Breaking Down Our 5 Household Income Streams 

1:44 Never seen an ad on your channel since I've had YT Premium for years and just found you last year. Guess that was my engagement comment for the video, keep up the great work!

Erin, you are an extremely intelligent young lady. You and your husband are going to do very well in this life. Love the video.

I loved this. Multiple streams of income protects you if any of them dries up. I have W-2 income from a job, distributions from two LLCs that are profitable, a side hustle (sports officiating), and dividends. Dividends will soon outstrip my side hustle in significance.

Just like @SantaBarbaraAlberto, we have numerous income sources: military pension, teacher pension, social security X2, 403B, Solar Renewable Energy Credits, Cash back, dividends/interest. That's 8! Plus we haven't touched our Trad IRAs or Roths. We both are in our late 60s. Lived below our means all our lives. Life is good.

Thank you for sharing, I appreciate it when others disclose their financial situation/ plan. It provides a different perspective and can often develop new questions I didn’t know I had nor would have previously asked! My wife and I each have an income job and each save near 50% or more. Similar to the concept of living on one and save the other, but this way we both contribute and save for retirement. Retirement is less than 4 years away for both of us. Once we retire, we each will have two forms of income (not including SS).

Our multiple income streams include dividends, interest, realized capital gains, my social security and my small pension. My wife will begin her social security in two years when she turns 70. We don’t include unrealized gains as income because they can be gone tomorrow. We are very happy with our income and the dividends give us a nice pay increase every year, usually better than inflation.

For years we were dependent on a single person bringing home the entire income. As you say this always meant we were at huge risk if one of the frequent-in-my-industry layoffs hit us. We were lucky that this never happened, but it was a close thing a few times. Now we are approaching semi-retirement and have transitioned to what I call a four-legged chair of income: both of us work about 10 hours per week, so that's two legs of the chair; we rent out rooms in our house, third leg; and we are going to begin selling some of our liquid stock investments to cover the fourth leg. If any leg gets pulled out from under us for any reason, we can still carry on. And our emergency (bare-bones) budget requires only two legs to sustain.

Erin, your financial journey is very similar to mine. Although I'm 29 years ahead of you. Losing a "secure" job in my 20s taught me the same hard lesson. I became self employed in my 30s and never looked back - chasing the same goals that you outlined. I happily retired at 65, exploring the world and giving back. I'm living proof that your strategies actually work, because they were also my strategies.

Erin, wishing you continued success with your finances, family, motherhood, and work success. You are a wise young lady and inspiration to many!

Always straight talk and great presentation. Will keep watching in the future.

I rely mostly on my job but have 3 small income streams: 2 fitness gigs and rental property. I saw a statistic that women are mostly afraid of finding themselves homeless and that definitely makes me want to have some housing security by owning property. As usual, Loved this video. 💕

Erin is the money expert I like the most!

Great point about watching parents struggle. That's likely why I've always worked two jobs (including RU-vid-related work).

Hi Erin, love this video! Both you and your husband are doing awesome with your jobs/careers. And with you creating your own product is awesome! I would love to see a video of you describing your product in detail. That would be amazing! And the amount of hard work you are putting into making these incomes is very impressive. That is very inspirational to all of your viewers You should be very proud of what you’ve accomplished 😊 Hope you have a blessed day and I can’t wait to see your next video 😊

Multiple income streams is a must. It was the title of a book. We as a couple have several income sources. 2 regular incomes 2 small businesses Investment income Rental property income Income from agriculture Very small but growing RU-vid income. Built and sold a business. Always been savers and investors. We have always had side hustles and rental property.

We have 4 today, 3 for me and 1 for my wife. In retirement I'll have 3 and she'll have 2, outside of our investments. Life is so much easier with additional income sources!!

Love this! I always like getting a sneak peek into someone else's finances and you do it in a way that's quick and interesting!

Yes! I reffed football, softball, volleyball, field hockey and lacrosse. Good to have ref multiple sports with a day job.

I really enjoy your video’s. You present information very well. I am 67 married and retired also have multiple streams of income. Our house is paid off and our only debt is commercial real estate debt. We have always been savers but enjoyed a good income so we weren’t nearly as frugal as a lot of people. Our goal is to live off of our commercial real estate income and leave our stock and bond investments alone. We are now in a 60% fixed and 40% stocks. We have 4 commercial properties, a strip mall, a warehouse, a parking lot and a flex space building. This year we’ll be able to live off of the real estate income so that is satisfying.

Coast FIRE is definitely to way to go for me. I still save 25% of my income after hitting Coast FI, but that's without sacrificing things I want to do. If I wish to splurge, I can just reduce my savings rate to 0% and I'd still be fine.

Thanks for sharing!

Love your content! Thank you for sharing all this information. Would love to hear more about the experience building your product in your insurance billing business.

Congrats on building multiple income streams! My goal is to create multiple ones as well, but just have to figure out how. Good video Erin!

So impressive. Love your philosophy! And your discipline!!

This was such a great video. You're an inspiration, Erin.

Well done Erin! you are doing an amazing and impressive job with your financial future. I truly wish you and your husband the best of luck!

For forty years I owned my own business, when asked if I was starting out again would you do it? I just say yes, who would hire me! I always had to do it my way. But truly looking back what a crazy ride it was. Yellow page advertising cost me 4,700 a month in 1982. I had to rent out my condo and live in my small office. Great video Erin, I will assume you have medical from Steve, that has to save you some cash. Over the years Medical was the one thing that really was hard to deal with with a small business.

Multiple income streams allows one to feel a little less anxious when they retire… we have 2 social security incomes plus passive income from rental properties and small pension not to mention our 401 K savings

Hi Erin. I thoroughly enjoyed this video! You have always impressed me for being such a sharp young woman and today put it well over the top. I'm exactly twice your age so am obviously old school 😄. I'm a life long learner, which is why I enjoy your channel so much. I get information and insights from your perspective that I can not only apply to my thinking, but also share with my children and grandkids for additional perspective. You are very impressive Erin and make a great team along with your husband. Our income streams are a limited pension, Social Security and RMDs. Have a great week. Larry, Central Valley, Ca.

As usual, great subject matter. We do have several income sources: - Pension - Social Security - Rental - Property Management - Real Estate Sales - Credit Card Cash Back - Portfolio Investments A couple of thoughts for consideration. If you discuss income sources, should you introduce burnrate and savings percentage? Also, the portfolio rate of return plan, realized to date, and needed. The last one needed is most helpful to understand your plan. For example, my needed portfolio rate of return is zero. This happens when you achieve financial independence.

Thanks Erin!

Well done, Erin

Good luck Erin with your product launch..

Yeahhhh.. Second!!.. great job .. keep it up!

Your backstory about your mom getting fired explains your obsessiveness with saving/investing. It's all making sense now. Sometimes I think you take things to extremes with it but now I can see why!

I really liked this video. There is one major difference in dealing with income from investments, though. You divided things by realized and unrealized income. If I did that, our unrealized income from wealth appreciation would be over 75% of our income. However, I prefer to divide things following the French economist Thomas Piketty: labor income and capital income. So only the capital gains and dividends count in the later, not the general appreciation of stocks or the house. When I look at our capital income for 2023, it's more like 30%, which I think is a much more accurate number. We still don't spend it but reinvest it in stocks or paying down the mortgage, but overall, I like that framework better. Great video!

Great content - again. I love that you share what you are doing, without bragging. Curious: did you include your home appreciation in that 55%? Multiple income streams can definitely help while building wealth; it’s like diversifying your investment portfolio. We did ditch the rental property a few years ago though - wasn’t worth the headaches anymore.

Having retired 10 years ago my income streams are more passive than they used to be. We have 3 rental businesses and after tax dividends as our main sources of income. I do intend to get out of the rentals as soon as my current wonderful tenants leave, mainly from the liability perspective. We then have access to two small private pensions, but in 4 years those (plus SS) are almost double last year's spend. The big problem for us is doing some Roth conversions before we hit RMD age.. Good problem to have though!

Great video, would love to hear about your new product. I have a few small income streams that I am growing, small compared to my husband’s income but will be a great benefit when he retires. At the moment all of my income streams get invested.

Yoooooo first!!! Happy Monday!

When you own a business every customer is a boss of you. We have always been living on one of our incomes.

The more I listen the more I like you. Your realistic. Some people just can’t imagine thinking through things. I like how you look listen experience learn and apply that you your life. That helps you be wise beyond your years. The sister I always wanted. 😂 you need to get some years under your belt to put it all in perceptive. And lucky if you saved and you can enjoy more. Because most follow bad examples. Personally have three income streams. And I am always voluntarily to work OT for other areas of my jobs. But at 53 you start to get tired of the nonsense and need more time away from life.

Don't forget the other reason why your retirement goals might be changing... It's called a 'Rug Rat'. Now you have a little one to look after and you know there are going to be additional cost with raising your son. I think you missed a chance to put him in the video so you could have contributed more to his ROTH account. Love your channel. Best wishes in the future.

Nice to watch a financial video where I am lacking in experience. I always worked one job for an employer. In my youth, I could never accept that liability of not having paid sick days, vacation days and a pension. I was layed off once and nearly lost my job two other times. I found the silver lining in those times by taking inventory of my life and evaluating options. My daughter on the other hand, has a hair salon and a jewelry business. That makes me think of the "what if's" in my career.

I did dental insurance billing for 7 years, and still remember some of the ADA codes 😂

Very good video

I agree Erin - there are negative life experiences that motivate us to find a better path forward. Growing up poor in a dysfunctional family environment can result in one or two directions. Fortunately, I found the right compass and people along the way. That said, there are multiple paths to generate multiple income streams. I have always had multiple income streams working 2-3 jobs most of my career as well as a diligent investor and living below our means. One primary job and two side hustles jobs as corporate faculty at local universities in the field of engineering and IT. Now that I'm nearing retirement (in 10-months), I've divested in my side hustle jobs and focused on my transition into retirement engaging in volunteer organizations. Couple of cautionary notes: 1) Fear driven from past experiences can result in one becomming too obsessed with $$ and losing sight of more important things in life (i.e., faith, family, health, friends, community, etc.) and 2) Know when to get off the hamster wheel! Always enjoy your videos Erin, keep up the good work!

I have mentioned I do bookkeeping in retirement for fun and keep my mind active. I have a friend who specializes in bookkeeping for dentist practices. If you ever want a collab with them let me know. They don't do billing. I am all for enjoying life!!!

Wow! Great video. I would love to understand my own personal finances but where to start? Paper pencil, xls file or one of these fancy apps?

Would love to see more details about your networth and where its coming from.

Its smart to diversify and have multiple income streams.

So the growth on your investments exceed your household income. That's awesome. I hope to get to that point some day, but it seems unlikely.

Dual income here and my monthly dividend income is almost on par with replacing my employment paycheck in less than a year saving 95% of my paychecks and using my wife's income to pay the household bills.

Great video. We don't have as many streams as I'd like, BUT our streams are more like torrents and FI was achieved awhile ago, so more streams at this point seems like a superficial want and not really a need. If we had to do it over again, I think we wouldn't be much different. We were lucky (and worked HARD, maybe almost as hard as you!) to have healthy work income at the same time as healthy appreciation on our real estate, market, and pension investments. Like your early life situation had a big affect on your desire for multiple income streams, our fortunate experience with the finances had a big affect on us, but in the opposite direction...lol. We didn't need the extra streams so we couldn't get motivated to work harder than we already did. Human nature, eh? We all want FI as soon as possible so we can do what we want. Well, there's gradations to that too, and when you're well on track to FI, here comes lifestyle creep, which isn't just nicer stuff, but also easing up on the peddle too. For me, it's my nature to balance stuff, but for my wife who's a workaholic, she was shocked and dismayed to find age decreased her stamina and productivity! Another reason to work hard early, save and invest more than you think you'll need. No one ever anticipates the multiple ways your best laid plans can get scuttled in the future.. Keep up the great work, you're a rare breed on YT.

Erin, a couple of observations. 1st, I wouldn't make your investment growth part of your income stream pie, since you're not taking any funds out of your investments. That part of the presentation was confusing to me. 2nd, my wife and I always planned on retiring the following way: a.) have zero debt, b.) choose 2 of the following four sources of income: work, social security, pension (yes, I'm old enough to actually have one), and investments. Never require more than 2 to live on. So, when I was working at my primary career (engineering), our budget was based on my income. Pension would come (came) when I retired from that career, which then required a 2nd career (I retired from that career at 55). Since then I've been in my 2nd career (teaching), plus my pension. I'll be fully retiring at the end of this semester, and transitioning to my pension plus SS. We're pulling a small amount out of our investments, so we're kinda breaking rule b., but it's small and used to enhance our lifestyle. Great content, as usual!

You are now officially a you tube star. I am curious who you will be sponsoring, but I think you are an inspirational person for your gen. Now here is my question. What are you eventually going to do with your portfolio. Cause I can see it going to mid 8 figures by the time you are 70. Is there someday going to be the "Erin Talks Money Financial Institute of personal finance"?

adding sponsers as you said also can reduce your subscribers… many utubers really enjoy channels that dont have time with sponser advertising.. it turns them off… so its a double edge sword…. people hate ADS… we hate them… we just want a true content creator...

I'm 33 and it's my goal to have the investments piece of the pie be at least half of the total money per year.. I've been lucky that some years the work 401k has gone up by that much and other years my non-retirement investments have gone up that much. It's so satisfying and keeps your mind at ease knowing that even if I loose my job, I probably could live on it forever if I was super frugal.

When I was 37, I felt like I had only just gotten started. Congratulations to you with a dental billing job and whatever your husband does that you did so spectacularly well financially before now and feel like you can start to let loose a little. To me that says you have at least a $2M investible net worth right now and make at least $400k of yearly household income.

Wow your investments are earning more than all of your other incomes, that’s really incredible. Even more incredible is that you only live on half of the regular income on top of that. I would be curious to see how your monthly income is spent.

Funny! I for a short time worked for a Dental Supply Company! (I think they are out of business now?) A long way from Rental Houses (that currently drive me!)

What are the typical portfolio makeups of the average millionaires out there? Would be an interesting video

I'm turning 40 and I would love to retire now, but I already have my mind set to retiring when I turn 65 or 67. I too enjoy what I do for my living, and I'm not sure what I'd do if I retired now. Also working form home makes working not bad either. I would love to have the peace of mind though that if god forbid I lost my job my savings could sustain me.

I have 2 jobs in addition to investments and savings, which I don't consider income. I only consider my income from my jobs income. I live off the income from one job and save the other.

I'm assuming your husband is a fed/mil and uses a TSP? Curious to see what funds you invest in if so. Ever consider a TSP video?

retiring at 40 is a terrible idea for most… working and enjoying a career is a big part of life acheivement making a difference… I’m 60 and could not imagine retiring at 40… my career to 60 has been amazing and love the people I work with …… for me it will be hard to retire and will miss that… even tho financially I’m fine… relationsships in the career are so important I think…. its that career and home balance.. and I did say career.. not work… yeah work can suck….

0-20 goes by so slow. 20-37 goes by in a year. (Turning 37 in April myself)

Multiple income streams is a nice idea. I'm 48. As you age your gumption wears out. Depending on your personality, it may be better to specialize in one job, network well, and carry a deep emergency fund. If you get fired, take a month or two for a breather and then find another job. Your mileage may vary. Thank you for the show.

Instead of mark-to-market gains, how would your income look if you only counted dividends, interest, and realized capital gains? You would probably still have considerable investment income, but your earned income would be a much higher percentage.

I'm also going to be 37 this year! Just had my first kiddo in December and I only have one income stream of my own and my boyfriend also only has one. My income is much higher than his so of course I worry about losing my job nut thankfully there are loads of options for me ro get more jobs if i needed to l.

Maybe I can work with you when I own a dental practice! Been following your videos for quite some time

All of this is based on this channels income equaling $20,000, which is on the high estimate but makes sense for a financial channel, and can be a lot more.😉 RU-vid - $20000 Billing career - $26842 Consulting - $5789 Spouse income - $46,050 Yearly income - $98,682 Investment Gain 2023 (if it's 24% which is close to the gains of VTSAX) - $120,614 Total investments (no real estate/vehicles/valuables) - $502,560 This shows Erin and her husband to be prodigious accumulators of wealth if both near the age of 37.

Are you creating a product because you believe there is a gap in the market or because you can compete with the current products on the market?

If this is your first product know that marketing will cost at least 30% of your gross.

No multiple income streams from us. I receive a pension from retiring from the USN and my wife is expected to receive a pension in 5 years after retiring from public school education in Virginia Beach. Your “what if” mindset doesn’t calm down with the 8 to +12 months of money that I suspect that you have in an emergency fund?

Sounds like 100-percent of your income streams are non-passive. Your income could go to zero if you become medically disabled and unable to work. You should discuss passive income options in a future post. Btw, retiring at 66 is equally hard if you love your job (ask me how I know).

I am hopeful your new product goes well but wouldn’t announce until you know you are safe with it.

Team dentistry woohoo🥳

Dual income means dual share… all assets and equity are 50%

So really, what do you actually do? 😮

Erin, would you say making money in the dental business is like pulling teeth? 😅

Does your husband have a second job? Often those working for the military or Federal Government have a second job with reffing sports.

Does your husband include you as an income stream?

Looks like your husband married up..😀

what a slug...Steve is only contributing 47%🤣 Well, to be fair, Steve is bringing in some not so insubstantial non-taxable allowances like BAH. Convert that stuff to effective taxable amount, he's pulling his equal share.

That TV is too high for comfortable viewing.