P.A.R.D.I. Time – My quest for passive income begins.

Passive. Automated. Renewable. Diversified. Income.

I finally know what I want to be when I grow up…

Nothing.

I’m far to scatterbrained and distracted to really ever be ‘something’ worth being. I enjoy lots of things much, much more than I enjoy any single thing. The last time I bought ice cream and only got one flavor was like ’96. For me, happiness is not being hassled or tied down so I can do whatever I want on a whim. Any amount of money that allows me to reach that end is ‘enough’.

I used to have a real, full-time job. They paid me money EVERY week. It was crazy. Sometimes I can’t believe I just up and quit one day. On the other hand, some days I can’t believe I worked there longer than 30 minutes. Regardless… my current financial situation, while not completely dire, is rather meek. I find myself not doing things because I don’t have the money and that’s just not acceptable. But I have a plan.

Passive. Automated. Diversified. Renewable. Income. PARDI. That’s my new goal in life. Although, it’s more of a means to an end, but whatever. Here’s what I mean…

  • Passive – Yeah, I don’t want to be the one doing the work. And once I do some work
  • Automated – Once someone does the work, I want to reap the benefits for a long time.
  • Renewable – The model that gets my automated income with no work, should be replicable.
  • Diversified – That same model should be able to be tweaked such that it could provide totally new revenue streams.
  • Income – As in, money. Coming in. To me.

I’ve taken a few initial steps to get my PARDI started, so to speak. Here’s what I’ve done so far…
Spent about 30 hours reading up on outsourcing, affiliate programs, and online marketing. This folded in with my 10 years experience as a web developer should put me in a decent spot to create a plan and then execute it.

  1. I’ve hired a full-time virtual assistant. Her name is Clarice*, and she lives in the Philippines. She is going to be doing most of the content. She will be working for me full-time, 40 hours per week. She speaks better english than I do and calls me ‘sir’. She’s off to a strong start, so far. I’ll write more about this in future posts.
  2. I picked a niche. I haven’t put anything together yet, or rather, Clarice hasn’t, but if you read this site at all, you’ll probably be able to figure out what I’ve been interested in lately. I have several other ideas, that still come flooding in daily, but I’m going to focus on one for now. That’s the hardest part, so far; not getting distracted and wandering off to the next shiny thing.
  3. I joined umpteen affiliate programs, including Amazon’s. Protip: If you go to http://afx.cc/amazon and buy something, anything through there, it helps me out. So go nuts with that. Pass it around like a cold. I had it forward to Amazon’s Gold Box deals, so there’s actually a chance you might find something useful on there that you wouldn’t have if you just typed in the URL. Look at me addin’ value like whoa.
I’ve always been much better at making things than making money. Some of my good friends seem to just be naturals when it comes to making money, so hopefully I can learn from them and on my own enough to start living my dream.
 
Here’s the book that kinda got all this started:
4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. (sponsored link, natch) I’ve recommended this book to more people than all other books combined. I wish I had read it BEFORE I quit my job, but still… pretty life changing. Once you get past all the self-help huckster-ism, there’s some really good stuff in there.

*it’s totally not Clarice, but I figured I should change it since I didn’t ask to use her name and that might be a lame thing to do.

One Response to “P.A.R.D.I. Time – My quest for passive income begins.”

  1. Animated Tutorials

    Hi Doug,

    I came across your 1000 business ideas and then took a look at this page. Since it’s almost been a full 2 years, do you have an update on this? I’m interested if you’re still working with Clarice. How did you end up finding her, and what is the cost to you for 40 hours of her time per week? I’ll check around the site for an update, and hope to hear back from you soon!

    Best,

    Mike