What would you do if you had more money coming in? Better yet, what would you do if you had more time? With passive income, you could have both. However, this isn’t the sort of thing that happens overnight, or even in a few weeks/months. Playing the long game is key, but eventually, you should be able to continue generating income even while you sleep. In other words: regardless of what else is going on in your life, you will continue to generate income even years down the line.
Let’s take a look at what you need to know about passive income in 2020:
Why Should You Give Passive Income A Second Thought?
Generating passive income might sound like a lot of work, but it could be so worth it in the end. Traditional employment means that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid – however, passive income is just that. You don’t need to continue swapping time for money. Let’s face it: time is the most valuable thing we have! You’ll never get wasted time back, and that’s why passive income is a great idea for many who want to live a comfortable lifestyle but don’t want to work themselves into the ground achieving it. When you decide to put a focus on passive income, you will potentially benefit by:
- Not worrying about your day job
- Being able to spend more time with the people you love
- Explore hobbies and dream projects that probably wouldn’t have been possible with a 9-5 job
- Reach your financial goals faster than you usually would
- Enjoy a stable retirement
With this in mind, don’t you want to give passive income a try? Even if you end up being able to pay one of your bills without additional work each month, it’ll help you in the long run. You never know, you might just enjoy it!
Just Aim To Pay Off One Bill
Realistically, you’re probably not going to make a huge amount of money right away. Passive income streams take work in the beginning, and it could take time and a little more effort before they are bringing in money. When you start, don’t start with the goal to make as much money as possible. You may become disheartened!
Instead, pick one of your bills (your least expensive one is probably a good idea) and just aim to pay that off. Once you’ve done that, you can pick another one – you can do this for as long as you need to in order to pay off all of your bills and live a comfortable life. You need to be willing to take baby steps, rather than try to take a running jump from earning nothing to earning thousands per month right away.
Techniques You Can Use To Create Passive Income in 2020
There are an abundance of techniques you can use to create passive income. You can try high risk investments like dividend stocks and real estate, but it’s probably better if you get started with some much lower risk investments first. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Vending Machines
These are franchises that have low overheads and minimal startup costs. It’ll depend on what you’re selling and where the machine is located, but you could make up to $100 per week. Some machines will need to be restocked regularly, so it does require a little time. Products that aren’t perishable might be better in some cases.
Affiliate Marketing
When you decide to become an affiliate, you make commissions on every sale of a product or service that you recommend. You don’t create or sell anything yourself. You simply sign up, get a unique tracking link, and then insert it into your blog posts or YouTube videos. Depending on how successful you are, you can make a few thousand – or a heck of a lot more, per month. Amazon is just one place you can sign up as an affiliate.
Side Note: Affiliate Marketing Is Not Dead
One thing you’ll probably hear is that affiliate marketing is dead. People have been saying this for years, but it doesn’t make it true. In fact, if you do it right, affiliate marketing can be more profitable and enjoyable than ever before! As markets continue to evolve and change, so does affiliate marketing. However, that’s all you have to do – stay up to date with what’s current. Take a look at how to start in affiliate marketing if you think you could become a successful affiliate. Don’t be put off by people who say that it’s dead if it’s something you want to try.
Drop Shipping
This is a technique you can use to start a business with very little startup capital. You simply open a store and then work with a dropshipper to deliver products to buyers. You don’t stock the products yourself, but instead transfer the order and shipment information to a wholesaler, manufacturer, or other retailer. They then send the goods, and you on;y pay when the customer does. Of course, profit margins depend on what you’re selling. More expensive items could earn you 5 to 10% per sale while lower-ticket purchases can yield a 100% margin. On average, gross margins appear to be 10% to 15%.
Selling Stock Photos
You don’t have to be a pro photographer to sell stock photos. Just upload a portfolio to a stock photography site and you will make money whenever someone downloads one of your images.
Create Your Own Course
You can create courses for learning platforms if you have a special skill or qualification that you would like to share. You’ll need to be able to record a video, but this isn’t too hard – even with a camera phone.
Sell an eBook
If you have an idea, you could earn passive income by writing about it. Amazon Createspace is the most popular self-publishing platform because it’s so easy to use. You can find templates for digital and print books, which means it’s less likely that you will make formatting mistakes.
Remember: Passive Income Does Require Some Work On Your Part
Passive income streams are not entirely passive in the beginning. Once you get past the initial setup challenges, your efforts have an excellent chance of being rewarded with passive income and you can begin to loosen up, worrying less about your cash flow and things like retirement.
