Just as you should diversify your investment portfolio in order to spread your risk, having one source of income is a liability. While your personal skills, networks and qualifications are the real asset, at any moment  your main source of income could disappear.

As an employee, like most people are, you are at-will. That means at any time, for just about any reason, your company can let you go. But even if you believe your job is secure, imagine if things changed. What if something happens to you medically and it would be impossible to do your job? What if new management came in and corporate politics pushed you out?

Create your own income insurance by supplementing and diversifying the money you bring in so you and your family is not so reliant on your job.

One of the greatest myths is that income is directly related to the time you spend working. That may apply in the workplace, but there are countless ways to make money. Of course anything will require some of your time — at least when you are in the building stage, but there are ways to build systems so other people make money for you.

Most people believe you have to work in order to make money, so pay those people to work in order to help you produce and income. There are millions of people searching online every day for ways to make extra money. With the right idea and a free ad on a job board or Craigslist, you can virtually have someone immediately making money for you. Here are a couple ideas just off the top of my head…

• Find businesses that need some fact checking done and outsource the work
• Search for businesses looking to have a website built and hire a college student to do the work
• Hire someone to write a piece of software and sell it online
• Advertise your new marketing business and hire freelancers to design ads and sales brochures for your clients
• Provide a “voice talent” service for advertising, audio books, and voice mail

There are a million different ways to make extra money to diversify your income. Find and fulfill needs, and figure out  a way to automate the process so you can create additional income streams. That way you’ll never have to let money be a concern.