Passive Income

If you are like me and think about the future – especially what kind of life you would like to live say maybe 20 years from now – will you still be working for the same company that you are working for or doing the same thing that you are doing?? Will you still be living in the house that you are in or maybe you will be in your dream house – next to the beach, with large clear glass windows overlooking the water?  What about your lifestyle?? Will you be able to afford a holiday at that great Hotel for a weekend?? Maybe you love travelling, do you think twenty years from now you will be able to afford that tour to your dream destination??

Sounds too much?? I have not even asked you about family, how will your family be?? What kind of lifestyle will define your spouse, kids and yourself??

So if you are like me and at times spend time reflecting on what kind of life you want to live, twenty years from now then let’s roll - read on. For those who are comfortable and are not concerned about the future, if you have no plans for the future and only mind how today has gone, then maybe you can stop here.

You see, if you want to live a better life, a better life in my opinion is the ability to spend time with those you love and doing what you love. In other words, it’s the ability to spend your time living a full life as you want it. And yes you can – who says it’s not possible?? You see we spend most of times working for money, using the traditional methods of making money and end up twenty years later still living in those same traditional methods – go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, work hard at your  job, impress your boss, get promoted and finally retire.

However, there is another option  -  go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, make money work for you, live the life that you want. I know you think I am crazy and you’re wondering why I am becoming an idealist – and probably you’re saying that everyone would love that – well, not everyone has the guts to put in extra hours of hard work to make money work for them. We prefer the traditional methods of making money – get employed and get paid for what you do and work hard to keep the job. Definitely no payment if you lose it.

However, the good news is that there is what we call passive income – this is income that you make whether you are sleeping, travelling, bathing, eating – name it, you don’t have to be seated in someone’s office  so as to earn nor do you have to be seated in your office either to earn it . No. Passive income is that income that comes from past activities and keeps coming even when the activity is completed – a good example is having houses for rent. We all know them and maybe most of us are renting – the owners of the houses we rent will keep earning from us. Another example is an author who keeps getting a portion from each book that is bought.

There are many ways of making passive income but I am interested in those ways in which a young fellow like me – with no inheritance or startup capital can actually start making money work them. Definitely hard work is needed at the start and the learning curve is great but hey, after sometime, the income will continue coming while you do less work.

1. Photography – with modern cameras, you can take great shots and upload them on the internet - http://www.istockphoto.com/ is a great example. You will keep earning from each photograph that you post. Of course it should be a great shot but the point is that modern cameras are great and if you post a great shot that earns you $5 a week, you will have passive income every year of $260. And with time you can grow that $5 a week to even $100 a week.

2. Videos – there are sites that will pay you for uploading a video clip – any video clip, even if you capture your cat jumping up and down as long as it generates hits, you get paid for it. A good example is http://revver.com where many people are getting paid for uploading videos.

3. Online Forex – this needs a lot of skill but once you are great at reading charts, you will always be able to make money through forex trading. Lots of sites give you a free demo account worth $50,000 and you can practice on that. I recommend practicing on the demo until you are ready – then look for a trading house and trade for them – imagine putting in a weekend trade and it makes $500 in that weekend. You can grow your account from a minimum account to a very large account as long as you’re great at reading charts and analyzing the news that occur. Try www.gft.com

4. Blogging – you definitely know that you can make passive income from a blog like this one (I don’t blog for money so I am not making any money off this blog). All you need to do is promote your blog and write great content – people will always read and you will make money (passive income) from the adverts that will be posted on your account. You can sign up with http://chitika.com/ if you want to give it a shot – they have wonderful programs.

I guess there are other ways of making passive income but the above 4 methods favor those of us that have no startup capital, have no borrowing power from a bank – banks need you to have something before they give you their money, nor do we have any inheritance. Slowly, we can grow our passive income and with time, it will be enough to make you realize your dream life – if you have passive income monthly that can pay for a dream destination, why not travel and spend the money on a great holiday, after all, you don’t need to work all year around to get that income nor do you have to ask your boss for permission nor o get a study leave. And the great thing is that it will keep coming hence you will keep travelling  until you get tired of  your dream destinations – I guess you’re wondering how, yes  you will get tired.

But don’t forget that you must start now – not tomorrow or some other day. You must start growing or accumulating your passive income now. Good luck. Feel free to drop me a line of feedback using the form below about what you think.