Getting paid to do nothing is one of life’s greatest achievements. It’s like getting paid to sleep. Seems too good to be true right? Well it is and it isn’t. Getting to a significant livable passive income is the difficult part, but at least the path there is easy. There are many ways you can do this and I’m going to be honest, all require hard work to get started.

There are two things people have to offer.

1, Either you have a lot of money or capital already and you can lay out a foundation (making your money work for you).

Or 2, You have a lot of time. I don’t mean in the sense of working your 9-5 to make money, but as starting a project with your time or sharpening a skill that will pay off in the future. For example you invest a lot of time learning how to cook, you can eventually “sell” your skill to other people for a premium.

Investing Your Money

There are a couple ways you can make your money work for you. Usually when I think of passive income from investing, the easiest way to start is with dividend paying stocks. These are stocks or companies that reward shareholders with a quarterly cash payment. With enough capital you can easily supplement some of your income with dividends.

Stock appreciation

Although technically not income, stock appreciation IS passive. It’s when your stock rises in value and is worth more than yesterday. When you do decide to sell, that income will be realized and it was no work for you.

Interest

You can also earn passive income from interest payments. Having a solid savings account and getting rewarded for holding your emergency/vacation money. Although this would be a pretty low amount of money it’s still nice to get rewarded for something that you were probably going to do anyway.

Business

Investing in small businesses. If you have the capital to give out maybe you can invest in a startup. Keep in mind that this is a very risky type of investment, because if the business fails you aren’t seeing that money ever again.

Real Estate

Buying real estate with the intent to rent out or lease. Although this might require a lot of hands on to start, you can totally make this passive with the help of leasing agents etc.

Bonds

The most boring way to invest. Treasury bonds are basically letting the government borrow your money. They are considered a safe investment because the government will always pay you back. They pay interest every 6 months. You can also invest in ETFs and funds that buy bonds and pay interest/dividends.

Investing Your Time

Investing your time is one of the easiest and most available resource we all have. One thing we all have in common is that we have the same 24 hours in a day.

Start a project / Sell your skill

You can start a project or write a book. Maybe you have a lot to say. Maybe you have a niche skill that others want to learn. It will be a lot of work starting up, but once your book is written every copy sold will be passive income!

Start a business

Again, you’re investing a lot a time into this initial business. This will be both a mix of capital and time. Once you get your business rolling, every sale and other transaction will turn into passive income. Especially now with online stores, they are open 24 hours a day. Meaning you can earn money while you sleep.

Social media

Maybe you have a large following on social media, influencers and brands will pay for exposure. You can sell your posts or per post basis to others. They can even pay per view or even give you a commission for every product sold.

Bottom Line

As you can see it’s not too good to be true. Getting paid to do nothing is possible. It just requires a lot of work or money to start. Passive income doesn’t have to be just for retirement either. You can also earn passive income all while working your 9-5. These are a couple ideas to maybe inspire you to start earning some for yourself. Just a fair warning. Passive income is addictive! Once you see an extra dollar you didn’t have to work for, you will want to push for two.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next Sunday,
– Pablo