The Purpose of ListQuest

Until the 1960's, a typical family was able get by on just one-income. Fathers, usually, were able to provide for their families, while mothers primarily stayed home and nurtured their children. Among other influences, inflation caused the cost of living to increase while wages were unable to keep up. For many, this forced the family to modify it's income-generating model.

By the 1970's many women had begun sacrificing their roles as homemakers in order to take on part-time jobs. Through the 1980's many families continued struggling to make ends meet with only one and a half incomes. To compensate, many women went to work full-time. Things only got more intense financially, however.

By the 1990's, even two incomes often didn't seem to provide enough to maintain the comfortable conditions of a conservative lifestyle. The costs of food, clothing, rent and utilities continued to rise. In addition to their full-time jobs, many hard working men and women began taking on second part-time positions, leaving them with less time to spend with those they were working so hard to support. Homebased businesses started to emerge as an alternate way to suppliment incomes, and the Internet greatly contributed to the accessibilty of these options.

In this decade, which is nearly at an end now, this same inflationary pattern forces many families to sustain very difficult working situations. Children are being raised in daycare facilities instead of their own homes and people are being force to cut back where they already have little. Savers have become losers, and retirement keeps getting delayed. Times are tough, and their destined to continue being tough. For some they'll get even tougher. The pattern of working more to sustain a bare minimum is not sustainable. At some point, one will catch up to the other leaving families fewer and fewer options.

Like most people, I've inherited the income-generating methods of my parents. Work hard at a job for a steady and secure paycheck. In short, work for money. This is the only method I was exposed to as a kid, and it was practical, functional, and appropriate for the average person. There's nothing wrong with this method if you enjoy what you do. As so many often remind me, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." At least there WAS nothing wrong with this method while my parents were younger and working full-time. Now, however, things have changed. The time has come for this idea to be updated in order to fit with the times. Today, I believe that there's nothing wrong with this method as long as you enjoy what you do, and as long as it's not the ONLY thing that you do. This brings be to the whole point behind this new blog...

Multiple Streams of Income.

There are literally hundreds... perhaps thousands of different ways to generate income. The older I get and the more exposure to life I have, the more of them I discover - probably just because I'm actively looking for them. While I'm sure I'll never identify all of them, however, it is very likely that all of them can be placed into only a few categories.

A while ago I read a book called Multiple Streams of Income, by Robert Allen, which really made a valuable impression on me. Only a small number of the many streams described in this book were newly introduced to me through it, but as I read, my perspecive on generating income shifted. I've been through that book several times now, and each time I pick up something new.

Simply put, I am now on a quest. I have compiled a list of ways to generate income, and most of them are achieved passively. My objective is to aquire as many of them as I can, but at least one from every category. The purpose for this quest is 3 fold. First, I want to secure my financial future through, among other things, diversification. The more of these income-generating methods I employ, the better my chances of achieving this goal. Second, I want to learn. The more I learn about the various ways to generate income, the more probable it will be for me to become secure in my financial future. Third, and finally, I want to teach others what I learn. If I can eliminate time and hassle for other would-be investors who might travel this road behind me, I'll be satisfied. Perhaps it'll only be my own children, but that'll be more than enough.

This is blog will never intend on being a "how to" guide. Rather, it should be read as a "how I did it" record. While I hope that it helps others its true purpose is primarily to document my own thoughts, insights and lessons learned with regards to the many intequecies, nuances, and processes of securing various ways to generate income.

That having been said....