Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#91

Post by threeseed » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:53 AM UTC

lowpro wrote: post #75

PaulRobinson wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't say where you are based, but you are going to get a shock if you think interest rates are going to stay on the floor. If you can get a genuine 25-year fixed rate, great, but you need to tread carefully here. Brexit, Trump, EU sentiment, China trying to deal with their own problems, they're all pointing to the same way: devalued currencies. Where they start, rising interest start to follow. I'd also be wary…

This isn't necessarily true. The US dollar is actually increasing in value as people want their money to be safe. If Trump does bring back American jobs, meaning less jobs in Asia, the dollar buy will continue, depressing Asia and strengthening the US for now. But you're right, the OP definitely needs to tread lightly with property and the contracts. The devil is always in the details.

The unemployment rate in the US is 4.9% which is basically full employment.

Now sure there are a number of people who don't report and those who wish to work more. But I don't think it's going to be easy to get those people back into work. Most are either in industries that are disappearing due to automation. Or they lack the skills/training to re-educate themselves.

And without tariffs (which will impact exports) there is little chance of US being all that competitive in most industries that compete with Asia (I assume you actually mean China).

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#92

Post by herbst » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:54 AM UTC

erikb wrote: post #82

herbst wrote: post #22

I have a website with ads on it. Or actually a few, but one that mostly pays for my life right now.

How much does your life cost a year?

Well since i quit my job in switzerland and moved around the globe to work on my own stuff (I dont only do stupid content sites) about $1000/month + Some plane tickets here and there.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#93

Post by velcro » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:56 AM UTC

jrheard wrote: post #13

Young hackers who have a surplus of income and have funds to spare that aren't being channeled toward debt / family / donations, heed me: save as much of your salary as you can, and put it in boring investments (index funds / etc), probably through vanguard.com (no affiliation, I just use them and have heard nothing but good things from people I trust). You can pretty easily set up your job's direct-deposit system so…

Any tips for something solid vanguard-like in the EU?

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#94

Post by nonsince » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:56 AM UTC

Romajashi wrote: post #52

vladdanilov wrote: post #26

Optimage – a visually lossless image optimization tool http://getoptimage.com Released this week. Came unnoticed on HN but somehow got featured on PH. 1200+ downloads of free version and a few sales. Not sure if that'll change. In that case, the best of 2016 will be one of the plugins for Sketch https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319286 .

what's PH?

Pornhub

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#95

Post by futuravenir » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:58 AM UTC

foota wrote: post #65

frou_dh wrote: post #20

2 (count 'em) dollars a month. For letting two people who don't want to run an instance of my OSS program themselves tap into my personal instance.

One. Two. I counted them.

I followed your lead and also counted them...But just in my head.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#96

Post by bert2002 » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:59 AM UTC

The best was a physical project - www.spypatch.com. A sticker for the camera on your laptop. I dont do any advertisement, but it sells through Amazon and the website. ~2k/y.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#97

Post by weichsel » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:59 AM UTC

I added an animated GIF exporter to my lossless screen recorder Claquette (macOS, https://www.peakstep.com/claquette). The project got some traction when Apple featured me in the Mac App Store this August. It also entered the Product Hunt front page and finished in the top 3 on launch day. Revenue is nothing spectacular, but it's a nice additional income.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#98

Post by nkkollaw » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:59 AM UTC

vladdanilov wrote: post #26

Optimage – a visually lossless image optimization tool http://getoptimage.com Released this week. Came unnoticed on HN but somehow got featured on PH. 1200+ downloads of free version and a few sales. Not sure if that'll change. In that case, the best of 2016 will be one of the plugins for Sketch https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319286 .

Saw that on PH, looks good.

May I ask what percentage of sales did you get?

I'm going to launch my product soon, and I'd like to know what I can expect.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#99

Post by ivrrimum » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 10:59 AM UTC

2throwaway2000 wrote: post #87

I make $1,400/mo from Google AdSense. I made a Wordpress website for people who want to find information about other people. I don't do anything on the site anymore besides perform Wordpress updates. It's basically changed my whole life and I am very fortunate/lucky. Throwaway account.

link?

Re: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

#100

Post by cesarb » Sun, Dec 11, 2016, 11:00 AM UTC

DangerousPie wrote: post #77

cesarb wrote: post #71

Here in Brazil we have it easy. The most boring funds (the ones which track the interbank rate - CDI) easily return around 12% per year (depending on the administration fee; the smaller the administration fee, the higher the return). With the inflation around 6% per year, this gives around 6% returns before tax. If you stay with the fund for at least two years (and it's of the correct kind), the tax rate is 15% over…

You probably know this, but it's always important to keep in mind what causes such high interest rates. A high interest rate is a signal that lenders are wary of lending money to the borrower because of an increased risk of default/inflation. That's fine as long as you are aware of this, but don't think you're getting a "better deal" than someone investing in a boring 1% German government bond. That 12.5% you're gett…

I live in Brazil, so if the government defaults, every other investment I could have made here would also crash, and the local economy with them. It's not called the "risk-free" interest rate for nothing: it's the lowest risk investment one can get within Brazil. Corporate bonds, for instance, will have a higher return, due to their higher risk.

As for inflation, when it increases the SELIC/CDI rates tend to rise with it too. And if you're afraid of that (it hasn't been long since we had a hyperinflation, so a lot of people still are), another government bond (NTN-B) has a return of inflation (measured by the IPCA index) plus a pre-fixed component (currently around 6%). Due to its pre-fixed component, it has some interest rate risk (if the interest rate rises, its present value drops, and vice-versa), but that's not a problem if you intend to keep it to term.

And, actually, the high interest rate is set by the government, as a way to control the inflation, so it's not as linked to the risk of default as one might think. The government could decide to lower the interest rate (and it has: a few years ago, it was set lower, but that led to the currently higher inflation, so the government increased it again to contain the inflation).