You may be a teenager or an avid gamer, or a married adult in your 30s earning a steady income, whichever it may be, earning a little extra on the side would be an appealing thought. Whether you choose to spend that extra-earned cash to pay for those monthly Netflix subscriptions, or treat yourself with an extra dine-out meal for the month, or simply save up that amount for the future, passive income is a great way to attain some financial freedom.
Active Income vs. Passive Income
Active income refers to money earned when performing service. Earnings like hourly wages, salaries, commission, tips are all examples of active income.
Unlike active income, passive income doesn’t necessarily stop if you stop the work since it is usually earned through work that is already done or commitments you have already made, or investments you have invested in.
An active income usually has a strict schedule you must adhere to and does not offer the flexibility of your working hours. Since the work is done during business hours, it leaves little time for leisure. However, the risks involved are much less since it is a means to a steady income.
Passive income gives you the freedom to work when you please with little or no effort required after the initial start. Although there is more risk involved as there are fewer guarantees, it can be accumulated over time into a substantial amount meanwhile leaving you more time to spend as you please.
Safe Money: Investing In Stocks And Shares
For this, there really isn’t much of a skill required. In fact, investing in stocks is one of the easiest ways to earn any form of passive income. If you have any sort of savings under your bed or sitting in a bank account, you can choose to put that money into stocks and potentially earn a lot of money.
The safest way to go about doing that is to invest in index funds such as the S & P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA.) In recent years, Index funds have attracted a lot of attention due to the rising demand of people wanting to earn a passive income.
There are several advantages that come with investing safely in such a manner. There is a highly unlikely chance of ever losing money since Index funds usually tend to be diversified throughout a large number of companies. The fact that all of the companies would go bankrupt at the same time is just not probable. In addition, there are very low fees charges as compared to active investment funds, therefore it is a very safe bet.
Enjoy Video Making: Start A YouTube Channel
Starting a YouTube channel is actually very easy. With a few clicks, anyone can start a YouTube channel. However, to actually start earning passively via YouTube takes some effort and time in the beginning.
Firstly, to be eligible for monetizing from your YouTube channel you need to gain 1000 subscribers in addition to the 4000 hours of watch time. That may take a while depending on the kind of effort you put in advertising your channel.
Next, you have to have good content (best to go where your passion takes you) and some video-making skills. Simply starting a YouTube channel isn’t enough. You have to want to put the effort in to find engaging content to keep an audience engaged.
Once you have hit those required number of subscribers and watch time and gained some experience as to which content hits the audience best, you can earn a lot of steady money eventually.
Have A Way With Words: Blog
If you have a way with words and a penchant for writing, then blog. Whether you choose to use free platforms such as WordPress that allow you to do so with a few simple steps, or create your own site, it becomes fairly easy to do if you enjoy writing. You can earn even more by placing banner adverts, affiliating links, or sponsored posts on your blog site.
Gaining tremendous popularity over the past two years due to the Covid 19 pandemic, many companies have taken to hiring blog writers for their websites. Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites. You can easily find blog writers online that have shared their success stories that can guide you.
Got The Heart Of A Teacher: Sell Courses Online
If you have a skill that you think you can find an audience who wants to learn it, sharing and teaching that knowledge is a great way to earn passively. While it takes a little work to start off initially, once it is done you can simply sit back and relax while it sells repeatedly.
One of the most important things to decide at first is what you will be teaching about. Finding something that you will have a constant audience for is essential. Next, you need to plan the course outline in a way that sets you apart from others teaching in the same niche.
You also need to decide which medium you plan to teach through. Whether it is an ebook, podcast, or a video, once you have it set, all that you will be required to do is to promote your course so that it can maintain a steady audience.
Got Cash Upfront: Buy Real Estate
Investing in real estate, specifically, in rental properties, is one of the most popular ways to earn easy money: although it does require some capital upfront.
Once you know where to buy and what to buy (it can be an apartment that you want to rent out or perhaps purchase a house that you may hope to resell later for a nice profit) your initial effort will require some capital and to get that rental up and running. However, once you have that all set, it can provide a steady income with almost no effort required.
Find What You Do Best
Most passive income initially requires effort and work, but once you have the ball rolling you could pretty much earn a steady stream of money with little or no required effort. However, to get to that point you must understand well that earning passive income does not mean a get-rich-quick scheme (trust me there is no such thing.)
Warren Buffet (one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of over $105.2 billion as of November 2021) once said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
Once you have the resources or the capital to start off and the dedication and passion to put in that initial effort, you can almost sit back and reap the awards in the years to come. Why almost? Well, minimal effort is always required, nothing ever really comes for free.
The best way to maintain that dedication is to do something you are good at. Some of the most famous entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerburg and William Hewlett and David Packard achieved success by simply starting off with a small idea and using their skill set with dedication and staying consistent with their efforts. So the first step is to find out which skills you can best to use earn on the side.
