We generate most or all of our income by working. Passive income streams allow you to generate income without putting in the hours. Some passive income streams need initial capital but there are ways to create passive income without too much investment upfront.
Passive Income Ideas For Beginners
Invest in real estate
If you invest in rental properties, you will get a monthly rental check. But buying a rental property needs a lot of money upfront. But there are many online real estate platforms such as Fundrise that allow you to invest as little as $10.
Findrise allows you to invest in real estate investments and pays quarterly dividends. Fundraise has returned around 9% for its investors long-term.
Invest in dividend-paying stocks
There are many companies that pay 2% or more in annual dividends. They pay out dividends every quarter. You don’t need a lot of money to get started.
The great thing about dividend investing is that companies typically raise dividends every year. So a 2% return on your money today can become 4% or 5% in 7 to 10 years if companies raise dividends every year. In addition to the quarterly dividend payout, the stocks also generally appreciate over time.
Print on demand
Print-on-demand (POD) platforms such as Printify, Printful, Redbubble, and Society6, allow you to make passive income from your creative ideas. Just create a design and upload it to these platforms. They will print your designs on t-shirts, mugs, or pillows. You will receive a small portion of the revenue from the sales of your merch.
The key to making money on these POD platforms is to drive traffic to your store. You can do that using blog posts and social media posts.
Rent out storage space
If you have extra space in your garage or in your room, you can rent that to others for storing their things. You can make $100 to $400 doing this. Neighbor is a platform that allows you to rent your space to others.
Rent out vehicles
Your vehicle sits in your garage most of the time. You can make money by renting your vehicle out on platforms such as Turo or GetAround. The more miles your vehicle has, the lower its value. So you need to do some math to ensure that the revenue you get from renting it out is more than the depreciation on the vehicle.
Invest with a Robo-advisor
Research shows that constantly tinkering with your investment leads to lower returns. Roboa-advisors use algorithms to choose investments based on your risk tolerance and goals.
Popular robo-advisors are Wealthfront, Betterment, and Acorns. You don’t need thousands of dollars to get started with robo-advisors.
Invest passively in rental properties (yes passively)
Rental properties provide income but they can be a hassle to manage. Dealing with tenants or leaking pipes on a holiday weekend is not fun. That’s where Arrived comes in – it helps you invest in properties without any hands-on effort. You get rental income and as the home appreciates over time, so will your investment.
You can choose the property you want to invest in and the number of shares. You need just $100 to get started.
Start a YouTube channel
YouTube allows you to monetize your channel once you have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. Getting to that level takes a bit of work. But once you start monetizing, the money flows in every month from your old videos.
You can start recording simple videos using your smartphone. If you are skilled in a certain area, you can make “How To” videos and share them on YouTube.
Get paid to workout and stay in shape
Apps such as DietBet, HealthyWage, and StepBet will pay you to lose weight. You won’t make a lot of money with these apps but the income is passive. And you get to stay in shape.
Start a vending machine business
You can buy a vending machine for about $1000 to $2000 depending on the model and its features. You can buy the products at wholesale prices at Costco or Sam’s Club and stock the vending machine.
You can easily sell the products at a 70% to 100% margin. To be successful in this business, You need to find a high-traffic location for your vending machine.
