can be very expensive if you don’t get them through your employer.
First I would jump for joy
Then I would continue working. One of my goals is to pay off debt and create passive income so even if the side income became the primary income it wouldn’t make much of a difference if I still had to work to generate that income.
I only have 5.5 years left to retirement, I do not think I would quit. Besides I enjoy what I do. It may change my lifestyle a little though.
i think i would need to make about 2.5 – 3x my day job salary to compensate for health and 401k benefits, paid vacation and sick leave, and holidays. Also, i would need the extra cushion to justify the job security. Just 1x the salary wouldn’t make me justify my day job.
I agree with you. I don’t think you should quit your day job. Side income that’s passive is good for gaining security and being comfortable. But you should do what challenges you, makes you a better person, and most importantly makes you truely happy.
I would drop down to part time. I like what I do but if I could do it 50% of the time and have other days off to do other things than I would jump at that chance. I would still want to keep my skills up and have access to benefits and a pension.
excellent decision. why try to fix something that is not broken? becoming job optional is a great feeling. you can pull the trigger if and when you want. consider me a big advocate of your dreams Robert.
I was able to replace my full-time income and then some with my blog. When I moved across the country, I took some time before getting a job. But I was bored and wasn’t using my time, so I went back to work. Now I manage both without much of a problem. Besides, when is enough enough? Why not make $120,000 instead of $60,000? I know that by working hard now, my multiple incomes will pay off in the future.
It’s really hard to quit a job when you are pulling in a lot, if your day job interferes with you blogging, there may be a decision to make, but if you can do both, why not?
I agree with you on this one. With my day job, I have a routine that I think is very important. I’m not sure how I would feel, if all I had to do was wake up and open my laptop and presto! I’m at work
That would be great if my full time job is not main source of income. I would never have to worry about money, I think…
My side income usually does exceed the income from my job. I’m continuing to work because I enjoy my job and am using it to fund retirement & pay taxes. I figure as long as it’s still fun, why not?
I’d be happy, but I would keep working until my side jobs are at least double my current salary.
If my side income did go over my primary salary, I would travel a lot more!!!
I think it would have to be a total cost calculations. The side incomes would have to exceed the regular income to allow for higher medical insurance expenses, as well as possibly a higher income tax bracket.