My income is currently ~35% Passive and 65% Active and Indirect.
Of course, that’ll change when I get another job, but hopefully I can grow the passive side so I don’t have to worry about work.

@ Shane – Alright, Shane, bring it on. :) I’ve got the marketing thing, which is the main business. I do freelance writing. I’m an editor for a major corporate blog. Those are all active and direct.

The blog right now brings no money, since it’s only 3 weeks old. Hopefully I’ll get it to the point where it’s bringing in a bit, but that’s very low priority. There’s only room for one John Chow. I’m with you on the ugly blog thing. Not for me.

We have investments, fairly evenly split on the risk spectrum. The stuff in emerging markets and precious metals did well in the last year, but that’s probably going to start heading south.

Beyond that, not much. With my husband in school, he’s not a great source of passive income at this point. I mean, there was that series of bestselling books I wrote, but I don’t like to talk about those. :)

And re: speaking – brilliant. I can’t think of anything legal and accessible that has as much potential as that. Since both you and I are clearly as successful and intelligent as Al Gore, we should definitely start that soon.

Let’s see.

I got the business (active as all hell, though I did have this realization last week when surfing. My team is working right now, and I’m not. Thats a few hundred dollars I earned while surfing. Micro business wins one point. Of course it’s 1:42am and I just finishes working, minues 1/2 a point.)

I got the realestate. Rentals (one purchased and in good condition) are not quite active, but not quite passive yet. Periodically active. Like for the ambitiously lazy.

I put my wife to work, which for me, is passive income. Though she seems to think its completely the other way.

Got stocks and stuff. They do ok.

Some day I’ll monetize writing, but for some reason it leaves this ridiculous icky taste in my mouth to see ads all over a blog (I’m an idiot, I know). Perhaps through some other vehicle. Like blackmail letters. Still active though.

Definitly want to get into the speaking circuit. Found out you need to pay Al Gore 1/2 million to get him for an hour (one of my clients is trying to) and that was before the nobel prize. If thats not passive, what is?

Maybe I’ll put my dog out on the corner and have her turn tricks.

heh .. I’ve been thinking about this and am almost done writing a short rebuttle of sorts. Nah, wrong word. I can’t argue with you.

I’m trying to get out of the active and indirect stream that blogging offers into this passive stream – but then again, I’m guessing that most people are after that too!

Real estate is a great example. In its most popular form, property flipping, there’s a substantial amount of both risk and work involved, but the returns can be amazing if you’ve got the stomach for it.

I would like to add one more income stream, which is risk taking. In the end, if we really want to make big, I mean, real big, we have to take a risk.

These days, there are many ways to bootstrap an idea in the cost effective manner to start up a scalable business. I can not comment on real estate, as I have absolutely no idea, but many people make it with real estate as well.

It will make the income stream balancing act more complex, and we do need to have a decent saving first, as not all risk taking will pay off. The return will be significant on the other hand.

That, and like you say, it’s realistic. Sadly most of us just aren’t Stephen King yet. :)