New Year Goal - Let's Read!

Happy New Year! The ball has dropped, the party is over. The time has come to set goals for the coming year. One goal for me is easy: a commitment to read 100 books this year. I set and achieved this goal for the past few years. It is so easy to do. To double the fun, I create a post on Shelfari.com group 50 Book Challenge. Once I reach 50, I move on to the 100 Book Challenge group. Then I start to read. Cozy mystery and family history are my current favorite topics. 

Audio is my top choice for cozy mysteries and best sellers. My Audible.com wish list is long and growing. I'm happy to see that their list of cozy authors is growing as well. The Roxbury Library is helping feed my appetite as well. Besides their audio selections available via Overdrive, they have added another option: One Click Digital. Both of these sites will also allow e-book borrowing with your library card. 

When I have run out of audio choices, my next format choice is e-book. I've got a nook for the pool, a nook for reading by the fire and a tablet for reading on the go. The last one can also read Kindle books. I finally broke down and downloaded the app after I found a great new site Book Bub for free e-books. No this is not a site that cheats authors out of royalties. This site will send you an email alerting you to free book deals being offered by Amazon, B&N and others.
 
Keeping with my fiscal conservation in regard to reading, Google Books offers up a wide array of family histories that I tap into as I do my family tree. It is amazing how many genealogy books have been digitized by Google and others. It is exciting to find documentation of my connection to generations 6, 7, 8 back. It's even neater to find my grandpa in a book on a revolutionary patriots Alexander Alexander and Bancroft Woodcock.

The number 100 seems daunting at the beginning of the year. I look forward to the challenge of reading that many different books. Besides if it really gets tough, I can always read some kiddie books to my nephew to catch up.

Linear Income or Residual Income?

We all know about linear income even if we don't recognize the name. It is income one receives for the hours put in on a job. Work for X time frame and earn Y. Most of Americans earn linear income from the day they begin in the workplace to the day they retire, then the money train stops. But what about after retiring? Well, hopefully while earning a linear income the worker saved enough through 401k or pension plans to supplement Social Security enabling them live a comfortable lifestyle in their golden years.

Residual income on the other hand, is a source of income that keeps coming in; from work done once. Several fields provide the opportunity for residual income; acting, insurance and network marketing come to mind. Actors are paid a fee for appearing in movies or TV. They also earn “residuals”. Movie actors receive residual payments when movies appear on TV or DVD. Television actors, residual payments start when the show goes to reruns or to DVD. Insurance agents are generally paid a commission on the new insurance policies they sell. An agent also receives renewal commission each time a client renews their policy. A Network marketer builds a team as well as a customer base. They earn income on purchases made by their customer base as well as sales earned by their team. Along with the opportunity to make a comfortable living while “working” people working in residual earning fields continue to generate income on work product produced once. The retirement puzzle for residual income earners adds an additional source of money for the retirement pot.

I’ve done the linear income model for years. I think it’s time to try the residual income model. Work once, get paid multiple times, this is my new goal.