Financial Freedom. Developer to Content Creator

5 steps to building multiple income streams

As developers we are often despised for our high paid jobs whether we’re working for FAANG companies with salaries of over $150k or a mere few thousands a month in other parts of the world.

Since salaries are greatly linked to active working hours and stability is forgotten in periods of economic unrest we need to find different sources of income as the saying goes ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’.

1. Get a job

There’s no advice as obvious as this one, if you don’t have the skills, money or drive to freelance or already have an income stream that supplements your daily expenses just find a decent developer job.

This is dependent on your country and knowledge but jobs like Full-stack/Front/Backend developers are still in high demand and according to Stack Overflow Dev Survey 2021 the average pay is as follows:

Finding a first job in the industry can prove difficult so first make sure to research the entry level jobs requirements in your area, most important to note are whether you need:

• a degree in Computer Science to apply
• prior work experience in particular techs (for entry jobs it’s usually a scheme to employ experienced devs under low wages)
• extra-hours to compensate your lack of experience (no go, you shouldn’t work more than you are paid for)

2. Learn more

Now you’re wondering why should you do anything extra since you have a decent, stable income from your salary?

It’s not really stable anymore, the past 2 years have taught us that no one is truly irreplaceable in a corporate position, many have lost their jobs unexpectedly in horrible ways, through Zoom calls or even company wide e-mails.

You never know when a layoff will happen as companies cut costs or whether you’ll be spared therefore you need to continually sharpen your skills as developers to be ready for the unforeseen. Learning new skills or improving on your existing ones can support you asking for pay raises or better better paid job offers.

• Web/Graphic Design (resources)
• Video Editing (Adobe Premiere & After Effects)
• Content Writing (Blogging)
• Social Media Presence (Twitter, YouTube, Affiliate marketing)
• 3D & Animation (Blender)

Once you have a decent overview on all those skills you can increase your reach by doing freelance projects, building products, and content creation, further developing multiple income streams.

3. Invest at least 15%

Investing can be scary at first sight for the untrained eye but it’s easier than it seems. There are 2 principal ways of investing in regards to duration:

• Long time investing (real-estate and other assets held for a longer time)
• Short time or day trading (riskier but more profitable)

Every asset group can be traded in both ways but for a beginner, part-time investor long time is the best choice.

Enough theory how much could I earn?

This how your balance could look in 10 years assuming a less riskier 10% return rate and you investing 15% of your $150k income every month, this equated to 1875$/month invested. $164k passive income in 10 years but this compounds over longer periods of time.

Wondering what you should invest in? This is not financial advice so don’t take it as gospel.

A considerate portfolio of a long time investor with a mean risk acceptance assuming 15% of income is invested every month

• Index Funds: imagine 500 companies (like S&P500) in a certain sector put in a mixer and you get a tiny chunk. Average return: 10% /year
• Individual Stocks: you get a marvelously tiny piece of a public company which may or may not grow in the long term.
• Dividends: a company pays shareholders a few times a year according to how many stocks they own, it’s usually a tiny amount
• Crypto: may be the future but too early to tell, Blue Chip cryptos like Bitcoin, Ethereum are decent performers
• NFTs: most current implementation lack real use-cases and many end up as scams, be wary

Already hooked, how do I invest now?

Stocks and Index Funds: find an online brokerage platform, this depends on your location, you’ll have to fill tax and legal information.

Crypto and NFTs: Crypto trading platforms like Binance or Coinbase are rather popular, just buy and hold.

Before you invest in anything it’s essential to research and understand the asset and don’t invest more than you are comfortable losing.

4. Find an audience

Now I have a job, several skills and a varied portfolio, why should I bother finding an audience?

When you have an audience you have the luxury to promote your own skills and products to others and in most cases social media marketing may be the single most significant factor in a products success.

Let’s say you create a YouTube Channel about coding, post 3 videos a week consistently and in a year get to about 156 videos which according to this great article should get you to around 10k subscribers. Assuming you get 1 view per video per day using this awesome projection tool you’ll earn:

Don’t run away screaming $73 for 156 videos is insanely low yet since this is the worst case scenario

If we consider after a year you have 10 000 subscribers with 25% watching your videos regularly will get to this in another year:

only $500 / year when my job pays $150k why should I bother

This is only what YouTube pays without the possible sponsorships/promotions or other income from your built audience.

When you are building an audience money shouldn’t be the priority at the very start, also excuse the inherently high average engagement rates I’m not really a marketing guru.

5. Build a product

Why in the name of Quetzalcoatl am I still reading this article? I have a job, skills, investments and even a goddamn YouTube Channel

Because it’s time to make the real money. If you wanted to build a product before having and audience promoting would have been expensive but now you can promote it yourself.

Okay. What should I sell?

This depends on your expertise but let me give you some ideas:

If you know software development:

• Programming courses on Udemy/Skillshare or others
• SaaS: Solve some kind of users need, even ask your audience

If you know illustration/design:

• Design courses
• Icon packs on Gumroad or other platforms
• NFTs on Opensea or Solana

If you know 3D (sell on Gumroad):

• 3D courses
• Procedural materials
• Models
• Blender Addons (requires Python)
• NFTs

P.S. Please don’t become a fake financial guru

All summed up

If you stayed with me until the very end amazing job, you’ll multiply your income streams sooner than you can imagine and achieve financial freedom.

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