35 Passive income ideas that can make you wealthy

Having a passive income stream is a great way to gain financial freedom.
For example, getting started with real estate with Fundrise for just $500 can accelerate your income and your other goals. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you 35 Passive Income Ideas You Can Use To Build Wealth In 2022.
35 Passive income ideas for you
This passive income ideas listed in this article is self explained, although you will need to do an upfront investment and a lot of nurturing, with a lot of time and hard work before these cash streams start to build and are able to maintain themselves, bringing you consistent revenue without so much of your efforts.

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Here are some passive income ideas you can try.
- Dividend Stocks
- Rental Properties
- High Yield Savings Accounts And Money Market Funds
- Crypto Passive Income Opportunities
- CD Ladders
- Annuities
- Invest Automatically In The Stock Market
- Invest In A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
- Invest In A Business
- Invest In Student Income-Share Agreements
- Refinance Your Mortgage
- Pay Off Or Reduce Debt
- Peer to Peer Lending
- Don’t Forget Your Matching Contributions
- Sell an eBook Online
- Create a Course on Udemy
- Selling Stock Photos
- Licensing Music
- Create an App
- Affiliate Marketing
- Network Marketing
- Design T-Shirts
- Sell Digital Files on Etsy
- List Your Place On Airbnb
- Rent Out Your Space
- Car Wash
- Rent Out Your Car
- Vending Machines
- Storage Rentals
- Laundromat
- Cashback Rewards Cards
- Cashback Sites
- Get Paid To Have An App On Your Phone
- Use Cashback Apps
- Save On Your Utilities

What It Takes To Earn Passive Income
Many people have misunderstood the concept of acquiring passive income ideas. When it comes to earning passive income, it doesn’t mean earning without doing anything; you have to give one of the two options below.
1) An upfront monetary investment, or
2) An upfront time investment
Passive income is not your job, it’s not freelancing, or working online. Passive income is doing something once, then earning rewards from it into the future. Passive Income Ideas Requiring an Upfront Monetary Investment. You can start some of these ideas with as little as $5, so it’s achievable for everyone.
1. Dividend Stocks
Dividend stocks are tried and true way to earn passive income. You will have to conduct a lot of research in order to find good stocks and invest a good amount of money to receive huge dividend checks. If you consistently invest in dividend stocks you can amass a handsome residual income over time.
Ensure that you open an account at the best online brokerage, and get rewards while doing it.
2. Rental Properties
A cash-flowing rental property is a great way to bring in monthly income. To make this more passive you can outsource a management company to run the properties for you.
However, the internet has made investing in rental properties much easier than ever before. There are lots of ways by which you can invest in rental properties, depending on what your goals and interests are.
You can be a limited partner in large residential or commercial properties, or you can buy homes and be a landlord – all online! You can invest in single family homes, in larger developments, or invest in farmland.
3. High Yield Savings Accounts And Money Market Funds
If you are looking for a means by which your money will work for you while you relax, a good place to invest in is in a high yield savings account or money market fund.
High yield savings accounts are located in banks, and are FDIC insured. Money market funds can be located in banks and investment companies, and are not always FDIC insured. With the rise of interest rates, investing in a savings account can generate a safe passive income stream.
4. Crypto Passive Income Opportunities
Crypto savings accounts provide much higher rates of return on your money. Note that these aren’t really “savings accounts”. These are investment and lending accounts that allow you to earn a high yield on your crypto.
5. CD Ladders
Building a CD Ladder requires buying CDs (certificates of deposits) from banks in particular increments so that you can earn a higher ROI. CDs are offered by banks and since they are a low risk investment they also yield a low return. This is a good option for the risk averse.
Do the following if you want a five-year CD ladder. Look how the rates rise over different time periods (these are estimated):
1 Year CD – 2.50%
2 Year CD – 2.90%
3 Year CD – 3.05%
4 Year CD – 3.10%
5 Year CD – 3.15%
If this doesn’t seem like something you can do, then you can pick from the aforementioned.
6. Annuities
Annuities are an insurance product that you pay for. They can provide passive income for life in form of monthly payments. It is advised to discuss with a trusted financial advisor if you’re interested in purchasing an annuity.
These investments aren’t for everyone – they can come with high fees, and not be worth it. But if you have zero risk tolerance for loss, and are looking for a passive income stream, this could be a good potential idea for you your portfolio.
7. Invest Automatically In The Stock Market
You can invest in the stock market if you don’t want to invest in dividend stocks. You can automatically invest in various ways through what’s called a robo-advisor.
A robo-advisor is a robotic financial advisor. You only need to answer a few questions, which could take about 10 minutes and the system will take it from there.
8. Invest In A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
These are investment vehicles that hold property within them – and you as the owner get to benefit from the gains, refinances, sale, income (or loss) on the property.

9. Invest In A Business
Another way to generate passive income is to invest and be a silent partner in a business. Though it is risky, it has the potential for high returns. For example, several years ago both Lyft and Uber were looking for private investors to invest in their companies.
Today, they are worth billions – but you as an investor can only enjoy that benefit if they go public via an IPO, or get acquired. So, it’s risky. You can reduce the risk by investing small amounts in many companies through lending them money in small bonds.
10. Invest In Student Income-Share Agreements
An Income-Share Agreement (ISA) is an alternative to student loans. They are funded by private investors and universities. By using an ISA, a student’s tuition is paid for in exchange for a percentage of their future income.
They are more common at coding academies and trade schools, but they are growing in popularity.
11. Refinance Your Mortgage
Refinancing your mortgage can be a great way to free up a lot of income and save you $100,000s over the life of your loan.
If you can save 0.50% or more on your loan, you’re potentially adding tens of thousands of dollars back into your pocket. Not many investments can beat that.
12. Pay Off Or Reduce Debt
Paying off your debt is a great way to increase your income. It’s easier to track your income when you have little to no debt to pay off.
13. Peer to Peer Lending
P2P lending is the practice of loaning money to borrowers who typically don’t qualify for traditional loans. As the lender, you have the ability to choose the borrowers and are able to spread your investment amount out to mitigate your risk.
14. Don’t Forget Your Matching Contributions
It’s simple — take advantage of matching contributions for your 401k or HSA. That’s literally free money for simply contributing to your own retirement accounts. All you have to do is ensure that you’re contributing enough to your 401k or HSA so that you get the full matching contribution.

15. Sell an eBook Online
Self-publishing has become a mainstream today. When you purchase an eBook from Amazon, there’s a high chance that you’re buying a self-published book.
To self-publish a book you’ll first need to write and edit it, design a cover, and then upload to a programme such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Don’t expect instant success though.
16. Create a Course on Udemy
Got a subject you’re good at and can teach? You should try this.
Udemy is an online platform that lets its user take video courses on a wide array of subjects. Instead of just being a consumer on Udemy you can be a producer, create your own video course, and let others purchase it.
17. Selling Stock Photos
This is where websites, blogs, and sometimes even magazines get their photos. They usually buy them from stock photo websites. If you enjoy photography you can submit your photos to stock photo sites and get paid a commission every time someone purchases one of them.
18. Licensing Music
Music is often licensed for YouTube videos, commercials, and more. The key way to do it is to get your music in a library that people can search.
19. Create an App
If you have an idea for an app you should consider hiring a programmer to create your app for you, after which you can sell it on the App store for residual income.
20. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the practice of partnering with a company as a middleman to bring in customers and receive a commission for successfully doing that. This method of making money works the best for those with blogs and websites. Even then, it takes a long time to build up before it becomes passive.
21. Network Marketing
Network marketing, or multi-level marketing, seems to be on the rise. Companies like Young Living Oils, Avon, Pampered Chef, and AdvoCare are all multi-level marketing companies. You can earn passive income through network marketing by building a team underneath you.
Once you have a large team you can earn commissions off of their sales without having to do much.
22. Design T-Shirts
You can design some t-shirts and if your design becomes popular and makes sales you’ll be able to earn royalties.
23. Sell Digital Files on Etsy
I’ve been into home décor lately and I had to turn to Etsy to find exactly what I wanted. I ended up purchasing digital files of the artwork I wanted printed out! The seller had made a bunch of wall art, digitized, and listed it on Etsy for instant download.
There are other popular digital files on Etsy as well such as monthly planners. If you’re into graphic design this could be an amazing passive income idea for you.
Semi-Passive Small Business Ideas
I call these semi-passive income because they are more like a business, less like passive income streams. Some of them are:
24. List Your Place On Airbnb
Consider listing your property (house, apartment, spare room, or even backyard) on AirBNB and start earning money when your place is booked.
25. Rent Out Your Space
You can rent out a space to people who need a storage room and earn from it..
26. Car Wash
This is also a great business to start. Not everyone has the time to wash their car. You will be paid well to wash the cars of such people.
27. Rent Out Your Car
This has to do with you renting out your car and earning from the rental even when you’re not using it.
28. Vending Machines
Vending machines is another great, low maintenance small business idea.
29. Laundromat
I debated on listing this one here because while in theory it seems like owning a laundromat would be semi-passive I anticipate there would be a whole lot of ongoing maintenance needed. You be the judge on this one.
30. Storage Rentals
If you’re not sure about getting into this space, you can also invest in storage rentals via a REIT.
Easy Passive Income Ideas
Last on the list I wanted to point out a couple of easy passive income ideas. These require no money and no upfront work. While the earnings are menial you still can’t beat easy passive income!
31. Get Paid To Have An App On Your Phone
If you don’t want to do anything out of the norm, check out Neilson Digital. Simply download the app and continue with your usual activities while the app runs in the background. Simple, easy way to get money for nothing!
32. Cashback Sites
Just like cashback rewards cards you should opt to use a cashback site when shopping online. If you don’t you’re giving up free money that requires little to no work! We just compared the two most popular sites – Rakuten versus TopCashBack.
All you have to do is login to these sites before you make a purchase, click the link, and you’ll earn the percentage cash-back the site offers.
If you want to know which sites are offering the highest cashback, check out Cashback Monitor – a free comparison site that finds you the best cashback deals out there.
33. Cashback Rewards Cards
If you pay your bills with a credit card ensure that it offers cash back rewards. You can let your rewards accrue for a while and possibly put the easy money you earned toward another passive income venture.
34. Save On Your Utilities
This qualifies as passive saving and passive income. It has to do with helping you reduce costs by negotiating better rates and fees.
35. Use Cashback Apps
Beyond credit cards and websites, there are also cashback apps that can help you get passive income from the shopping you’re already doing.