Hey,
In a few weeks a song will start playing in every grocery store, gas station and waiting room you walk into. For me it's "Feliz Navidad." I've used it as an example in my seminars for years. It comes on, I groan, I turn it off. (Sorry, José.)
Me turning it off doesn't stop it. It plays somewhere else, all season long. And every time it plays, whoever owns the rights to that song collects a royalty.
"Feliz Navidad" came out in 1970. Fifty years later, in December 2020, it reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for the first time.1 Same song, still paying.
Now think about how your December works. You pick up the extra shift, the overtime, the holiday hours somebody else didn't want. The money comes in, the gifts and the gas and the plane tickets go out, and in January you start over from zero. Your money shows up when you do, and only then.
If January always feels like starting over, that's worth one honest conversation. On a complimentary one-on-one diagnostic call we look at where your money comes from today and whether a rental income stream fits your life. You leave with the diagnosis either way.
I've spent 18+ years in real estate, focused on short-term rentals since 2016, and built a list of more than 10,000 short-term rental operators through CashFlowDiary. The pattern below shows up in every cycle.
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Piles and streams
The first lesson in my Cashflow Foundation course is one line. Build streams of income, not piles of cash.
A pile is a stack of money: a paycheck, a bonus, a tax refund, a savings account. Piles are good to have. But once you start spending a pile it only gets smaller, and the only way to grow it again is to go back to work.
A stream refills on its own schedule. A royalty is a stream. So is rent.
Most of us were taught one way to make money. Show up, get paid once, repeat, and save whatever is left. In August 2026, Americans saved 4.1% of their after-tax income.2 That's about four dollars out of every hundred. A pile grows slowly at four dollars a hundred.
"A big stack of money, that's wonderful, but unless you have a system that continues to provide you cash on a monthly basis, you have a problem."
- J. Massey, Cashflow Foundation course
The faucet in your kitchen
I use the kitchen sink to explain this in the course.
You don't keep a barrel of water in the yard and haul a bucket inside every time you want a drink. You turn the faucet and water comes, because a pipe connects your house to a supply.
A paycheck is the bucket. You carry it home, you pour it out, you go get another one.
A stream of income is the pipe. Somebody has to lay it, and it needs upkeep. As I tell students, passive does not necessarily mean uninvolved. But once the pipe is in, the water keeps coming on the days you don't clock in.
💡 A raise gives you a bigger bucket. You still carry it home every payday.
Where rentals fit
I can't write a song like that one. Most of us can't. You don't need a hit record to own a stream.
Rental income is the stream I know. A furnished rental earns when someone sleeps in it, and people need a place to sleep most during the same weeks most of us are stuck at work. AAA projected 81.8 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from home over Thanksgiving 2025, and 122.4 million over the year-end holidays.3 Every one of them slept somewhere.
A rental takes setup, either money or a landlord's yes, and real work up front. It may not fit your life, and it doesn't pay from day one. It's one way to lay a pipe, and it's the one I've spent the last ten years on.
A 15-minute exercise before the holidays
List every dollar that came in last month. Paycheck, side gig, refund, a gift from your mom. All of it.
Mark each one P or S. P if it stops when you stop showing up. S if it would still arrive if you were sick for a month.
Count the S's. Zero is a normal answer. It tells you where to start.
Name one pile you could turn into a pipe. You don't have to act on it this week. Write it down.
⚡ Run the royalty test on anything you're considering. If you stopped showing up for a month, would it still pay? If the answer is no, it's a job, even if it's a good one.
Back to that song
This year when "Feliz Navidad" comes on, I'll still reach for the dial. But I'll remember somebody is getting paid for it, every time, more than fifty years later. And I'll ask myself the question I'm asking you: what do you own that pays you while you're at the holiday table?
If the honest answer is "nothing yet," that's the conversation I'd like to have with you. Book the complimentary diagnostic call with the link below, and we'll look at your numbers together.
- J.
P.S. If someone you love works every holiday so everyone else can be off, forward this to them. If someone forwarded it to you, subscribe here so the next one comes straight to you. And when you're ready to talk it through, book your complimentary diagnostic call.
This is education, not financial, legal or tax advice. Rental income varies, takes work and capital or a landlord's approval, and is never guaranteed.
Ready for the next step?
Billboard, "Jose Feliciano's 'Feliz Navidad' Hits Hot 100's Top 10," December 14, 2020 (chart dated December 19, 2020). https://www.billboard.com/pro/jose-feliciano-feliz-navidad-hot-100-top-10/
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, "Personal Income and Outlays, August 2026," released September 30, 2026. https://www.bea.gov/news/2026/personal-income-and-outlays-august-2026
AAA Newsroom, Thanksgiving travel forecast (November 17, 2025) https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/11/aaa-thanksgiving-travel-forecast-2025/ and year-end holiday travel forecast, December 20 to January 1 (December 10, 2025) https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/12/aaa-year-end-holiday-travel-forecast/