I haven’t been able to find any information about about how much passive income his iPhone App is currently generating on an average day, but after sitting in obscurity for a few months, Ethan released a free version of his game - which generated enough buzz to shoot his iPhone App to #1 Paid App in the iPhone App Store. On the day that his iPhone App hit #1 - he sold nearly 17,000 units, generating $37,000 - Ethan quit his office job.

Obviously, it’s a good day when your iPhone App is sitting at the #1 spot, but even if his sales dwindle to 100 units per day, he’ll still generate $209 of passive income - that’s more money than many people make doing physical labor for 8 hours.

iPhone Apps and Passive Income
The iPhone App is a great example of a Passive Income Stream. You put your work in at the beginning, then you start seling your iPhone App and watch the money start to trickle in. To improve sales, you can put in some more time doing some marketing and generating some buzz if you want. If you’re really lucky, you might turn out like Ethan Nicolas and have a best seller - but even if your game generated $100 of passive income for you every month (you would need to sell 71 units/month for a $1.99 App), wouldn’t that be great?

For more information about Passive Income, check out my previous post “What Is Passive Income?“

Landmark Education Sex and Intimacy Seminar
I took this seminar with my girlfriend, which put us in a place to confront many of the nagging issues in our relationship. As we explored in the Sex and Intimacy Seminar, we found that much of the resentment and indifference that arises in relationships comes from things that go unsaid. As an example, I might interpret something that my girlfriend does and I might form a judgment around my interpretation. If I keep my interpretation to myself, it becomes ‘the truth’ to me and creates a space between us. Once you can open up and share these issues with each other, you instantly create room for greater intimacy. We’ve been dealing with a lot of long-term questions and while things are not perfect, at least we are dealing with our problems.

In the end, this seminar offered the opportunity to open up the communication in my relationship. Instead of hiding our feelings, we can now share (more) freely about what we are feeling at any given moment. It isn’t productive to keep your thoughts bottled inside because while you might be temporarily saving someone’s feelings, it will create a space between you that can be hard to overcome.

If you are interested in The Landmark Forum or other programs, I have written several posts about Landmark Education.

I had read the idea “Pay Yourself First” in several other places, but I didn’t really get the meaning until I read this book.

I used to think that “Pay Yourself First” meant that you should buy yourself something nice, so that you enjoy the fruits of your labor. The reality is that “Pay Yourself First” means that you should save a portion of your paycheck, so that it might eventually be invested and help you to produce more wealth.

Throughout ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’, it is said that “When I ceased to pay out more than nine-tenths of my earnings, I managed to get along just as well. I was not shorter than before. Also, ere long, did coins come to me more easily than before.” - That is to say, if you save 10% of your paycheck, you will only have 90% to spend but you will get along just as well as you did before. Soon enough, your cache of money will begin to build and you will soon have enough to invest.

As an example, you might take your 10% and invest it in silver. Silver will let your money begin to grow and it will also make it a bit more difficult to spend your savings on a whim, since you would need to go to the coin dealer and sell the silver before you could get your hands on the actual dollars.

Silver is Currently Undervalued
Traditionally, silver has held a 1/16 value to gold. Gold is currently trading for about $940/oz and Silver is only about $18/oz, which means silver is currently trading at about 1/52 the value of gold. Even if gold stays put, silver will eventually come up to at least $58/oz. Investing in silver at $20/oz, should bring you at least a 3x profit in the future - imagine if you had invested when silver was $4/oz.

Silver is in Demand
Silver is used in all sorts of electronics and jewelry, which means it is becoming more scarce. This will add to the eventual rise in the value of silver, because there will be more demand (more electronics being made) and less supply available.

Investing in Silver is Cheap
When I say “Silver is Cheap”, what I mean is that it is easy for the average person to walk into their local coin shop and purchase silver. Your main options are to buy silver coins, or silver bars. From my research, I think silver bars are a better investment. I just called my local coin shop and they have one 10oz silver bar in stock, which would currently cost me $193.10 (USD). That includes a $1.50 per ounce service fee.

Silver is the Real Money
Silver is the money of the world. Currently, the US Dollar is worth “something” only because you think it is worth “something”. This can be a difficult idea to wrap your head around. The US Dollar used to be backed by gold and silver. Since the 1970s, the dollar has not backed by gold or silver, and we see the inflation that has taken place. The government prints more and more money, and the “something” that the dollar is worth continues to go down. In contrast, there is a finite amount of silver in the world and the value of silver will only continue to rise.

It is important not to look at silver just as “how many dollars is it worth” but also “how much gold is it worth?”, “how much oil is it worth?”, “how many ounces of silver would it cost to by a 3 bedroom home?” - These tangible items, not the dollar amount, hold the real value. Sure, your silver might be worth $500,000 - but the real question is what else can you get for that $500,000 ? That changes over time. For more information on Investing in Silver check out SilverSeek.com or Kitco.com.

The ideas in this article are only my opinions. Please consult your financial adviser before making any large investments - though your financial adviser might not really know what’s best.

E: Employee
S: Self-Employed
B: Business Owner
I: Investor

Basically, I’ve come to realize that while I work for myself, make my own hours, find my own clients, and I don’t have a boss… I fall under the “Self-Employed” category, which is essentially a glorified Employee. I have nothing that is an actual “Business” which I could sell, or which makes me money without me working for it. I still have to work for every hour that I get paid.

This was a little kick in the pants. I’ve got several websites that might someday function as a Business System for me, but I thought the quicker solution might be to finally go ahead an hire some help. I put up a post on Craigslist, weeded out the weirdos, and met with two fresh-faced college kids. Each one has 10-15 hours a week to give to my projects.

I’ve got a few new things coming down the pipeline, and we’ll be starting work on the first project Monday. This client wasn’t able to afford my normal hourly rate, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to pass along some work to my ‘employees’. I will pay them an hourly rate, and keep the difference.

I realize that this is far from operating as a real Business System, but it is a first step.