No matter what stage of life you’re at or what industry you work in, you’ve likely heard the term “passive income” before. Many people are already generating passive income, but might not refer to it in that way. Passive income can be a variety of ways you make additional money, but the general idea is that it’s something you worked to put in place or create so that you’ll regularly get money back from it with little to no effort on your part. Passive income could be anything from a book you’ve written that you receive royalties from, a program or webinar you created, or something else that people are regularly purchasing. Real estate is also a common source of passive income, as are stock investments. If you’re still deciding about whether you should pursue a type of passive income, here are a few reasons it’s something you should focus on in the near future.

Your time is valuable

First of all, one of the biggest reasons you should push for generating passive income is because your time is valuable. When you’re spending time working in order to make more money, you’re spending a significant amount of time doing something you’re probably not really passionate about in order to make ends meet. Consistent, passive income means you have to spend less time working to make money and actually invest your time in more valuable ways.

Focus on other goals

Once you have more of your valuable time back, you can begin focusing on other goals. Whether passive income accounts for your entire income or just part of it, you’re giving yourself more time to focus on pursuits you actually enjoy. Teach yourself a new language, start a project you’ve been putting off, or travel somewhere exciting. Even just relaxing and spending time with family is a good idea!

Additional income

If you’re still working full-time, passive income gives you the chance to generate additional income. Having some additional income makes it easier to pay your bills or save for a larger purchase you want to make. You’ll appreciate this extra income, especially when you’re putting in minimal work to generate it. You avoid having to get a second job to generate more income and can instead rely on your passive income.

Financial security

If you put enough work into creating your source of passive income, it’s likely that you could meet or exceed what you make at your full-time job. Working toward the goal of generating passive income that you can live off of gives you financial security and peace of mind in case you’d ever lose your regular job.

Freedom to travel

Finally, passive income provides you with the freedom to travel whenever and wherever you want. Maybe you don’t love traveling, but you also have the freedom to live somewhere different and not be tied down to whatever your full-time job is. You can find a place you’ve always wanted to visit or live and head there. If you’re generating enough in passive income, you don’t have to stress about finding a new job that pays enough for you’re living expenses; you’ll cover those in passive income.