1. Build a Website
My favorite money-making thing in the whole wide world is an online blog/website.
The sky is the limit with online property generating money. Did you know, websites and blogs can make $100,000+ a year? Don’t you find that mind-blowing? I used to until I started doing it myself. And I realized that a blog can truly make me enough money to never have to work a “real” job again. If you ever thought about starting some sort of online venture, get on it NOW!
There are many types of online revenue-generating things you can produce. I mentioned a blog/website here. A blog is probably the easiest way to start generating money with your online real estate. Your goal will be to choose a topic you can be seen as an expert on and help other people with something or make yourself useful in some way. And to make money, you’ll usually sell something or refer people to products/services where you will earn a commission.
You can also start a website selling products &services. For example, you can make homemade crafts and sell them online. Or if you have a special skill, like mad piano skills, you could start a website and advertise tutoring classes to local pianists-to-be.
Another online asset you can get into is buying and holding domain names in the hopes they will increase in value over time. For example, if you knew in 20 years we could start taking vacations to Mars, then the domain would be worth a lot of money in 20 years. Today, it’s worth virtually nothing. It’s something you could buy and hold on to for now. You’d have to pay roughly $10/year as an upkeep fee to own this domain, but you would be able to turn around and sell it for (likely) tens of thousands later (note this is a made-up example). It’s all speculative, but there’s BIG money in investing in domain names. It doesn’t generate you “income” today, so it’s not a true income-producing asset in that sense.
To get an idea of how much money domain names fetch, here’s a list of themost expensive domain names ever sold(public sales). Yeah, $35 million forinsurance.com!
2. Real Estate
I fall into the group of people that consider a home a liability (opposite of an asset!). Why? Because every month, you pay utility bills. You pay money to fill your home with furniture, you pay money to put in new roofs every 10 years, and new carpet when the dog pisses everywhere. Not to mention your yearly home insurance and tax you must pay.
If you’re renting, it’s the same money-sucking deal. You pay rent to someone else, making that person rich (he/she is a smart person btw).
But here’s the kicker.
When you own real estate to rent it, that is, generating money from your property, THEN your properties become a money-generating asset. Even if you are simply renting out the basem*nt, or one of your bedrooms, you will be generating $500 or whatever you’re charging every month – and that’s how you begin to build wealth.
It’s not likely you’ll be able to own your property while you’re fairly young. But the thing I like about real estate investing is that it’s not a complicated thing. I think everyone can understand that when you have an extra room in your home, you can let other people use it for money. Maybe the technicalities of getting it set up and generating money may be a bit more difficult than asking the renter to hand over money at the beginning of every month, but I believe in you’re ability to figure it out.
3. Stocks
Stocks are a true investment that generates income. Stock investing is an entire ball game on its own, and I won’t be able to explain it in very much detail here. But the gist of it is this: You believe a company will be successful and make profits in the near (or long-term) future. So you’ll want to OWN a piece of their profits by buying shares in the company. And yes, when/if the company does profit, the value of your stocks goes up, and so does your net worth too.
Now, stocks by themselves aren’t true income-producing assets. Because, technically, you don’t make ANY MONEY until you sell the stock (assuming you sell it at a higher price). If you invest in stocks that pay DIVIDENDS (payments from companies when they profit), then it is truly considered an asset that generates money. For example, I have some Apple stocks (AAPL), and a month ago, I was paid a small dividend from Apple (I don’t own much of their stock so I only get a small payout).
Stocks are fun, can be risky, and something I believe anyone serious about retiring early and generating wealth needs to get into.
4. Bonds
Bonds, like stocks, are income-producing assets that have been around for a very long time. Bonds are also true passive investments because when you purchase a bond, you don’t have to monitor it or decide when to buy/sell, or anything at all. It’s one of the safest investments you can hold. With bonds, you lend your money to a corporation (or government). They agree to take your money and pay you back your principal plus interest. Usually, the interest is fairly small, however, because the risk is so low.
Bonds are good ideas if you hate risk and can’t tolerate losing money. Or if you need your money for something specific that is coming up somewhat soon, like money for school or retirement, then you would consider bonds.
5. Peer 2 Peer Lending
If you’ve got money sitting in your bank and you don’t know what to do with it, consider lending your money to other people to generate income. You won’t call your neighbors to ask if they need money, or pay for a small space in your local newspaper asking if anyone needs cash. You’ll head over to a peer 2 peer lending website and check out the cool people there who need money. You can put up a few hundred dollars to many thousand dollars for borrowing. Other people will borrow it from you, pay it back, and you will earn interest while your money is away. Does 6%+ sound alright? It’s not bad. If this is something that interests you, check outprosper.comfor a popular p2p network.
6. Mutual Funds
I think mutual funds make a lot of sense for people who can’t keep up with this “investing” thing. The way mutual funds work is that once you pick a mutual fund, a professional fund manager will manage it for you. They will choose what types of investments (stocks, bonds, etc), how much of each, and whether to change it up when things go bad. It’s very hands-off, so it’s a true passive investment. You can buy mutual funds yourself with a brokerage account, or visit your local bank to speak to an investment specialist.
7. Create A Business
In my mind, there’s one thing that stands out tall among every other asset that generates income – and that’s your own business. With your own business, you call your shots. You take all the risk and all the profits. And I don’t have to tell you that businesses make millions of dollars. You may just want an extra $1000 a month or whatever, but it all starts with a small business that you grow into a massive generating income machine.
I talked earlier about blogging and owning your website. That’s a business – and an online one. You can create all types of business. Your store. A kiosk in a mall. Your restaurant.
I used to work in a restaurant and the owner set it up so he was generating income passively. I think he just signed checks and made a few phone calls now and then. He hired a manager to run the entire restaurant, and she did a fine job hiring, firing, and making sure everyone got hot hash browns. At the end of the day, he kept all the profits. And it was substantial, seeing how he supported his entire family with it.
8. Create Something With Royalties
Royalties are paid to the creator every time the thing in question is used or played. A couple of excellent examples are music and photographs.
For example, if you made agood song, every time it gets played on the radio station, you would be paid a certain amount of money. Or, if you sell your photographs online, you’d make money from people buying the photo, or if it’s a photo with royalty, you’d be paid every time it’s used.
The nice thing about royalties is that once you do all the hard work creating your original piece of work, you’re finished with the work. Hopefully, it’s good and you can get it out there. Cause once it is, people will discover it and use it, and you will be paid a certain amount for every instance of its use. Pretty cool passive income generator.
9. Create a Product
When you create your products, your essentially creating your own business. Because business creates products/services that people want, and then people spend money for them. I created a separate section for this here because I think the word “business” scares the sh*t out of people.
One of the easiest ways to make money with “product creation” is to write an ebook that can be sold at places like Amazon. Everyonknowsut things, opinions about things, and expertise about stuff. If you’ve got a lot of knowledge or different angles at looking at stuff, or anything that you feel other people would be interested in, then why not create a book for it? Once you’ve finished writing it, your work is done! It becomes a passive income stream after that – assuming it’s successful and people buy it.
You can still create a product and not get too businessy about it. For example, you could make hand-crafted ornaments during Christmas and sell them to schools, local shops, or your community. If you do this yearly, people get to know you and this becomes your little “money-generating business”. Essentially, you’ve created yourself an asset that you can rely on every wintertime for money.
10. Create an Application
iPhone and Android apps blew up around 5 years ago. I remember checking my iPhone and seeing the crappiest apps in the world. Then cameAngry Birds, and IMO, I think that app changed the game of mobile apps. We saw a game for your phone, which cost $.99, that people went nuts over. Hurling birds became the thing – everyone was doing it. I believe the app developers were making millions of dollars DAILY. Yeah…. crazy, hey.
While you don’t need to create a million-dollar game, you can create an app that helps people in some way. The app market is pretty saturated, but if you’ve got something unique that is missing in the app world, creating it could help you make a ton of passive income.
You don’t need any expertise in making apps, btw. You simply need to have a really good handle on what you want this app to be like. Then you hire an app developer to create the app for you. You’ll spend some money doing this, but the return could be astronomical – especially if your app ever gets popular.
11. Buy Things To Rent
I was on a job site and a lift cost an electrical company $700 a week to rent. Holy bananas! It got me thinking about all the things I could buy and rent for money. Some things that came to mind were tools, textbooks, bikes, furniture, a truck, and electronics. I think listing it on a website like Craigslist could work.
I think the best way to turn renting into a true asset that produces income is to create a business where you rent something specific that people always need. Car rental companies come to mind. Or Suit/dress rentals. These items now become income-generating assets.
12. Credit Cards aka plastic beauties
Whoah, credit cards? Hell yes. Let me tell you this. I’ve gotten free trips to many places around the world with my premium travel credit card. While I could opt for a rewards credit card that gives me money back or groceries, I prefer to take my rewards in the form of free airfare. Just this past January, I booked a trip to Las Vegas with my Visa Infinite. Flight and hotel baby.
I save over a thousand dollars every year with a premium credit card. It doesn’t “make me money”, so a credit card isn’t an income generator. But I just include it here because it’s an asset in that it gives me points (instead of cash) that I use towards my yearly flights and hotels around the world.
13. Purchase Certificate of Deposits (CD’s)
Not sexy, but super safe and predictable. Completely passive, and yes, it’s a true asset that creates income. You’ll get a fixed rate of return (interest) for the money you put in. CD’s last a month to 5 years. CDs aren’t going to make you rich. But it has its purpose. If you are super paranoid about losing money, are going to retire soon, or need the money shortly for any reason, then CDs can be a way to earn a little bit of interest – rather than having your money sit in a bank account making pennies in interest.
14. Buy an Annuity
A smart way to take care of yourself when you retire is to purchase an annuity. An annuity is when you put money aside today and later on, like when you retire, the financial institution where you purchased your annuity will pay you back your money (plus the growth over the years). So, it’s an asset that will give back to you later on in life. There are different types of annuities and how they work has changed a bit over time since when they were introduced, but this is the basics of it.
Consider purchasing an annuity as a way to secure your finances during retirement and diversify your income streams.
15. Make Money On Youtube
Youtube is currently the 3rd most visited website in the world. Google owns Youtube, and you have the choice to put ads on any video you upload. If you have someone of those personalities that people love to watch and listen to (good or bad lol), or you have certain skills or knowledge that many people would find useful, consider making Youtube videos.
The ads on your videos may get a few cents to a few dollars per click. It depends on a few factors like the topic you are talking about and how often your videos get clicks. But basically, your videos become assets that will make you money while you sleep.
Consider this: PewDieDie made 7.4 million dollars playing video games and uploading them to youtube – with his reactions and all. Yeah, that’s a lot of clicks on ads!
Summary:
Are there any other income-generating assets that you want to share? let me know in the comment section below! I’ll include it in my list.
