For people with bills to pay, the reliability of income can be more important than its size. Having a steady income allows you to plan for future expenditures, know how much you will have available to cover mortgages and other ongoing expenses, and budget to avoid going in the red. This provides a greater feeling of security than a large payoff followed by periods of financial uncertainty.
Rental Properties
Being a landlord is not as easy as many people think. Dealing with disruptive tenants or tenants who can't or won't pay their rent is no picnic. However, if you acquire the right property with a manageable mortgage and can find stable, long-term tenants, property ownership can provide a steady income. Paying your mortgage with the rent you receive will build equity over the years. After the property is paid off, the tenants' rent will provide you with direct income. A proactive stance is essential for success as a landlord. Dealing with problems immediately, whether they are structural or with tenants, will help to keep things running smoothly and profitably.
Diversified Freelancing
The Internet provides various opportunities for freelance income, including copy writing, editing and consulting. In tight economic times, many companies are downsizing their work forces and are relying on the temporary or contract-based services of freelancers. Doing work for a single client may be profitable, but it is generally not reliable. By diversifying your freelancing activities and developing relationships with several dozen clients, you increase the stability of your income by increasing the odds that several clients will always have work for you.
Passive Income
Passive income is any income that continues to accrue after you stop actively working for it. This can be in the form of online writing for which you are paid based on readership or ad clicks or financial investments that have an income that is dependent on how they perform in the market. As with active freelancing, the stability of this form of income is largely dependent on its diversity. It requires self-discipline to establish a passive income stream because the payoff is often small in the beginning. Other forms of passive income include vending machines and inventions that you have patented that bring in income when they are utilized.
Investments
To get any substantial amount of steady income from investments, you will either need to be quite lucky or have a large amount of money invested. If you have a nest egg that you aren't using at the moment, investing it in dependable stocks and bonds can be a wise choice. Investing $200,000 at a steady return of 6 percent would bring in $12,000 a year before taxes.
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