How To Create A Six-Figure Income And Take Back Your Free Time

Make 6-figures by working smarter not harder

A week ago I wrote Why I Decided To Leave The Rat Race, a piece inspired by an article written by Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, who achieved “Financial freedom” after “40 years” in the workforce.

It got me thinking.

Reflecting.

Ruminating.

Evaluating.

The truth is that I’ve always aspired to leave the rat race, or at least not to be forever reliant on an income from a third-party that can dictate my livelihood and a sizeable chunk of my waking hours.

Think about it - there are (24*7) 168 hours in a week. If we sleep for 8, that’s (8*7) 56 hours, leaving (168–56) us with 112 waking hours a week.

Having spent 45–50 hours a week at work, for more than two decades, plus 10 hours travelling to and from work, my 112 hours a week often shrunk to somewhere between 52 or 57 hours at best.

To put this into perspective, our average freetime is 55 hours, divided by 168 hours means that we own 32.7 percent of our time.

I’m in shock – For more than 20 years I owned a mesley 32.7 percent of my time.

Let’s look at it from another perspective. If we live until 100 years of age, we will only get to experience conscious-freedom for 33 years. That’s a bad deal.

I’m ignoring childhood, school/college and retirement years because … well, it’s my article, so I can do what I want.

Anyway, I’ve come to the following conclusion:

I no longer want to prostitute my time!

Let me explain.

Quarter of a Century

Soon after I started my first Job, in the late 90s, my ultimate goal was to be financially independent by the time I was 50. This meant I had to discover, invent or create active and passive income streams from various sources. 

To be honest, I hadn’t a clue how I was going to make this happen. But I never let go of my dream.

So for more than 20 years I actively invested my time into a passive income dream-stream.

Today, at 47 years of age, I can almost taste my ultimate goal — a dream that was in the back of my mind.

It hasn’t been easy. 

By no means a free ride.

Life accomplishments, goals and ambitions are not designed to be easy. They wouldn’t be ambitious otherwise.

Hard-work takes effort folks.

Simple.

Just like everyone else on the planet I’ve put in my shift in the workforce, for almost a quarter of a century now I might add.

I’m almost at the finishing line. 

If I can achieve it, anyone can. 

Before I explain how I plan to do it, let me share my motive:

Freedom

The dictionary defines freedom as:

“The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants”

Freedom is a state, a right:

“To not being imprisoned or enslaved” by others

But it’s more than that:

• The “absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action”
• Liberation from “slavery or restraint”, from “the power of another”
• A “quality of state”, free from “something onerous”
• Unshackling mind and time is the truest form of “independence”

This article is not about money. It just happens to be a necessity that I had to consider, which may not be the case for everyone, although often is.

For me, freedom looks like this:

• Wake up every day and get to choose whatever you want to do
• Decide when, where and how to work … or not
• Spend more time with your loved ones
• Own your time — 100% of your waking hours
• Be in a position to help others
• Immerse yourself in nature every day
• Spend time with animals
• Create, write, invent, dream, test, fail and repeat

This article is by no means a playbook, just an insight from a freedom-explorer.

Anything is Possible

Two years ago I was no closer to achieving my ultimate goal than I was 20 years beforehand. The only difference between 2000 and 2020 was that I stayed the course, laid the foundations, and kept the faith.

Suddenly things started to fall into place as random events aligned in 2021. Hard work bore fruit, opening doors that I didn’t even know existed. 

The list below is work in progress, so not guaranteed, not yet, not until I make it happen.

№1 — Property

In my 20s, I bought a property. Actually, it was my third property purchase, but the first that I owned alone. It cost me close to $250,000 to acquire a property in Dublin, an emerging European economy at the time, a place that was my home for 15 years. 

Back in 2005 I had the option to sign-up for a “Tracker-Mortgage”, which would later become famous or scandalous in Ireland. A Tracker meant that the interest would be no more than 1% above that of the EU Central bank rate for the duration of my home loan.

To put this into perspective, in terms of actual monthly cost today, my mortgage repayments are $800 a month. In recent years rents in Dublin skyrocketed, so ROI looks like this:

Monthly

• Rental — $1900
• Less Cost — $800
• Income — $1,100

Taking outlays like tax and maintenance into account, the true income is in the region of $750 a month.

Vertical 1 — Annual income (after costs)= $750*12 = $9,000

So that’s number one – check.

№2 — Rent

In Ireland, anyone can rent out a room in their primary residence for $14,000 per annum tax free. While $14k p.a. is around to $1,200 a month, the reality is that a decent self-contained room in Dublin commands $550–$600 a month in rent.

Monthly

• Rental — $600
• Less Cost — $50 
• Income — $550

Allowing $50 for outlays, like utilities, the true income is easily 90% of total income, so $550 a month.

Vertical 2 — Annual income = $550*12 = $6,600

That’s two down.

№3 — Stables

After 25 years of hard work and fortuitous returns on investments I was lucky enough to be in a position to acquire a second property, with land and Equine facilities. So for the price of a 4-Bed home in Dublin City we decided to buy a detached bungalow 30 minutes outside Dublin, here’s why:

• Space — 2,500 square foot as opposed to 1,250 in Dublin
• Land — 7 acres as opposed to Zero in Dublin
• Equine Enterprise — 16 stables, gallop, arena, paddocks and Horse walker
• Beauty — Surrounded by 5,000 acres of protected plains

The property we bought was on the market for 60% less that what it sold for a decade earlier. Why? It was run-down and facilities were in disrepair, stripped bare rather. Nothing that hard-work can’t fix.

Monthly

• Rental — 12 Stables (80% utilisation) = 10*$150 = $1,250 or $6,000 p/m
• Less Cost — About 30% on supplies, ignoring our time = $2,000 a month
• Income — $4,000 per month

Looking after Horses is viewed by some as hard work. 

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” — Confucius

For us, spending time taking care of Horses is priceless, a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Vertical 3 — Annual income = $4,000*12 = $48,000 p.a.

More on this below.

№4— AirBnB Hussle

According to Economic Research, 72,872 people attended race meetings at the Curragh Racecourse in 2019, with 20% of visitors from overseas.

• This equates to 72,872*0.20 = 14,575 international visitors p.a.

According to Tourism Ireland the average stay per visitor is 7.3 days with an average spend of €96 per day (s.p.d.). As such, the market potential is:

• 7.3 days * €96 s.p.d. = $700.80 per visitor
• $700.80 * 14,575 visitors = $10.2m of potential export revenue p.a.

This is a huge revenue channel for local businesses, anywhere in the world, it’s an opportunity to promote and sell products and services online, targeting:

• 137,000 visitors to the National Stud — 40% from overseas
• 40,000 annual visitors to visit the Blueway river
• Plus the 73,000 visitors to Horse-Racing events
• Total = 250,000 visitors a year 

From an income perspective, its something like this:

Monthly

• Rental — 3 Nights a month on average * $100 a night = $300 p/m
• Add-on — About 33% = $100 a month
• Less Cost — About 10% = $40 a month for cleaning
• Income — $400-$40 = $360 per month

Outlays like utilities are minimal, and cleaning is additional via AirBnB, so the net income is comfortably 90% of gross, which is just shy of $4k a year.

Vertical 4 — Annual income = $3,960

This income is very achievable, for any tenant or home-owner to generate a few bucks.

№5—Writing

Throughout my haphazard foray as a writer I’ve earned anywhere between $100 to €1,500 a month. So this revenue stream is hard to equate as its highly dependent on my free time. That said, a modest income would look like this:

Monthly

• Writing — $100
• Less Cost — None, as this is a hobby
• Income — $100 per month

Ignoring outlays like membership, the total income a year should easily realise:

Vertical 5 — Annual income = $1,200

Writing is a past-time, a fun hobby, so costs are not considered a burden.

Plus, I signed up the to Digital Printing Press to write Blogs, host Podcasts and distribute eBooks from my own Website

№6—Traditional and Non-traditional Revenue Streams

One of the primary or “traditional revenue” streams in the industry is:

Horse Riding 

• Riding lessons — 10 lessons a week * 5 students @ $30 = $1,500 or $78k p.a.

Also, the Equine industry has plenty of scope for digital evolution, so other dimensions include:

New Media

• Manure online sales — 100*10kg bags @ $10 = $1,000 or $12k p.a.
• Online tutorials — 50*lessons a month @ $20 = $1,000 or $12k p.a.

So the potential income would be:

Monthly

• Traditional = $6,000 p/m
• Less Cost — About 25%= €1,500 a month
• Non-Traditional = $2,000 p/m
• Less Cost — About 25%= €500 a month
• Income for both — $6,000 per month

Taking the above into account, this vertical alone could realise:

Vertical 6 — Annual income = $6,000*12 = $72k p.a.

Plus the innovative potential to scale new income channels is limitless, such as:

• Images
• Videos - learning
• Commercial off-site days 

The scope is endless.

Final Thoughts

So far we have achieved 4 of the 6 items on the list below, a modest 15 percent of our ultimate income goal, but 3 (Stables) and 6 (Trad. Vs Non-trad) are in train.

Anyway, an achievable forecast over the next 1-2 years is:

1. Rental Property— $7.2k
2. Rent-A-Room — $6.6k
3. Stables — $48k
4. AirBnB — $3.96k
5. Writing — $1.2k
6. Trad vs. Non-Trad — $72k

This equates to an annual income potential of $140k a year.

Takeaways

While I’m confident that we will achieve our goals, they are by no means a foregone conclusion, as risks are a plenty. But if we don’t try, we’ll never know.

John Maxwell said:

“Nothing worth achieving comes easily. The only way to fail forward and achieve your dreams is to cultivate tenacity and persistence.”

In order to build a six-figure income, tenacity and persistence are two vital ingredients, and an appetite for risk … a decent sprinkle.

To sum-up, here are 5 takeaways:

1. Nurture – Believe that you can accomplish anything you set out to achieve
2. Resilience – Tenacity and persistence with a healthy dose of risk
3. Risk – Never fear failure, feel it, embrace it and learn from it
4. Sweat – Work your assets, be it property, knowledge or expertise
5. Hunger – Always seek out new opportunities

The only barrier between a dream today becoming reality tomorrow is execution.

So what are you waiting for?

Make it happen!  

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