Let's make some money!

In the modern economy, people need to have some type of income to cover their basic needs (house, food, clothes, etc.). Also, they need an income to make plans for the future (i.e. study in the college) or provide the basics to their families.

We can define income as money (or some equivalent value) that a person or a business receives, usually in exchange for providing goods or services. Therefore, income is a vital part of a person's life and its wellbeing.

There are different sources and types of incomes. First, we need to make a distinction between active and passive income. The former is the income you receive through your actions (i.e. working for a company or developing a product) while the latter is the continuing income you receive from some resources. For example, you are the owner of a flat, and you rent it. Therefore, the rent you receive (weekly, monthly, and annually) is a passive income for you. Below are presented different sources of incomes based on the 2 types we mentioned above.

Active

Passive

Salary -Wage

Rents from assets

Investments

Copyrights (i.e. from publishing a book)

Sales - Profits from selling a product that you create/made (i.e. you are a painter, and you sell your paintings)

Profits from selling a digital product ( i.e. you create a YouTube channel, and you earn money by the views )


In every type of income, a person will need to pay the appropriate tax. Income tax is applied to both active (wages, salaries) and passive income (interest and rents) by law. Most countries employ a progressive income tax system, that is, higher-income earners pay a higher tax rate compared to their lower-earning counterparts. The progressive tax intends to distribute wealth more evenly across a population.

Finally, the opportunity cost is another essential related issue with income. Opportunity cost refers to the value a person could have received from an option - action but passed up in pursuit of another option. For example, you choose to spend one year studying abroad. That year you could find a job and earn a specific amount of money. However, you decided to study abroad and therefore your opportunity cost for choosing the studies is the amount of money you could earn from finding a job instead. You can add more and more options on how you could spend that one year, and you could compare different opportunity costs. The value you give to each option is up to you. You might provide more value on studying abroad for one year instead of work that year. The concept of opportunity cost is useful in comparing different options and highlighting their benefits.

  1. Categorise the sources of your current income
To start having a higher income, the first thing you should do is to understand your current income sources. Based on the above explanation and the table, try to categorise your income (and your family's income) sources. Important Note: All your source of Income should be legal and ethical.

Do you have active and/or passive incomes?
Can you understand the difference between active and passive income?

2. Identify additional sources of income
Can you identify opportunities for extra income (passive or active)?

3. Evaluate different options in terms of opportunity cost (benefits and costs).
Finally, you will need to start evaluating how you spend your time and energy. How can you spend more productively and efficiently your time and effort? Also, you should assess the management of your resources.

  1. Categorise the sources of your current income

    Based on the above explanation and the table presented in the introduction, you must be able to categorise your income (and your family's income) sources. You must be able to answer the following questions and fill the table below with your current income:

    - Do you have an active and/or passive income?
    - Can you understand the difference between active and passive income?


    Active

    Passive

     

     

     

     

     

     


    For more help, please watch these videos
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi89ZrEog6M
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGG8f-SPmk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8bW3bGPH0c

  2. Identify additional sources of income

    To identify additional sources of income, you will need to make a list with your belongings-ownership-property and how you can use them to have an income. Also, write down your skills and expertise and try to think of three different ways on how to "create value" (profit, income) from them. More specifically, think about the following:

    • Things that you can sell online (old furniture, embroidery, etc.)
    • Services you can offer based on your skills and expertise (e.g. online language course)
    • Assets/properties that you have and you can rent to have a passive income.

    For more help, see the link below

https://www.businessinsider.com/20-hidden-sources-of-income-lying-around-your-house-2016-3#-4

3. Evaluate different options in terms of opportunity cost (benefits and costs).
You should start thinking about how you spend your time, your energy, how you managed your assets and in what tasks you use your skills. Think about the questions below before you move in the scenario-exercise:

  • Is there any alternative option that you can focus on, and you can obtain more value from it?
  • How can you spend more productively and efficiently your time, skills and resources?
Watch the following videos before you continue:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwOYLV-L7pc
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-hYzRncxTc&t=33s

    You are given the following scenario:

    You and your family live in 4 bedrooms house/flat, but you only use the three bedrooms. You speak fluently two languages (English and Spanish). Your mother is very talented in embroidery and spends a lot of her time doing it. The family decides to make some extra income, so it decides to rent an empty bedroom. Also, you choose to take advantage of your fluency in English and Spanish so you start offering your knowledge online and you receive an extra leaving. Furthermore, you decide with your mother to sell some of the embroideries she did in the last year.

    Can you identify the opportunity cost of these decisions?

    In order to do it, please fill the table below with the following:

    - Extra Income (is already in the table)
    - Reduce your privacy
    - Limited free time
    - "
    Lose" some of your artistic creations

    Choice

    Benefit

    Opportunity Cost

    Rent the bedroom

     

     

    Extra Income

     

    Start teaching foreign languages

     

    Sell handicrafts and embroideries

     


    Can you identify the opportunity cost and the benefit if your family decides NOT to do the above?

    (Select again from the options as above).

    Choice

    Opportunity Cost

    Benefit

    NOT to rent the bedroom

     

     

     

     

    NOT to start teaching foreign languages

     

    NOT to sell handcrafts and embroideries

     


After complete this WebQuest, I can:

List ways of earning money
Relate opportunity costs and income effects
Outline different kind of taxes
Compile the major income sources in your family
Discuss about ethic and money
Compile the functions of taxes in society
Suggest alternatives of income sources
Promote ethical behaviour regarding earning money
Evaluate ways to avoid tax evasion

*If you answered NO to more than half of the statements, you should go through WebQuest again and acquire more knowledge and skills if you answered YES to almost all questions; congratulations on your great success!

It is vital in life to have a stable source of income and is even better if you have more than one source of income! This web-quest, at first explains the basic definitions "income", "passive income", "active income", etc., and provides a variety of different ways to increase a person's overall income. Moreover, it analyses the concept of opportunity cost and explains the hidden cost one decision might have over another choice. In overall, by completing this web-quest, someone should be able to understand the different types of incomes and follow a direction towards increasing its overall income through proper evaluation of its decisions – options.