In a recent article (What is The Ultimate Lifestyle), I

talked about the 8 core components that define “The

Ultimate Lifestyle.”

The first component was income streams, and the reason it

was listed as #1 is because if you want to live the ultimate

lifestyle (as you define it), you must:

– Have total control over your time (i.e. you’re your own

boss, not an employee)

– Have numerous income streams flowing, with as many of them

as possible being “passive” or requiring minimal time and

effort from you. To truly live the ultimate lifestyle, you

must have income that flows whether you “show up for work”

or not. These income streams are the “fuel” that drives The

Ultimate Lifestyle.

In this article, I’m going to discuss the “Top 10” income

streams you can setup. There are actually many more than 10,

but we don’t have we room to discuss them all here.

You may be in a position to take advantage right now of many

or all of the streams I discuss, or it may take some time

and effort to get one or more of them flowing. There’s no

hurry. Creating the ultimate lifestyle takes vision, time,

planning and effort.

All the streams I discuss may not interest you or match your

preferred lifestyle, and it isn’t necessary to have all of

them flowing at once (or at all) to live your own ultimate

lifestyle. I’m just giving you food for thought.

Here are the “Top 10” best ways I’ve found to generate the

streams of income required to truly live your ultimate

lifestyle:

1. Start/Run Your Own Business

We’re living at a fantastic time in history if your goal is

to start your own business and create passive or “low

effort” income streams from it selling products or services.

With the many benefits of the Internet, the power of direct

marketing (online and offline), and the large number of top-

notch contractors and third party companies you can offload

the day-to-day “grunt work” to, today’s entrepreneurial

environment a dream come true if you know how to set things

up to take maximum advantage of the many tools and resources

available.

In addition, it has never been easier to set up a strong

flow of income doing something you love or you’re really

passionate about – no matter what it is or how “obscure” it

may be. Again, the Internet and direct marketing create

unprecedented levels of opportunity.

Finally, there are numerous tax advantages to having your

own business which enable you to put much more money in your

own pocket — if you know how to set things up and take

maximum advantage of the many tools and systems available.

If you want to live your ultimate lifestyle, your own

business will be at the core of it. It’s my #1 choice for

creating the ultimate lifestyle.

2. Royalties

If you have a specific area of expertise and you know how to

turn it into a book, audio, video or multi-media course, you

can get other people to manufacture it, sell it, manage all

the details, and send you a royalty check for a percentage

of the sales. This is a great stream of passive income and

one I’m currently pursuing aggressively.

You can also generate passive royalty income from inventions

or other marketable ideas of various kinds.

You make less money “per piece” when you go this route, but

the fact that you don’t have daily responsibility for

managing the production, sales, accounting and other details

has a lot of value, and if you set it up right, the products

that generate royalties for you also cause people to come

back into your orbit to buy and do other things that end up

benefiting you in many other ways in the long run.

Do you feel this is a good idea but you don’t think you have

the expertise that could translate into a royalty stream?

That *might* be true, but I can almost guarantee that you

have expertise you don’t know you have, you could easily

create it by following a passion and/or create a potential

royalty stream from knowledge you have or could get if you

got some the right kind help.

3. Licensing Fees

This income stream is similar to the royalty stream, but has

many notable differences. Licensing involves charging a fee

to allow others to sell products you create (books, tapes,

videos, etc.), or to use your likeness, logo or other very

visible aspect of your work, business or “brand.”

Licensing can also take the form of allowing others to

present a seminar, workshop or talk you’ve designed that

provides many benefits to the audiences receiving them. I

have two friends, Charles and Will, who’ve licensed the

rights to one, two and three day seminars with their

material, and they receive HUGE checks every month.

Will actually has 5000 people licensed to present his one

day seminar, and tens of thousands of people are getting the

benefit of his work, and he’s getting big checks without

lifting a finger.

There are other forms of licensing, however, that don’t

require expertise on your part, just visibility and a

“brand.”

One example includes Disney who licenses their logo, the

likenesses of Disney characters, etc. Another example

includes Harry Potter merchandise. Another example includes

the use of the Coke or Pepsi logo.

While it’s true that these examples center around huge

companies, there are a variety of licensing opportunities

for “little guys” like you and me if you get creative and

set it up right.

4. Real Estate

I’ve only dabbled in real estate over the years, but I’m

gearing up with my wife to get very involved with Real

Estate in 2004 and beyond.

Passive income streams can flow out of Real Estate in many

ways, including:

Buying and then re-selling foreclosures and other

“distressed” properties

Buying apartment buildings or office buildings

Buying a building for your own business use (I plan to do

this in a few years)

Buying houses, renovating them, and reselling them (my

stepmother does this with a good friend of mine in Los

Angeles and they’re *very* successful at it) Real Estate

does require that someone “shows up” to do various things,

but you can set it up so you aren’t that “someone.” That’s

my goal and plan with my wife.

There are many people out there who teach powerful systems

for setting up passive income streams with Real Estate.

5. Investments

You can setup passive or “low effort” income streams from

having cash you invest in “vehicles” that generate

dividends, interest, or other forms income.

You can also generate an income stream, although it’s not

completely passive (but might suit your lifestyle

preferences) by trading stocks, options, or commodities.

There’s an art to generating income from investments.

You do not want to choose this option without exercising

great caution and/or finding an advisor or partner that can

do it for you.

6. Life Insurance

This is a longer term strategy and one designed more for

your retirement years, but there are forms of life insurance

that allow you to fund the policy in earlier years and then

receive guaranteed income in later years. I’m putting a

program like this in place as we speak.

7. Sale/Payout Of A Business

If you have your own business, you can sell it one day

(maybe even soon) and use the cash you receive to fund your

ultimate lifestyle — and/or to pursue the other passive

income streams discussed here.

My father did this. He bought a small chain of travel

agencies, built it up, then sold it. He got cash at the time

of sale, but also had an “earn out” that sent a strong

income stream to him for 15 years. My friend randy did the

same thing when he sold his business.

8. Network Marketing

Network Marketing (or “MLM”) gets a bad rap from many people

and in many circles, yet it’s one of the best ways to create

passive, or reasonably passive income streams, if you pick

the right company and work the system correctly.

9. Other Partnerships

In addition to the options listed above, there are a variety

of other partnerships and relationships you can create where

you help other people to achieve their goals, get something

they really want, or give them something to sell, and they

compensate you for it.

10. Information Products

This is a subset of having your own business, but I’m

breaking it out separately because it’s an ultimate

lifestyle creation tool you should consider even if you

already have your own business right now.

When I say “information products,” I mean books, tapes,

courses, seminars, coaching programs, etc.

There are many people who already have a business doing

something (like being a doctor, dentist, real estate

broker), and through having that business, they’ve developed

a strong expertise that can help other people in the same

business enhance their success.

For example, I know one dentist who’s so skilled at a

particular kind of reconstructive dentistry, that other

dentists flock to him and he’s created additional income

streams from sharing his expertise through a newsletter,

seminars and “look over my shoulder” events. He generates $1

million a year from his information products business and

could stop practicing dentistry at any time if he wanted to.

I know of another man who’s in the lumber business who

developed a revolutionary process for drying lumber faster.

He started teaching that process to other people in the

lumber business through just 2-3 weekend seminars a year and

created a $250,000 a year income stream from it.

I know of a very successful real estate broker who created a

variety of information products (courses, seminars, and

coaching) to teach other real estate brokers how to use his

system to make a lot more money with a lot less effort.

While he’s still working as a real estate broker every day,

his information products business generates a huge income

stream for him and he could also stop working as a broker at

any time if he wanted to.

I know of a very successful carpet cleaner who is now living

his ultimate lifestyle teaching other carpet cleaners how to

increase their sales and profits using his unique approach.

I also know a very successful orthopedic surgeon and

mortgage broker who want to stop working so hard in their

chosen field and are currently seeking ways to create

information products businesses to replace their current

incomes while making dramatic shifts in their lifestyles.

Do you have your own business and have developed a unique

expertise or approach that could be converted into an

information products business?

The Next Steps …

Depending on where you are right now in your career, you may

be thinking to yourself, “This all sounds great, but I have

absolutely no idea what income streams I might be able to

setup or how to do it.”

If that thought (or one like it) crossed your mind, stay

tuned. I’ll be discussing some “what to do” and “how to do

it” ideas in future articles.