The Poor Work for Money. The Wealthy Build Income Streams.
“Don’t work for money, make money work for you.” - Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Most people are taught the same script, go to school, get a good job, work hard, collect your pay check and repeat. It's a system built on earned income, trading your time, energy and potential for just enough to stay afloat.
But what if I told you that’s not how wealth is built? The truly wealthy don’t chase money, they build systems that let money chase them. They focus on acquiring assets, not more hours. Assets that don’t sleep, don’t call in sick and don’t stop generating income when you log off.
This chart isn’t just information, it’s transformation. It’s your invitation to think like an investor, not an employee. To shift from scarcity to strategy. To stop surviving and start building lasting wealth.
7 Types of Income
1. Earned Income
This is where most people start and where too many stay. Earned income is your pay check, money exchanged directly for your time and labour. It’s reliable, yes, but also limited. You work, you earn. You stop, it stops. It’s the hamster wheel of the working class. For example, a nurse making £45,000 a year is earning income, but if she takes time off, so does her money. Earned income should fund your journey, not define your destination.
2. Profit Income
Profit comes from buying or creating something at one price and selling it for more.
Whether it's e-commerce, a food truck or handmade candles, it’s about margin, not motion. Hustling is fine, but scaling is the goal. For example, if you create a planner for £5 and sell it for £25 on your own platform, that £20 margin is profit. The difference? You’re not just trading time, you’re leveraging value.
3. Interest Income
Interest income flips the script, instead of working for money, your money works for you.
When you lend money, whether through bonds, savings accounts or peer-to-peer platforms, you earn interest as passive cash flow. For instance, investing £10,000 in a fixed-income bond yielding 5% annually earns you £500 without lifting a finger. That’s silent income. Consistent. Predictable. Scalable.
4. Capital Gains
Buy low. Sell high. Capital gains come from purchasing assets, like real estate, stocks or crypto and selling them at a higher price. Timing and strategy matter. For example, buying a fixer-upper house for £150,000, renovating it with £25,000 and selling it for £250,000 yields a gain of £75,000. This isn’t luck, it’s calculated wealth creation.
5. Dividend Income
Own the company. Or at least a piece of it. Dividend income is paid to shareholders when a company shares its profits. Instead of relying solely on stock prices going up, you get a slice of the earnings pie regularly. Imagine owning 100 shares of a company like Coca-Cola, which pays a dividend of £1.84 annually per share, you’d earn £184 just for holding it. That’s ownership, not employment.
6. Rental Income
Rental income is the classic path to generational wealth. Buy a property, rent it out and let it generate income monthly, often while appreciating in value. Even better? Leverage. You use other people’s money (a mortgage) to create your cash flow. For example, renting out a flat for £1,500 a month while paying £1,000 in expenses nets £500 monthly. Multiply that by 10 properties and now you’re talking true passive income.
7. Royalty Income
Royalty income is your reward for creating something once and getting paid over and over again. This includes books, music, software, online courses or even licensing your ideas.
Beyoncé still earns royalties from songs she wrote 20 years ago. Likewise, if you write a children’s book and license it to a publisher, you might earn a percentage on every copy sold, indefinitely. That’s legacy income.
The “Poor Work for Money. The Wealthy Build Income Streams” Diet
A 7-Day Behaviour Reset to Stop Trading Time & Start Building Freedom
GOAL
To break the habit of only earning earned income and begin rewiring your brain, behaviour and beliefs toward building multiple income streams.
Step 1, RECOGNIZE – Day 1–2
Identify Your Money Traps
Most people aren't poor because they don’t have ideas. They’re poor because they live in survival mode and spend like consumers, not creators.
Task
Write down all your current income sources. Label each one with the 7 types of income (Earned, Profit, Interest, Capital Gains, Dividends, Rental, Royalties).
Then list your top 5 expenses from the past month and ask,
o Did this make me richer or poorer?
o Did it bring me closer to freedom or just numb me temporarily?
Outcome
You’ll spot the earned-income treadmill and begin seeing where emotional spending blocks your investment potential.
Step 2, RESTRAIN – Day 3–5
Say No to One Poor Habit Daily
Wealth isn’t just about what you earn. It’s about what you keep and where you redirect it.
Task
Pick one habit each day to say no to, emotional shopping, fast food, subscriptions you don’t use or endless scrolling that wastes time.
Reassign that money or time to an income stream habit,
Buy a share.
Open a high-interest savings pot.
Research a side hustle.
Outline your first digital product.
Outcome
You begin rewiring your dopamine response, from consuming to creating.
Step 3, REWIRE – Day 6–7
Build Your New Normal
The rich don’t get rich by accident. They automate ownership, assets and opportunities.
Task
Use 30–60 mins to start building your first or next income stream,
Draft a business idea
Sign up to a dividend-paying investment platform (e.g. Freetrade or eToro)
Set up a digital product on Gumroad
Join a property webinar
Set a weekly recurring Wealth Date with yourself to review, refine and re-invest.
Outcome
You’re no longer just surviving. You’re building your financial blueprint, with discipline, not delusion.
Break the Habits That Keep You Broke and Build the Wealth That Sets You Free
This isn’t just a money shift. It’s a mindset shift. The “Income Streams Diet” isn’t about restriction, it’s about liberation. It teaches you to restrain impulse, discipline your energy and rewire the behaviours that keep you broke, stuck or spinning in circles.
Wealth doesn’t come from more hustle, it comes from building quiet systems that speak louder than your circumstances. When you stop feeding every fleeting craving and start nourishing your long-term vision, you’ll discover that financial peace isn’t about luck, it’s about leverage.
So stay consistent, stay conscious and remember, money will follow the person who respects it enough to break the patterns that once betrayed them. Keep going, you’re not just changing your bank balance, you’re changing your legacy.
If this challenge stirred something in you, if it cracked open a truth you've been avoiding, don’t scroll past it. Like this post to affirm your commitment to doing things differently from today forward.
Share in the comments what income stream you're ready to start or scale this month, because clarity loves community and wealth rarely grows in isolation and if you know someone still grinding, stuck in the cycle of working hard but never breaking through, send this their way. Let them know that poverty may shout, but wealth whispers through consistency, discipline and daily action.
