Some people look to understand what exactly is passive income, they soon discover dreams of sitting on the beach while watching dollars roll into your bank account are far fetched.
The closet to true passive income is real estate – owning and renting out property. But even the steady flow of rental income every month is balanced by work dealing with tenants and maintenace.
Yes, these tasks can be given to a management agency but their fees eat into your profit margins.
Creating a stream of passive income takes time and money upfront, as well as ongoing care and attention.
After some time and effort, these income streams grow and become self-sustaining, bringing you consistent revenue without requiring much effort from you.
If you don’t mind being a less passive and more hands-on, check out this post by Lisa at Adapt Your Dollars.
Having an abundance of passive income ideas and dreams is great, but you must remember that not all of them are good ones.
There’s no guarantee that a particular method of making money will work for you, your skills, or your lifestyle, even if you’ve seen others do it before.
Passive Income Ideas
A clear set of goals and plans will help you discover passive income opportunities. A clear understanding of your financial and time resources is essential.
To achieve your long-term goals, you must be willing to make sacrifices in the short term.
As complicated as passive income may sound, you’ll be able to find a way to make it work for you in 2022 because there are so many options.
Here are some of the best passive income opportunities that almost anyone can take advantage of as a starting point.
Passive income streams, in my opinion, can significantly boost your income and help you reach your financial goals faster. And some of these ideas can get you started for just $5, so you don’t have to worry about breaking the bank.
1) Invest in Dividend Paying Common Equities
Investment for appreciation is not a passive income source, as we previously stated. But if you choose to invest in firms that pay out significant dividends to shareholders, you may be able to make a sizable profit.
Assuming that the shares’ value continues to rise, you’ll be able to profit from dividends and capital gains when you decide to sell them.
Consider using a broker or even advisors if you’re not a stock market expert and want a truly passive investment method.
If you’re not careful, you could lose more than you put in. Before beginning an investment portfolio, always seek professional guidance.
2) Invest in a High-Yield Savings Account
Investing in a high-yielding savings account may not be what you had in mind when we promised you a list of passive income ideas. They’re a great way to put your money to work for you instead of the other way around.
Open an account with no minimum balance and get an APY of around 0.50 percent. Some accounts even give you money just for signing up for the account.
To see any significant returns, you’ll need to deposit a significant sum of money into the account, but it’s still a viable option.
3) Invest in the Housing Market
For nearly as long as real estate has existed, real estate investing has been a well-established means of accumulating wealth. Investing in real estate used to be a difficult task that necessitated a significant amount of effort, time, and knowledge.
It was difficult becoming a real estate mogul from your couch, but now some apps make it simple and accessible. If you don’t have the money to invest in real estate, you can also invest in a real estate investment trust (REIT).
In general, dividend-paying investments tend to track the stock market’s performance.
While your investment’s value will rise and fall just like real estate, you’ll save time and money by investing in a variety of markets rather than just one.
4) Sell Stock Photos
Is it ever a mystery where the photos for your favorite websites, blogs, and even magazines come from? These images are typically purchased from stock photo websites.
Each time one of your images is purchased by a customer on a stock photo site, you will earn a commission.
DepositPhotos is a well-known stock photo marketplace.
You can earn money whenever someone uses your photos by uploading them to the site. Indeed, check out this inspiring story of someone who turned photography into a lucrative stock photo venture.
5) Peer To Peer Lending
It’s a practice known as P2P lending that lends money to people who typically are ineligible for traditional loans. As a lender, you have the power to select your borrowers and to spread your investments out over a longer period of time in order to reduce your exposure.
PeerStreet is one of the most effective lending platforms available right now. However, keep in mind that these loans will be used to purchase real estate.
This is a great option because you can simply lend your money and get paid back the interest and principal on it.
In today’s market, no money market fund can match the median return on cash flow (ROCF) of 4.1 percent. You may want to look into other CD options.
6) Reduce Debt Or Pay It Off
Paying off or reducing your debt is a huge step toward increasing your income, similar to refinancing your mortgage. As with everything else in this topic, it takes money to make money.
Paying off debt offers a clear financial benefit. Paying off a credit card with a 10% interest rate gives you a 10% ROI! That’s enormous. You have two options when it comes to debt: consolidate or refinance, or transfer your debt and pay it down gradually.
Refinancing your student loans can save you a lot of money if you have them. A hard credit check isn’t required at Credible to see if it’s a good idea. It’s possible to get a gift card bonus when you refinance through such links.
If you have a lot of credit card debt, a personal loan may be a good option for you to consolidate. It’s the best option if you don’t think you’ll be able to pay off your debt in a year but still want to lower your interest rate.
After all of this, you could get an interest-free balance transfer credit to pay off your debts. It’s possible to find credit cards that allow you to pay off your debt for 15 months at 0% interest with no fees.
7) Refinance Mortgage
The idea of refinancing your mortgage as a passive income article may sound odd, but it is a great way to free up a significant amount of income and save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.
Currently, interest rates are near historic lows, making it an ideal time to shop around for a new mortgage and compare offers.
You could save tens of thousands of dollars if you can save 0.50 percent or more of your loan.
That is one of the best investments you can make. Comparing interest rates is something we enjoy doing on sites like LendingTree.
8) Annuities
For a fee, annuities can provide you with a steady stream of income for the rest of your life in the form of monthly payments.
If you’re considering purchasing an annuity, it’s best to consult with a reputable financial advisor because the terms can be confusing, and the deals aren’t always great.
If you don’t have the money to spare, these investments are not for you. This option can be a great one if you are looking for a steady source of income and have zero tolerance for risk.
9) CD Ladders
To build a CD ladder, you must buy CDs (certificates of deposit) from banks in specific increments in order to maximize your return on investment.
Banks offer certificates of deposit (CDs), which are low-risk investments with low returns. Risk-averse people should consider this option.
If you’d like a five-year CD ladder, for example, you’d take the following steps. Take a look at how the rates change over time (these are only estimates):
CD for 1 year – 2.50 %
Cd for two years, yielding 2.90%
CD – 3.05 percent – 3 year term
3.20% for a four-year CD
Three-fifths of a percent
The traditional high yield savings account or money market fund is another option if constructing a CD Ladder sounds too difficult. In spite of the low returns, this is a passive income source that is better than nothing!
10) Crypto Accounts
As a result of their higher rates of return, crypto savings accounts have become extremely popular in the last 12 months. Because these are not “savings accounts,” it is important to point out that they are not.
These are accounts that permit you to “easily” earn a high rate of return on your cryptocurrency investments.
Options include Celsius and Hodlnaut. These are places where you can make up to 12.5% of your money, but you should be aware of the risks. Visit this page for a comprehensive look at cryptocurrency savings accounts.
Staking crypto, lending crypto, and even purchasing NFTs are other options to consider.
There is always a cost associated with passive income: time or money. However, the allure lies in the notion that it becomes passive once you’ve done the work. It is possible to make money from your book for the rest of your life without doing any additional work, such as writing it for six months.
However, this does not imply that more work is not necessary in order to increase your income. Always remember that the wealthy use passive income to build their wealth.
Your effort and time can be leveraged to create long-term income streams when you don’t have any money. The more money you have, the more passive income you can generate by using it (and even combining it with your time).
11) Open a Dropshipping Store
Dropshipping is one of the top choices if you want to start making money from wherever you live in the world. It’s a simple business model that carries little risk for the dropshipper.
They sell the products of other companies.
A customer buys a pair of shoes from the dropshippers’ website. After the purchase, the dropshipper, in turn, purchases the same shoes from their shoe supplier, and this shoe supplier then ships the shoe directly to the customer.
After paying any expenses, the difference between the price the dropshipper sold to the customer and the price they brought from their supplier is profit.
Dropshipping isn’t a quick-and-easy way to make money since it requires some upfront time and effort. But here’s why it might be considered a passive income source.
Due to its low barrier to entry, drop shipping is an excellent place for aspiring business owners to begin.
Dropshipping allows you to quickly test new business ideas with minimal risk, enabling you to learn a great deal about how to select and market products that are in high demand.
Dropshipping is a popular business model for small and large companies alike for the following reasons:
- There is a smaller initial outlay of cash;
- You don’t have to invest hundreds of dollars in stock as a dropshipper to start an e-commerce business. In the past, retailers had to spend a significant amount of money purchasing inventory.
- You don’t have to buy a product with the dropshipping model unless you’ve already made a sale and received payment from the customer.
When you don’t have to deal with actual products, running an e-commerce business is easier. Dropshipping eliminates the following concerns:
Warehousing inventory
Your orders are being shipped.
Inventory management for accounting
Taking care of shipments going out and shipments coming in
managing inventory levels and placing orders regularly
- The overhead is low.
Because inventory and warehouse management is not involved, your operating costs are very low. A laptop and a few regular expenses can be all that is needed to start a successful dropshipping business from home.
As your business expands, these expenses will rise, but they will remain low when compared to the costs of a traditional physical storefront.
- A location that can be changed at any time
If you have access to the internet, you can run a dropshipping business from almost anywhere. You can run and manage your business as long as you can easily communicate with your suppliers and customers.
- Having a wide variety of products to choose from
With no need to stock up on inventory, you’ll be able to offer a wide variety of products to your customers. If a supplier has an item in stock, you don’t have to pay anything extra to list it for sale on your website.
- Testing is a lot simpler.
When launching a new store or testing out new product lines, dropshipping can be a useful fulfillment method for both the business owner and the customer. The main advantage of dropshipping is listing and possibly selling products before committing to a large amount of stock.
- Scaling is a lot easier.
The more orders you get, the more you have to work, especially in a traditional retail business. The drop shippers will take care of most of the work required to process additional orders, allowing for less pain and less incremental work as your business grows.
Creating an online store where customers can look through and purchase products is at the heart of this business model. Dropshipping is interesting because you don’t have to see the products you’re selling in person.
All aspects of the product life cycle, from manufacturing to packaging to delivery, are handled by your drop shipper. Furthermore, running out of cash is minimized because no money is sent to your supplier until after your customers have paid.
There are various ways to make money from e-commerce businesses, based on the item you pick and the price you set.
12) Affiliate Marketing
Advocating for a product or service is part of affiliate marketing. It’s a great way to make money while you sleep, as you get paid every time someone clicks on your referral link and makes a purchase using the recommended item or service.
In addition, it’s a booming business. By 2022, Statista predicts that the affiliate marketing industry will be worth $8.2 billion. Affiliate marketing is a natural progression for online business owners for a variety of reasons:
It’s simple to carry out. You’re only responsible for marketing, and customers can expect the company to create new products and complete their orders promptly.
It’s a low-risk investment. An affiliate program is free to join. If you already have money in the bank, you can sell it without putting any money in it. Create traffic sources so that more people will click on your links, which will take time on your part. You can earn commissions in a way that is essentially automatic once you’ve set it up.
It’s expandable. The majority of affiliate marketers do not employ additional staff. You can launch new products and campaigns while your previous work continues to earn you money.
Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative way to diversify your business’s revenue streams. Your time is all it takes. Once you’ve put in the time, you’ll be able to reap the benefits for a long time.
13) Purchase And Sell Websites
There are countless websites dedicated to just about any subject you can think of. The cherry on top? Affiliates, ads, memberships, and products are all common sources of income, and they’re frequently put up for sale.
After registering and verifying your account, you can securely resell online stores through Exchange Marketplace sites.
Being a part-owner of a business that is already making money and attracting customers is fantastic. Seller support is available to you after completing your purchase to help you succeed.
14) Start a YourTube Channel.
Starting a YouTube channel now is not too late. YouTube is used by 74% of American adults. That’s a lot of potential customers to make money from. What’s the problem? In the beginning, it’s a lot of work for little or no payoff.
The income potential of a fruitful YouTube channel is high, however, if you’re patient and don’t mind putting in some work upfront.
As your content, clicks, and views increase and your audience expands, you can earn passive income from sponsorships, affiliate sales, brand integrations, and ad revenue.
15) Rent Out the Space That You Don’t Need
Have a spare room or garage that you don’t need? Make money by renting it out as a storage facility! Storage leasing platforms such as this can be accomplished effectively and safely through Neighbor and Peerspace.
By 2026, the storage market is expected to be worth $64 billion. For example, this is not a long-term strategy for making money without working. Vehicles, yachts, RVs, and even business merchandise can all be stored at a storage facility.
Additionally, renting storage is an excellent strategy to keep your business out of hot water. These platforms offer a variety of safeguards to protect both the storage provider and the customer.
16) Create Apps Without Coding
The beauty of today’s no-code tools is that anyone can create a simple to an advanced app. You can get started in a market that is expected to see 218 billion downloads in 2020, thanks to platforms like Appy Pie, Adalo, or Bubble.
First, you must choose between building a website and a mobile app. Additionally, monetization must be considered when developing the app’s concept.
To make money from your app, you can:
- Subscriptions
- Ads
- Pay-to-download
- Models of the market
17) Create a Digital Guide
You have a lot of expertise in a subject that others are willing to pay for. Put your newfound expertise to use by creating digital guides.
Many businesses don’t require an upfront investment to get off the ground.
You’ll have to put in some time. Make an effort to discover what your target audience is looking for. If you’re not sure where to begin, look at what Google offers. Using tools like Ubersuggest, you can learn which keywords have a lot of traffic.
You need to set up your digital guide to collect sales on your website or a seller platform
18) Sell Online Products
A digital product is something that can’t be held in your hands. Some examples are eBooks, templates, and plug-ins that can be downloaded or streamed via Amazon Kindle.
Profit margins for digital products are incredibly high, making them ideal passive income sources. Creating the asset once is all that is required to sell it repeatedly on the internet, and no inventory or storage is required.
The number of digital products that you can sell is unlimited. Kits, printables, files, and other assets that professionals can use are often sold by creatives to increase their passive income.
Flowcharts, personas, and wireframes are just some of the UX Kits tools designed to make the design process more manageable.
19) Set Up a Print-On-Demand Shop
If you are a designer, artist, or business, print on demand can be a lucrative source of passive income and a way to commercialize your work. Working with suppliers to customize white-label products such as t-shirts, posters, backpacks, and books, and then selling them on an as-needed basis.
Like dropshipping, you only purchase the products after it has been sold, and there is no need for bulk purchases or inventory. Print-on-demand stores are an excellent source of passive revenue because:
You may design things rapidly and sell them within minutes. Your supplier is responsible for shipping and fulfillment.
Once your store has been established, you can automate numerous marketing and sales operations.
Using a print-on-demand service like Printful, you can quickly and easily produce products to sell in your Shopify store. Overall, print on demand is a low-risk, straightforward business model that can be implemented rapidly.
20) Sell Handcrafted Products
There’s never been a better time when it comes to selling goods online. Building and scaling an online business has never been more accessible because over 4.6 billion people worldwide have access to the internet.
You can sell your products on a plethora of different websites online. Some allow you to sell anything you want, while others, like Etsy, specialize in a narrow range of items.
The following are some of the most popular online marketplaces:
- Get your web store
- Handshake
- Lane, Ruby
- Amazon
- eBay
- AliExpress
The initial outlay is split in half. Making and selling DIY goods like clothing and pottery will necessitate investment in materials and time. You’ll also need to set up an online store to sell your products.
Wrapping Up – Passive Income
There is always a cost associated with passive income: time or money. However, the allure lies in the notion that it becomes passive once you’ve done the work.
It is possible to make money from your book for the rest of your life without doing additional work, such as writing it for six months.
However, this does not imply that more work is not necessary to increase your income. Always remember that the wealthy use passive income to build their wealth.
Your effort and time can be leveraged to create long-term income streams when you don’t have any money. The more money you have, the more passive income you can generate by using it (and even combining it with your time).
Tim Thomas has investments in real estate.
This post was produced by Tim Thomas and syndicated by Fistful of Dollars
Feature image credit: Shutterstock