Airbnb + legacy Mac & iPhone apps. 50k/yr on average.
Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
61–70 of 235 posts
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#62I'm about to write a book on precisely this topic. I have been looking hard at addressing this issue over the past 10 years so that I can focus on what's important (Startups!). And I believe that I have finally found the best passive income source, given the limitations that people like ourselves are working with.
I'm still in the process of experimenting with my method to see how far I can take it, but the basics of it work already.
A lot of what people define as "passive income" is questionable. Most, if not all, passive income investment strategies require you to hold down a job, or other income, while financing assets that some day, HOPEFULLY, will be paid off enough that you don't have to work ever again.
Most of those plans take too long for my satisfaction. There are other means and methods if you learn and apply yourself. My book will hopefully detail and compare my method with a majority of others.
The obvious ones to look at, if you can invest time and/or money -
* Share trading * Property investment * Property flipping/options * Google AdSense (or similar) * Affiliate marketing * Tim Ferriss' muse / 4HWW * Network marketing/MLM * Website flipping
All of them have varying degrees of learning curve and time commitment to make happen. Few people will tell you how much commitment you need to make, they just focus on dangling the carrot.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#63nflbyeweeks.com - gets over 1,000 uniques each day and generates between $2 and $5 each day with Adsense. Not overly impressive but it's still nice.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#64No matter how hard I try, all my eggs only seem to fit into one basket at a time. I don't recommend it, but it has worked well for me thus far.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#65In California, selling cannibas to a co-op you belong to as a patient could be a nice supplemental income. An Aerogrow makes it easy, and with six legal plants, you can grow at least 1.5 pounds every 90 days. I think it works out that you can make $10-15k/year for not much work. And no, my wife would not let me do this :)
> I think it works out that you can make $10-15k/year
> for not much work.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#66Tax-free municipal bonds
Care to expand on this?
Municipal bonds, loans to your local government are free of taxes (both state and fed). I have excess cash that would normally be in certificate of deposit in muni bonds currently making 3% tax free. There are risks, best to consult with a money manager if you are uncertain on how to gauge the associated risks.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose this is business common sense, but, man, it sounds awful from a moral perspective when you put it this way... Really, praying on vulnerable. Just my very subjective opinion.
The same thing happens to parents in general, but specifically, first-time parents because they have 0 experience.
Yep, baby products are another good example. Initially, the parents are happy, but soon enough they become stressed out, for the long haul. Both emotions play in the retailers' favor.
There was a controversy a while back about how Target figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before her dad did (based on her purchases) and started sending her ads for baby products. The reason why they did this is because people don't shop around for the best deals on everyday items, not really. People think they're getting the best deal, but they're actually trapped in their habits.
One of the few times when these habits are reshaped is when a baby is born, because newfound parents suddenly start buying a lot of new stuff, but don't have a lot of free time to research the options. By detecting customers who will become parents in the near future and sending them specially targeted advertising/discounts ahead of time for new products that they'll need, you can snag them as customers for years to come.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#68nflbyeweeks.com - gets over 1,000 uniques each day and generates between $2 and $5 each day with Adsense. Not overly impressive but it's still nice.
Just with a single page? That's impressive!
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#69This might not be the kind of answer you're looking for, but the best way to truly passively increase your wealth is to take care of your personal finances (e.g. pay off your student loans, pay off your credit card balance, invest in a lifecycle fund, see if your employer offers a 401(k)) I personally really liked the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich -- it has a poor name but it's dense with incredibly practical advi…
I support the idea of paying off debt. 401k (investment groups) however, is essentially giving your money to a gambler, and having him play your hand. Bet on yourself. Always.
In regards to the 401k, I disagree. Unless your employer only offers really crappy funds it's in no way gambling.
First off, your employer match is essentially free money. It's foolish to ignore that. The tax benefits can also be significant. For instance, I contribute 25% of my pre-tax salary to my 401k. That works out to $1500 a month but because my taxable income is lowered my monthly net is only decreased by about $950. That's $550 a month into savings that I wouldn't have previously had due to taxes.
If you follow the investing philosophy of John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard, you'll likely do just fine. Assuming you're young, you just split your 401k between four index funds: total bond market, total domestic stock market, total international stock market and real estate investment trusts (REITs). I do 20/45/25/10. Yes, in the short term you might take a big hit but in the long term (>20 years) this is historically shown to perform very well. As you get closer to retirement you increase the proportion of your portfolio in bonds so as to lower your risk.
Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?
#70I use TeeSpring (http://www.teespring.com) to create t-shirts and market them towards people on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ModernSherlock).
Generally does very well. Way better than other stuff I've tried, like SEO/Marketing etc. The only problems I have is using a crap design, so it pays to know what the audience really wants before I try selling it to them.