Multiple Streams of Income

If you've read any book about personal finances or are familiar with any of the "techniques" for great wealth - then you've definitely heard of "multiple streams of income." The analogy is that a large river is fed by many tributaries - streams - and they all coalesce into one mighty, unstoppable force. So, the advice goes that you should do the same with your own life. Don't just depend on your one job to give you all the money you need for your life; find other ways to supplement your income, in addition.

This is a good idea, actually; you work your daytime job and start searching for ways to gain extra income in your spare time. Maybe you like making wooden toys and other people love your toys. Sell them on Craigslist and in no time, your wooden-toy-income will make up about 10% of your monthly income! Great! Now, you've got two "streams" of income; one big one from your day job, and one small one from your wooden toys. Financial gurus tell this to you like it's a new and crazy idea. They tell you to keep doing this until you have several sources of income, each only representing a small percentage, so that in the event you lose one source it won't cripple your finances. This is all true and good advice, yes, but the catch is that it's not a new idea.

In fact, it's one of the oldest ideas on Earth! It was, however, because of the industrial revolution that this idea of multiple streams of income became erase from the minds of average people. During the industrial revolution, extreme specialization and dedication to one factory/company/job was all the rage; capitalists wanted you to dedicate yourself to the factory. They wanted you to break your days down into three, eight-hour shifts, so that their products would roll off the lines quickly. One shift for working, one shift for sleeping, and one shift for the rest of your life! Ever since those times, that mindset has predominated and has caused people from all walks of life to only look towards their daytime job for income.

In the past, before the industrial revolution, society was mostly an agrarian one. There were mostly farmers, but there were also those that lived in towns in order to provide other services; such as butchering, blacksmithing, carpentry, trading, etc. In such a society, you could be sure that each and every family (and person) had more than one source of income. The farmer didn't just farm all day and watch his crops grow in the meantime; he would tend to livestock (chickens, pigs, children, etc.) or maybe he would spend some of that time as a carpenter. Thus, the farmer had multiple streams of income, and you could be sure that if his income from carpentry exceeded his income from the selling of his crops that he'd concentrate more effort on that. However, he would not always completely give up any one of the trades.

His wife, too, would be pursuing multiple streams of income if there were any young children to be taken care of in the home (yes, back then, tending to children was the woman's job). She might be knitting things for her own family and selling the excess, she might be making preserves to sell at the market, or she could be taking care of rich people's children! There were many options for her while cooped up in the house with those noisy and demanding children. Of course, when the boy children reached the tender age of seven, they were immediately sent out to help pa with the farming. The girls would help ma with the in-house projects.