I have a confession to make. I have absolutely no idea how to tell people what I do. It’s really embarrassing for me because I feel like people need to have an answer to that question. There are so many things I want to do with my time that I can’t really answer that question in a clearly defined, articulate way. But the confusion doesn’t really start there.
The problem with that question is people don’t want to know what you do with your time, they want to know how you produce an income - what you do for money.
I came across the idea of passive income from a young age. Passive income generation is way to produce income that is disconnected from your time. I’ve always been intrigued by this idea because I have so many directions I want to take with my life and so many drastically different things I want to do with my time that I really couldn’t do them unless there was a way to disconnect time from my income.
So what are some ways to do this? If you could literally only work 5 days out of the month, how would you survive? You could attack this feat from 2 opposite ends. Eliminate debt and cut down on unneeded expenses or find sources of passive income. Since I already have close to zero expenses I wanted to seek out sources of passive income, so lets go over a few.
- Dividends - Definitely the most passive source of income. This is also the most risky as you will have the least control over how much you make. And unless you really keep a close eye on the market and know the intricacies of this type of investing then you could lose big, which would undermine the whole passive idea in the first place.
- Bulk candy vending - A strange and seemingly juvenile way to produce income, but because of the passive nature of this venture I wanted to include it. We’ve all seen the small triple unit gumball machines at restaurants and hardware stores or Wal-mart. Well each machine can carry a cost as low as 100 dollars and produce 20 to 100 dollars a month depending on the location. A 10,000 dollar investment placed in high quality locations can produce 2,000 to 10,000 dollars a month. THAT IS HYYYUGE. It doesn’t sound so juvenile any more. The best part is the time commitment. With each machine needing service about twice a month, this venture is about as passive as it gets. And stay away from the drink machines as they make more money but take exponentially more maintenance time. Spend 5 days a month and visit 20 machines each day and then rake in the mula!
- Bench advertising - producing 200 to 400 dollars a bench makes advertising on park and bus stop benches a power house of passive income.
- Automated e-Commerce website - I am currently pursuing this direction and the income cap is topless. Full automation is possible and there are a number of resources out there like Doba.com to make products available through dropshipping which will make the idea of holding inventory obsolete. Find a automated check out cart like shopify and let the bank account sing!
- Rental income from residential and commercial real estate - Passive income but a huge investment. This is the end game for me. 80% of the weathly have become so through real estate investments is a statistic that can’t be ignored. The income potential is absolutely ridiculous and it will always appreciate in the long run regardless of economic activity. Every body needs and will always need a place to live or run a business.
- Rental income from storage units - also passive and a huge investment but is an end game player to invest in.
- Rental income from mobile homes - I like this idea because of the cost comparison with stick built homes. I personally know a mobile home park owner with 80 mobile homes averaging a rent income of 500 dollars a month.$40,000 a month isn’t to bad. The best part is that he has never spent more than 12,000 dollars for a trailer. 12,000 vs. the 140,000 spent on stick built house. Although the land cost and convincing the city to zone the land for mobile homes can be difficult and expensive but the income potential is amazing.
- Ice machines - Have you seen those large ice vending machines in parking lots? They produce about $25,000 a year per machine. I imagine the maintenance can be time consuming if you rack up a lot of machines but none the less this is a extremely passive venture.
I want to do a million things with my time and don’t want to sacrifice my dignity for a paycheck from the man. Passive income can be a way to take freedom back from the boss. I personally plan on pursuing each of these income tools and managing the streams of income. So if you have had any experience with these tools leave a comment and let us know how it’s going.
