How can you afford to travel so much? That’s probably the biggest question I get when people see how much I travel. So that’s why I wanted to write a blog post about how I make passive income while traveling abroad.
Over the past few years, I have been trying to build up my passive income streams.
And luckily enough, they have increased to a level where I can travel almost anywhere in the world. The freedom is amazing and I love it.
Now whenever I meet someone that travels a lot, I always like to find out more about them and if they have a business supporting their travels.
I know it’s somewhat a personal question, but I’ve learned a lot about people from asking that question.
Over the past few years, I’ve met rich trust fund babies, self made millionaires (and maybe even a billionaire or two), and broke college kids who just love to travel the world.
If you’re traveling on a budget, things can become difficult if you come into a cash crunch.
Traveling with a super tight budget isn’t the most glamorous thing in the world (trust me, I know).
And if you’re going to be traveling full-time around the world, it’s better to have some money coming in so you aren’t stressing out about being stranded in the middle of Mexico with no money to come home.
So let’s go over some of the ways I make passive income that allows me to travel around the world.
What’s So Great About Passive Income?
So…what’s so great about passive income?
Well, passive income is (in my mind) the best kind of income. It means that you do some kind of work upfront that keeps a stream of cash flow running into your wallet.
The classic example is a rental property.
To invest in a rental property, you must find a suitable house, negotiate the price with the seller, and maybe perform a few repairs.
After you invest that money, you need to find tenants and then the house starts producing income.
So what’s the big deal about passive income?
Well, you earn income 24/7…even while you’re eating and sleeping!
And if that’s not worth all the hard work, I don’t know what is 🙂
With many of my passive income streams, I can make the same level of income for weeks (or months) without doing much work to maintain it.
But generating passive income is A LOT harder than it sounds.
But luckily for you, I have been trying to earn passive income through a variety of odd ball side hustles over the past few years 🙂
So I know a thing or two about the topic. And these are truly unique side hustles that most people don’t talk about.
So strap in and get ready to learn how I make passive income while traveling abroad.
Selling Erotica
Yep! One of my favorite income streams that supports my international travel is selling erotica.
What?
Yep…that’s right haha
Nope, I’m not joking. I sell a ton of erotica on Amazon.
In fact…I sell all of my erotica on Amazon.
The great thing about this little side business is that you can earn income 24/7 and it doesn’t require much maintenance.
What I mean by that is, you don’t really need to do anything to maintain the income stream.
If you owned a rental house, you would need to do things like repaint the walls, fix the plumbing, mow the lawn, and a lot of other menial tasks.
…and worst of all deal with pesky tenants that never pay on time!
But selling erotica is different!
Once you hit publish, you can sit back and earn a royalty on all of your books…FOR LIFE!
Imagine being able to earn money while you’re relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean or eating some street tacos in Mexico.
A lot of income streams aren’t really “passive” because they require a lot of maintenance.
I don’t publish much erotica these days, but my old catalog of 100+ books regularly brings in the bacon that helps fund my travels.
P.S. If you want to learn the secrets of how I built a $2,000+ monthly erotica publishing business from scratch, then check out website or my online course!
Dividend Investing
Dividend investing is an amazing way to generate passive income while you’re traveling.
Here’s how it works…
Many companies pay dividends to return money to shareholders and incentivize them to hold their stock.
Most companies pay dividends on a quarterly basis (every three months) like clockwork.
If you invest in good dividend stocks, you can earn between a 2% and 5% return on just the quarterly dividend payments.
Not bad if you ask me!
And great companies INCREASE their dividend payments over time.
For example, in 2005, Microsoft paid a dividend of $0.08 cents per share. But today (in late 2018), they paid their shareholders a $0.46 per share dividend!
That’s a big 475% increase!
Now a few cents might not seem like much, but if you hold a lot of shares, that money adds up quick.
So if you have a decent sized portfolio, you can use it to pay off some of your travel expenses.
And the dividend investing strategy is highly scalable.
It doesn’t matter if you’re investing $1,000 or $10,000 or $100,000 – after you have done the research, you can invest whatever you want.
A few years after I first got out of college, I aggressively saved a ton of my paycheck and invested it into dividend stocks.
And now I’m reaping the benefits by collecting a check every three months!
No, dividend investing won’t make you rich fast, but it will provide a stable source of income.
If you want to learn more about dividend investing, check out my Dividend Investing Website or my Dividend Bootcamp Course!
Sell eBooks
Ah good old reliable eBooks!
Selling eBooks is similar to erotica (although the readers are obviously different). Generally with eBooks, I focus on non-fiction books.
Selling eBooks is a good way to generate passive income as they don’t require a lot of maintenance work to keep the cash flow running.
I focus my eBooks on the big three markets:
- Wealth (making money and investing)
- Health (dieting, cooking, etc.)
- Relationships (i.e. dating)
If you find a good niche on Amazon, it’s entirely possible to generate $100+ per month from just one book!
If you have 10 or 20 books like that, you could be generating $1,000 to $2,000 per month pretty easily!
I have several investing and personal finance books that generate between $100 and $150 per month of income. It doesn’t get much better than that!
I also have a few books that make $10 per month. So it’s all about finding the right niche.
Building Niche Sites
Building a niche site is a wonderful way to generate passive income.
And the great thing is it doesn’t take much money to do that.You can build and host a website for less than $10 per month!
Yep, that’s right. All you need is a domain name and a hosting service. I like to use Bluehost.
But be warned, you need to have a lot of patience. Your website likely won’t make money for a few months. If you think you have the stomach for this then continue reading!
So…what in the world is a niche site?
Well, a niche site is just a small website that focuses on one topic in particular.
A few examples of niche sites, include websites that:
- Review online courses
- Reviews handbags
- Talks about high-end watches
The main way a niche site makes money is through affiliate marketing. This is when you link a product or service on your website (like in a product review blog post).
If someone buys that product or service with your link, you get a commission. It’s basically like online sales.
So far I have built several niche sites over the years. Some have done good and some have never made a cent.
But overall, I’m very happy with the time I’ve invested in my niche sites. They bring in money reliably every month and they help fund my travels.
Sell Online Courses
The whole area of online courses is still a new thing.
Online courses really didn’t exist even 15 years ago haha. But today, it’s a big industry.
If you are knowledgeable about something, consider creating an online course and selling that information.
You can teach an online course about pretty much anything….like how to:
- Play ping pong
- Make money online
- Put on makeup
- Workout and weight lift
And no, you really don’t need to be a world “renowned expert” to make money selling online courses.
I’m certainly not a total expert in some of my online courses, but I’m able to teach a valuable skill that other people want – and that’s all that matters.
When it comes to selling online courses, you can sell on marketplaces like Udemy.
Udemy is basically a big online marketplace where buyers can purchase online courses on a variety of topics from computer programming to knitting.
But Udemy does take a big cut of your earnings.
I much prefer to sell on my own platform (by using Teachable).
But this requires me to build my own audience and drive my own traffic to the course. However, my cut of the sales is much higher!
Anyways, online courses are a great way to make money. To start out, list out all of the things you are good at.
This could be a skill you learned at work or a hobby you do in your spare time. Do some research online and see if anyone would be willing to pay to learn what you know!
Making Passive Income While Traveling Abroad
So there you have it! These are the big 5 ways I make passive income while traveling abroad.
Now, the great thing about making passive income is that you have more time to travel and explore the world.
If you made your money freelance writing or consulting, you’d have to spend precious travel time working on those gigs rather than exploring!
