I’m 27, Built a Few Income Streams, Still Trading Time for Money

[BradHPhotos]

Hello everyone!

I am currently on an extended 6-month honeymoon traveling the world with my wife. I decided to read “The Millionaire Fast-lane” during this time and now I’m here! The topic I found most interesting was detaching my time from the business and building something that doesn’t rely on me being involved as actively. I’m hoping this forum can provide some insight as I move forward.

Over the last few years, I think I’ve been living somewhere between the slow lane & the fast-lane, as I worked a full time job, various “side-hustles”, such as YouTube channels and a small business trying to find my main pursuit.

I’m currently at a crossroads as Ive left my “safety net” of a full time job to travel and as of now my business depends heavily on my direct involvement. Some more information below:

My current/past jobs:

• Project management/consultancy: heavily focused on trading time for money, huge hours put in with good reward. This I have since moved away from but still take up some smaller projects to fill gaps in my calendar.
• My own media business: building in the background for past few years. Now consistently bringing higher value projects. This was mostly myself shooting/creating content but I’ve scaled this to focus more on providing teams and managing larger projects now. In busy months the business can produce $15–25k profit, but it’s still heavily dependent on me and requires a huge amount of my time and input. Retainer clients bring in around $3k per month and require relatively little effort while I’m travelling, mostly just coordination from my side.
• YouTube channel: continues to grow slowly, currently around $1k per month. I’ve chosen to focus more on this and branch more into digital products to add value to my audience. I’ve “invested” a lot into this, paying editors, for experiences etc to keep guiding the brand/audience.
• Various projects I get pulled into through friends, clients and previous colleagues because of my technical background/skillset.

A few side notes for context:

• I’m 27 with no debt and a passion for traveling the world
• I’ve dabbled a lot with “investments” (stocks, crypto, small businesses, holding products to resell later). But mostly leaving me at no major profit. My largest investment is a property I now own outright providing $1.5k income per month.
• I’m based in the Middle East so no taxes currently (although other costs/fees come around, but nowhere near as high as European/US taxes)
• Luckily I have a successful partner who also enables me to pursue some of my crazier ideas.
• Due to my skillset I’ve had several opportunities to go back into full-time employment, but after reading I realized I’d rather build something of my own. Having these as backup options should I ever need to is also reassuring.
• I also went on to read unscripted , wealth exposed & chose hard, live easy.

I have a few business ideas I’m playing with:

• Extreme travel tours - this could eventually be mostly self sufficient with local guides and booking systems but would require staff/myself to manage.
• YouTube - lack of control but can branch out to other digital products etc for the audience
• Product based ideas (mostly likely to detach my time from the monetary outcome)
• AI generated YouTube content - using my insight and AI tools to create long form videos, giving more value than average AI Slop. Still quite a lot of manual work to keep the quality in-line.
• There are a few local business (product & service based) in earlier stages who have asked me to partner with them, but this looks to trade a lot of time for something which is not fully my own.

And there is it! Quite a long intro from myself as I’m still figuring all of the above out. Any comments, suggestions, insights or questions are appreciated. Would be great to hear from anyone who’s been through a similar transition of building a business that doesn’t rely on your time as much.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

O’n 27 xovj pu ficv epf e qettoup gus vsewimoph vji xusmf

Raovi ep onqsittowi sitani emsiefz. Xjip O xet siefoph O vjuahjv zua nohjv ci op zuas nof- vu mevi-30t.

• Iyvsini vsewim vuast - vjot duamf iwipvaemmz ci nutvmz timg taggodoipv xovj mudem haofit epf cuuloph tztvint cav xuamf siraosi tvegg/nztimg vu nepehi.
• ZuaVaci - medl ug dupvsum cav dep csepdj uav vu uvjis fohovem qsufadvt ivd gus vji eafoipdi
• Qsufadv cetif ofiet (nutvmz molimz vu fivedj nz voni gsun vji nupivesz uavduni)
• EO hipisevif ZuaVaci dupvipv - atoph nz optohjv epf EO vuumt vu dsievi muph gusn wofiut, howoph nusi wemai vjep ewisehi EO Tmuq. Tvomm raovi e muv ug nepaem xusl vu liiq vji raemovz op-mopi.
• Vjisi esi e gix mudem catopitt (qsufadv & tiswodi cetif) op iesmois tvehit xju jewi etlif ni vu qesvpis xovj vjin, cav vjot muult vu vsefi e muv ug voni gus tunivjoph xjodj ot puv gammz nz uxp.

Fup'v siemmz moli epz ug vjiti, iydiqv tunivjoph vjev ot qsufadv cetif.

Vsewim vuast ot jiewz datvunis tiswodi epf muv ug dsotot nepehinipv, qiuqmi dunqmeopoph, CT O xuamfp'v xepv vu fu xovj.

Ximduni ecuesf!

 

[WannaB]

Tuapft onqsittowi tu ges, zua jewi fsowi - vjevt gus tasi!
Og zua tjesi tuni nusi fiveomt up zuas gewusovi ofiet, qiuqmi xomm howi zua qsuqis giifcedl.

Emtu Ximduni ecuesf gsun nz tofi!