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Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#71
I've made a measly $179 this year from Passive Income. It's not much but it is entirely passive. Most of it comes from Google AdSense on my blog, which I've been writing posts in for about 15 years. I mostly write stuff that I've researched and completed and that I want to remember how to do again in the future. I don't consider my time because these are simply notes I wrote for myself and would have written regardless of being paid for them.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#72
It's not exactly "passive", but I make about $16k renting the bottom floor of the duplex I own. It's not without headaches of having to deal with tenants and maintenance and whatnot, but since I live there anyway in the upstairs, it's primarily things I would have to do in any case. And I can write off a lot of interest and tools and materials on my taxes. It pays the mortgage, if not the taxes, and should be a nice little income property down the road when I buy a real house.

I also make about $100 a year on Amazon affiliate links on my blog.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy to get passive income. Just buy high dividend mutual funds. 100k in the market should net you 4-12k per year.

but if you're not reinvesting your passive will shrink over time due to inflation(I'm not sure about US but here in Brazil the dividends are subtracted from the stock valuation), so even then it requires some kind of maintenance. Capitalism is inherently competitive, if some way to generate capital is too easy it will become hard quite fast due to competition. If you can still make some money out of investing is beca…

My 401(k) automatically reinvents my dividends.

> if some way to generate capital is too easy it will become hard quite fast due to competition.

For the general population, saving money to invest is not easy.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but if you're not reinvesting your passive will shrink over time due to inflation(I'm not sure about US but here in Brazil the dividends are subtracted from the stock valuation), so even then it requires some kind of maintenance. Capitalism is inherently competitive, if some way to generate capital is too easy it will become hard quite fast due to competition. If you can still make some money out of investing is beca…

> (I'm not sure about US but here in Brazil the dividends are subtracted from the stock valuation) What is that about?? Usually the market prices the dividend removal, but that only lasts so long. At any point during the year the market prices it back, in anticipation of the next dividend.

I'm also very curious about this. Did some research, and got no answers...

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#75

The more I explore this concept of 'passive income' the more it seems like a unicorn not unlike the Facebooks and Instagrams of the world. Sure, it's possible to generate truly passive income, without any ongoing work to sustain it, but such projects are so rare that it's impractical to pursue them. It's like saying you're going to create the next unicorn...good luck with that. 99.9% of endeavors worth doing pursuing…

Passive implies less-than-full-time work, not "no work". It also usually requires a ton of unpaid work invested up-front (hence why most people never try it), and after it's established it should mostly just run on autopilot. There's obviously an ongoing maintenance requirement, as any system has. Often people outsource parts like customer support to further automate things. Ideally the product is something you enjoy…

> Passive implies less-than-full-time work, not "no work".

Pretty sure passive really means "no work". Granted, it's a theoretical concept that in practice can only be approached, but "less-than-full-time" does not sound like a fair approximation. Some passive income can require less than an hour a month of "work" (basically doing some paperwork for your broker, filling your tax form or stuff like that).

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#76

The more I explore this concept of 'passive income' the more it seems like a unicorn not unlike the Facebooks and Instagrams of the world. Sure, it's possible to generate truly passive income, without any ongoing work to sustain it, but such projects are so rare that it's impractical to pursue them. It's like saying you're going to create the next unicorn...good luck with that. 99.9% of endeavors worth doing pursuing…

It's very easy to get passive income. Just buy high dividend mutual funds. 100k in the market should net you 4-12k per year.

Along with that kind of passive income comes passive risk (i.e., risk you have zero control over).

Not saying you're wrong, but it's something to keep in mind based on your goals.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy to get passive income. Just buy high dividend mutual funds. 100k in the market should net you 4-12k per year.

I have about 50k€ on European and US stock markets. Amazingly enough, that only payed me 1128€ (after tax [I just checked my income tax form]) in dividends last year. I guess I suck at picking high-return stocks.

Have you look to professionally managed portfolios?

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#78

I run a side project for sending business reminders: https://www.cronote.com Cronote made next to no money for 5 years, but slowly migrated its way to the top of Google for search of "text message reminders" and "sms reminders." I did a ton of work, made an iPhone app, changed the billing system four times and rebuilt the interface three times. I now have ~60 paying customers, but it only makes $300 per month after a…

Your side project reminds me of patio11's appointment reminder. I visited your website and found the enterprise pricing is jarringly low, I recommend reading some of patio11 HN post / his blog, perhaps you might be able to increase price and earn 10x more a year.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have about 50k€ on European and US stock markets. Amazingly enough, that only payed me 1128€ (after tax [I just checked my income tax form]) in dividends last year. I guess I suck at picking high-return stocks.

Have you look to professionally managed portfolios?

Well, I don't trust professionally managed products (I'm in France as well btw) for various reasons. Basically I think in the long run it's better to manage your portfolio yourself. I'm sure I could get a better return if I was putting more effort into it, but I'm lazy so I don't mind.

Also, at least if I don't earn much I only have myself to blame.

Re: Ask HN: What is your yearly passive income?

#80

I have a Linux/Programming/Tech Career YouTube channel ( https://youtube.com/c/tutorialinux ) that just hit 50k subscribers (yay!), and it makes around $450/month in ad revenue. I also made a poorly targeted and marketed practical system administration Udemy course last year, which does about $500/month. These projects, along with a few other small things, are on track to make around $15k this year. That's after abou…

How much time do you put into the YouTube channel per week / month? I'm seeing on average three 20 minute videos produced per week - so it's at least one hour, but I'd imagine each video takes longer to edit etc?
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