How many streams of income do you have?

[disneysteve]

I will consider them income when I retire... (And I do consider them as income when paying taxes, not that I've got much taxable dividends.)

So to wrap this up, if interest, dividends, and capital gains aren’t income, what are they? They aren’t growth as that refers to the value of the underlying asset increasing, like a stock price going up. What term do you use other than income to describe the money you earn from your investments?

[Nutria]

So to wrap this up, if interest, dividends, and capital gains aren’t income, what are they? They aren’t growth as that refers to the value of the underlying asset increasing, like a stock price going up.

You say they aren't growth, and yet the quantity of my assets increase. Ceteris paribus... that's growth.

What term do you use other than income to describe the money you earn from your investments?

"Vehicles for the increase in the quantity of shares."

[scfr]

Heh. I can see it both ways. I'm adding bolding to my original reply which was: We (2-adult household) have: Profit, Earned, Interest, Dividends, and Capital Gains. Not all are streams. Some are trickles. One is a river. Others are untapped lakes (won't be converted to streams until after retirement).

I have a Treasury Direct account. Periodically earnings get auto-deposited in to my bank account.
If I had a US Treasury Money Market Fund that was set up for auto-reinvest, the earnings would stay in the fund and my account balance would grow.
But either way I'm earning. I feel like the debate is over whether or not the earnings are being tapped. Does it matter?

For me the key takeaway is to make sure that some of your hard-earned active income is parlayed so that you aren't the only one that is working and earning ... hopefully your money is earning more money for you too. Thus the importance of having multiple streams of ... er ... income.

[Nutria]

Others are untapped lakes (won't be converted to streams until after retirement).

That's a great analogy.

[disneysteve]

I feel like the debate is over whether or not the earnings are being tapped. Does it matter?

Nope. Doesn't matter one bit. Income is income regardless of what you do with it or when you spend it. Heck, hopefully we will have income that never gets spent and gets passed to our daughter and to charities when we're gone.

[Nutria]

Heck, hopefully we will have income that never gets spent and gets passed to our daughter and to charities when we're gone.

Who will then spend it...

[disneysteve]

Who will then spend it...

Probably so. If we don't need that income during our lifetimes, I'm happy to have someone else use it later. And if we end up on the higher end of the FireCalc projections, it may well be more than she can spend too. It wouldn't be a bad problem to have.

[ZoeuLX]

It is unlikely that anyone will open all their sources of income. But I can lift the veil on some of them. Those who, like me, want to link their earnings to hobbies may be interested in how you can get paid for playing games. In games, you can make views on twitch, on advertising-on views on YouTube. It also applies to passive income. As an active user, you can earn money by being a game tester. This is what I like the most. I play games and look for things in them that the developers missed. And I get paid for it. Those with long-term experience in the game can be a coach and teach video game courses.

[corn18]

It is unlikely that anyone will open all their sources of income. But I can lift the veil on some of them. Those who, like me, want to link their earnings to hobbies may be interested in how you can get paid for playing games. In games, you can make views on twitch, on advertising-on views on YouTube. It also applies to passive income. As an active user, you can earn money by being a game tester. This is what I like the most. I play games and look for things in them that the developers missed. And I get paid for it. Those with long-term experience in the game can be a coach and teach video game courses.

My daughter's best friend does this for a living. She plays video games and people watch her play. And she makes a lot more than minimum wage doing it. I would have loved this when I was a gamer.

[Snave]

I just left my corporate position at the beginning of June, but we have another business we run full-time (it is somewhat seasonal, so we get 4-6 week breaks every few months) and are part-owners of a restaurant where we take disbursement payments a few times a year also. Then we have capital gains and dividends. I have another small business idea that I know would take off and may start it in the next year or so, especially if my son who is almost 16 decides he is interested in as it would be great for him to take on.