I appreciated when "passive income" was the flavor of the week because it was a good signpost for people you could ignore. In particular anybody who didn't understand that you could assign a present value to future income, or that infinite series can sum to finite values. Seriously, the prototypical example of being an author is not particularly passive income lol! A book being print-on-demand indefinitely != infinite income. 99% of copies will almost certainly be sold within a few years, not least due to active marketing on your part. It's very likely to be a worse deal than getting paid a quite modest and disappointing sounding amount up front.
The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
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Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#52Side note: after drowning in LLM-generated content, it's pretty refreshing to read something written by a human. They're a pretty good writer, too!
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#53Got trapped in an Amway pitch in my teens and have been inoculated against such things ever since.
I wish Amway was bigger so more people would be exposed to it and be similarly inoculated.
At least amway has real product. You are expected to sell to make money in the early years. In 30 years of real work you get a passive income retirement plan - but you need to put in real work selling things to get there.
when you look at the real business model of those who have had success they are still selling the soap in retirement. It is not going to get you rich, but it isn't too bad a life.
well it was - the only people I know in amway are in their 80s and so it may be different.
amway deserves the hate. Truth is it isn't as easy as they tell you.
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#54This article has a narrow definition of passive income, limiting it to these low-barrier-to-entry schemes. Other parts of the FIRE world have emphasized being a landlord or flipping houses, for example. I personally made it happen by working a FAANG SWE job for 13 years, not getting sidetracked by the startup cult, saving and investing 70% of my after tax income, etc. And no I didn't get into crypto, but I still mana…
> thought it was unethical for me to place wealth building ahead of career building Twelve year olds?
High achieving college students.
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think buying a house and renting it out "manipulates economic conditions" you need to prove it because that's a claim, especially with regard to "manipulate."
The manipulation is in the political limit of housing supply and the limit on land value tax rates.
The homevoter hypothesis is mostly nonsense. There isn't a coordinated, conscious effort to restrict the supply of homes based on rational expectations of excess returns. People restrict the supply of homes due to misguided aesthetic reflexes, racism, nostalgia, and a bunch of other stuff, not because they are mustache-twirling capitalists.
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#56I appreciated when "passive income" was the flavor of the week because it was a good signpost for people you could ignore. In particular anybody who didn't understand that you could assign a present value to future income, or that infinite series can sum to finite values. Seriously, the prototypical example of being an author is not particularly passive income lol! A book being print-on-demand indefinitely != infinit…
And that 4 figure advance from a publisher won’t go far either even if you earn it out and get a few royalties.
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#57> Free to do what? Sit on a beach, apparently. Quite the opposite for me. I'd like to have freedom to work on things I want to work on without "paying rent", "paying medical bills", or "short term profitability" being a constraint.
yeah, but the guys selling the courses were/are all obsessed with being at the beach
I'm pretty sure that being at the beach is really just universal marketing shorthand for "being somewhere that no one would ever expect you to even reply to emails from"
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#58Side note: after drowning in LLM-generated content, it's pretty refreshing to read something written by a human. They're a pretty good writer, too!
Who needs LLM garbage when you have MLM garbage?
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re right. Books like the Four Hour Workweek and Escape From Cubicle Nation were guides to passive income twenty years ago.
It’s not totally risk-free income (but what is) but a decent pile invested sensibly makes for pretty good passive income depending on your goals.
now where do you get that pile to invest? I have a pile invested - but I'm close to retirement and it took me many years to save it up.
Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs
#60Earlier 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 love the ocean, but I have to confess I don't care much for beaches. sand gets everywhere.