Written by James Royal, Ph.D. – Edited by Mercedes Barba – Reviewed by Kenneth Chavis IV – 28 Minute read
Passive income can be a great way to help you generate extra cash flow, whether you’re running a side hustle or just trying to get a little extra dough each month, especially as inflation takes its toll. Passive income can help you earn more during the good times and tide you over if you suddenly become unemployed, if you voluntarily take time away from work or if inflation keeps chipping away at your purchasing power.
With passive income, you can have money coming in even as you pursue your primary job, or if you’re able to build up a solid stream of passive income, you might want to kick back a little. Either way, a passive income gives you extra security.
And if you’re worried about being able to save enough of your earnings to meet your retirement goals, building wealth through passive income is a strategy that might appeal to you, too.
Passive income ideas:
- Create a course
- Write an e-book
- Rental income
- Affiliate marketing
- Flip retail products
- Sell photography online
- Buy crowdfunded real estate
- Peer-to-peer lending
- Dividend stocks
- Create an app
- Rent out a parking space
- REITs
- A bond ladder
- Sponsored posts on social media
- Invest in a high-yield CD or savings account
- Rent out your home short-term
- Advertise on your car
- Create a blog or YouTube channel
- Rent out useful household items
- Sell designs online
- Set up an annuity
- Buy a local business
- Buy a blog
- Preferred stock
- A municipal bond closed-end fund
What is passive income?
Passive income includes regular earnings from a source other than an employer or contractor. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says passive income can come from two sources: rental property or a business in which one does not actively participate, such as being paid book royalties or stock dividends. While legally that’s true, in practice passive income may take other forms.
“Many people think that passive income is about getting something for nothing,” says financial coach and retired hedge fund manager Todd Tresidder. “It has a ‘get-rich-quick’ appeal… but in the end, it still involves work. You just give the work upfront.”
In practice, you may do some or all of the work upfront, but passive income often involves some additional labor along the way, too. You may have to keep your product updated or your rental property well-maintained to keep the passive dollars flowing.
But if you’re committed to the strategy, it can be a great way to generate income and you’ll create some extra financial security for yourself along the way.
Passive income is not…
- Your job. Generally, passive income is not income that comes from something you’ve been materially involved in such as the wages you earn from a job.
- A second job. Getting a second job isn’t going to qualify as a passive income stream because you’ll still need to show up and do the work to get paid. Passive income is about creating a consistent stream of income without having to do a lot of work to get it.
- Non-income-producing assets. Investing can be a great way to generate passive income, but only if the assets you own pay dividends or interest. Non-dividend-paying stocks or assets like cryptocurrencies may be exciting, but they won’t earn you passive income.
25 passive income ideas for building wealth
If you’re thinking about creating a passive income stream, check out these strategies and learn what it takes to be successful with them, while also understanding the risks associated with each idea.
1. Create a course
One popular strategy for passive income is creating an audio or video course, then kicking back while cash rolls in from the sale of your product. Courses can be distributed and sold through sites such as Udemy, SkillShare and Coursera.
Alternatively, you might consider a “freemium model” – building up a following with free content and then charging for more detailed information or for those who want to know more. For example, language teachers and stock-picking advice may use this model. The free content acts as a demonstration of your expertise and may attract those looking to go to the next level.
Opportunity: A course can deliver an excellent income stream because you make money easily after the initial outlay of time.
Risk: “It takes a massive amount of effort to create the product,” Tresidder says. “And to make good money from it, it has to be great. There’s no room for trash out there.”
Tresidder says you must build a strong platform, market your products and plan for more products if you want to be successful.
“One product is not a business unless you get really lucky,” Tresidder says. “The best way to sell an existing product is to create more excellent products.”
Once you master the business model, you can generate a good income stream, he says.
2. Write an e-book
Writing an e-book can be a good opportunity to take advantage of the low cost of publishing and even leverage the worldwide distribution of Amazon to get your book seen by potentially millions of would-be buyers. E-books can be relatively short, perhaps 30-50 pages, and can be relatively cheap to create, since they rely on your own expertise.
You’ll need to be an expert on a specific topic, but the topic could be niche and use some special skills or abilities that very few offer but that many readers need. You can quickly design the book on an online platform and then even test-market different titles and price points.
But just like with designing a course, a lot of the value comes when you add more e-books to the mix, drawing in more customers to your content.
Opportunity: An e-book can function not only to deliver good information and value to readers but also as a way to drive traffic to your other offerings, including audio or video courses, other e-books, a website or potentially higher-value seminars.
Risk: Your e-book has to be very strong to build up a following and then it helps if you have some way to market it, too, such as an existing website, a promotion on other relevant websites, appearances in the media or podcasts or something else. So you could put in a lot of work upfront and get very little back for your efforts, especially at first.
And while an e-book is nice, it will help if you write more and then even build a business around the book or make the book just one part of your business that strengthens the other parts. So your biggest risk is probably that you waste your time with little reward.
3. Rental income
Investing in rental properties is an effective way to earn passive income. But it often requires more work than people expect.
If you don’t take the time to learn how to make it a profitable venture, you could lose your investment and then some says John H. Graves, an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) in the Los Angeles area and author of “The 7% Solution: You Can Afford a Comfortable Retirement.”
Opportunity: To earn passive income from rental properties, Graves says you must determine three things:
- How much return do you want on the investment
- The property’s total costs and expenses
- The financial risks of owning the property
For example, if your goal is to earn $10,000 a year in rental cash flow and the property has a monthly mortgage of $2,000 and costs another $300 a month for taxes and other expenses, you’d have to charge $3,133 in monthly rent to reach your goal.
Risk: There are a few questions to consider: Is there a market for your property? What if you get a tenant who pays late or damages the property? What if you’re unable to rent out your property? Any of these factors could put a big dent in your passive income.
And economic downturns can pose challenges, too. You may suddenly have tenants who can no longer pay their rent, while you may still have a mortgage of your own to pay. Or you may not be able to rent the home out for as much as you could before, as incomes decline. And home prices rose quickly due in part to relatively low mortgage rates, so your rents may not be able to cover your expenses. You’ll want to weigh these risks and have contingency plans in place to protect yourself.
4. Affiliate marketing
With affiliate marketing, website owners, social media “influencers” or bloggers promote a third party’s product by including a link to the product on their site or social media account. Amazon might be the best-known affiliate partner, but eBay, Awin and ShareASale are among the larger names, too. And Instagram and TikTok have become huge platforms for those looking to grow a following and promote products.
You could also consider growing an email list to draw attention to your blog or otherwise direct people to products and services that they might want.
Opportunity: When a visitor clicks on the link and makes a purchase from the third-party affiliate, the site owner earns a commission. The commission might range from 3 to 7 percent, so it will likely take significant traffic to your site to generate serious income. But if you can grow your following or have a more lucrative niche (such as software, financial services or fitness), you may be able to make some serious coin.
Affiliate marketing is considered passive because, in theory, you can earn money just by adding a link to your site or social media account. In reality, you won’t earn anything if you can’t attract readers to your site to click on the link and buy something.
Risk: If you’re just starting out, you’ll have to take time to create content and build traffic. It can take significant time to build a following, and you’ll have to find the right formula for attracting that audience, a process that itself might take a while. Worse, once you’ve spent all that energy, your audience may be apt to flee to the next popular influencer, trend or social media platform.
5. Flip retail products
Take advantage of online sales platforms such as eBay or Amazon, and sell products that you find at cut-rate prices elsewhere. You’ll arbitrage the difference in your purchase and sale prices, and may be able to build a following of individuals who track your deals.
Opportunity: You’ll be able to take advantage of price differences between what you can find and what the average consumer may be able to find. This could work especially well if you have a contact who can help you access discounted merchandise that few other people can find. Or you may be able to find valuable merchandise that others have simply overlooked.
Risk: While sales can happen at any time online, helping make this strategy passive, you’ll definitely have to hustle to find a reliable source of products. Plus, you’ll have to invest money in all of your products until they do sell, so you need a robust source of cash. You’ll have to really know the market so that you’re not buying at a price that’s too high. Otherwise, you may end up with products that no one wants or whose price you have to drastically cut in order to sell.
This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
