A few ideas to start with:

Continuing my series on how to reach a 6 figure income without working 50 hours a week, I will now move forward and talk more about passive sources of income. If you want to work less and earn more, the only way to make it happen is to create little money making machine that works for you while you are sleeping (i.e. generating passive sources of income).

Passive income has been “the buzz phrase” of the 21^st Century. Coming from the strong wave of techno’s and dotcom’s, everybody started to think they could become an online wiz and make money via the internet. Well truth is that real life is not a bowl full of cherries, it’s more like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get!   and usually it ain’t that easy!

Passive income is hard to earn

Regardless of the source of your income, all kinds of passive income is difficult to earn at first. Unfortunately, we only see the end results of those who succeed like John Chow or Pro Bloggers who are making a few hundred thousand dollars annually with their “passive” income models (they are still work many hours to earn their keep).

So making money online is not that easy and the competition is rough. It is probably tougher since you compete against the entire World! Just take The Financial Blogger as an example. While it is primarily a Canadian Blog (Canada is still more than 35 million people!), most people that read English and are interested in personal finance will compare my blog to all the other English blogs out there (coming from  around the globe). So why should they read my blog instead of ten thousand others? This is the question you need to ask yourself before you start your online adventure.

While this series will be more about how to create an online passive income (since this is what I was able to do!), I wanted to share a few other possibilities I have considered and that may be of interest to you:

#1 Rental properties

Buying real estate is definitely part of my plan to become a millionaire. While it is more complicated than it seems, I still think that owning property is a really good way to generate income though passive channels.

People will always have to live somewhere and banks love tangible assets. So obtaining financing for such projects is easier than trying to get an unsecured line of credit to buy a dotcom address

On the down side, you are required to have a substantial downpayment before thinking of buying something. In addition to that, you should also be or know a handyman that will take care of your property maintenance. Sometimes renters can be pretty annoying too

#2 Investment income

Then again, who has not dreamed about having dividend income deposited in their bank account on a monthly basis? On the other hand, in order to be able to live from your dividend or interest income, one must have a lot of money invested in the market!

Investment income as a passive source of income will probably only happen at my retirement stage so I will need to build a strong portfolio.

#3 Starting a “real” company

If you are good at what you do at your job, you may want to consider creating a tangible company. However, you must remain very careful about your primary goals: you want to create a passive source of income, not become your own boss.

If you simply become self employed, you will work the very same amount of hours (and might earn more than before). However, your “company” will depend on you and you alone. This is not a passive source of income. You must be able to hire others to do most of the work and generate income even when you are not there. This is a common mistake most people experience.

#4 Making money online

Making money online is probably the most cliché expression when we talk about passive income. As I said before, we all think that we only need a computer and an internet connection to succeed…. Ooohhh wishful thinking!

But seriously folks, you’ll need several skills to succeed:

- Technical skills to build and maintain your website

- Writing skills to produce content

- Search Engine Optimization skills to be searched, found and read

- Monetization skills to create, diversify and maintain multiple sources of income streams generated by your websites.

If you have (or can get access) to these 4 pillars of generating money online, you will like what will follow on this blog in the upcoming months . From time to time, I will talk about making money online, how to buy a blog and manage a blog. The Financial Blogger won’t transform into one of those then thousand blogs about making money online. It will remain a Personal Financial Blog but I will add a making money online side to it. Stay tuned!

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All right, so we talked about getting a good job and a few promotions, we also talked about looking for a bonus based on individual performance and getting the most out of your employer’s benefits. Now, we are getting to what you are really looking for: how the heck do you create a viable sideline?

I’ll tell you something you won’t like: you have 90% chance of failure if you start a sideline.  Actually, most people fail when they try to create a real company (statistics demonstrate only 10% of start-ups survive the first 5 years of their existence and 10% of those survivors actually blow out 10 candles on their cake years later). So imagine what your odds are starting something as an alternative source of income? Yup, you are meant to fail! The good news is that we all are capable and some of us succeed. I don’t know about you, but if I play the game, I want to be a winner

Why is it so tough?

I think that the biggest cause of failure (and I didn’t find this in any relevant stat) is the lack of passion. Because if you are not absolutely passionate about what you do, you probably won’t make it. Being passionate means:

- Working several hours in a row, several days in a row, several weeks in a row and several months in a row without any meaning results.

- Doing stuff that you hate and doing it carefully since you can’t afford to start over and you can’t afford to pay someone else to do it.

- Asking your family to believe in your project no matter what. Asking them for support while you still have no tangible results.

- Taking your very first profit and reinvesting them instead of taking your wife out.

- It means continuously thinking about your ideas & goals and developing them regardless if it’s 9 AM or 2 AM

Sometimes at the peril of other important, more pleasant pastimes… (Ummmm forbidden donut… Whups, I digress ;-€ )

If you are not passionate about the sideline you are about the create, then go back on You Tube and look for the latest singing squirrel that will make you laugh.

At best, you will be able to build some decent income on the side for a while. It is true that if you are well organized, you can structure a profitable operation. However, at one point you will let your project die because you are sick of working hard on something that only returns a little. You will get tired of putting in the effort on a daily basis on something that you don’t enjoy that much. Basically, your lack of passion will take you away from the pleasure you had when you started your project.

We all have passions. Some people have thousands of them and others have very few. However, we all have something we really care about and this is what you need to find before starting any sideline income project.

Personally, I have decided to combine both my passions for writing and personal  finance. There is so much to say about finance, it’s a great topic. If you don’t like writing, then, you need to find another way of “producing” your passion. You can either produce a good or create a service, however, it must be related to one of your passions.

So today, take 30 minutes and write down every single topic you find interesting. I’ll talk about what to do with the list later on

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Last week, I had started my “making a 6 figure income” series with the main source of income for most of us: our employers. Getting rich or making 6 figures doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a lot of hard work and more importantly, a consistent effort. Getting a good job and looking for promotions on an annual basis is the first step to obtaining a higher salary (this is when you can get in the very fast lane, if I was able to get 3 promotions in 4 years, anybody can do it, trust me on this!) .

However, your employer can offer you much more than a considerable base salary. He can open the doors to many other sources of income that will help you achieve the “magical” 6 figures.

Before I continue on that path, I wanted to share how my sources of income were distributed to make a little bit more than $100,000 in 2009:

As you can see, most of my income came from my base salary. However, there is also a big part from my bonus and other employee benefits. And this is the part I want to focus on today.

Selecting a position with Individual Performance Based Bonuses

The last 4 years, I had been working in a structure where our bonus was  company performance based or also known as “Team bonus”. What I don’t like about this structure is that your bonus is being decreased by people on your team who don’t work very hard. Unfortunately, there are always a few lazy people concentrated on finding a good deal on Expedia for their next vacation than on actually doing the job! This is the main reason why I decided to switch to a job with individual performance based bonuses.

Optimizing other employee benefits

Sure you can dabble with insurance and dental care. However, this becomes too complicated for me to consider so I don’t take them into consideration in my overall income. However, I want to concentrate on other employee benefits such as the deferred profit sharing plan.

This is a very interesting part as the employer tends to put money in it too. I actually put the maximum I am allowed in my company’s stock (which is 8% of my base salary) and they add an additional 2% (so 25% of my contribution). In order to not be over exposed in my portfolio, I cash in my shares once a year. I still get more than a thousand dollar in my pocket through this method.

Another very interesting point is the rebate I get on my mortgage and line of credit since I work for a bank. This would make my decision much tougher if I ever wanted to quit. Along with the money I save, it’s also come down to a psychological effect.

Without making much noise, those benefits represent slightly over 4% of my 6 figure income. So it is definitely worthwhile spending a few minutes on what your employer has to offer in term of marginal benefits

I know that most of you read this series to know about my alternative source of income and how I manage it despite my busy routine. This is why I will spend more time on those aspect in the coming weeks Stay tuned next week for the next post on the series

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Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I achieved my goal to earn a 6 figure income at the age of 28. Since I got a lot of feedback from the post (comments, emails, visits, etc.), I have decided to dig a little deeper to let you know how I was able to optimize each aspect of my overall income in order to reach the psychological mark of $100,000.

Technically, making a 6 figure income is pretty easy. $100,000 per year is $1,923 per week. Therefore, if you are earning $20/hour, you would simply have to work 96 hours a week and you could do it. The problem is that you may die from a heart attack at the age of 40  (ever seen a fifty year manager at UPS, HARD livin’)… if you don’t suffer through a burnout and/or a divorce before then;-)

I found it was easier to diversify my income rather than trying desperately to find a single 6 figure income job.  Those jobs require a lot of talent, knowledge (i.e. diplomas), connections and devotion (read working almost 96 hours a week ). While I am not so dumb, have a few piece of papers stuck in frames at work and I know a few people, I certainly don’t want to work 96 hours a week!

So, I decided to create source of alternative income. But before I start anything, I had to improve my current salary. So here how I did it:

How to increase your salary

#1 Getting a promotion

I have already covered this topic partially in a few other articles but getting a promotion has nothing to do with being your manager’s pet. My first boss came to my office after I was working for him for 3 months and asked:

“Do you want a promotion?”

“hell yeah!… I mean, yes sir, I really would like to climb the corporate ladder, sir”.

“Then, you have to do 3 things:

#1 Dress like you get the job.

#2 Act like you get the job.

#3 Do your job and do additional tasks linked to the next job you want.”

YES SIR, may I please have another SIR!

And this is how I changed my way of seeing work. I started to pay attention to what I was wearing (we all have our too much casual Fridays… I never let myself hav casual Fridays anymore). If you want to become a senior or a manager in your team, you must look like one. People won’t respect you because your title changed overnight. But they will if they see you as a great leader and a professional in front of them. Dressing like one and not looking like a sloppy goof, with running shoes and a Batman t-shirt, will enhance the perception  others (your coworkers and your managers too!) have of you.

Acting like you get the job doesn’t mean being cocky or looking at others in an intimidating matter. It means thinking twice about what you say in meetings (stop complaining and whining and start acting proactively and suggest solutions). It means you need to  get to know colleagues in the water-cooler conversations. Some people are just too good to make you talk and spread the word after . You don’t have to defend anybody, but you can simply say that you don’t bite the hand that feeds and that you respect your boss and co-workers.

Not entering the stupid games will definitely help earn others’ respect. If people like you and respect you, they are more likely to be happy about your promotion and your manager will be pleased to give you a push up the corporate ladder.

Finally, if you want another job, show people that you can do it. Telling people that you would do better is easy and annoys most everyone around you However, you actually show how you would do things better, that you actually cover your work and do more in order to improve efficiency, ambiance at work or profitability.  This will land you better odds of getting a promotion.

One last thing to mention is that if you follow those 3 rules and you don’t get a promotion in the next 2-3 years, you need to ask yourself some questions. People that get promotions usually don’t have to wait 5 years to get one. There is the fast lane and there is the HR lane (remember, HR are evil!). So you better be in the fast lane of change department right away. Sometimes, the best move is a lateral one

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Back in May, my wife stopped working full time so she could return to school part time and take care of our children. She is currently completing an online degree (sponsored by a real university ) so she can take care of everything while at home.

As I wrote yesterday, the company is picking up and we are making more and more money. However, since we want the company to grow at the same pace during these growth years, we are not taking much money out of it. And while I am not working full time anymore either, we see our debt in a holding pattern since she quit her job. While it is not the end of the world as we are under 30 and have a positive net worth, I would like to be in a better position to pay off my debt faster.

So we are stuck in the middle of another dilemma: continue to enjoy our quality of life, or reduce debt load and accept a modest lifestyle. So, we are trying to find alternative ways to make money without affecting our routine.

Working part time

Working part time seems to be a great idea. We found an ad in the newspaper to work at the library for 17 hours a week. Working for a city would probably be one of the best places to be a part time employee as they have nice working conditions and it pays above minimum wage.

We found a few other places where my wife could work part time:

- Coffee shop

- Work for a municipality

- Administrative work for a small office

- Cashier at a bank

Pros

The jobs we found were not too demanding and it was easy to get part time job. Most employers offering these positions will experience high turnover as many workers are students. So if they can find someone with experience, maturity that will stay more than a semester, they would be happy to hire this person.

Cons

Most part time jobs include evenings and weekend shifts. We are not too excited about this perspective as it would result in cutting into our “family time”.

The other major con is the salary. Most of these jobs are paid minimum wage so we are still waiting for the PowerBall.  ;-D

Housekeeping

Nothing incredibly original here, but housekeeping is pretty well paid and you don’t have to give half of your cash to the government . We are living in an area where most of our neighbours use a housekeeping lady. While I don’t think it would be a great idea to clean our neighbours’ houses, it is obvious that it would be easy to find a similar neighbourhood in our city.

Pros

The pay is good (compared to minimum wage) and the schedule is perfect since you make your own. You select the house you want to clean and you don’t have a manager breathing down your neck.

Cons

The major problem I see with this job is that nobody really loves  housekeeping and it is not an easy job (more demanding than working in a library ). On top of that, I don’t know how you feel when you have cleaned 2 houses and you come home to do your own the same day.

The good news is that we are not in a hurry so we can take our time and pick the right solution. We have dropped the idea of a daycare at home since my wife wouldn’t be able to study at the same time.

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3 years ago, when I told my wife I was starting a personal financial blog, she didn’t have much of a reaction. In fact, since I always have 2-3 projects on the go, she wasn’t surprised. I was (and still) write my posts in the bus so she barely noticed that I had a new project.

During the first 6 months, not much happened at The Financial Blogger. In fact, I wasn’t getting more than 100 visits per month. So, my wife started wondering why I kept writing with “virtually” no purpose.

However, during the summer of 2007, the blog started to pick up and I was getting more and more visits each month. After a while, my friend and I decided to team our efforts and our sites and start a Web Company in March 2008.

At that point, I was starting to spend more time but the results weren’t there. The first month our company was created, we made about $500. So $250 each for all those articles written, all this time spent on the computer. Let’s just say that my wife wasn’t super impressed. On top of that, I was also doing my MBA at the same time. So she wasn’t too happy that I was spending additional time on another project.

For a while, we were not making much (below $1,000 per month) considering our efforts. So my wife started to get annoyed since I was talking about my company almost daily. In fact, there was not much to say about it because it was still a small sideline at that time. However, I was passionate about it and I was able to see the huge potential beyond those few hundred bucks we were making back then.

When we had our first annual meeting over Christmas 2008, she started to think it was nice to go out once a year and we were not really paying for our trip. The massage was much more relaxing and the food just tasted better since it was “free”.

Then, at the beginning of 2009, I started to receive cheques. It wasn’t “virtual” wire transfers from an unknown account. She was surprised to see my first cheque coming in the mail and especially so when she noticed it wasn’t a cheque for $35… but more like a cheque for hundreds of dollars. She smiled but still was thinking I was putting too much effort for such limited results.

However, month after month, I was receiving more cheques, and receiving more money through wire transfers. She started to get curious about it and was more interested to hear me talk about what we had done and what is on the horizon.

This summer was a major turning point for many reasons. My wife quit her job back in May, we made a major site purchase in July and I had started a four day work schedule back in September. It has been 2 months that I have concentrated a full day per week on my sites on top of my “regular” hours and we are now seeing that it is starting to pay off.

My wife is now all excited when she goes to the mailbox and gets the cheques for our company. And she is even more excited when she realizes that I am slowly making enough money to compensate for her salary loss. This means that she can continue to go to school and take care of our children.

During the past 3 years, I have really appreciated my wife’s scepticism about the project. It was an additional motivator to prove to her that I was able to succeed and actually earn a decent income through my laptop.

So if your spouse wants to start something, I don’t think you have to support him/her with all your might, but you should definitely let him go and challenge him to see how far he is willing to go with his new adventure. Without the support/challenge from my wife, I don’t think I would have been able to achieve what I have done so far.

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When I was a teenager, my dad had a great job and was making a very good income. We were not rich, but we didn’t have to worry too much about money. In fact, my dad never worried much about money his whole life… he still doesn’t . Way back when, he lost his lucrative contract just before the Holidays (Merry Christmas!). While he was making a lot of money, he also spent most of it. Easy come, easy go they say. Then, when he lost his contract, he didn’t have much to live on. He didn’t know what to do either. Therefore, he went bankrupt only a couple of months after this sad event. We lost our house, our cars… and I lost my summer job too since I worked for him! My dad is a smart man, but at that time, he didn’t have a plan B. And he paid dearly for this oversight.

What is a plan B?

Since we just hit another recession, most people saw a family member, a friend, a neighbour, a spouse that had lost a job. It got people thinking about what they would do if it ever happened to them. When I talk about a plan B, I am not talking about an emergency fund. Money won’t solve all problems if you don’t have a job, it will only buy time. This is exactly what happened to my father; he had some money put aside, enough to cover 3 months of income. But during that period, he couldn’t find another job and had to bring back the keys to our home.

A “plan B” is way bigger than having an emergency fund. It covers topics such as:

- Money –

Obviously, the first thing is to answer the following question: “where do I get money from if it’s not from a pay cheque”. Before you do anything, you must know where to get at least a few weeks of income in order to activate your plan B. It can be from an emergency fund (invested in a savings account or money market fund), from a line of credit or withdraw from a registered investment (this would trigger tax implications while affecting your retirement plan).

- Spending –

If times are rough, you must be able to identify what to cut out of your discretionary expenses in your budget. We all have our little “sins” that siphon money from our bank account on a regular basis. I personally spend a lot on food and restaurants. I just love it! However, it is important to know where you can cut back so you can act immediately and become “more frugal”. While cutting on restaurants, clothing or your favourite morning latte, consider also cutting down on other expenses. You might be able to decrease your mortgage payment (if you have a line of credit, only interest payments are required) or save on other spending (daycare, gas, it may be a good time to look at your insurance premiums ).

- Making Money –

Having a few bucks set aside is good. Spending less is better. But the real problem that must be solved by your plan B is how to make money again! And applying for 30 jobs a week is not what I call a plan B. It would not be sufficient in a recession, especially if your field of expertise has being seriously affected (these days talk to anybody working in the automobile industry…).

In order to start making money rapidly, there are a few things you can do on a steady basis:

- Continuing education. This is one of the main reasons why I did an MBA. It wasn’t to get a promotion but to improve my employability. This piece of paper can open several doors in different fields. It may not lead to my dream job, but when you don’t have one, any job is a dream job . A degree can also improve your employability with your current employer as well. Key people are rarely laid off in the first wave.

- Maintaining a great network. The more people who know you, the more chances you have to find another good job quickly. Most choice positions are being filled by word-of-mouth. You just have to make sure that you are part of those conversations . Sites like Facebook and Linkedin are definitely useful and you should remain somewhat active to ensure you remain connected.

- Having a sideline. No matter what you are good at, you should use your talent, your passion to generate a small income on the side. It is this income that may become your primary source of money during tough times. Thanks to the internet, most people are able to have an online store and generate a few bucks from home these days.

While thinking about your plan B, you will probably optimize your personal finance and might find a few bucks to save here and there. In the end, your Plan B on making money might even become your plan A over time!

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The world is filled with opportunities. In fact, the world is also filled with people and great ideas to seize these same opportunities. This is how fortunes have been made through the ages. Unfortunately, the world is also filled with people who seem to do everything possible to slow your progress; we call them commercial bankers How many times did you hear someone saying: “I had the perfect business idea but that guy with a tie didn’t want to lend me the money. What does he know about my business anyway?”.

This is the classic point of view of many an entrepreneur at the beginning. They are filled with passion, motivation and ideas… but they don’t have a buck to pay for coffee. Based on the fact that 9 of 10 companies close within the first 5 years of their existence, commercial account managers have a tough job; saying “no” to many entrepreneurs… especially when the business owners don’t have any collateral to offer for the loan! Commercial loans are often approved on the long-term viability of the project and the people involved in the startup. If the project is not yet born, your chance of obtaining financing decreases significantly. However, if you show up at the appointment with a business plan, you may convince your bank to give you a chance. Reading a few business plan books wouldn’t hurt .

In the meantime, I have outlined a few indications on where to start a simple plan. These key points need to be answered no matter how big is your company. However, you may want to pursue your research by buying a business plan book.

#1 What is your company

It is important that you explain what you will do with your company and what is its mission. Your business plan should include answers to questions such as: How do you attract clients? Manufacture products? Deliver services? How are you going to make a profit?

#2 Who is the founder?

A crucial point when we lend to a new company is to know the people behind it. What is their experience? Do they know what they are doing? Is he financially solvent? Do they have to quit jobs to start the company? Can they live with a small salary at first?

#3 What is your product / service

This is basically where you explain your business model. Which kind of products/services will you offer and how will it be provided. Will you need suppliers? Will you have to pay them right away or in 30, 60, 90 days? What is your expected profit margin? How do you calculate it?

#4 Who will be your clients

Commercial lending is based on trust. This is why your bank wants to see your business plan and know who has been identified as your clients. If you can define your niche, you will probably be able to target them efficiently and your chances of closing sales are higher. This is why the bank wants to know about your clients. They also want to know if your niche is big enough to support your lifestyle considering a decent closing rate, competition, economic situation, etc. Is the market you are aiming for expanding or shrinking? Business plan books often use the Porter model to define the business environment along with the definition of different markets.

#5 Crucial question: How much do you need, why and can you endorse the loan?

Asking for commercial financing, even after reading business plan books and making your own business plan, is a tough game. You need to be able to demonstrate why you need the money you are requesting and how you can pay it back. This is why, no matter how great your plan is, your bank will most likely request that you guarantee the loan personally and / or provide collateral.

If you are serious about your project and want to learn more about it, I suggest the following books:

image source: Christopher Chan

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While several individuals are losing their job and the economy still takes its sweet time to start up, there are a bunch of people looking for a solution in order to keep their lifestyle and their house. Since employers lay off people many of us think that the best solution is to start their business and become their own employer.

However, no matter what is the business you are looking for, chances are that you will require financing to make it grow. Actually, it is pretty rare to find a business idea that requires less than 10K to start (unless you go online and you have all the required competencies ). Therefore, at one point or another, you will have to sit down in front of your banker to (beg) ask for financing.

The problem is that since your company doesn’t exist yet, you won’t have much to show. The very first step is to build a financial plan before your meeting. While I will write a full post about writing a business plan, your document should include the following:

- History of the member of the company (business background, experience and expertise in the field of your new business).

- Mission/Vision along with a description of the company you are creating.

- Which kind of client you will be looking for.

- How will you provide your products/services

- Number of employees.

- Marketing plan.

- Budget to start the company.

- Projected income and expenses for the following 3 years.

Once you have explained your business plan for 30 minutes, don’t be surprised to get personal question about your background and your experience in this field. Your banker will probably take a personal balance sheet and consider your personal debts as well. Why are they doing this since you apply for your company? Because the company doesn’t really exist for them. It’s only a legal identification for tax purposes at this point

Therefore, most banks will take a look at your financial obligations and assets. If you keep your day job or if you have enough liquidity to survive for at least 6 months, they will feel much more comfortable lending you money to start your project.

The idea behind this is they don’t want to be the only one taking the risk. They want to make sure you invest more than your time and expertise. They want to see you investing money in your company before they open their wallet.

Therefore, you first applications will be based on your personal financial profile. They will determine if the people behind the company number are reliable businessmen.

Depending on the amount requested, they also might require that you endorse your own company. In fact, if your company go bankrupt and you didn’t personally sign for anything, the bank won’t be able to request you the money they lent. So for most start-up, they ask for personal and tangible security (your property or investment for example). This is far from being optimal on a personal point of view as you want to separate your personal assets from the company. Unfortunately, at first, you will have to combine your resources to make sure you have sufficient funds to accomplish your business plan…

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Just by writing this title, I get all excited! On August 31^st, this will be my first week without a Wednesday at the bank! I finally found a way to stay (happy) at the bank

A few months ago, I asked for a raise thinking I wasn’t paid enough. Unfortunately, I failed in my negotiation and I actually went on the “free agent market” for about 2 weeks. The good news is that I received several offers. The bad news is that I had to pay back my MBA and my financial planner exam to my employer if I ever leave now (this is a 3 years contract). While I knew about it when I signed for the MBA, I didn’t figure I wanted to leave I was absolutely convinced in getting a great raise.

Life being what it is, I had to find another solution. Knowing me, I would have wrote the darn cheque and leave after a few month just because I was really upset. I’m having a hard time when I don’t get what I want

Working 4 days drops your income, so what’s the point?

Right. By working 4 days a week, I have to drop my income by 20%. Therefore, I am not getting anywhere close to a viable economic situation at home (my wife will go back to school this fall so she won’t be working at all for the next upcoming years). A financial planner heading toward the route of bankruptcy… quite original This is probably what some people say when the see me go… but I have a plan… I have an “evil” plan ;-D

While my pay cheque will be reduced by 20%, my objectives will drop accordingly. Since my bonus is exponential, I can get a lot of money if I reach 150% to 200% of my objective. Since I started as a financial planner in March 2008, I always brought more than my share and I was working 4 days a week (I used to spent my 5^th day at the MBA). Therefore, I seriously think I can bring the very same number that I am doing right now with my new schedule. Then, instead of reaching 150% of my objectives, I’ll probably reach 200%-250%. This will bring me to the highest bracket of bonuses and compensate for my 20% income drop I made some quick calculation and I would “lose” about 4K to 5K by switching to a 4 days/week schedule.

You’re still losing money, brainless!

Yeah, well this was only the first part of my “evil” plan! The second part is that I will not use my 5^th day to go golfing or play on my Playstation (I wish I would though!). I will use it to work on my online business. Hence, the company will pay a salary for my additional work.

With the pay cheque “signed by me to me”, I will so about 4K more than working 5 days at the bank. The good news is that the evilness doesn’t stop there: we (my partner and I) are convinced that we can make our company grow significantly. So in a few months, my work will generate more cash flow within the company. We already have multiplied the company monthly income by 6 in 18 months. If I can only double it during the next year, I’ll be having my BMW in 2011

I always thought I would be making more money through my company than by working for an employer. However, leaving everything behind and starting on your own requires a lot of guts. Having a family and a mortgage to pay, I though that working part time on my project would eventually bring me there but without taking major risks…

As I previously said, the worst case scenario would be to fail with our company, lose our investment and go back at 5 days/week and retire at 65 with my bank pension plan. However, who knows where the best case scenario can bring us… can we dream to become another John Chow?

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