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The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#271

Post by nunez »

bawolff wrote: post #96

> I've met dozens of smart, capable people who had actual energy, and who spent their entire twenties bouncing between passive income schemes instead of building real skills // real businesses // real careers. The author is acting like it hasn't always been this way. But it always has. There have always been people who felt the allure of the get rich quick scheme. Its always been true that if they just spent the same…

This is true. It's a plot point in "Little Miss Sunshine," a movie that came out in 2006. One of the main characters tries to sell a SYSTEM to get their family out of lower class living.

Get-rich-quick books have been around a long, long time. I'd wager they've been around since the printing press. And they always devolve into "buy low, sell high" or selling get-rich-quick systems to other people.

Passive income's not new either. It was (sometimes still is) a massive marketing play for franchisees. Spend $100k+ to open a franchise; the franchisor takes care of the rest; grab a hammock while you watch the money roll in. Never ever works that way, but that's how they've been marketed for a while.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#274

Post by nunez »

paulddraper wrote: post #36
zem wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my favourite bit was 8 Free to do what? Sit on a beach, apparently. Every single one of these people wanted to sit on a beach. I've never understood this. Have they been to a beach? There's sand. It gets everywhere. You can sit there for maybe three hours before you want to do literally anything else. 8 I laughed out loud when I read it, because it's so true.

I love the beach. Living near the beach is nice. You can sit on it, walk on it, swim on it, surf on it, run on it, fish on it. Better than a cement sidewalk, IMO.

I wish most beach cities weren't tourist traps with B- grade restaurants/bars. It's one of my biggest pet peeves with them.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#275

Post by mtlynch »

coldtea wrote: post #223
mtlynch wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You rarely see anything more than a couple hundred bucks a month. There are notable exceptions, but unfortunately a lot of those notable exceptions are scammy, spammy business models. I suspect this is largely sampling bias. I host meetups for indie founders, and several attendees earn their living through solo businesses. When I go to conferences like Microconf, I meet lots more. The problem with measuring financi…

> I host meetups for indie founders Speaking of sampling bias, isn't this like asking a shovel vendor about the success rate of gold prospectors? :)

Honestly, no. They're free meetups.

I don't stand to gain anything by exaggerating the results of the meetup attendees. Unless you think I'm trying to recruit people on HN to come to my meetups and meet successful founders?

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#276

Post by ghaff »

antisthenes wrote: post #264
bluGill wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The larger message is young people cannot get passive income in a short time. Sure there are a few born rich, and a tiny handful who by luck and skill (both are needed) get rich quick. However for the vast majority passive income is a long slog of saving a little here and there. (there is a third option - really lower your standard of living so you need almost nothing to live - get a good job but live in a tent city…

> Sure there are a few born rich A LOT of Millenials were born rich. They may not have realized it, but now that boomers are dying off, it is stratifying Millennials through inheritance. A lot of them have and continue to receive massive wealth transfers from their boomer parents through free-ish rent, gifts (aka pay for your down payment on a house), etc, etc.

Hard to keep up with what generations are supposedly uniquely disadvantaged. For Millennials specifically, houses would seem to be rather late in the game as they're probably mostly buying in their 30s maybe if they're buying at all and probably haven't been living with their parents for most of that period before.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#277

Post by mtlynch »

Hendrikto wrote: post #213
mtlynch wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You rarely see anything more than a couple hundred bucks a month. There are notable exceptions, but unfortunately a lot of those notable exceptions are scammy, spammy business models. I suspect this is largely sampling bias. I host meetups for indie founders, and several attendees earn their living through solo businesses. When I go to conferences like Microconf, I meet lots more. The problem with measuring financi…

> I host meetups for indie founders, and several attendees earn their living through solo businesses. When I go to conferences like Microconf, I meet lots more. > I suspect this is largely sampling bias. FTFY.

I'm not claiming that all indie founders are successful. I'm disputing the claim that almost all indie founders are struggling by saying I regularly meet indie founders who are successful. Not like driving exotic cars successful, but making a good living, in some cases with income on par with mid-to-senior FAANG dev jobs.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#278

Post by yieldcrv »

phil21 wrote: post #171
icedchai wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to escape is through consistent, long term investing in the stock market. You get a regular job and live below your means, investing the difference. Buy and hold. Invest regularly. Not day trading, long term. The problem is most people don’t have the patience, the right temperament, to do this.

This is not what people mean by passive income. Yeah, if you have a few million dollars of capital already you can easily just toss it in the market and collect 4% every year indefinitely. Pretty much one of the only truly passive income streams there is. The problem is how long and what you have to do to get that 3-5 million number. No one who is drawn to the “passive income” hustle is thinking “work a normal job fo…

You need to be around different people

Thats all it comes down to

Passive income through assets is the basis of our entire society, trying to out earn the base line is the entire economy. Banks wouldnt lend, employers would do something else, if they didnt believe they could earn more doing what they do, instead of owning US treasuries or earning dividends from stocks.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#279

Post by mikestew »

pdonis wrote: post #267
jimbokun wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple makes devices people like and use. Many people loved their Teslas. Netflix makes shows people enjoy. Facebook really did help people stay in touch with friends and family before replacing it with the Feed of Rage. Google was far better than anyone else at finding things on the early web. I would say really successful companies at least go through a stage of Building Something People Want. Even if they stray fro…

How many people got really rich as a result of Apple, Facebook, and Google doing things that created actual value? I get that all those companies are really rich, but most of the people involved aren't.

Perhaps I misunderstand you, but I imagine those three companies have minted quite a few IC millionaires (let alone management). But maybe high single-digit millions isn't what you consider to be "really rich", dunno.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#280

Post by bluGill »

antisthenes wrote: post #264
bluGill wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The larger message is young people cannot get passive income in a short time. Sure there are a few born rich, and a tiny handful who by luck and skill (both are needed) get rich quick. However for the vast majority passive income is a long slog of saving a little here and there. (there is a third option - really lower your standard of living so you need almost nothing to live - get a good job but live in a tent city…

> Sure there are a few born rich A LOT of Millenials were born rich. They may not have realized it, but now that boomers are dying off, it is stratifying Millennials through inheritance. A lot of them have and continue to receive massive wealth transfers from their boomer parents through free-ish rent, gifts (aka pay for your down payment on a house), etc, etc.

That is a nice windfall but most are not getting enough to retire early on.
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