How To Generate Extra Cash In 2020 With Easy Passive Income Ideas
Freedom, it’s what everyone wants and if you are working in an office you want it more than anything. Every one of us is guilty of daydreaming on our desks about getting out of this system. You feel exhausted and filled with little to no motivation.
When I had a 9-5 job I was like this too. Then I decided one day that I don’t want this and there must be a way to be free and make money on the side to explore that freedom. That is when I started searching for passive income ideas and convenient ways to make money.
I researched, looked up online and read various books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad and The 4-Hour Workweek. This made me sure that there actually are ways to replace my job with passive income. I started finding ways to make this new dream a reality.
But is it really possible to make money with minimum work and doing almost nothing?
What is Passive Income?
There are two types of incomes, one can generate. Active and Passive income.
Active income is something that most people make. We exchange our time for money by doing a job every day. The day we don’t go is the day we don’t get paid. If you don’t have a way of earning passive income, sometimes an active income won’t pay the bills.
Passive income is when you are earning money without actually actively working. You put in the work first and then after a while you don’t need to do as much for income to keep flowing in.
However, freedom does come at a cost. You need to put in three things to make this work. Time, effort and money. At first you will have to put in a lot of work, the beginning is the hard part. After that you will start making money without actually putting in a lot of time.
If the only way you have to make money is to go to the office, you will never be able to quit!
Once you put in the work, and your income generated starts covering your expenses then you can completely stop working entirely and you can still be financially free.
Why passive income?
Since a long time I have been working day and night to find ways to earn money for achieving my dream and that is freedom! We only have this one life and I want to spend it doing the things I enjoy and love. Time is valuable and I don’t want to spend it in being stuck in a boring desk job. In order to fulfil my dreams, I had to look for ways to generate passive income.
The good things about passive income are:
- It does not relate to the amount of work you do, or the hours you put it. Once your way is set up, you can work very little and still generate income. Wouldn’t you take this opportunity?
- Initially, you will have to put in a lot of work, but after that you will be earning on a daily basis.
- You’ll be able to pay your bills and still have time to do what you really love.
If you like your job and don’t want to quit it. This is still a great option to have an income stream on the side. Everyone should have a plan B and job security is fragile. If you need an extra safety net them this is it!
If there is one thing to take from this post is that generating passive income is no easy task. It takes hard work and commitment. Your passive income can come from investments or products but you need to have the drive to create it and push through.
Once you have made the effort, you’ll be making money while you sleep.
There are different ways to generate passive income:
- Investing your existing financial capital
- Investing in digital content creation
- Renting out things
Best Passive Income Ideas
I have gathered a list of all the ways you can generate passive income. Some require more work than others, some have a higher risk factor so you need to critically evaluate everything before reaching a decision.
I have classified these ideas by:
MONEY: the amount of money you will need to generate a passive income.
RISK: how risky the idea is.
TIME: how much time you will have to put at first
GAIN: you can earn very less (if you don’t execute it properly) or a lot. This is how much income you can generate on an average.
This is ofcourse based on my own experience but you need to ask yourself one question:
How many people are actually going to dedicate their time to learn about money making ways through passive income?
Don’t over think it! Choose a few ideas that seem interesting to you and try them out! If you don’t start earning a passive income you will have to work all your life just to fulfil some of your dreams. Why not go the extra mile and fulfil them all?
How To Create Passive Income
* Investing Money You Already Have *
This is the easiest way. It doesn’t even require that much daily effort. If you already have some financial capital or savings, you can choose from a variety of opportunities to generate passive income this way.
1. Invest In Dividend-Paying Stocks
Money: 10/10
Risk: 9/10
Time: 4/10
Gain: 8/10
If you don’t already know, dividends are paid by a company to its shareholders.
When you invest in this form, it means you are buying a share of the company and you become a part owner of that business. As a company grows and increases its revenue, it returns that money to its shareholders in the form of dividends.
This is an excellent way to generate income, but do your research on the company as buying a dividend is not a guarantee that you will generate income. If a company isn’t doing that well, it will not be able to pay dividends to its shareholders.
To learn more about investing through dividends, definitely give these a read:
- The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth
- The Dividend Mantra Way: Achieving Financial Independence By Living Below Your Means And Investing In Dividend Growth Stocks
- Dividend Growth Machine: How to Supercharge Your Investment Returns with Dividend Stocks
Recommended blogs:
2. Buy Index Funds And ETFs
Money: 10/10
Risk: 8/10
Time: 2/10
Gain: 7/10
If you have financial resources but no time to gain knowledge about dividends, then index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a better and easy alternative. Both track specific returns of a market index.
If you want your existing money to generate more money, with a comparatively low risk then this might be the right choice for you.
I have always been afraid of investing in the stock market as it is risky and I am not much of a risk taker. Index investing and ETFs changed my life. My investments made a return of 10% last year.
Books to read:
- The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing
- The Simple Path to Wealth
Recommended blog: J.L Collins’ Stock Series
3. Open A High-Yield Account
Money: 6/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 1/10
Gain: 2/10
Most bank accounts don’t pay a lot for savings. If you have some money in your account that’s just sitting and you don’t know how to invest or don’t want to take any risks then choose the best rate for your savings.
Online banks give a much better interest rate, the difference can be 155x more than conventional banks. Trust me, I’m not joking!
Bank of America offers 0.01% on your savings while CIT Bank offers 1.85%! The savings builder account has no fee and you can open it with a minimum of $100. To earn their interest however, you need to put in $100 in your account every month. CIT Bank offers the best national average.
Some high-yield accounts available on the market:
- CIT Bank – 1.85%
- Barclays Bank – 1.90%
- Synchrony Bank – 1.90%
If you can consistently set aside savings every month, then your money will start increasing without much effort from your side.
4. Invest with Robo Advisors
Money: 7/10
Risk: 7/10
Time: 2/10
Gain: 7/10
Up until recently, if you wanted to invest money, you were required to hire a financial advisor or a portfolio manager.
This not only required a minimum sum to invest, but came with a very high fees.
What are Robo Advisors?
These are digital platforms that automate investing, using algorithm-driven technology. This makes it easier to invest, even if you have little capital.
The largest robo advisor on the market is Betterment, and one of the best. If you are not driven to learn about investment this is a great option.
There is no minimum requirement for investing. The fees are very low, and you don’t need to know much about investing.
What you need to do:
- Open an account with no minimum deposit
- Tell Betterment about yourself: Down payment for your mortgage? Where do you financially stand and why are you investing? Dream vacation?
- Based on your answers, Betterment will recommend an investing plan and use their technology to create your personalised portfolio.
Similar to Betterment, is Blooom but for your 401k plan. Blooom will give you a free analysis of your current employment-sponsored retirement plan.
This will aid you in uncovering redundant hidden investment fees rapidly. Not only, will they work towards reducing your investment fees, but they will rebalance your retirement portfolio based on your date of birth and retirement, to help you achieve your retirement goals.
Get a free analysis!
5. Peer-to-Peer Lending
Money: 8/10
Risk: 9/0
Time: 3/10
Gain: 7/10
This means loaning money to other people. You loan out money to people who cannot get it from financing institutions. Companies like Lending Club and Prosper offer returns between 4-10%, which are higher than a typical savings account. Based on your risk assessment, you can find the right investment. Do a thorough research before lending money.
6. Crowdfunded Real Estate
Money: 8/10
Risk: 7/10
Time: 3/10
Gain: 7/10
Real estate investing is great, but it requires a large financial capital upfront. Crowdfunded real estate investing gives you a way to invest in the real estate market, without having to put in a lot of money. It is a much more passive investment than owning a house or a flat.
In this way, you are normally funding loans, which are used to buy and improve real properties. You then get paid for that.
Returns are between 7-10%, same as peer-to-peer lending, but you have the actual house to back up the investment.
If you are interested in finding out more, sign up for PeerStreet. It has a minimum investment of $1000. Signing up is free, and once you have an account you can check the potential real estate deals or go through their portfolio suggestions.
Again, I can’t stress this enough: Do your research!
Recommended Article: High-Efficiency Real Estate Investing with PeerStreet
7. Invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Money: 7/10
Risk: 7/10
Time: 3/10
Gain: 7/10
This is yet another way to invest in real estate. A REIT is a company that owns, operates or finances real estate and allows anyone to invest in portfolios of real estate assets. It works in a similar way as stocks. You can buy individual stock or an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Then, you earn a proportion of the income generated through the real estate investment, without having to maintain or finance a property.
It usually has high dividend yields and offers increased capital returns.
* Renting Things Out *
If you own assets, you can generate income by renting them out. This is the best way of taking advantage of things you already own.
8. Invest in a Rental Property
Money: 10/10
Risk: 6/10
Time: 8/10
Gain: 7/10
This is my personal favourite. It will require financial capital for you to invest in a rental property. Finding the right property can also be a time consuming process but it is worth it.
You need to keep renovating the property to make sure it is in perfect shape and to boost its value. The better your property, the higher you can charge rent! You can outsource maintenance tasks and just earn monthly.
Recommended websites:
9. Rent Out Your Spare Room
Money: 1/0
Risk: 2/10
Time: 4/10
Gain: 5/10
Generate passive income from the comfort of your home.
If you own a house and some rooms to spare, you can rent it out by placing your space on websites such as Airbnb.
If you are already living in a rented place, be sure to talk to your landlord first. You can’t rent it out without his/her permission.
The amount you can charge as rent depends on the area, the size and how good the condition of your house is. It’s definitely a great way to make use of free space.
Going on a vacation? List your house for rent. Click here to learn how.
If you want to try out Airbnb as a guest first, to check how it is and get $40 towards your next trip by clicking here.
10. Rent Out Your Bike, Parking Space or Car
Money: 1/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 4/10
Gain: 4/10
If you have any of these things, just rent it out. It will require effort and maintenance but still an easy way.
To rent out your car, visit:
Turo: Your car is covered against theft and physical damage and you are protected with $1 million in liability insurance.
To rent out your bike, visit:
Splinlister: They take a 17.5% fee for rentals and ensure safety of your bike up to $10,000.
If you have a free parking space you can list it on websites such as Craiglist.
* Get Paid For Things You Already Do *
11. Get paid to shop
Money: 1/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 2/10
Gain: 2/10
We all love shopping, why not make money out of it? Get money back on everything that you buy. It will just take a bit of time and you can get 2-7% back on your money.
Swagbucks: this is an app which has 1500 shops you can choose from. Includes places such as Target, Starbucks and Amazon.
Rakuten: this site gives you cash back when you shop online. You can visit the website or download the app. You get a free $10 bonus once you sign up and you can see how much cash back you can make on each shop once you select it.
Ibotta: this one is a bit unique. You need to click a picture of your grocery receipts and upload them to the app. You will then receive between $0.25 to a few dollars per receipt as cash back for buying certain products. They also give you a $10 bonus when you sign up.
* E-Commerce *
Having an e-commerce store is easy and earns good money. It has also become easier to set up an online store with platforms such as Shopify.
12. Start your own online store
Money: 4/10
Risk: 3/10
Time: 9/10
Gain: 7/10
Online stores have been becoming popular with each passing year.
There are several business models you can come up with:
- Sell your own physical product: this requires work and capital but if you create something different, you can generate a high profit margin
- Sell your own digital products: this also requires a lot of effort, but you won’t have to fret about shipment and good delivery.
- Dropshipping: you won’t have to own any stock. If anything is being purchased from your online store, the manufacturer will ship it directly to the customer.
- Sell other peoples product: sell different products from the beginning; this is a difficult way to earn in such a competitive market.
Shopify is the best way to design sites.
Start your 14-day free trial by clicking here.
* Investing In Digital Content *
You can create digital content and earn money. It requires more time but if you consistently work on it, you will be able to generate a passive income stream.
13. Start a Blog
Money: 2/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 8/10
Gain: 7/10
Blogging requires a ton of hard work in the initial phase. It took me months before I launched to generate good enough content. If you are clever what you write about, you can generate traffic. In the digital world, the higher the traffic, the higher the return.
You can even add advertisements to your blog or earn money by using affiliate marketing. With this, anytime someone clicks on the affiliate links on your site and makes a purchase, you will receive a small commission out of it.
14. Write an E-book
Money: 1/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 8/10
Gain: 7/10
This requires some investment initially, but can be great to generate passive income. With the evolution of digital technology, it has become increasingly easy to become an author.
It may sound like a daunting task but it’s not. You can write 80-100 page e-books on something you even love. Ensure that you market the book too through bloggers and influencers. Topics can range from finance, online marketing and business. These sell more than fiction.
An easy to way to execute this is by using the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
15. Affiliate Marketing
Money: 1/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 8/10
Gain: 7/10
This method produces multiple income streams. You will have to research a potentially profitable niche, drive traffic to your website, and earn a commission through recommending products or services. Drive traffic and generate income.
16. Teach Your Expertise
Money: 1/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 8/10
Gain: 7/10
More and more people are teaching online courses and generating a passive income. Put in the work and you will get returns. You can create videos, checklists, audio files or even e-books with your lessons.
Curate various courses at different rates to earn potentially higher.
Great websites for this tool are:
17. Flip domains for profit
Money: 2/10
Risk: 2/10
Time: 4/10
Gain: 6/10
The idea behind this is that you buy domain names for cheap, and then resell them for a profit.
You need to spend time researching for this and choose the right keywords which will potentially make you money. If you just want to see how this works, don’t spend a lot of money on a domain. Just make sure to pick the right one which might give you a high return.
18. Set up your YouTube Channel
Money: 3/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 9/10
Gain: 7/10
Creating video content is not an easy take. There is so much competition out there and you need to create something different and one of a kind. If you pick the right target audience and create great content, you will be able to drive traffic from YouTube and Google.
You can display an ad on your channel to generate money and get paid every time someone watches your content. If you have great video and editing skills, do try this out!
19. License Your Photos
Money: 2/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 6/10
Gain: 5/10
If you have an amazing aesthetic sense and a keen eye for photography, you can make money by selling the best pictures you’ve taken online.
Many websites pay you based on the number of times your photo has been downloaded.
Websites to sell your photos:
If you want to learn more about thus, Udemy offers some great courses. All these courses have been rated above 4.5 stars and taken by over a 1000 people.
20. Develop an app
Money: 4/10
Risk: 6/10
Time: 7/10
Gain: 7/10
This is the hardest way to generate income. Building an app costs a good amount of money. However, if you come up with a unique idea and have skills in this area then you will earn every time your app is downloaded.
Look for gaps in the market, and help people by filling that gap Do give it a shot!
21. Sell Printables on Autopilot
Money: 2/10
Risk: 1/10
Time: 7/10
Gain: 6/10
If you are creative, artistic and love designing you can sell digital products on Etsy. Digital products are low maintenance and you just need to create beautiful art.
Examples of popular printables:
- Invitations
- Decorations
- Wall Art
- Greeting Cards
- Organizer
It’s not just limited to these; you can create anything and earn money as long as you apply your knowledge and expertise.
Summary of Smart Passive Income Ideas
Most of these require a lot of effort, but it is possible. In the long run it is definitely worth it.
My favourite passive income ideas so far are:
- Index Funds and ETFs
- Starting A Blog
- Investing in a Rental Property
Right now, I am also looking into:
- Writing an E-book
- Teaching my expertise
- Starting an online store
If you are bored of your job, or even want to have some financial independence, these are great passive income ideas for you to start with!
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