If you’re feeling the financial strain of the ongoing pandemic, you’re not alone. Or perhaps you’re just looking to up your monthly income without taking on a second job. Maybe you’re looking into how passive income will play into your long-term retirement plan. No matter your reason, setting up a passive income stream is always a smart idea. So why aren’t more people doing it? Simple: there are many, many different types of side incomes, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by your options.
Luckily, this flowchart does the work of narrowing the list of possible passive income streams down to just a handful that are best-suited to your particular resources and skills.
Play to Your Strengths
As you can see in the flowchart above, the main key to finding the right side hustle for you is to narrow down your options according to what your resources are. If you have a little bit of money saved, you can consider some investments that require more initial capital, like peer-to-peer lending or investing in a real estate investment trust (REIT).
If you don’t have the money lying around for these types of investments, you can utilize your other two greatest assets: your time and your skills.
Sell Your Time
An hour may not feel very precious when you spend it mindlessly scrolling or searching for ways to kill time, but don’t be fooled: time is one of the most valuable assets you have at your disposal, and you might be surprised at how much you can sell it for.
The key to maximizing your profits with a time investment is to select a side hustle that fits naturally into your existing schedule. For instance, if you’re a frequent commuter, you can arrange your rideshare shifts to align with the driving you’re already doing on a regular basis. If you love spending Saturdays at the mall, becoming a mystery shopper can be as easy as adding an extra stop or two to your existing itinerary.
Some people invest enough time in their side hustles to consider them a part- or full-time job. But if you’re looking to keep your income as passive as possible, you’ll want to integrate these investments into your daily life as naturally as possible.
Monetize a Skill
If you’re lucky enough to have a developed skill or talent, there are great ways to monetize those in a way that generates exponential returns. This is another area in which you can set up a part- or full-time entrepreneurial outlet, but here we’re focusing on passive ways to capitalize on those existing abilities.
For example, if you’re a talented artist, setting up a shop where you regularly take paid commissions is an example of part-time self-employment. But if you create a series of YouTube videos teaching the basics of visual design, you can collect ad revenue on those videos in perpetuity without doing any additional work once they’re published.
It’s all about thinking strategically to maximize the financial returns on minimal input of your resources. Whether you decide to capitalize on your time, skills, or money, there are definitely smart ways that you can be collecting passive earnings and setting yourself up for a more successful future.
