The True Value Of Alternative Income Streams

Alternative Income Streams

Short of winning a lottery, marrying rich, or coming into an inheritance, there are just two dials you can move to accelerate your journey to financial independence.

One is to go all-in on your day job in order to maximize your promotions and pay.

The other one, so popular in the FIRE community, is to spend some (or a lot) of your free time creating some income-producing assets (ideally of the passive kind!)

Admittedly, I’ve got a bit of a problem with how freely the word “passive” is being thrown around.

That being said, there is a lot of wisdom in finding a way to augment your employment income.

Ultimately, you’ll be able to sock away more money – and shorten the time to pulling the rip cord on your day job.

Best Of Both Worlds

In an ideal world, you would get to do both.  Alas, we don’t live in an ideal world.

Instead, the real world which we occupy has things like children, family commitments, hobbies, demanding bosses, and an occasional pandemic.

At some point, things come to a head and you need to decide where to focus your efforts.

For many people, climbing the career ladder can be very attractive. After all, most of us are already working a day job.

Therefore, it’s often just a matter of putting a bit more time, effort, and strategy behind it.  You set a singular goal and go after it, with no distractions.

In addition, do not underestimate the intrinsic satisfaction you will get from achieving true mastery in your chosen field.

But at the same time, focusing on advancing in the workplace can have many unintended consequences, not all of them positive.

The Dangers Of Climbing The Career Ladder

The biggest risk of being a highly paid employee is that from your employer’s perspective, at some point you just get too damn expensive.

This is especially true for back-office functions that don’t generate revenues.

In any kind of a layoff, it’s the expensive middle management types that are most at risk.

Once you are on the street, your relative seniority means that there are fewer job opportunities at your level, and it may take a while to line up a new job.

It doesn’t have to be a round of layoffs either.

The corporate jungle is a ruthless place.  Chances are, you are just another obstacle on your colleagues’ envisaged career path.

They may have a big smile on their face, but they also have a big knife behind their back.

You may also simply become overspecialized, severely limiting your career options to a specific industry (i.e. supply logistics) or job function (accounting).

Finally, whatever you do, please don’t underestimate the chances or the speed of technological disruption.

While in the past it was blue-collar workers who bore the brunt of displacement, advances like robotic process automation are putting ever more white-collar jobs at risk.

For the reasons above, you probably don’t want to predicate your financial future on the whims of your employer.

It’s a bit like jumping out of a plane without a reserve parachute (or investing your entire portfolio in one stock).

Could end well, but do you really want to take the risk?

The Only Way Is Up

The biggest advantage of trying your hand at something outside your day job is that you simply cannot lose.

If things don’t go well, you’ve still got your day job to fall back on.

Alternatively, here are some clear advantages of figuring out how to earn even a few hundred quid per month on the side.

Advantage #1: More Upside

I have no doubt that you could be a highly capable CFO of your company.

But let’s face it – so could many other smart, diligent colleagues of yours.

And if the current CFO has no intention of leaving, what with expensive school fees and all, all of you are simply out of luck.

You have to move to a different company or keep biding your time while being a good corporate citizen.

There’s a reason why so many smart, diligent people are stuck in soul-sapping middle management jobs.  The path ahead is blocked, a change in direction too risky.

On the contrary, nothing stands in your way of starting a side consulting gig or trying your luck with an online business.

Advantage #2: Smooth Out Your Earnings

As many people have found out this year, nothing is for granted.

Jobs disappear overnight, rental income dries up unexpectedly, dividends get cut en masse.

Side income streams are no exception. That being said, the more diversified your earnings, the more resilient they are likely to be.

This is especially true in the current environment.

Advantage #3: A Way To Challenge Yourself

I remember listening to a motivational speaker once, who said the following:

“The best things in life lie just outside your comfort zone”

At the time (I was in my early 20s), I thought it was a crock of shit exaggeration.

In the two decades that passed, I’ve come to realize how true that is.

Every once in a while, I absolutely dread doing something.

It could be delivering a board presentation with limited prep time – or having an internal speaking engagement with hundreds of people in the audience.

And every single time, I come away from the experience absolutely exhilarated.

It’s a bit like my first ever solo skydive. An experience I found mortifying going into it – and have been relishing ever since.

And that’s before you consider the new skills you acquire in the process.

Advantage #4: Help You Transition Into Retirement

If you happen to be approaching financial independence (or just traditional retirement), leaving behind a regular paycheque can be scary as hell.

Having a side gig of sorts will go a long way in making you feel more secure.

Even more importantly, it will give you something to do, as most people struggle to find meaning in retirement.

There are many other advantages to exploring options outside your day job.

You’ll build your network. Possibly plant the seeds of a new career. Gain more control over your time. Master a specific topic (or two).

And for many people, myself included, it can provide a fantastic creative outlet.

To repeat my statement above, you simply cannot lose.

The True Value Of £1,000/month

To wrap it up, let’s put some numbers around the argument.

In the current environment of persistently low asset returns, valuations have skyrocketed.

If you wanted to generate £1k/month in bond income, you’d need to buy bonds worth £2.4 million.

That’s right:

£2,400,000 * 0.5% interest rate = £12,000 per year or £1,000 per month.

Thankfully (sarcasm intended), you *only* need half that amount if you want to put your money in a cash savings account with a 1% interest rate:

£1,200,000 * 1% interest rate = £12,000 / year or £1,000 per month.

Let’s look at a somewhat racier option.

If you buy £312k worth of an S&P 500 index fund, the underlying investments will generate approximately £12,000 of earnings per year::

£12,000 / year * 26 times (current S&P 500 P/E ratio) = £312,000

The challenge is that not all of these earnings will be distributed out in the form of dividends.

With the dividend yield of ~2%, you actually need a £600k portfolio to get your £1k a month.

£600,000 * 2% dividend yield = £12,000 / year or £1,000 per month.

Finally, assuming you believe the 4% safe withdrawal rate (for the record, I still do but many don’t), you need about £300k in the stock market to make the same amount.

£300,000 * 4% SWR = £12,000 / yar or £1,000 per month.

Here is the summary of where we had gotten to so far:

Value of £1,000 per month

Now, I don’t subscribe to the argument that you can classify most forms of income as passive.

That being said, even if you “price” your £1k monthly income stream it at the traditional cost of equity (which is roundabouts 8%) that works out to a value of £150k.

Not exactly pocket change, even when you consider the work and risks involved.

So my two conclusions from the analysis above are as follows:

  1. Creating alternative income streams is certainly worth the effort, and
  2. For many people, it’s no longer an option. It’s a necessity.

Happy building!


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Banker On FIRE is an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) investment banker. I am passionate about capital markets, behavioural economics, financial independence, and living the best life possible.

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12 thoughts on “The True Value Of Alternative Income Streams”

  1. Great post! This is what I’m currently working on. I figure if I can generate £1k of passive investment income and £1k of ‘alternative income’ in the next 9 years, then I will be doing very well and my chances of failure will be very low.

    1. Indeed. I’m always fascinated by the fact that many people treat financial independence as a binary outcome.

      To me, it’s much more about having a cushion of earnings, ideally from diversified sources, that covers your basic necessities.

      Once that’s in place, your downside is protected – and the only way to go is up!

  2. This was the conclusion I came to a few years ago.despite being in a revenue generating job I’m definitely expensive now and that’s what brought me to fi. I decided to make hay while the sun shines and sort my pension and Isas out

    I was asset rich in terms of property equity and pension but little outside of that. The penny well and truly dropped and I now have 140k in Isas against 270k mortgage. It’s wonderful feeling to know I could lose my job tomorrow and I wouldn’t have any issue paying the mortgage off at least without working pretty much in perpuity Then it’s just pin money I need . I’ll go work in an amazon depot to pay the rest of my expenses.

    As has been said before you get the benefits of fi well before you reach it.

    1. Likewise. Climbing the career ladder has been great for me over the past decade, but it’s not a free ride.

      Incidentally, being more relaxed about losing your job can actually make you better at it. Kind of like serving for the set at 5-1 as opposed to clawing your way back from two breaks down.

      1. Yes I think your comment on white collar jobs going to technology is spot on. I still think I’m my industry advice at the higher more complex end is needed (whether it is valued is another matter but I like to think most of my clients value my advice) but it’s definitely coming at the lower more comoditised end of business. If someone like Google or amazon started concentrating on this we could all be in trouble. There’s also the remuneration model (comission) and its inherent Conflicts of interest that I could see being changed
        One of the many reasons why my larger cases are all on fees now. I have nothing to hide.
        But all of these are risks that are coming
        . It’s why I plan to be at least basically fi in 5 years then all my basic bills and pension will be paid and anything above that is a bonus

        1. Yeah. The challenge is that even if there’s competition from tech majors at the lower end, that causes existing players to move upmarket.

          Inevitably, this squeezes top line and makes life harder for everyone.

          Banking not dissimilar. It used to be that senior bankers would make a killing in a couple of years and move on, creating space at the top.

          Not anymore – and now there’s a massive backlog of mid-level bankers waiting to move up (or more likely, to get culled)

  3. Great article. I am currently a well compensated mid-level sales and business development manager in the commercial banking sector in the U.S. with a 10 year horizon until retirement. While I am comfortable with my career safety, I am well aware that we are in unprecedented times with expense pressures on every business. I have diligently started researching different options for additional income streams and agree with your assessment of the current investment value it will take to generate 1,000 per month in income. It makes the upfront investments of training/classes, legal, accounting to set up another source of income easier to swallow. Thanks again!

    1. Thanks Ken.

      That’s a good way of looking at it. As the value of alternative / passive income streams goes up, so does the economic case for an upfront investment to generate that income stream.

  4. Do shares count as a passive income stream? When they’re geared for capital growth like mine are. I guess they’re still an income stream not related to my job. Real Estate is for sure although not passive as you know!

    1. To the extent they are accessible, they should.

      The way to “value” them is by applying a number somewhere between the dividend yield and the 4% SWR.

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