It never occurred to me that I’d be looking for ways to supplement my retirement income, because being a bit of a workaholic I’d never imagined I’d WANT to retire.
But, seeing my friends and family enjoying retirement, made me change my mind.
So I started looking into what my retirement income would be, and was shocked to discover how little I would receive. It didn’t help that I’d had my pension wiped out from some financial crisis or other – but heyho, that’s life – and when I ‘started saving for retirement again’ it was too late to make much difference.
Another realization … when I looked at my friends, they were actually spending more when they were retired than when they were working… doing things like:
- Taking holidays
- Enjoying days out
- Buying more things for their family.
Hmmm – my current income from working is fine, but no way was my projected ‘retirement income‘ going to support even the basic essentials I currently enjoy, let alone extra holidays and travel.
I needed to work out ….
Ways to Supplement Retirement Income
Here’s what I came up with:
- Claim all government allowances – I’m lucky enough to be in good health so beyond the basic state pension I’m not entitled to anything. The state pension is better than nothing, but one big car bill could wipe out a month’s income.
- Sell things on eBay or Amazon or even open an online shop – well, I tried eBay and Amazon, but it was time-consuming and competitive. Add that to having to handle customers, and it turned out to be a complete hassle.
- Rent out a room – and have a total stranger in my house when I’m away on holiday? Or making a noise when I want a quiet read? No thanks!
- Take a part-time job – well even if I could persuade an employer that my life-experience is worth more than a youngster’s, working for minimum wage rather conflicts with enjoying my retirement.
- Start my own business online – sounding MUCH better, but there are pitfalls….. Read on….
Start an Online Retirement Business
A quick search on the Internet brought up thousands of tempting offers to “make money online – free”, with no effort and no investment.
Yeah right – like there’s a magic money-tree just waiting to shower money on me. I stopped believing in the tooth fairy years ago.
Yet somehow, people suspend common sense for an online business when they see all the flashy promises.
OK… I’ll admit, I did too.
To cut to the chase, I lost thousands chasing an impossible dream.
When I finally got my head back into gear and realised “The only place Success comes before Work” is in the dictionary, here are some of the options I tried:
- Create my own digital information product – it was easy to create the eBook, but the skills needed to market it professionally were beyond me (even after 40 years in the Information Technology industry).
- Affiliate marketing – that was the next idea when I discovered that my lovingly written information product had been ‘done before’. It was out-selling mine because it was packaged immaculately. The good news from this discovery was that I could become an ‘affiliate’ and earn commission selling the the product someone else had produced. The bad news was that thousands of others were doing the same, and again competition was tough.
- Teach others what I had learned from my experience. I had some success with this, and hoped my ‘students’ would make a profit. But most were overcome by the thought of actually ‘doing something’. The ‘make money free’ concept is just too ingrained. It’s depressing trying to motivate the unmotivated.
- Blogging – now this I enjoyed. But I have to confess I never mastered the art of generating a consistent income from my blog. So I just blogged happily away sharing tips with a load of other struggling bloggers who were also making no money blogging.
- Network Marketing (NWM or MLM) – Some might groan, but please don’t ‘switch off’ here, because a few years ago, Network Marketing earned me the best monthly income I’d ever earned (online or offline). But experience has taught me a lot about the right and wrong way to do it. Here’s what to beware of.
Pitfalls of Network Marketing
The basics of MLM are that you start a business for a low cost, selling a product, and help others do the same. In return for you helping them, you will earn a small commission on the sales they make…. and they will do the same, until you develop a large team, earning a small amount from everyone in that team.
The biggest challenge for everyone is how to build that team. Especially when you’ve just started and have no success story to encourage anyone that this is a good business to join.
The traditional team-building method, taught when I first started, was that you make a list of your family and friends who will be eager to support you in your new business.
No they’re not!
They will do everything they can to tell you you’ve been conned, and to talk you out of it. Some may buy a product or two, or even sign up as distributors, but they quickly fall by the wayside because they are just not interested in ‘duplicating’ what you are obviously finding so hard.
So your helpful sponsor (who is probably as desperate as you are) suggests you contact random strangers – shopping malls was once the advice!
They’re not interested either.
So you venture online, and discover you’re back to the problem of trying to compete with expert online marketers who blow you out of the water with their skills (and budget).
Does this sound as if I’m talking from bitter experience? If so, yes, I am. All this and worse has happened to me.
So, being aware of these challenges, why would I continue, trying ‘over and over again’ to make an MLM business work?
Because I HAVE seen how it can work when done properly.
At one time I was earning 4-figures a month from an MLM company, until they over-reached themselves with a failed project and closed their doors. I was devastated – but the memory of the original sweet success, working just a few hours a week, has lingered on for years. It still does.
Having experienced success myself, AND seeing other people making big incomes, I just KNOW it can work, when done correctly.
After a long search, here’s what I have found…..
A Better Method of Network Marketing
- Instead of approaching people who have no interest in your products, or in making money – let interested parties come to you – these may be people interested in what you sell – OR – just interested in ways to supplement their income
- Instead of marketing some dubious ‘get rich quick’ scheme, offer a product that actually helps people looking for a solution to a problem
- Instead of competing with other marketers, work WITH them in a team
- Instead of paying for expensive courses to learn how to make MLM work, join a company that gives you free training
Impossible Dream?
I’ll be honest – I would have said it was impossible, until a friend who was trying to teach me ‘Facebook Marketing’ (I wanted to sell an affiliate product) showed me a Network Marketing team all working TOGETHER.
Their approach is so different from anything I’ve ever seen before that I don’t blame you if you’re sceptical. I was. But it won’t cost you a penny to have a look at how we are building this business. At the worst, you’ll have had some top class free training on setting up an online business.
This is an ideal way to supplement your retirement income because, once you’ve gone through the initial training you can put in a regular amount of time working from home, and watch how the team effort helps.
To learn more click the link below, then register free and watch the training, and get your questions answered in the group.
