In the 1950s, most families could survive on one income. These days, most families need two. In the future, you’ll need multiple streams to be truly prosperous.

You might think that having a good job means security. But if something happens to that job, you could quickly descend into poverty. Widening your income sources means that if one stream dries up you not only have others, but have time to find more.

Robert G Allen is well-known for his “creative financing” real estate seminars, so you would expect his book Multiple Streams of Income to focus only on high growth ways to wealth.

Actually, the first part covers conservative investment strategies such as having a “survival account” with three months emergency cash, and always putting 10% of your income into investments such as stock market index funds.

Allen admits to having “lost everything” twice over, so it’s unsurprising that he was drawn back to these financial fundamentals. But if you’re looking to make money at a faster rate, this is where he gets interesting.

There are three “money mountains,” Investing, Real Estate and Marketing. Within each of these you should be able to find at least 10 streams of income that keep flowing in across a lifetime.

But for the concept of multiple streams of income to work for you, you must first “stop the leaks.” One leak is taxes. Wealthy people are not afraid to spend money on getting the best tax advice available.

The other major “leak” is spending. Prosperous people spend differently. First, they make sure most of their purchases are planned. The longer the time frame before a purchase, the less you will pay (“I buy my straw hats in the fall” as oil magnate JP Getty put it).

Some people are great at finding bargains, but then do nothing constructive with the money saved. Prosperous people are both good at finding bargains, but they love even more investing what they save.

The main difference between the rich and the poor is this: poor people see money simply as cash in their hands, to be used as soon as they get it. Rich people understand money primarily as seeds to be planted that will grow into “money trees.”