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Comment by erejacob | Hacker News Reader

I pretty much spend my time trying to "educate" unaware, materialistic consumers. I've affected more people than I can count (those who've told me) and presumable more beyond those (who didn't tell me).

So I have a blog, a book, a forum, and now a wiki. There's not really a rat race option for what I do, but if there was, maybe I'd take it.

Incidentally, I don't really have a problem with people using the freedom they've gained from stepping off the treadmill to do nothing. If someone wants to use their freedom to become a "beach bum" I have no problem with that.

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As someone who has started down the path of growing a passive income stream, your article really resonated with me. I found myself nodding along to the points you were making, since I have had similar thoughts many times before. But the parent comment made a good point: that money can be a powerful mechanism for shaping the world you want to see. I don't know the answer, but I will have time to think about it as I build out an income stream to support my living expenses.

Yes, money can be an agent of change. Time also. Some may do best working in a traditional structure. Others do better on their own. I helped found a nonprofit organization during my first year of "retirement". However, I found that I could be far more effective on my blog talking directly to people instead of spending time writing grant proposals, so I quit the nonprofit.

Out of curiosity, what does/will your passive income stream consist of? I have recently recognized how important passive income is to enabling my goal of fewer hours of labor, but I am frankly new to the idea and just getting started.

Dividend growth stocks, like PG, MCD, PEP, KO, LMT, KMB, WM, etc. They don't swing too wildly with the market (they even stayed steady during the recent down/upswings), and they generally increase their dividends at a faster rate than inflation. It's a sort of "get rich slowly" scheme, but it's fun to see a growing share of my expenses being handled by passive income.

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