Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 150 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#41

Post by shanecleveland »

Small tools and web apps that provide a quick solution to very niche problems. Mostly aimed at business. Primarily based on obscure forms that occasionally need to be filled out for shipping. If I find myself googling something but don't find a great fit for what I need or many relevant hits, I look into building it. Or if I find myself manually gathering and formatting data or info, I see if I can automate it. Some end up being useful/found by others. Some don't. I currently see about $300/mo through adsense. A few of these things could turn into something more if I was ever motivated to do so, but would no longer be passive. Some probably not. Most interesting is seeing what takes off and what doesn't and trying to apply that to duplicate the success.

I've tried a couple affiliate projects, but have not found a great fit yet.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#43

Post by bsbechtel »

wangarific wrote: post #16
morgante wrote: post #5

A stock portfolio that I've built through consulting profits is my main passive income source. Anything else is not really "passive." This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but in my view the average developer is much better off simply selling their time at the maximum rate and funneling the profits into a well-managed portfolio. The median outcome for this is much better than the story on most passive-in…

For 100% passive, you really can't beat this. Funnel your cash into dividend stocks and now you have a stream of income that's taxed at a favorable rate too. Even if you were to go with an S&P 500 index fund you get a near 2% yield.

Yes, if you don't consider the 35% corporate tax rate on the corporation's profits before the 15% capital gains.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#44

Post by whiplashoo »

I run https://mapchart.net which is a map chart creation tool. You can quickly create a map chart of World, USA, UK, Europe and more with custom colors and descriptions.

It is completely free to use and my only source of income are Adsense ads on the homepage and some sparse donations. Since May, when the site was featured on the front page of Reddit, my audience has increased with a steady rate, along with my ad revenue (almost $500 last month).

I don't really do anything maintenance-wise, except for answering questions from my users. I work on it from time to time, mainly adding new features or new country/regions maps, and I still enjoy it, as it was my first real programming project (I actually submitted it as a final project for EdX's CS50x course!).

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#46

Post by k__ »

mylons wrote: post #29
morgante wrote: post #5

A stock portfolio that I've built through consulting profits is my main passive income source. Anything else is not really "passive." This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but in my view the average developer is much better off simply selling their time at the maximum rate and funneling the profits into a well-managed portfolio. The median outcome for this is much better than the story on most passive-in…

if you've never consulted before, how do you "start"? cold emailing people for freelance gigs that you see on hackernews doesn't usually parlay into high paying consulting gigs.

Well, there are a bunch of job sites that also give the option of "contract" work.

AngelList for example.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#47

Post by shanecleveland »

morgante wrote: post #5

A stock portfolio that I've built through consulting profits is my main passive income source. Anything else is not really "passive." This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but in my view the average developer is much better off simply selling their time at the maximum rate and funneling the profits into a well-managed portfolio. The median outcome for this is much better than the story on most passive-in…

> Anything else is not really "passive."

Sure it is.

Yours is just a different method. You had to work to get the money, first. Passive income is the same. Some effort had to be put forth.

Passive doesn't mean do nothing and get something. That's idle income. I believe, particularly when we talk about it here on HN, it means to apply a set of already possessed skills, knowledge, resources, etc., and put forth some effort without a great deal of emphasis on making a profit, at least initially. Otherwise, it is a job.

But if successful and money is made, you have a source of income. And it may eventually become idle income.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#48

Post by rockdiesel »

luhn wrote: post #34
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #18

I've got a savings account. Interest on that baby is getting me upwards of 30 cents a month.

I know you're being facetious and your real-life investment portfolio likely looks much different but I need to say: Savings accounts are a terrible place to put your savings. If you have anything more than a couple thousand dollars, you can put it in a mutual fund and see several percent return on average, versus the fraction of the percent you can get from a savings account. In certain situations savings accounts c…

> versus the fraction of the percent you can get from a savings account

Ally savings account is 1%. It's where I keep my emergency fund now. Once I built up my emergency fund I stopped putting money into it, however, but it's nice to see some noticeable interest gains every month vs. the pennies I would see with my Chase savings acct.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#49

Post by khedoros1 »

lloeki wrote: post #28
dorfsmay wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to write a blog post on your site about how to make passive income, which you are doing by hosting your site about how to make passive income! I don't think it can get more meta than that!

Nitpick: meta is too much of a catch-all, mise en abîme is more apt here.

On the other hand, people that I know actually use "meta", so it's probably a better choice if I intend to communicate information to another person. As used in the comment that you replied to, the intended meaning is unambiguous.

Re: Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

#50

Post by axonic »

lloeki wrote: post #28
dorfsmay wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to write a blog post on your site about how to make passive income, which you are doing by hosting your site about how to make passive income! I don't think it can get more meta than that!

Nitpick: meta is too much of a catch-all, mise en abîme is more apt here.

I can appreciate the provided alternative, thank you for sharing.
Post reply on HN