How to Create Multiple Streams of Income in India in 2024 (2024)

Due to continuous inflation in the price of goods and services, creating additional income sources has become unavoidable. However, many people can find this complicated and confusing. Starting this journey with incomplete information can lead to extra challenges and unnecessary losses.

Wondering how to create multiple sources of income? Here is a comprehensive guide on different ways of generating additional income sources that you can follow to see visible results.

1. Investing in Appropriate Assets

We all know how beneficial investing money in various financial instruments is. However, to maximise your income, it becomes necessary to diversify your portfolio.

First, you will have to determine your return expectations and risk capacities. Accordingly, you can decide how much money you should put into each and estimate their revenue.

2. Freelancing in Various Fields

The demand for freelancers is increasing rapidly, making now the best time to launch into this side income option. You can deliver content for a content writing or marketing company, design templates for a client, create website designs, and be involved in various freelancing projects.

If you have ample time to write blogs for a content-developing organisation, you can opt-in for blogging. It is time-consuming but can be a lucrative option. You can collaborate with some marketing agencies, freelancers, and content creators to kickstart your blogging journey and earn a good side income.

3. Creating Passive Income Streams

Generating a source of passive earning can be one of the best examples of multiple streams of income from which you can earn sumptuously.

These include rental income, peer-to-peer lending, selling photographs online, setting up annuities, creating online courses, etc. The best part is that you will be flexible in selecting your price. Also, once done, you can generate income from them without additional effort.

4. Starting Your Own Online Business

Are you passionate about making handicrafts, jewellery, baking or cooking? You can set up a small side business if you have these or any other passion.

You can contact potential customers through your existing ones. Also, you can request them to recommend your business to others. This will ease the task of getting customers initially and help your business flourish.

5. Becoming a Financial Advisor

Once you start managing your finances and gaining expertise, you can transfer this knowledge to those new in this field.

Since making the right financial investments is a crucial aspect of your life, you can easily get customers who want to gain knowledge from your experiences. Furthermore, you can charge them as much as you want.

There are mainly 7 streams of income from which you can generate money. These are listed hereunder:

1. Earned Income

This stream is the core income source for any working professional. In basic terms, it's the money you earn from your employment. Most people in India kickstart their earning potential through this stream.

Most people will agree that this income is fundamental and is enough to fill their bellies. However, the most beneficial point about this income is that it is consistent and reliable. From hereon, some people undertake their entrepreneurial journeys and launch into the startup world to have multiple sources of income.

2. Profit Income

A frustrated employee from their job will usually move on to start their business and aim to become a wealthy entrepreneur. When a person sells products or services priced above their cost, they attract profit income. It usually takes time to shift from earned income to profit income.

3. Interest Income

There are many attractive investment avenues in the market. Experts and financial analysts state that if you or your business has excessive idle cash, you must utilise it to their fullest potential by investing in interest-generating options.

You can invest money in savings schemes, mutual funds, government bonds, compound interest options, etc. This way, it is one of the most convenient income sources.

4. Dividend Income

As the name suggests, it is the income you earn by investing in other company’s shares. When you invest your money in buying company shares, you earn a dividend on the company’s after-tax profits. Although this investment looks easy, it requires extensive research on the company's profile and prospects.

5. Rental Income

When you buy a property and rent it or let it out to another party, you earn timely rental income for it. This rental income can come from multiple sources, such as renting a warehouse or residential flat. While this income source sounds like an amazing option, it also has some disadvantages.

To begin with, you must invest a substantial amount to purchase the property. If you are not benefitting from an investment scheme, your business might experience a heavy cash outflow.

Additionally, it is time-consuming and costly to recover the initial invested amount through the rentals. In many cases, recovering the initially spent amount takes more than 7 to 8 years. Therefore, it is not a fast way to generate income.

6. Capital Gains

This income stream is related to the profit generated by buying and selling non-current assets (plant and machinery). It applies only to long-term assets, not current assets used for daily business operations.

This passive income attracts many tax benefits as it promotes business investment. There are certain downsides to this income stream, such as capital requirement and low reliability, and it usually disappears quickly.

7. Royalty Income

This income arises when a person designs or creates something exceptional, unique, and attractive and charges money from the users for using it. For example, you created a music album and are doing exceptionally well in the market. If a company wants to sell your music album, you can charge royalty for selling this album.

1. Leasing

Many organisations believe in buying plants and machinery, properties, etc. Although it might seem a cost-saving option in the long term, it ends up blocking some real cash.

On the other hand, leasing can be a perfect option for improving cash flow, as you pay small amounts in timely instalments. Additionally, these lease amounts are expensed in the profit and loss statement, thereby saving tax.

2. Offering Discounts

If your business lacks liquidity, you must opt for better credit. A business should offer discounts to customers who settle their dues early. This incentive works quickly and reliably.

3. Inventory Improvements

It is always recommended to analyse and identify your slow-moving inventory. After identifying your slow-moving goods, ensure your company does not order or manufacture them in bulk or too often, as this can tie up a lot of liquid income.

4. Writing and Publishing eBooks

Apart from businesses, individuals can create a heavy cash flow for their needs. Depending on your writing style, you may write fictional or non-fictional books to entertain or educate your audience. However, this way of creating cash flow will require time before it generates money.

These are some of the ways to create cash flow. Affiliate marketing, producing an audiobook, developing an app, selling photographs digitally, and purchasing dividend stocks are some other cash flow-creating ideas to consider.

This is a question that prompts every person’s mind. Your demands and requirements are never-ending and this is the reason why people need a side income. There are many options to earn side income.

These include selling digitised services, blogging, creating a sales funnel, taking surveys, event planning, becoming a virtual assistant, real estate agent, photographer, chauffeur, personal trainer, tour guide, selling crafted items, and so on. Some of the most common ways of earning side income or income are provided below.

1. Dog Walking

After your stressful full-time work, you go home in search of some peace and happiness. You might also go for a walk after dinner. What if this walk can earn you money?

Dog walking is an excellent side income idea for pet lovers. This hustle-free is beneficial for a person both momentarily and physically. Even if you skip a day or two, it will not matter a lot to the dog owners.

2. Babysitting Services

A person can enrol in baby daycare if their work schedules allow them to do so. Due to the increase in demand for babysitters, you can easily ask for a good amount for babysitting. Also, you can get perks like fuel cost reimbursem*nt, car expenses, etc.

3. Earning Through YouTube Channel

How does it feel to take a sip of coffee, talk with friends, take countless breaks, and earn money while being at home? It is a good idea to start a YouTube channel and produce content.

It is an ideal option for someone whose full-time work does not allow much time to focus on other work with tight deadlines. For example, if a person leaves their office at 7 PM one day and on other days they leave at 10 PM, it would not allow them to focus on a freelancing project with a tight deadline.

You can generate income from your YouTube content by joining the YouTube Partner Program and incorporating ads into your channel. You will start earning through these ads when you meet a threshold for viewer count.

However, you can still benefit from YouTube as you can collaborate with many influencers and brands and make content for them.

4. Online Tutoring

Digitisation has simplified many things for people. It has created many sources of income like online tutoring. Many websites allow people to become online tutors on their platforms. You can earn a side income by becoming an online tutor and creating an online course.

It is time-consuming initially, but it will reap the rewards in the long term without making much effort. You must consider various factors like market demand for courses, skills, subject knowledge, time required, etc., before launching into online tutoring.

5. Investments in Mutual Funds & Stocks

Investing in small-term options can be beneficial in some cases to earn a side income. If you invest in mutual funds and stocks, you can expect amazing rewards in future. This is a good way to earn a side income for a considerable future if the future rewards are spread evenly across months or quarters.

6. Guest Speaker

You can also visit your old school or college as a guest speaker and share your successful journey. You can discuss jobs, internships, projects, and challenges faced during your progess. In return, you can ask for a minimal amount from the organisation. However, this trick only works if you are successful and doing exceptionally well in your career.

Apart from these hacks, you can apply for data entry jobs, start a cloud kitchen, etc.

Artificial intelligence is the new face of the modern world, and it has taken everyone by surprise. Today, you can't even imagine your life without AI, which has simplified our daily operations. Since it holds a great prospect, you must start using AI to make money without any delays.

1. Content Creation

There are numerous AI tools a person can use to generate better content ideas, enhance content quality, produce blogs, and eventually grow their website or page.

Many experts use AI productively to improve their SEO ranking on Google, which has worked well for them. However, the need for human intervention in content development and writing is still high.

2. Develop AI Chatbot

Creating an AI Chatbot is an amazing and ideal option for budding programmers. You can develop a chatbot as a freelancer and pitch it for sale. Depending on the functionality, you may demand high prices for the same.

3. Create Your Course

Nowadays, many freelancers utilise different websites and platforms to develop and design online courses. However, many people believe that creating a course requires a huge amount of time and research. But with the help of AI tools, you can spend more time on making your course rather than market research and other preliminary activities.

Apart from these ways of using AI to a person’s benefit, you can do many things using AI. Other ways of using AI to generate income are making and selling AI products, AI consulting, and using AI on Canva.

It is surprising to think of multiple income sources even after retirement. But there are many ways you can create income in retirement. The top 4 sources of income are listed hereunder.

1. Immediate Annuities

A person usually needs a safeguard for their needs during retirement. They need a timely fixed income stream, and an annuity fits their needs perfectly. A person must invest in an immediate annuity and experience regular cash inflows.

You need to enrol for these annuities immediately and cannot change plans over the lifetime. This source is a safe option as the value does not increase or decrease with the change in the inflation rate.

2. Rental Income

As mentioned earlier, you can earn rental income to make the most out of your property. Rental income is one of the most sorted ways of earning fixed and high income after retirement. It requires some consistent costs but is minimal compared to the income received.

Additionally, rent rises over time, which protects against regular maintenance and miscellaneous costs. You might also be required to renovate and refurbish your home or letting property to offer it to the public at an increased rent.

3. Bond Ladders

This move is a great way to get constant returns with low risk. This term involves purchasing numerous bonds with different maturity periods. Since these bonds have different staggered intervals, the investor receives a safeguard against call risk. Additionally, it helps build a strong portfolio to invest in other securities and options.

4. Laddered Certificates of Deposit

Similar to laddered bonds, the retiree invests in short-term instruments like certificates of deposit with different maturity periods. These generally mature after every 6 months (periods of 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc.). When one instrument expires, you purchase another one, and the ladder continues.

These are some of the notable examples of multiple sources of income. There are myriad advantages to creating multiple sources of income. You should be aware of them to easily reap these benefits.

Excited to know about the benefits of creating numerous income sources? Here are some of the notable ones:

• Allows Wealth Creation at a Faster Pace: One of the prime benefits of increasing income streams is the prompt rise in monthly earnings. This will help you to save more and increase your investments periodically so that you can create wealth at a faster pace.
• Helps in Increasing Financial Security: Creating multiple income streams allows you to generate money even if any of them vanishes. This can be beneficial as you will not have to stay solely dependent on only one income source that can provide you with a sense of financial security.
• Aids in Timely Credit Repayment: Paying EMIs on time is mandatory to get a good CIBIL score. Nonetheless, adhering to the EMI payment date can be challenging when a sudden financial crisis occurs. You can tap into your extra income to avoid missing the EMI payment date in such situations.
• Provides Funds During Financial Emergencies: Sudden enormous expenses can crop up at any time during your lifetime. Such situations can compel you to get a loan to cover the monetary urgencies. However, having extra income sources can help you avoid debts and cover unplanned expenses.
• Helps in Fulfilling Financial Goals Quickly: Extra income can increase your savings, investments and returns. This can accelerate the wealth creation process. Thus, you can fulfil your financial goals faster than the time you had needed to fulfil them on a single income source.

We hope you have a sufficient idea of how to create multiple sources of income. However, you can also explore other avenues for creating additional income streams. This will help you to use your soft skills to the fullest and generate unique ideas that can lead to a sharp increase in your earnings.

To monetise your live streams on YouTube, there are several key methods. Primarily, you can incorporate advertisem*nts such as pre-roll ads before your stream starts, mid-roll ads during the broadcast, and display ads.

Additionally, you can utilize Super Chat, where viewers pay to highlight their messages, offer channel memberships with exclusive perks, and provide membership gifts. These strategies can help you maximize your earnings from live streaming.