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Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

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Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#181

Post by purringmeow »

revorad wrote: post #171
purringmeow wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a strange obsession with consulting. How do you find customers that aren't mom and pop shops looking for someone to build their site for $200?

Write online, ask your friends to refer clients, ask people for work at meetups/conferences, cold call and email companies, look up the dozen remote job boards that crop up every other week, subscribe to every industry mailing list you can. There are about a 1000 ways to do it. But you have to actually do it.

Cold call and email what companies? About what work? I doubt most of the mid-sized and big companies will hire a contractor with no recommendations from someone close to the execs.

I am not nitpicking, just sharing that what you've suggested works only for very experienced people with a big network. I am still in University.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#182

Post by mjnaus »

untilHellbanned wrote: post #107
zura wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, and here is another idea - build CodeCanyon clone but take 20% :)

Onarbor takes code and only 10%, https://onarbor.com

Nowhere near the same amount of exposure. Yes, you'll earn a higher percentage, however with the lower number of sales, the money you pocket will be significantly less.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#183

Post by mjnaus »

seanle wrote: post #146
mjnaus wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly PHP applications so far. An yeah, these are products people are searching for (I assume so since they're selling pretty well)

Would you mind linking me to some of them?

This is our CC portfolio: http://codecanyon.net/user/chilly_orange/portfolio

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#185

Post by meric »

mcguire wrote: post #123
pessimizer wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a safe rate of withdrawal for people who are not gamblers. High dividend stocks are almost by definition risky stocks. More like half that would be sustainable.

" High dividend stocks are almost by definition risky stocks. " Pardon me, but that is more or less the opposite of the traditional received wisdom. High dividend stocks come in two varieties: * Low-growth, mature, typically capital-intensive companies, especially those in highly-regulated industries. Think power generation, some real estate investments, and so on. Since stock price appreciation is not in the cards,…

Looked one up in two minutes.

Royal Dutch Shell gives a yield of 4.3%. http://ycharts.com/companies/RDS.B/dividend_yield

In 2010, it's yield was 6.5%.

It isn't inconceivable in 18 months time it'll be back near 6%.

It's all about timing.

I'm sure there are other high dividend stocks which are similarly non-risky, high yielding and produces a non-volatile source of income. 6% is on the high side, but isn't impossible.

You also don't have to look for USD denominated investments. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Australia's largest bank), gives a dividend yield of close to 5%.

https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/shareholders/shareholde...

The share price had risen over 50% over the past 4 years so if you had bought it 4 years ago instead the yield would be much more attractive.

Yields are low currently only because the entire market is currently on the high side of the cycle. When it turns back down, that's when you go in and pick up your 6%, which may be 18 months from now (though could be more, or less).

EDIT: If you're really going to do this I recommend diversifying your investment into 3-4 high dividend stocks in different industries - since dividends do vary as the economic cycle in each industry moves up and down.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#186

Post by bikamonki »

You are trapped on a catch 22: you want free time to work on cool projects but need one of these projects to drip $500/mo so you can free up your time to work on cool projects ;) This is how I did it: 1. Get to zero debt. Cut your credit cards. Keep one at home to pay for online services/emergencies. 2. Aim to make double of what you think you need/mo. 3. Go freelance and sign paid SLAs/Support Contracts. After 2yrs/4-6 projects you will have stable monthly checks and if you play it smart most of your maintenance tasks will be automatic. Add 1-2 projects to the mix/year. 4. Don't grow, don't hire help. That will turn you into a manager+programmer and the train will lose track. Be like the expert doctor: if you are good clients will line up. 5. Pick good value projects: short (1-2 months), well paid, at least 2 yrs of SLA, 50% upfront. 6. Save!!!!!!!! 7. Quit your current job when you find your first client, not before. Work is essential to a happy life, not only "paid" work. Find a good balance.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#187

Post by kyriakos »

mjnaus wrote: post #13

Since March this year, I have been able to build a semi-passive income of around $1500 per month (lowest around $1000 and highest $2000) by building/selling items on CodeCanyon. Granted it's not truly passive income, rather semi-passive. That said, with minimal monthly efforts, the money comes in each month.

I recently made an attempt on codecanyon. My item sells ok but with the number of support emails I get and time I need to help people with trivial issues which I clearly explain in the supplied documentation, it can't be considered passive.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#188

Post by justincormack »

lquist wrote: post #167
justincormack wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the Indian rupee has no stability against the dollar, so that is meaningless.

A guess, but I think he lives in India and probably cares more about INR return than USD return.

With 8% (very variable) inflation in India he is still confused about what he is getting.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#189

Post by hywel »

xinwen wrote: post #155

It's not easy. I had the same plan a few months ago. Thought I'd share my own (ongoing) story, maybe it will give you some ideas. Some background, I'm a engineer at a YC company in San Francisco. I was also looking for a passive income side project and after a few attempts from scratch sputtered I happened upon a website auction at flippa.com for an interesting webapp: www.postrgram.com I spoke with the owner over Sk…

If anyone is interested in tech like this, I'm selling a Rails app that makes a photomosaic from your Facebook photos. It's no longer online, but there's no licensing the photomosaic part, cos I built it myself. Contact me at c@gmail.com.

Re: Ask HN: How to start earning $500/month in passive income in next 12-18 months?

#190

Post by halfcat »

scheff wrote: post #59
silver1 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in training as well ... whats your area of expertise and how do you make your passive income?

I generate a passive income through options trading. It takes a small amount of my time each week. I have built up a wealth of knowledge through years of study. I have experimented with most forms of passive income over 20 years and found that most of them don't meet the requirements of "passive income".

When you say passive, does that mean you are doing covered calls, or something else?
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