#7: What Stops You From Creating Passive Income?

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey everyone. Hope you're having a great week. Today we're going to be talking about a topic that's completely relevant, probably for everyone listening to this podcast. I know that when I want to start a side hustle or side gig, I wanted to create these other income streams, start investing. There were so many obstacles that got in the way. A lot of them were in my head, but again, they kept me from getting where I wanted to be. It was only at the point where I was forced to make that decision that I really pushed through it. I wish I could say that I had a lot more willpower or the right mindset, but honestly, I was forced to start and that's what got me going. And then once you get going, you tend to find it's a lot easier. The thing is, those obstacles and hurdles that keep people from beginning, they have a hard time starting, especially along this journey, to get them where they want to be. And so I wanted to talk about them today. Some of the more common ones that you're probably facing, other physicians and high income professionals are facing, and see if there's a way that we can think about them in a different light and maybe figure out how to overcome them. So the first one is a biggie, and this one's probably the big one. For most of you listening out there, it's that you don't have enough time or you feel you don't have enough time. I mean, you're working hard as is in your day job. You know, physicians typically work anywhere from 50 to 70 hours a week. And you also have other obligations in life. You possibly have a family, a partner, kids, your parents, other people that you're trying to take care of. It just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to do all that, to get your sleep in, perhaps take care of yourself and go to the gym and these kind of things. And so where do you find the time in all of this to go try to pursue another venture? Now that's a great question and one that I've thought about quite a bit. So there are a couple ways that I try to address this. Number one, I try to find a way to use my time better, right? Or be smarter about my time. I try to Find things in my life that I'm doing that I don't necessarily need to be doing myself. And perhaps I could outsource. For example, many of you have been on my website. You know, I like to use virtual assistants to take care of kind of repetitive tasks that don't necessarily need me to do it, but then I can hire somebody else to do it because honestly, your time is worth quite a bit. So if you can hire someone to do some daily tasks, whether that's going to the post office and dropping things off, whether that's doing some things online for you, whether it's filling out forms, these kind of things, we even outsource the buying of our groceries. Now we do it all online because of technology that's available today. You don't even have to do that and spend your time doing that. You can hire someone else to do it right, while you focus on some different things. So that's one big way to free up your time. Again, find the things that are not essential for you to be a part of and find someone else to do it who enjoys doing it is getting compensated for it. But again, you can take that mental and time energy and devote that to some of these side hustles and these, again, these other ways of creating income that can ultimately free you from your day job. Another way to make better use of your time is to find pieces of your day where you could actually do some of this learning and studying about these subjects when you're doing things that don't take mental brain power, for example. I love to listen to podcasts. I love to listen to different YouTube videos and learn to educate myself. When I'm out walking the dog, for example, when I'm driving and commuting on the way to and from work, or even when I'm working out, I use those opportunities to educate myself. And it's not actually adding any extra time to my day. I've heard of that being referred to as net time or no extra time. And I think that's a powerful tool because you can find moments in your day which you might consider dead time and actually utilize that to kind of gain knowledge to start working on these other sources of income. And the last thing you can do with your time is honestly just reprioritize things. I've heard a lot of people, and this was me too, I said, I don't have enough time. And I think I've realized whenever I say that almost a better way to phrase that is, I don't consider that a priority because Honestly, yes, we're all busy. I'm busy. I mean, I try to manage my day job, which I still work as a physician. I try to run Passive Income MD and some of the other businesses that I have and do this podcast, write blog posts and these sort of things. And yes, we're all busy, but to be honest with you, there are things that I'm doing that I could possibly trade out for something better for some of you that might be binging on Netflix. And I know that provides a lot of value for you as well, but. But maybe you can cut a little bit of that time to focusing on your side hustles. For me, that was part of it, but something that I also found myself doing is I found myself, I can wake up an hour earlier. I'd wake up, work out, and spend 20 to 30 minutes focused on trying to figure out what my next steps were. That automatically caused me to sleep a little bit earlier at night, stop wasting a little less time at night. And honestly, I'd still get the number of hours that I needed, but I was waking up earlier and kind of getting going, and I was able to use that time so much more efficiently. I mean, how you spend your time really reveals what your priorities are. I mean, if it matters to you, you will find time for it. Probably the second biggest objection I get when people are thinking about starting some sort of passive income stream or a side hustle is they say it's actually not really worth the money. They want to find something that pays them as well as being a physician does or whatever profession they're in. We're all in a position where, you know, we've been through a lot of schooling, we've worked really hard to get where we're at, and we get compensated pretty well for it. The thing is, whenever you start any sort of other income, especially at the beginning, you're starting at the ground level. So to be honest with you, you're probably not going to get paid that much, probably not going to make that much early on, but it's something that can grow with time. And that's how passive income works. Not a get rich scheme, but it's something that slowly starts and builds and grows and is not proportional to the time you're putting in. So that means that it can grow and scale over time and ultimately hopefully outpace what you're making at your day job or as a doctor. And honestly, it's something that sustains you for years to come. So, yes, in the beginning, it's going to feel like it's not worth your time. It's going to feel like you're not making enough money. A couple hundred dollars a month from a rental property, that may not feel like it makes a big difference in your life. But guess What? That's for one unit. What if you got 10 units? What if you got 12 units? What if you got 25 or 30 units? Or you were invested in multiple of these syndications or funds, and each of them we're giving you a couple hundred dollars a month. Eventually those things add up over time and again, you're leveraging your time to create more income. So if you look at the bigger picture, you'll realize that, yes, it's not worth the money up front, but it can pay off later. And you've got to figure out whether that's worth it for you. Number three, people are always worried that they don't have enough knowledge or enough expertise. Now, we've been training for years in our particular fields. In fact, many of us have gone into additional training and fellowships and these kind of things just to really become an expert in our chosen fields. And so you feel like, hey, when I'm going to invest in real estate or start these businesses, you don't really have that base of knowledge and you feel intimidated by it. I don't know enough. I don't have the expertise. The funny thing is, when I talk to people who have been successful in this field, most of them didn't walk into this field knowing everything. They started as babies and started to learn. They started to try to walk. You know, they fell down a couple times. They got up and they started to grow with time. They didn't have the expectation that they would walk into this and know everything right away. All the information and the resources are out there to get you the knowledge that you need. So I promise you, that obstacle should be one of the least of your worries, because it is all out there and there are plenty of people who are out there to support you along the way. That's why I really stress these communities like passive income docs or passive income professionals, because it's a great place for you to use others and for other people to learn from you as well and really support each other. Because not everyone knows everything. And this is a great place to kind of gain knowledge from each other. And lastly, one of the biggest objections that I hear is that it's just all too much risk. They're worried that they'll make a bad decision, and then that decision will kind of derail them from their ultimate goals. By nature, I'd say we're all risk averse people. We do a full risk benefit ratio before we make any sort of clinical decisions and we probably apply that to our normal lives as well. So when it comes to investing, whether it's in real estate or whatever it might be, or starting businesses again, it feels like there's just too much risk. And I think that's really all based in fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of making a poor decision, fear of not being in total control. The thing is, I think if most of us are honest, if we're looking at medicine as a whole or our day jobs as a whole, and we look at where we'll be in five to 10 years, considering things like financial security, flexibility and freedom and fulfillment, and taking into account all those factors, I think most of us would agree that things are not moving in the right direction when it comes to medicine. So what's life going to look like if we don't take action? Are we essentially guaranteeing ourselves a worse life in five to 10 years? That we're putting all our eggs in one basket? That medicine or whatever our day jobs are, that's going to get us where we want to be in life, that it's going to help us create that ideal life? If you're honest with yourself, you know, it's the way I think is that no, it would not get me where I wanted to be. And so that helped drive me to actually take action. So what's the worst case scenario? If I try something and I fail and it doesn't work, I'll probably be in a very similar situation as if I didn't try anything. And that's the worst case scenario. However, if I was able to figure something out and be successful, it would put me on a totally different trajectory and I'd have a totally different life again versus not doing anything that would essentially guarantee me a worse life. That's something that we don't often consider. We consider the cost of doing something, the consequences of making a decision and everything that happens afterwards. But we sometimes forget to think about the cost of not doing anything. And that's something that's been referred to as the cost of inaction. What happens if you don't take action and what are the consequences of that? So I think it's important for us to think of that side as well. And when I considered that, it made me say I absolutely need to try and do something. Now I'm realistic. Not everyone wants to take on a side hustle not everyone wants to start a business or create other streams of income, and it's not my job necessarily to convince those people to do that. However, if you're listening to this, my guess is that yes, that's part of your plan, that's part of your hope that that is going to help you kind of ultimately create the life that you want. So if that's the case, think about the obstacles that are holding you back from starting. Is it one of the things that I mentioned already? And think about if that's really, truly an obstacle or if that's really kind of in your head and that's something that you can ultimately kind of conquer and and overcome to get where you want to be. The first step is identifying what those obstacles are for you, and the next thing is to figure out how to overcome them. And if I can help and support you in any way, please let me know. Anyways, have a great week. Thanks so much and we'll see you in the next episode. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Are you Are you a part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. You can join us on our Facebook group Passive Income Docs, and you can always learn more at our website, passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.