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Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?

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

#61

Post by Veratyr »

I'm invested in forex (foreign currency trading). There are 3 buckets I'm in:

- $3500 deposited, run since Jun 3 (~5 months), current balance is $5200 (48% total profit, 8%/mo).

- $5000 deposited, run since Jun 28 (~4 months), current balance is $4590 (8% total loss, ~-2%/mo).

- $3000 deposited, run since Sep 2 (~2 months), current balance is $3218 (7% total profit, ~3.5%/mo).

It's certainly not for everyone but it's an amusing hobby. I've made a net profit so far so I'm happy.

I came to this after stocks as the research I'd found seemed to show that foreign currency fluctuations were significantly easier to predict (and profit from).

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

#63

Post by Jugurtha »

morgante wrote: post #52
dxhdr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing how your portfolio is organized?

25% play money (stocks I pick individually), 75% index funds (with a focus on dividends).

Any statistics on how each of those are performing relative to each other.

I've never traded real money,only paper trading freshman year and played a game on MarketWatch where I traded like a monkey and made profits. I also put a prognostic on AAPL when it was in its 52 week's low and on ORCL and the outcome was as I had predicted. Maybe because there was no real money at stake.

I'm just curious and find this interesting.

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

#64

Post by shanecleveland »

morgante wrote: post #53
shanecleveland wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ef…

I guess we have different definitions of passive income. Obviously you can spend a bunch of time to build and run a business (and, in fact, I try to do that). I just don't really think it's passive when you're working many hours a month on it. In contrast, my portfolio requires literally 0 work on a monthly basis.

Pretty much the same. Do some work, create resources (money, website, app, property, knowledge), put the resource to work for you.

No doubt using resources you already have, which in your case is money, to generate income would fit the definition of passive income. More accurately, it's investment income, which also is not guaranteed. And you did have to perform work to get that money in the first place. Are planning on injecting more funds into your portfolio? That likely means performing more work to generate those funds.

Likewise, I have sites that generate income that I have not touched in months, maybe a year or more. Like you, I had to do some work to begin generating the income. Now, it's passive income. Not a business.

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

#65

Post by dmoney »

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…

What's a good resource on how to do this? How does the "income" part actually come back to you? Do you sell a little stock each month?

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

#66

Post by charlesdm »

Jugurtha wrote: post #63
morgante wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25% play money (stocks I pick individually), 75% index funds (with a focus on dividends).

Any statistics on how each of those are performing relative to each other . I've never traded real money,only paper trading freshman year and played a game on MarketWatch where I traded like a monkey and made profits. I also put a prognostic on AAPL when it was in its 52 week's low and on ORCL and the outcome was as I had predicted. Maybe because there was no real money at stake. I'm just curious and find this intere…

Paper money is not real money. You won't act and respond in the same way as if you're dealing with your own cash.

Trading.. well, you'll probably lose your shirt. Investing however is very doable. Start with the stuff you understand well (i.e. probably tech). Why not just put in $5k and see where you end up? Even small amounts can teach you a lot.

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

#69

Post by mcphage »

morgante wrote: post #51
GarrisonPrime wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming maximizing cashflow is the most important factor. Some of us would be willing to have a lower standard of living (possibly significantly lower) if a passive income could provide that.

In what way did I say that? if anything, I'm maximizing passivity. You can live off stock dividends a lot longer if you lower your standard of living. Your comment is totally orthogonal.

> In what way did I say that?

That would be this bit here:

> simply selling their time at the maximum rate

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

#70

Post by bkrull »

I run BitPixels (http://www.bitpixels.com) that provides automated website thumbnails. I purchased Bitpixels from another HN member a few years ago and have continued to build and market it.

BitPixels currently makes ~$1k/month which is enough to cover the App Engine and DigitalOcean bills plus a bit extra. I'm working to find 1-2 more marketing channels that can drive sustainable growth.

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