15 Ways To Replace Your Income In Order To Quit Your Job In 2019

I’m shocked!

You want to quit your job… No shit!

But you don’t want to quit cold turkey most likely because not knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from is no fun place to be and you don’t want to put yourself under such stress, uncertainty, and fear.

Truth is that quitting your job without having anything else lined up is not a smart idea because you might find yourself taking decisions out of necessity ending up in a similar or even worse situation than you already are.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go down that road.

I am always saying that it’s better to start building your new ship, while on your current ship, before jumping ship than jumping shit and have to build your new ship while struggling to stay afloat in the water.

So, what if you managed to find a way not to quit your current job but to replace it? That would be better right?

Well, the truth is that you have way more options than you think and in here I am going to let you know about 15 of them.

Keep on reading.

 

15 Ways To Replace Your Income

Before we dive in the actual ways of replacing your income, I would like to point out that there exist 2 types of income…

One is called active and the other passive.

Active income refers to income earned only while actively working. The monthly paycheck from your normal job is active income because your physical presence and effort are required in order to maintain it. As long as you keep working that job, you will keep receiving that paycheck, month after month. Stop working and you stop getting paid.

On the contrary, passive income refers to income maintained with little to no effort on your part. Actors, writers, and rental property owners earn passive income. However, to reach the passive income point it usually requires huge investments in time, money, or both up front possibly without getting anything in return in the short term. For example, a writer has to devote tons of time to write a book without getting paid at all. But once their book gets published they keep making money for years to come without doing nothing. Same applies to actors.

On the other hand, to become a rental property owner, you have to spend money on purchasing the property.

Passive income is usually considered riskier because there are chances that the initial investment might not pay off. For example, a writer might spend 2 years to finish up a book which no person buys, a landlord might buy a house which no one ends up renting, and an actor might star in a movie which not a single soul watches.

Nevertheless, for your convenience, I have categorized the ways towards replacing your income in active and passive income ways. It’s up to you to choose which way or ways suit you the best.

Please be advised that there are a lot more ways to replace your income than those 15 that I am about to list. However, I decided to go only for those which I am currently employing or that I would employ at some point in the future myself.

 

Ways to Replace Your Income (Active)

1 • Find Another Job

One of the most obvious ways to replace your current income before quitting your job is by finding another job.

If you don’t like your current job, you can always go out and find another one.

Before you do that make sure to figure out exactly why you don’t like your current job in order to know what you need to avoid to not end up in a similar or worse situation.

For most people, finding another job sounds simple, easy, and the least risky option.

But it’s really not…

For instance, to find another job, you’ll need to devote a lot of time and effort towards looking at job listings, contacting employers, and going through job interviews.

Chances are that most of the employers you’d like to work with will reject you. Other times you’ll reject employers because the job didn’t turn out to be what you expected it to be even if they are willing to hire you.

And even if you end up taking a job which you think you’ll like better, no one can guarantee neither that you are going to actually like your new job better than your old one in the long-run, nor that your new employer will like you enough to keep you there after they hire you.

And if you have spent 6 months or 1 year looking at job listings, contacting employers, and going through interviews until you found that new job, having to go through all this process again from the top is going to be painful and frustrating.

So, before you close this to start looking at job listings, consider that finding another job is not the only way to replace your income. It’s not the easiest way… It’s not even the safest one. It’s just the most mainstream one but that doesn’t mean that it’s the right one for everyone, definitely not for me.

 

2 • Freelancing

Lately, more and more people are going freelance as a way to make their living by doing something they enjoy while not having to be tied in a regular job.

If you have a skill which is in demand, you can start offering it as a freelance as well.

You can start freelancing during your free time for a couple hours a day for a period of time, let’s say 90 days to see how it goes and how much money you are able to earn.

If you see some potential, start scaling up; be willing to devote more hours daily, search for new clients, market yourself, and experiment with your prices. When you reach a point where you are making half of what you earn from your day job as a freelancer and you have to turn down clients due to having limited time, then you could and should quit your job and take on freelancing full-time.

Some common skills which are in high demand lately are

• web design
• graphic design
• copywriting
• video editing
• whiteboard video creation
• voice over artist
• photographer
• accountant
• handyman
• electrician
• virtual assistant
• etc

If you are interested in becoming a freelancer but you don’t have any skills, then you could start cultivating one. Take some classes, purchase courses, take advantage of the plethora of information that you can find online for free and above all start practicing the skill on your own.

When you are confident that you are able to pull the skill off, start offering it for free any given chance such as to friends, family, and acquaintances in order to gather expertise in working with other people, understanding and fulfilling their needs, as well as gathering valuable feedback on where you should improve.

Most of those skills that I laid down right above are in high demand online.

You could join platforms such as Fivver, Upwork, and Freelancer and start offering your services right away.

Tip: Make sure to always do your best work in every project because word of mouth is absolutely going to play an important role in your ability to take on better and more clients and thus earn more money.

If freelancing is something that interests you, take a look at 10 Steps to Start a Freelancing Business While Working Full-Time (and Why You Should).

 

3 • Working on Commission

Something between working a normal job and freelancing is working on commission.

Working on commission means earning money upon getting a client to purchase the product or service that your employer is offering.

Some examples of commission based jobs are

• Real estate agents
• Insurance agents
• Car salesman
• Stockbroker
• Any kind of sales or promotion representatives

Sometimes, according to the job, your employer might pay you a base salary + your commissions, straight commissions, or even residual commissions.

If you want to find out more about commission based work, go ahead and take a look at the Different Types of Commission Pay.

 

4 • Retail Arbitrage

Retail arbitrage is a fairly simple concept.

A retail store (such as Walmart, Target, etc) sells a product (either online or in-store) for a certain price.

You purchase that product and sell it for a higher price yourself and pocket the profit.

And yes, there exist people who are making a full-time income with retail arbitrage.

I first heard about concept from famous influencer Gary Vee who basically visited garage sales and thrift stores with a couple of his crewmembers, purchased items like mugs, stuffed animals, toys, collectibles, etc for a very low price and then sold them on eBay for like x10 or even more the price that he paid. This way, he managed to pocket more than $2k of profit in just a few hours of work on several occasions.

Watch a couple of his garage sailing videos right below.

Truthfully, you don’t even have to get out of your house to do that whole retail arbitrage thing. Gary Vee also talks about online retail arbitrage. You find stuff that sells in eBay which you can buy cheaper in China through websites such as Baidu, you buy it, and you sell it.

With a few months of practice, you could definitely make your living that way.

I haven’t tried retail arbitrage myself because there is no such thing as garage sales where I live but at some point, I will definitely look into online retail arbitrage.

 

5 • Consulting

A consultant is someone who provides expert advice to people or businesses regarding a specific subject.

Consultants will usually look at every aspect of a business and advise the people in charge, on strategies, potential obstacles, and opportunities.

Most consultants have specific areas of expertise, such as

• marketing & sales
• social media
• licensing
• IT
• operations
• HR
• risk & compliance
• etc

Companies will hire consultants who have previous experience in the area of expertise that they need consulting. For example, to become a sales consultant you need to have excelled at sales and then excelled at managing a sales team at some point in the past. Other consulting fields such as IT consultant will most probably require a degree as well whereas in fields such as online marketing everything revolves around results and degrees and certifications mean literally nothing.

If you want to find out more about consulting take a look at 15 Popular Consulting Careers.

 

6 • Coaching

Unlike consultants, coaches don’t give off direct advice, and they don’t tell clients exactly what to do.

Instead, they are trained to support the client’s own self-discovery usually by asking the right questions, listening carefully to what they’re saying (and not saying), being able to see the big picture and bring them back to their originally stated goals and values, and helping them hold themselves accountable for the actions they have chosen.

A coach can help a client find the right moves to make the play, but he won’t make the play himself.

This is why a coach doesn’t have to be an expert in a specific niche or a particular type of business. He should be an expert in coaching: asking insightful questions, reflecting back what he sees in you, challenging your assumptions, reframing counterproductive stories, and holding a space that allows you to process through your thoughts in an intentional, forward-moving manner.

Coaching is usually a one-on-one partnership that involves a professional, preferably certified, coach (you) and a client. You and your client will talk on a regular basis, anywhere from one to four times per month based on the client’s needs and goals.

Some types of coaches are

• Career coach
• Personal coach
• Life coach
• Health and wellness coach

If you are interested in finding out how to become a certified coach, go ahead and check universalcoachinstitute.com.

 

Ways to Replace Your Income (Passive)

Earning money as you sleep…

That’s what most people call earning passive income. And they are absolutely right!

Sounds like a dream right?

However, no matter how compelling the whole concept of earning a passive income sounds, I can’t stress enough that it requires the upfront investment of a significant amount of time, money, or both usually with little to no returns in the short-term. Depending on the way, you might go for months and even years without a single dollar of profit from your passive income endeavors.

But the end result is absolutely worth the trouble because passive income is not just about earning a lot of money but ultimately becoming the master of your most valuable asset, time, if, of course, you ever manage to get there.

If you are already earning an active income from your current job, then it would be a very smart idea to invest part of your salary and your free time towards cultivating a source of passive income.

This is exactly what I am doing but more on that later on.

 

7 • Create a Business

One of the most obvious passive income sources is creating a business of your own.

Starting your own business is easier than ever before and it could be anything from a mini market to a restaurant, dry cleaning, etc. As long as you have employees running the place and serving your customers you earn money even if you are 1000 miles away sleeping or surfing or jerking off, whatever.

Of course, you’ll have to show up once in a while to check if everything runs smoothly, make adjustments, and generally lead your employees. However, if you choose your employees carefully and they are professionals, a minimum amount of work is going to be required on your part to maintain your business and thus your passive income.

99.9% to get a business up and running requires a significant monetary investment. For your first business, you’ll most likely have to invest huge chunks of your time as well until you get the hang off it and are comfortable hiring some people to work for you.

Just be aware that according to SBA (Small Business Administration) only 1 in 3 businesses last more than 10 years.

If you are interested in creating a business of your own make sure to check out those articles right below:

• The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business
• 10 Steps to Start a Small Business
• Top 6 Reasons New Businesses Fail

 

8 • Purchase Rental Property

Another pretty common way to replace your current income with passive income is purchasing rental property.

Rental property is a property from which the owner receives payment from the occupant(s), known as tenants, in return for them occupying or using the property.

The premise goes something like that:

1. You buy a house
2. You rent the house to someone
3. As long as the house is occupied you’ll keep making money

I don’t know much about owning property because I own none so I won’t dig deeper into the subject. However, I know people who are making their living solely through the rent the collect by the occupants of property they own.

If you are interested in purchasing a rental property, it would be wise to consult with a professional realtor for more information on the subject.

Before you do that, you might want to check out The Pros and Cons of Owning Real Estate Rental Property.

 

9 • Run a Blog

A blog is a legit way towards completely replacing the full-time active income from your current job with passive income earned online.

I am constantly saying that the future of employment is on the internet. The demand for information online is much greater than the current supply and with all those platforms and technologies it’s easier than ever to get started and scale your online business.

That’s why more and more people end up starting their own blogs and that’s why more and more people become successful daily (hopefully I’ll become one of those people soon :P)

A blog is basically the platform where your audience is gathering to read the valuable information you provide on a specific subject for free. During that process, you gain your audience’s trust and once you have your audience’s trust, you can monetize it in any way you want.

Some of the most common ways to monetize a blog passively are

• Advertisements
• Affiliate marketing
• Selling your own products both digital and normal
• Creating a premium membership program

Running a blog is no different than running a regular business. Don’t be mistaken that you’ll earn money easy and fast because you won’t. It takes tons of time and effort upfront without getting anything in return in the short-term just like with cultivating any other passive source of income.

The major upside of creating and running your own blog is that your startup costs are next to nothing.

You can even start your very own affiliate marketing blog for FREE right here.

 

10 • Compose and Sell Courses Online

If you are knowledgeable about any subject and you are willing to pass that knowledge to other people, then you could create and sell your own course.

Again, there are platforms that will take care of everything for you, from the payments to the delivery of the course, so that you can focus your full attention on creating valuable content to your customers.

Such a platform is Teachable and you can get started for as low as $39 per month. Teachable teaches you everything you need to know to create your course, market it, and make money through it. They will also host your course, take care of its delivery your customer, the payments, etc.

I have attended tons of Teachable’s free seminars on course creation and they are nothing but packed with tons of valuable information.

The most important lesson I got from them was that you don’t need to be an expert to create your own course… You just need to know a little bit more than a complete beginner. For example, if you have been practicing Yoga for 4 months, you can create a course teaching absolute beginners the most basic exercises, breathing techniques, etc to get them started.

BTW, you can find and enroll on Teachable’s next free webinar right here.

 

11 • Sell Images Online

Are you a great photographer, painter, or photoshop/illustrator designer? Do you aspire of becoming one?

Good news!

You can make money by selling your images through image stock websites.

The most popular of such websites is Shutterstock and here is how it works:

• You produce high-quality images
• You upload your images to Shutterstock
• Every time someone purchases an image of yours on Shutterstock you earn money

The more images you upload, the more money you’ll be earning.

If you want to find out more about the process and how much you could possibly earn, go ahead and read How to Make Money with Stock Photography.

Another way of earning money with imagery is through print on demand for which we’ll talk right below.

 

12 • Print on Demand

Print on demand means printing images on stuff such as mugs, t-shirts, phone cases, tapestries, stickers, pillows, etc only after an order has been placed by the customer.

The process is much simpler than it sounds because there exist websites that will take care of everything for you (printing, shipping, payments, etc). All you have to do is to upload your designs, and when people purchase stuff with your designs on them, you earn money.

At some point, I tried print-on-demand myself just for fun and made $10 selling a t-shirt with this ridiculous design on the very right printed on it on eBay 😛

The print on demand website I used to make that sale was TshirtGang. Another very good POD website with very high-quality products is RedBubble. If you search Google for Print on Demand websites you’ll find tons of them.

How to Earn Money From Home: The Print On Demand Way.

 

13 • Write eBooks

Writing and selling ebooks is another great way to completely replace your current income.

The difference between an ebook and a course is that an ebook doesn’t have to be instructional (although there exist many instructional ebooks out there).

An ebook can be written around any subject whatsoever; they can be fictional, non-fictional, historical, sharing personal experiences, giving tips, self-help, how-to guides or a mix of everything.

Unlike with regular books, ebooks are simpler and easier to publish as you don’t have to deal with book printing and binding as well as rely on editors, publishers, and bookstores to get your book out there. You are in complete control.

All you have to do is basically write your ebook, set up a website with an automated payment and delivery system and you are set to start making money. Or you could leverage Amazon Kindle whereas people can buy your book and read it on their devices through the Kindle application while Amazon does most of the selling, marketing, and payment handling for you.

Resources to help you find out how to start making money by publishing your own ebooks:

• Kindle Publishing: The Ultimate Guide To Making Money On Kindle
• Can Amazon Self-Publishing Make You Money?
• How to Make Money With Ebooks Online

 

14 • Dropshipping

Drop shipping is a business model whereas you purchase items from a wholesale supplier or a manufacturer and you sell them to your customers on retail price pocketing the difference in price.

So how is this different from owning a normal retail store you ask?

Well, with drop shipping, when your customer purchases a product you sell on retail price, your supplier will ship the product directly to your customer. This means that you will neither have to own an inventory nor see and handle the product yourself. Again, everything from the packaging, shipping, payments, etc is handled by your supplier.

 

If you want to figure out everything about dropshipping go ahead and read The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping.

 

15 • Become an Artist

And when I say artist, I am talking about arts in general not just painting.

As stated earlier, actors, writers, musicians, and singers all have the potential to earn passive income; they create something once (a movie, a book, a screenplay, an album, etc) and they can make money off of this creation for the years to come as long as people keep purchasing it.

An example that I use often is that of the cast of the TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S who are still earning $20 million per year each in royalties from the show, which by the way has ended since 2004. They created the show once, more than 15 years ago, and they are still earning money from it to this very day.

If you are passionate about any art then you should absolutely go for it.

The world has enough businessmen… We need more artists.

 

How I am Currently Replacing my Income

The way that I am currently attempting to replace my income is running an affiliate marketing blog, this very website.

I am still not earning enough to quit my job but I am on my way. Hopefully…

I went that way because, first of all, since I already have a source of active income, my job,  and some time daily at my disposal, I thought it would be a smart idea to start cultivating a passive income source so I won’t have to be actively involved with some kind of job or work until I die.

Moreover, I didn’t and still don’t have any money to invest towards let’s say purchasing property or launching a normal business whereas I was able to start my very first blog completely for free.

The path ain’t easy… It’s full of bumps and potholes. And it feels like I am falling into every single one of them 😛

It also takes time and energy… Lot’s of time and energy… Basically all of my time and energy…

But this is how successful businesses get built. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

Anyway, if you want to start your own affiliate marketing blog for free just like me, click right here.

 

Conclusion

I can understand that quitting your job and leaving yourself without an income is an impossible decision to make. I wouldn’t do that either…

However, as you just saw, there exist at least 15 ways to replace your current income, and I am sure that if you keep searching, you’ll most probably find dozens more.

Just pick one and start going at it.

There’s really no good reason to keep working a job you hate.

Don’t go for the easiest option… Go for the one which excites you the most. You don’t want to find yourself reading this 2 years from now because you went the wrong way once again.

Let go of all excuses and get moving now.

The sooner you start acting, the sooner you’ll be able to quit your job.

 

Which option piqued your interest the most? Will you start acting on it? If not, what is holding you back? Do you maybe have any other ideas on how to replace your income?

Let us know in the comments below.

 

If you have any questions or need any further help or guidance from me, please email me at harry@dearboss-iquit.com or drop me a PM on my Wealthy Affiliate Profile.

I’ll be thrilled to help you out.

Harry,
dearboss-iquit.com