A friend of mine lost his job due to some downsizing at the retail apparel company he’s worked at for the past six years.  Lucky for him, he got a decent severance worth six months of his salary.  But, what if you get no severance?  What if the income you had been expecting month in and month out suddenly goes to zero?  Worse yet, what if you already spent that future income already….

For some in the online world, we will experience this drastic reduction in income at some point in time thanks to a Google Panda update or a Google Pagerank update which might negatively affect our traffic and our private advertising business.  Remember, Google’s job is to make as much money for its employees and shareholders as possible.

Of course they want to make their Search product the best it can be.  Just don’t be naive to think they don’t have quarterly revenue and profit estimates to hit, and that they aren’t in it for the money.  If they don’t hit their targets, billions of dollars in value will be lost.  They are a publicly traded company after all, and their stock is an immediate reflection of value.  Private money that goes in your pocket is less money that goes in their pocket.

WE ARE DIFFERENT, YOU AND ME

The good thing about the personal finance and lifestyle community is that a large majority of us are already building different income streams or really don’t need that much to survive.  We’re a little different from the average folk and in a very good way.  How many people do you know work 10 hours a day and then goes home and works online from 10pm to 1am?  How many folks are able to retire super early and go live abroad without a care in the world?  We’re different, and I’m proud of who we are.

Online advertisement income is a nice bonus, but money from our sites is very secondary to the community we’ve built around our respective sites as well as the freedom to express ourselves freely.  It is the freedom of speech, where nobody, not even God or Google can tell you what you can and cannot say.

We’ve written time and time again about the neccessity to diversify income since counting on just online income, real estate income, dividend income, and job income is not enough at times.

Creating An Income Stream To Grow Bigger Dreams” by Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog.

Diversify Your Traffic” by Eric at Narrow Bridge.

Income Crushed And Thousands Of Dollars Lost” by Sunil at Extra Money Blog.

Why You Can’t Blog Full-Time” by Sandy at Yes I Am Cheap.

Quit Your Job And Die Alone” by yours truly.

Please have a read and really soak in the importance of income diversification and how hard it is to rely on just one stream, in this case online income, to survive.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF A MAJOR INCOME SOURCE WENT TO ZERO?

If my online advertisement income went to zero, I would be disappointed, but nothing would happen to my lifestyle as online income is just a nice bonus.  Sure, the bonuses can get quite large, but I’ll be alright if it disappears.  Instead, I’ll focus on my day job income, investment income, rental income, and online business income (non advertisement).

If my day job income went to zero and my online advertisement income went to zero, I would focus on my investment income, rental income, and online business income.  I’ll also start teaching tennis for $30-60 an hour while fueling myself with some delicious 80 cent ramen noodle packs!

If I could no longer swing the racket due to a severe injury, and my rental properties get demolished thanks to an earthquake, and the stock markets go to zero on top of a disappearance in day job income and online income, I might have to soak in all the tips I provided on how to find a Facebook millionaire sugar mama!  I would work out everyday for a couple of hours to make sure I can attract the lovely ladies at the Facebook bus stop with my pecs and pythons.

And if all hell breaks loose, and no sexy Facebooker wants to take care of me, I’ll be a little depressed, but I’ll get over it because I’ll start drawing from my aggressive savings I built up over the years.

Right here, I’ve gone through multiple lines of defense and I haven’t even talked about government unemployment insurance benefits and food stamps yet!  The girl whom I met in the hot tub a year ago, for example, is still getting $1,800 in unemployment benefits and she just told me she’s planning a two month trip to S. America!

THERE’S ALWAYS LIVING AT HOME WITH THE PARENTS

In the year 2012, living at home with the ‘rents is like online dating, no big deal.  In-depth articles have been written on how to get girls and how to get boys if you live at home with the parents.  I even know a married 30+ year olds still living at home with one set of parents and they are lawyers.  Who doesn’t love free rent and mom’s meatloaf?

Heck, many of our parents have homes nicer than we could ever afford thanks to the multi-decade bull run in housing.  How many of us age 35 and under can afford a 4-5 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood equal to what our parents have?  I bet a minority of us.

FIGHT FOR YOURSELF AND DO NOT SURRENDER!

Whenever you hear of a friend or acquantance lose their job, or an online friend get slapped around by “The Monopoly”, try and help them out and remember to not forget about income diversification.  It’s nice to think once our various income streams are built, we can “set it and forget it“.  The fact of the matter is, nothing is dependable 100% of the time.

Depend on yourself to make things happen and keep on building those various income streams.  Use the disappointment as fire to figure out new avenues.  We live in the free world, where we have more safety nets than a Tsukiji fisherman.  Sooner or later, one of our major income sources will take a hit.  When it does, we’ll be ready!

See how you stack up with other people’s net worth.

Regards,

Sam

Photo: Laundry In The Slums of Mumbai.  If you’ve never visited India, please make it a point to go.  What feels tough in developed countries like the US, Europe, Canada etc, would be considered a luxury there.  Things could be much, much worse for us. SD. 

Updated for 2015