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It is common knowledge that wealthy individuals have multiple ways of making money and they don't depend on one source of income.
Virtually all rich and successful people have assets that produce money and long term wealth. What are these assets that are making people rich?
Before the list of the 8 assets that are making people rich is given, what then is an asset?Robert Kiyosaki, author of best selling book, Rich Dad Poor Dad defined an asset as an object, property or any possession that puts money in your pocket. On the other hand, a liability takes money out of your pocket.
Wealthy people focus on creating assets and limiting liabilities. With that being said, below is a list of 8 assets that people use to get rich:
Stocks have made people rich for centuries. Stocks are not as complicated as they might appear. When a person buys a stock he is buying a small piece of a company which makes him a small part owner of the company and in return he is entitled to the growth and profit of the company.
For example, if a company Worths N10 million and issues out N1 million shares and you own N50, 000 shares. This makes you the owner of %5 of the company and in worth you own N500, 000 of the company.
The two main ways of getting rich with stock:
(I) Value Growth: if the value of the company starts increasing, then the value of your 5% also increases.
(ii) Dividends: Many companies distribute part of their profits to shareholders every quarter. You make money from stocks by collecting dividends.
This is another investment that people use as strategy to get rich. If a government or company needs to raise capital to fund a project, they will issue bonds for investors to buy. A bond is different from stock. While a stock is a small ownership of the company that entitles you to the gain and the loss of the company, bond is a debt that a company has to investors. This means that if you purchase a bond you're lending money to the company or government to be paid with interest under predetermined date.
Bonds are considered safer investment than stocks since they are not ownership of the company but loans to be paid. So if a company losses market value, stocks holders also loses but bond holders do not.
However since bond are safer for investment they also bring a lower return on investment. Investors use bonds to diversify the investment portfolio and limit their total risk.
Real estate has made many people wealthy for years for a good reason, as population increases more people need a place to live.
Different ways of getting rich through real estate:
(I) Rent out property: you rent out property to tenants and receive a check every month. There is no ongoing work needed making this type of earning passive income.
(ii) Using debt: many people take out debt inform of a mortgage to buy properties. This allow them to buy property even if they don't have the total amount to buy it. While having their tenants pay their loan, building up their equity in the property.
For example, if there is a property that worth N20 million and you put down N4 million as down payment, the bank will loan you the remaining N16 million which is to be paid back within maybe 20 years. The tenants in your property will pay the mortgage with their rent while you are still making some money.
(ii) Property Value: real estate property tends to grow in value over the years. A property can be sold at a much higher price than it was bought.
The various types of real estate are residential real estate fr individuals to live in, commercial properties where people conduct businesses and land/farm real estate.
One of the biggest ways people make money is through building their own businesses. Building a business takes knowledge and lots of work and if done right can make passive income also. Building a world class business is not a rocket science project. All that it takes is dedication and quest for knowledge on what you want to venture into.
5. Patents/ Trademark
If you have any invention that you think is potentially lucrative, you can file for a patent to protect your invention and companies will have to pay you to use your invention. This could be an idea, product or a software.
Trademarks protect other properties such as logos, names and even phrases. For example, the phrase, "HAKUNA MATATA" was trademark by Disney and cannot be used commercially without cutting Disney a check.
Digital products are becoming a massive asset for any business or individual. Digital products are highly profitable assets. It is something you can create once and profit from it every time in a passive way.
For instance, a film maker has many assets he can create to add income to his business. He can create music, video footage, or sounds that can be sold to other creators. He can create a training course to teach others the process of producing files.
7. Copy rights
This protect intellectual properties such as books, music, poetry among others. This is a great asset since this copyrights can also be licensed out for royalty.
For example, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Half of a Yellow Sun, receives royalty every time the book is bought. Then the book was made into movie providing her with another layer of royalty since her intellectual property was used for the movie.
This is an asset that is of recent. Many people didn't think it was real few years ago, then when influences began making money as much as celebrities, people took notice of them.
The good news is that there is no barrier of entry, anyone can take this opportunity and build great business. People are making millions from YouTube, Instagram and many others. You can make this asset a stream of income.
Conclusion
There's a science to getting rich. Wealthy people don't put all their eggs in a basket, they diversify. They invest maybe not entirely on every asset listed above but they have many streams of income.
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