Since I was little I was always passionate about money and the way they work. I remember my mother used to motivate me & my sister to help her in the house by creating a payment scheme for all the little tasks. Each week we had a list of things to do which were counted into points and end of the week those points could’ve been redeem into cash. 🤑
Being surrounded by incentives, I always looked for ways to grow my capital by taking side jobs, helping my friends at small jobs, trying to sell stuff, but at the end of the day, you have only a fixed amount of hours you can work. And the money (value) that you get from that is based by your time (work).
Fast forward into present time, in this post I will elaborate 9 passive income streams I used so far to become more financially independent.
Note: Like in every business, there are risks so please make sure you double check the small print before getting to excited about it.
Table of Contents
Rental Properties
Buying properties has always been my favourite type of investment even tough is not the most optimal or the easiest one. One – you need a lot of capital to actually buy a property & two – you need some time to deal with the headaches (tenants, paperwork, maintenance, taxes etc). There are other types of investments which I prefer now, but I am still getting emotional when I find a good deal on a property somewhere 😅
You don’t necessarily need a lot of capital to start this type of business, but it would require your time to deal with the process. I bought my first flat specifically for renting during peak season which is usually about 2.5 months. After 2 years of renting it (during COVID time), the average ROI (Return On Investment) was 4.5%. Not great putting in balance the expected ROI (7-8%), but highly understandable in my situation. Some of the reasons: It was my first time actually doing it, there weren’t as many tourists, had a few late-notice cancellations, I had to drop my rates etc.
Opportunity: In general, you should expect about 7-9% ROI depending on your property location and the amount of tourists. But before actually getting to that figure you need to ask yourself a couple of questions.
- How much return you want to get per year?
- How much the property costs & what are the expenses?
- How will you manage the renting process? Short-term? Long term? Airbnb?
Risk: As in every existing market, there are risks here & questions to ask:
- How will handle the process during a pandemic?
- How do you manage possible damages made by the tenanants?
- Is there an actual market in your area?
Rent your home short-term
This straightforward strategy takes advantage of space that you’re not using whilst travelling and turns it into a money-making opportunity. If you’re going away for a couple of months or have to be out of town for a while, or maybe even just want to travel, consider renting out your current space while you’re gone.
Opportunity: You can list your space on any number of websites, such as Airbnb, and set the rental terms yourself. You’ll collect a check for your efforts with minimal extra work, especially if you’re renting to a tenant who may be in place for a few months.
Risk: You don’t have a lot of financial downside here, though letting strangers stay in your house is a risk that’s atypical of most passive investments. Tenants may deface or even destroy your property or even steal valuables, for example.
High-yield Savings Accounts
Nowadays each bank offers the opportunity to open a savings account and that is good thing because you can actually make your own money create money without doing actually anything. The interest is not usually high (about 0.5% – 1%) but still is better than nothing. I am using Banca Transilvania and they offer between 4.25% and 5.5% annual interest on RON savings depending on the amount. The income tax in Romania is 10% and applies to every time of investment (except bonds), but you should expect to get a net 3.8% – 4.95% annual interest.
Opportunity: Instead of having cash sitting in your bank account, I would rather move it when I need it in a click of a button & get some extra cash on top of it.
Risk: Make sure your bank is backed by any form of safety scheme so you can rest assure your money will stay.
Bank Deposits
Before uni, my grandma used to open a deposit for me and my sister so when we finish our studies we would have some cash to start a business. I never used the money but the idea was very similar to the savings accounts I discussed above. The only difference is that for deposits you are not able to touch the money otherwise you lose the interest (and in some cases you may pay some fees as well).
Most of the banks in Romania (at the time of writing) are offering between 5.75% to 10% interest on RON (with capitalization) depending on the amount deposited. The bank that has the highest return now is OTP Bank (10% annual interest calculated every 5 months with capitalization).
Opportunity: With deposits, you get a higher yield than savings accounts over a period of time, but you are not able to access that fund until it matures.
Risk: Make sure your bank is backed by any form of safety scheme so you can rest assure your money will stay. Also check the national inflation for your currency and make some calculation if the actual interest will be in your advantage over time. Lastly, double check the maturity policy, what fees are applies when you withdraw your cash & how the process is being handled.
Bonds
Think of bonds like bank deposits but the only difference here is that you don’t have to pay income tax (in Romania). The current interest you are getting is between 7 – 9.25%. The emissions for each month are different and the return is calculated monthly based on how well the government is assessing the financials.
Opportunity: The yield is tax free and you can rest assure your money is safe. I didn’t hear of a government going bankrupt anytime soon.
Risk: Oh well, there is Venezuela..
Dividend stocks
If you are looking for the best dividend stocks to buy in 2023 you should consider a variety of different factors. Dividend stocks can provide income and growth potential, but it’s important to research each stock thoroughly before making an investment.
First and foremost, you should look for stocks with a history of paying steady dividends. Companies that have been paying out dividends for several years are likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. This makes them attractive investments for those looking for reliable income.
Here are some of the dividend stocks I use & their dividend yield at the time of writing:
- JPMorgan (JPM) – 2.88%
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – 2.79%
- AbbVie (ABBV) – 3.92%
- Coca-Cola (KO) – 2.9%
- IBM (IBM) – 4.87%
- Procter & Gamble (PG) – 2.59%
Opportunity: Apart from getting annual dividends, your stocks might go up in value and you would be able to sell it for more.
Risk: The tricky part is choosing the right stocks, but as a wise man once said: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket 🙂
REITs
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a key consideration when constructing any equity or fixed-income portfolio. They can provide added diversification, potentially higher total returns, and/or lower overall risk.
In short, their ability to generate dividend income along with capital appreciation makes them an excellent counterbalance to stocks, bonds, and cash.
Here are 2 of the REITs I use so far & their dividend yield:
- Realty Income Corp (O) – 4.38%
- Simon Property Group Inc. (SPG) – 5.48%
Opportunity: You diversify your investment portfolio by actually being involved in the rental market. If you don’t have the cash to buy a house, but want to get a return, those are the stocks with lower risks.
Risk: Same as for stocks, you need to be up to date with the companies policies and make sure the dividend yield stays. All companies can change their dividend yields so staying up to date is a good rule of thumb.
Hosting
Another cool option for pseudo-passive income is to get your hands on a cloud server and offer hosting services to your clients. I am calling it a pseudo-passive income because you may still have to cover for technical support for the clients, but hey, this worked out for me with a 400% ROI. I am using A2Hosting for my server for years now and I am still happy with their customer support and uptime monitor.
Opportunity: If you are involved in tech business or have connections with people that need a place online to host their websites, blogs or apps, this is a good idea to get some cash. Plus, you can host your website there for free 🙂
Risk: Looking for prospects might be a bit tricky & making sure they are all happy to stay long time, might be a deal breaker.
Affiliate Marketing
Last & definitely not the least important one is affiliate marketing. What it actually means is that you promote someone else’s business through bespoke links on your channels. A very good example is the above section where I marketed my own server company via a custom link and for every sale that gets thorough I am getting a commission.
This works very well if you are working in content. This is also a pseudo-passive income but if you are doing it right, and build your content, over time, your blog or videos will become popular and there will be higher chance for your links to get clicks. And that means free money waiting for you to be re-invested 🙂
Thanks for reading it so far and if you want to read more things about investments or how to become financially independent, drop me a comment below and will add it to my list.
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