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Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

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Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#61

Post by lhorie »

seansmccullough wrote: post #56
lhorie wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work at a big bay area tech company, between a third to half of those 300k/yr are actually in equity (stocks), so step 5 is sort of already done for you. There's also ESPP that lets one buy even more stock at a discount, which is basically free money. However, taxes and cost of living are also incredibly high, so realistically you're probably not going to be saving 200k/yr (though you could probably still save…

You should sell your RSUs on rest and diversify. If you don't diversify and something happens to your employer, your could lose your job, the value of your home could go down, and your investment could lose a substantial amount of value, all at the same time.

Yeah, diversifying is generally considered a good idea. You can talk to financial planners for help there. General rule of thumb, though, is get rid of all your debt first and foremost if you have any, and do low/no commission investments (e.g. ETFs). Of course, nothing really stops you from going all in on FAANG if you're ok with high risk.

Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#62

Post by ineedasername »

coldtea wrote: post #29
ineedasername wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, all else being equal this may be true. But as with most things, it depends on quality & implementation of the idea. If the OP has a solid game idea that they're even a little passionate about, that may count for a lot more than grasping for a niche SaaS product that might have an audience. Although if the SaaS projecy were itself to go viral, there's probably a much larger upside than viral indie game.

> Sure, all else being equal this may be true. But as with most things, it depends on quality & implementation of the idea. And what makes you think that someone just learning Python and asking for ideas for passive gigs will hit either of those?

>And what makes you think...

Not much, but it was the OP that mentioned game & SaaS options, so that's what I responded to.

Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#63

Post by jammygit »

joeax wrote: post #55

My 0.000002 BTC: I've tried several side projects over the years, a productivity SaaS app, a dating site, monetizing an open source project. I eventually gave up on those and wrote a sci-fi novel that generated a sizable income stream for a while. I will say that it's a crowded space and eventually your income will peter out unless you spend big on advertising. But if you say, crank out one novel per year, you could…

I never thought I’d read a software developer recommending writing as the path to riches.

Could you share more about getting your book published? I’ve written 1.5 novels but never tried to get anything published. What was the process like?

Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#64

Post by joeax »

nickles wrote: post #53
blevin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that SPY yield today is 1.9% — below CPI — so you are losing value even before paying tax on that income. If you are hoping for capital gains / equity risk premium to provide extra return, you owe yourself to read a bit about where we are in the economic cycle, current corporate debt levels compared to history, and to look at what happened in 2000, 2008, and last December and visualize going through that…

> SPY yield today is 1.9% That's dividend yield. If all companies stopped issuing dividends and instead spent the money on buybacks, you'd have a 0% dividend yield, but the same amount of money would be returned to shareholders without incurring a taxable event for remaining shareholders. Reinvesting dividends would allow for continued growth at whatever rate the ETF appreciated or depreciated, minus taxes. > below C…

I'd like to add that SPY yield if you invested today is 1.9%, but if you dollar-cost average invested over the past 10 years, your yield-on-cost would be much higher ~5-6%.

Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#65

Post by joeax »

jammygit wrote: post #63
joeax wrote: post #55

My 0.000002 BTC: I've tried several side projects over the years, a productivity SaaS app, a dating site, monetizing an open source project. I eventually gave up on those and wrote a sci-fi novel that generated a sizable income stream for a while. I will say that it's a crowded space and eventually your income will peter out unless you spend big on advertising. But if you say, crank out one novel per year, you could…

I never thought I’d read a software developer recommending writing as the path to riches. Could you share more about getting your book published? I’ve written 1.5 novels but never tried to get anything published. What was the process like?

I self-published on Amazon. I got inspired by an author friend who had like 20 books on Amazon and quit his job to write full-time.

Steps I took:

- research the science for my story

- write an outline of my novel

- read a book on how to write a compelling story, for me it was "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass

- write the novel

- edit the novel iteratively, hiring an editor if necessary (strongly recommended for most people)

- send out copies to friends and family for feedback

- convert to Word doc to an epub file

- hire a cover designer

- publish on Amazon

- run ads on BookBuB, Facebook, Amazon

Re: Ask HN: Best Passive Income Method?

#69

Post by b3b0p »

Not sure if this counts, but I have a couple Vanguard funds, the monthly interest and dividends is about $1000/month on average. I also don't own a car, but do own a parking spot in downtown Minneapolis that I lease out for $150-$175/month (it came with my condo).

Seems like it's about the closest to true passive income as you can get as I don't do or even really think about either.

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