My Story

 I am out of the rat race. I no longer have to go to the same office everyday and do the same work so I can pay off my mortgage and all the other bills every month.

 I don't have to report to a boss and am the master of my own destiny. No tedious Monday morning meetings with the same old people talking the same old rubbish !

 I achieved this by developing multiple income streams - one of which happened to be making money by trading shares. Before we get into the development of how I started to realise I had a knack for picking wining shares, let me explain how I also developed other methods of making money.

 I realised one day that working for someone else is a bit of a mugs game. Whoever you worked for, they'd only pay you enough to keep you there. Even on good salary, say £40,000, you were never going to be wealthy.

 After tax it wasn't that much, and even less after paying a mortgage and other living expenses. As Dolly Parton put it:

"Working 9-5 what a way to make a living, it's enough to drive you crazy if you let it... ."

My Plan to Escape the Mug's Game

 So I developed a plan. That was to try and make money from sources other than my salaried job. I worked on three sets of income:

1. Share trading.

2. Selling mobile phones and cheap home phone calls; and, er...

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Over time my actual full-time job wage became a tiny part of my overall income.

The Profitable Buffy

 Buffy might sound bizarre, but it ended up being my biggest money spinner. I started a Buffy information line, where eager teenagers could discover what was coming next in the series. I kept a proportion of the proceeds, while my employer, BskyB, also took a cut in return for advertising the service.

 The line, together with other TV info lines, built into a substantial income for little or no effort. I ended up with around £250,00 in profits from these lines by the time I left BskyB. Of course tax took a far chunk of that !

Telecom Plus

 The other income came from a stock market company called Telecom Plus. I'd become a part time distributor for them after reading some junk mail I'd received.

 The idea was you sold a box which when plugged into a phone line would save a lot of money. In return for the sale Telecom Plus handed out some cash, but more importantly residual income.

 That is a cut of every call made by the customer for as long as they were a customer. On top of that I could build a network of distributors under me, getting a cut of their sales too.

 By 2001, I'd built a huge pile of money and my alternative incomes were paying big sums - way more than my salary. I was very bored with my full time job by this stage. Staff were laid off and there was suddenly very little for me to do.

Hasta La Vista Rats

 There was nothing to lose, so I decided to quit the rat race ! I held on for 6 months because I was fairly certain I could grab a big redundancy cheque.

 I achieved this by irritating my boss as much as possible. He was a nice chap, so it was quite difficult, but it got me the cheque.

 Armed therefore, with a huge pile of cash, I bought a cafe business to provide a kind of safety net against trading losses. The Telecom Plus business pretty well ran itself, and I continue to receive excellent income every month.

 The idea behind buying the cafe was to have a cash generating business which would provide me with a stable income if share trading or other business went badly.

 I'm now in the great position of really trading with money I can afford to lose. And that I think is what makes me a better investor.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

 This book will explain why people are crazy to sit for the whole of their lives working for someone else when they can create their own wealth.

 It will explain what an asset and a liability is and where you may be going wrong if you cannot hang onto your money. It's the top featured book at the bookstore. Click here to order online.

 Once you're read that there are two things you need to do: First is to try and start to create some income that's independent of your current job. Secondly, look at what you are spending and where your money goes.

 A quick run-through how I got out of the boring numbness of going to the same grey old building every day. First, I built an alternative income source, and second, I used that income to pay off debts (and yes, that includes the mortgage!)

 My alternative income came from premium-rate phone lines, mobile phone tones, being a Telecom Plus distributor, and trading. The first two sources worked really well for a couple of years and brought me in lots of capital.

 The last two, and in particular, Telecom Plus now feed me with regular income so I no longer have to work. The money built up from the first two went straight into a catering business.

 During this period I looked at everything I was spending and realised quickly (thanks to Rich Dad) that I was spending out on liabilities and not concentrating on my assets.

 So, well done me, I did it. How can you? The answer is you can. BUT it involves a lot of work, much more work than you are probably doing now. But stick at it, and three years down the road, you could be free too.

 First you must cut your spending on non-essentials. I realised that because I began to find work depressing. I was spending out like crazy all the time to comfort myself. So it was designer clothes, huge meals, big holidays, etc.

 Once you leave work you realise you don't need any of these things. Leaving work saves you a fortune. Use the money you save to pay off your mortgage (a liability). So stop spending on silly things.

 Instead of £200 on some new clothes, pay £200 off your mortgage instead. Realise that the reason you are spending a lot of money is because you are bored with your job! Once you've realised that, it all becomes clearer.

 Also, realise that PAYE is a mug's game. Look at all the tax you pay. If you become self-employed immediately you simply do not pay as much tax. There are plenty of claims you can make to offset that tax bill and you don't pay so much National Insurance.

 Secondly, get that second income going. You should try and find at least two new streams of income. Look at your job and your contacts. Is there any way your job could provide you with a second income?

 For example I worked in the media so I could buy adverts with a discount to advertise my premium-rate line phone business and the Telecom Plus business. Can you do any private work for any of your clients?

 Think about yourself more than your employer - be selfish! It doesn't mean you don't do a good job for your employer but what money can you get for yourself?

 Do you have a hobby that could make you money? Take a look at some of the ads in the Sundays for business opportunities. Go to some seminars.

 Keep thinking - how I can earn some new income. Perhaps look at property or rental income. Whatever you come up with, give it a try, don't just sit there and dream about it. It's an old cliché but life really is short. Do you want to spend the rest of it doing what you are doing now?

 I do recommend the Telecom Plus business. If you work at it like I did for three years you can earn a great second income.

 I pick up around £1.5k to £2k a month for no work whatsoever now. And I've got share options worth thousands of pounds. The reason I love the business is the residual income. You sell fixed-line and mobile telephony plus gas and electricity.

 As well as getting cash for each sale you get commission every time one of your customers uses the phone or switches on a light.

 For as long as they are a customer. It's a bit like an actor picking up cheques years later for some work he did years ago.

 I'm still earning money from people I sold phones to three years ago. The money just keeps coming in. You can also take on other distributors and earn money on their customers' phone calls too.

 You need to work hard at it. But if you do the rewards are there. The other beauty of the business is you are selling brilliant products and saving your customers a lot of money.

 There's also no need to stock any product and no need for cold calling. I can set you up in the Telecom Plus business and I am prepared to help with advice (on e-mail anyway!) as long as you work at it properly.

 Don't contact me about it unless you are prepared to put some effort in. You have to get up off your arse and do something!

 Some of those who did get up off their butts after I did the last feature on residual income are doing very well already and some have got loads of customers already and are beginning to realise how amazing residual income is.

 For example, My monthly income is like having £400,000 in the bank as that's about the amount of interest I would enjoy.

 So start to think big and you can leave the job you are fed up with. You can leave the tyranny of PAYE and start to work for yourself. All it takes is energy and effort and it's all worth it for a fantastic new life with no bosses and no daily grind.

 To sum up: write down all your spending and cut out the non-essentials. Use the money you would have spent on rubbish on paying off any credit card debt and your mortgage.

 Find at least 2 streams of income. I can help you set up one of them if you want - the Telecom Plus business. The other one should come from or be based on something you know or something related to your current work.

 E-mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com if you are interested in Telecom Plus or I can help with any other ideas. But PLEASE only if you are serious. It is pointless even thinking about it if you are not really motivated to work hard.

 Also if any of you HAVE managed to quit the PAYE gloom, please also e-mail me with how you did it and let me know if you have any tips or advice to pass onto others, I will be pleased to pass them on.

 I am hoping to come back to this on the site over the next year or so and I'll try and use any tips I get from readers and build some useful and advice and tips on how to quit the ratrace. It may even make a good book one day!

 I hope this helps! Be DETERMINED to succeed and TAKE ACTION and you will. Sit and dream in front of the TV and you will never achieve anything.
 
 My e-mail address is robbiethetrader@aol.com for any correspondence, though please remember I cannot give specific advice on any shares.