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Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#71
post #41
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

curious, do you count unrealized gains as income as well? I also did some passive index fund investments but I only count cash dividends as actual "income".

I am in this case..I don't really day trade, have dividends auto-reinvested and rarely sell. The market does sort of concern me right now though. We're sitting at all time highs for the S&P but there's worrying signs everywhere. I don't know how it'll all play out next year, so I might gradually sell some to lock in gains before end of year.

only do this if you need the money If you need the money short term, then it shouldn't be invested in equities.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#72
Currently i have mainly two different passive income streams. A side project and multifamily property investments.

My side project (https://www.teamcalapp.com) returns around $2500/month and growing. I think the main improvement to be done is doing more marketing, which is unfortunately not so passive.

Im also investing in apartment complexes. Right now i have 4 passive investments. Since I’m only a passive LLC member that income is truly passive. Those investment deliver nice regular cashflow (8-10%) and appreciation once sold. Right now I’m in the process of buying my own property together with friends (50-80units). That will then be a bit more work but still partially passive once all is setup with the property management company.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#73
Followup question (if allowed). If your passive income involves software and you're also employed at a software company, how do you deal with the potential legal problems?

Most contracts don't allow for commercial side projects and the company owns anything you create even outside of working hours. Do people just keep quiet and not tell their employer? How risky is it? I know some people who simply don't bother telling their employer (and may or may not pay taxes, too), but I guess you can only do this up to a certain point.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#74

I mean, it's worth asking, but anyone with a good niche would be smart to not post it publicly unless the benefits of publicity outweigh the risk of competition.

If you have a good idea you already have a lot of competition. Bad ideas have no competition because they are bad ideas that return every few years to fail again.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#75

Not what you were looking for but real estate (mostly rental) has been and remains my primary passive income.

I thought about getting into real estate like this, but my experience being a poor renter made it feel too parasitic. Does it bother you being a landlord who sucks money out of the situation while adding essentially no value to the people from whom you are taking regular income?

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#77
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in this case..I don't really day trade, have dividends auto-reinvested and rarely sell. The market does sort of concern me right now though. We're sitting at all time highs for the S&P but there's worrying signs everywhere. I don't know how it'll all play out next year, so I might gradually sell some to lock in gains before end of year.

only do this if you need the money If you need the money short term, then it shouldn't be invested in equities.

In theory I agree...but it's been a 10 year bull market and I would really not want to see any of my non-retirement or retirement accounts halved if I can help it.

My amateur "macro" view is we're in for heavily volatile times in the next 5 years.

I tend not to follow textbook personal financial advice shrug

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#78

Followup question (if allowed). If your passive income involves software and you're also employed at a software company, how do you deal with the potential legal problems? Most contracts don't allow for commercial side projects and the company owns anything you create even outside of working hours. Do people just keep quiet and not tell their employer? How risky is it? I know some people who simply don't bother telli…

> Most contracts don't allow for commercial side projects and the company owns anything you create even outside of working hours.

Those are terrible terms. You should never sign something like that.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#79

I have a website that attracts about 100 unique visitors a day and it brings me <$100/mo via Amazon Affiliate. Getting bigger than that requires a lot more traffic, which requires doing things like SEO research and marketing work which I'm generally too lazy to learn how to do.

For 3000 visitors/month Amazon pays $100? That seems quite a waste.

Re: Ask HN: What is your passive income 2019?

#80

Semi passive rental income - one unit. Looking to acquire more and retire in 4-5 years. =) failed at monetizing my side projects in a scalable way

Same, although I have four rental units and one AirBnB. I wasted years of my 20s trying to come up with a monetizable SaaS product until I realized that I could earn passive income through "boring" businesses like rental properties.

Now that I've had a taste of passive income through real estate, I've come to despise the tediousness of writing software. I can barely bring myself to do it anymore now that I don't "need" the income from my job to survive. My plan is to keep acquiring rental properties over the next fews and then quit the tech industry for good once I have enough to live comfortably.

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