Using Passive Income to Dream Big and Travel More

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This article was written by our guest Laurie from Great Passive Income Ideas. All thoughts expressed are solely those of the author. Enjoy!

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you love the idea of financial freedom or the idea of being able to travel at your leisure.

Greg and Holly are able to travel where they want, when they want, and for how long they want. Some of their recent trips include:

• A two-week excursion to England and Scotland
• Another weeks-long trip to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden
• Some fabulous time exploring Italy

If you don’t believe that financial freedom can happen for you, just read Greg and Holly’s book, Zero Down Your Debt. Living your dream life starts with having control over your money.

Your Road to Big Dreams and More Travel: Passive Income

Greg and Holly, along with their daughters, are living the dream life (one that you can have, too) for a few reasons.

First, they got their spending under control and formulated a plan to pay off their debt (over $50,000 in consumer debt alone).

Second, they started side hustling like bosses – in the form of blogging.

Third, Holly started a freelance writing career in which she makes over $200,000 per year working from wherever she wants to work.

Not all of Greg and Holly’s income is passive income, but a lot of it is. Passive income is doing the work on a project once and then continuing to earn money on it without additional work.

The great thing about passive forms of income is that they give you the money to travel and do the things you love, plus they give you time. 

All of the money in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t have the time to use it as you wish. If you’re working 80 hours a week and can’t take any time off, your six-digit income is useless.

And by the way, the same goes if you’re not managing your money in a way that allows for debt freedom. This is why you need Zero Down Your Debt.

But we’re talking about passive income here, so I’ll get back on track. I first started learning about and working on earning passive income six years ago.

I started a blog and got to work writing, promoting, and advertising on it. Soon I was earning about $500 a month. Four years later I sold that blog for a 5-digit figure.

I fell in love with the passive income concept and today I have four different sources of passive income that help me have a great life for myself and my four kids.

Passive income buys you one of life’s most precious commodities: time. 

You can always earn more money, but once time is gone, you’ll never get it back. I’m going to show you some passive income ideas you can implement so you can have more time to travel and chase your other dreams.

Passive Income Ideas

You may not be interested in all of these passive income ideas, but I’d be willing to bet you can find a few that can work for you and your situation.

Each one requires different types of commitments. Use your individual gifts, talents, and situation as a gauge to decide which passive income methods you’ll implement in your life.

1. Utilize Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing

This is one of my favorite forms of passive income, so I’m listing it first. Crowdfunded real estate investing allows you to own pieces of commercial and residential rental properties – without having to put down hundreds of thousands of dollars or manage tenants.

There are several ways to make passive income with real estate, and some of them let you get started for as little as $5.

2. Write an E-book or Create an Online Course

This is a form of passive income that Holly and Greg use. Holly created a fantastic course for aspiring freelance writers called Earn More Writing.

The course shows writers how to emulate Holly’s method for making $200K a year with freelance writing.

Holly created her course once. Then she worked on marketing it – and the money rolls in. If you have a skill you can teach others, or wisdom to share, consider creating an online course or writing an e-book.

Teachable can be a good site to use to help you create your online course.

3. Selling Other People’s Products

Another way to create a passive income source is to build a niche website that allows you to sell other people’s products. Sites like Clickbank can help you connect with merchants looking to promote their products.

Note that this method of passive income – like any other – takes some up-front work. You’ll need to build your website, produce great content, and advertise it successfully.

If your site has information and products people want or need, and you work hard to make your site known, you’ll eventually build an audience that will buy via your site.

4. Utilize Crowdfunded Lending Sites

Crowdfunded lending (also called peer-to-peer lending) is similar to crowdfunded real estate investing. Large pools of regular people like you and me work together to fund loans for others.

Depending on which crowdfunding company you join, you will get information that will help you make lending decisions that align with your investment goals.

As borrowers pay back their loans, you earn your investment back – with interest. Crowdfunded lending investments are a popular source of passive income. Learn more about peer-to-peer lending as a passive income source and see if it might be right for you.

5. Dividend Stock Investing

Dividend stock investing involves buying shares in stocks that pay monthly, quarterly, or annual dividends to stockholders. The dividend payment is your source of income.

As an example, let’s say you own 1,000 shares of stock in a company that pays dividends. Your portfolio is valued at $50,000. If the company pays a current dividend yield of 4%, you’ll earn income of $2,000 per year on that stock.

Your income will fluctuate based on the company’s dividend yield and on the value and amount of shares you own. You can purchase dividend-paying stocks individually or in mutual fund form.

6. Sell Stock Photography or Music

Do you know how to take great pictures? Or do you have musical talents? Sites such as Shutterstock and Getty Images will pay if you publish your photos or music pieces with them and others purchase those publications.

Businesses and blog owners use sites like these to find stock photos or music pieces for their own websites. Each time a business or individual purchases one of your photos or musical pieces, you earn a commission.

7. Blogging

Blogging is kind of a semi-passive income form. There is work involved in publishing articles and maintaining the site. When you add affiliate links to those articles, you earn income from readers who click on the links and take advantage of the offers.

Starting a blog is easy – even for the tech-challenged. In fact, you can start a blog in six easy steps.

Really successful bloggers make six digits a year or more with their blogs. In fact, some bloggers make six digits a month from their blogs. And the more success you have with your blog, the more passive income you can make from it.

Simply use some of your blog income to delegate tasks to independent contractors. You can hire people to write for your blog, manage your blog, and more.

Summary

Six years ago, I thought that making money through passive income sources was something only the wealthy could achieve. Now I know better.

Anyone can create passive income sources if they’re willing to learn and work at it. Choose to find the passive income sources that are right for you.

Then get busy living your dream, whether that’s traveling around the world or anything else.

Have you thought about creating passive income sources for yourself? What does your dream life look like?

Laurie Blank is a blogger, freelance writer, and mother of four. She’s psyched about teaching others how to create passive income sources like she’s done, so they can live the dream, too. She shares powerful insights on her blog, Great Passive Income Ideas, that will show you how you can create passive income sources of your own.