
How do you generate passive income? - myoung8
Online? Real estate? Investing?
======
lionhearted
I'm a little late to the party, but here's the formula:

Scalable revenue-generating assets.

Let's work backwards on that:

Asset: We're going to call an asset as something that can generate value or
appreciate in value. So your 2005 Honda Civic is not an asset, but a 1969
Corvette Stingray might be. Websites can be assets, so can intellectual
property, contracts, royalties, real estate, stocks, etc. So step 1 - you need
asset. Things that can go up in value, or generate value.

Revenue-generating: You can buy for appreciation, but that takes a lot more
money and skill. So you want revenue-generating assets to get passive income:
That means things that kick out money regularly. That would be real estate
where the rents are higher than the PITI (principle, interest, taxes, and
insurance) + maintenance. That could be a website that you can make money from
- ad revenues, product sales, etc. It could be something you've written that
you get royalties from.

Scalable: And here's the magic that puts it all together - scalable means you
can build it bigger without it demanding more of your time/resources (like a
job does). Real estate with positive cashflow tends to be scalable, because if
the property appreciates even 10%, traditionally you can mortgage a new
property. If you don't mind doing repairs/adding value, you can mortgage a new
place, repair/upgrade it to get higher rents, do so, have it appreciate, use
the new equity to get a new place with cashflow, etc. Some high percentage of
self-made millionaires in the USA are from real estate due to this fact.

There's other ways to get scalability. Obviously a useful website, or
something with automated fulfillment or marketing. But scalability is key: All
the time, if you want passive income, you need to spend money out of your
profits to remove time and automate more. So pay a fulfillment company $2.50
per package (on top of the postage) to mail your thingy for you. Get into
automated marketing with Adwords or Adsense. Look to ink deals that'll keep
paying you without you putting in more effort.

The formula's Scalable Revenue-generating Assets. That's how to build gradual
increasing passive income. It's harder than it sounds (like everything
worthwhile is), but completely doable if that's what your goals are. Just
don't forget that active income is pretty cool if you love what you do.

~~~
babul
Sounds very _Rich Dad, Poor Dad_
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad,_Poor_Dad>,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kiyosaki>) et al.

Also, once you have substantial passive income, or have people believing you
have substantial passive income, don't forget to write the motivational book,
follow-up video/DVD, and talks etc., and milk that passive cash cow.

Infact, mass market brand awareness and brand appeal should be the ultimate
aim - if achieved, seems to be an excellent form of substantial passive income
these days? Seems to work for celebs, popstars, sports stars, authors, and
super-brands alike?

------
iamelgringo
From the 4 Hour Work Week: * Create a product worth $50-150 * Advertise online
and in niche magazines * Sell product online * Outsource order fulfillment
(delivery) * Outsource customer support

Really, you want to read the 4 Hour Work Week. It goes through how to do this
step by step.

~~~
geeko
Have you accomplished anything reading this book?

~~~
iamelgringo
It's cemented a lot of ideas that I had about time management, focusing on
generating income and outsourcing as much non-essential stuff as possible.
I've started to use eLance a bit more for non-programming tasks, and I'm
hoping to hire a part time virtual assistant this next year.

I tested a selling a database via adwords as suggested in the book, and I got
a decent enough response that I'm outsourcing the the database development in
the next few weeks. It's not going to make tons of money, but it might make
$300-1000 a month in passive income. That's worth the effort for me.

His sections on time management don't translate extremely well to developers,
but focusing your time very narrowly on what's essential and most productive
makes a lot of sense.

Yes, there's a tone of self aggrandizement throughout the book that can get
annoying. But there's a lot of really helpful ideas which are worth the read.

~~~
tm
What do you mean selling a database? Do you means the contents of a database
(list of data)? Curious.

~~~
iamelgringo
Yes, it's an address list.

------
jaxn
Five years ago I opened a retail clothing franchise with my father and wife.
It took a long time to get here, but now we have two stores and I spend little
time on them (10 hours a month maybe?).

It is hard to have true passive income, but this is pretty close. Owner
involvement is definitely key to the success of a small business, but we have
a managing partner which reduces the time I spend on that business.

The great thing about passive income is that it affords me the opportunity to
try and create additional revenue streams. Right now I am launching
<http://statzen.com>. I assume that will also take several years of hard work,
but it is enjoyable work.

~~~
yan
What made you want to go into retail?

~~~
jaxn
Someone we knew had a few of these stores. It looked easy from the outside ;)

It was much harder than it looked and at times it felt like we were going
bankrupt. But now it is great.

------
mattmaroon
Selling Vitamins! Here's the thing: you get 3 people under you selling
vitamins, and you make money off of their sales! Then each of them gets 3
people, and now you're making money off of 9 people! And so on and so forth.

Our program pays you for 3 levels below you in our sales matrix, so if you
have 5 people per level you can be receiving profits from 125 people selling
vitamins!

~~~
callmeed
Sounds awesome. Sign me up!

~~~
nickmolnar
...and with only an $800 up front investment I'm sure.

All Ponzi schemes are the same.

~~~
DenisM
You are not doing it justice. MLM is a much better, evolved variant of ponzi
scheme compared to the garden variety.

~~~
mattmaroon
Also, some MLMs sell decent products (I like Pampered Chef) which makes it far
from a scam.

~~~
DenisM
MLM is not scamming the customers, it's scamming the "sales agents" by
promising them riches most of them won't get due to ponzi nature of the
scheme.

------
helveticaman
I'm not sure there is such a thing as completely passive income. Wealthy
investors (think China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan) have a lot of money (say 70
trillion) and thousands of people trying to allocate it efficiently. They
don't do so well. Why would you?

Also, my understanding is that real interests rates are currently negative. On
top of it all, the combination of a nominal capital gains tax and inflation
means you lose ((inflation * .15) * your net worth) every year in this manner,
at least if you are a US citizen. In light of all this, perhaps you should
consider spending money on your intellect; it's not taxed, and it has some
degree of liquidity. Alternatively, buy a cheap foreclosed house and rent it
out; that may be profitable right now.

~~~
nickmolnar
While people's portfolio's are hurting right now, for the most part you can
make a positive real return on investing in dividend paying stocks or long-
term bonds. The only catch is that the rate is really low, so you need to
already be very wealthy to make it work.

China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan have political considerations, as well as
financial, so they are more likely than an impartial investor to take
unnecessary risk or allocate funds poorly.

------
dkokelley
<http://ampmnotebook.com>. I resell the Chronotebook from Muji. I basically
order in bulk from Muji to resell individually. Set up the site, strap adwords
on it and get emails from PayPal saying "You've got cash!" Then I have to
order the books, package them, and run them to the post office. Not exactly
passive income but most of the hard work is automated.

~~~
toffer
This is a great idea for a niche site/business. I'm curious about your price.
Jack Cheng's review (<http://www.jackcheng.com/stuff-i-love-muji-
chronotebook>) mentions that the notebook retails for $4.95.

Have you gotten any pushback on your $19.95 price?

~~~
dkokelley
The price if you order over the phone (and I think the price in stores as of
now) is actually $5.50, which is still a lot less than what it costs through
the site. Here is a list of other charges/fees that you'll get if you order
over the phone:

Handling: $5

Shipping: $4.xx for <4, $9.xx >5+

Basically if you order over the phone it costs you $15 or so, plus the
inconvenience of having to wait on the phone, and verbally submit your credit
card information and shipping address.

In the end, it really costs my customers $5 for the convenience of ordering
online, through PayPal. Economies of scale let me process each order for less
than what it would cost to order 1 at a time, so I can cover the final
shipping cost on my end because of the savings.

I haven't had any complaints about price, but I did see a comment on
Jackcheng.com comparing me to GM or Ford because of the price.

 _edit_ Here's the actual comment if you don't want to go hunting for it:
"That's awesome that you take a $4.95 product and mark it up to $19.99. Do you
work for Ford or GM or something?"

I don't think he ordered one.

------
petercooper
Google Adsense used to be a really big deal for me. It's dropped in the last
month or two though.

Site / blog sponsorships. I'm not talking text link ads but actual
sponsorships from key companies in my sector. It's not big money but enough
for me to spend my time working on what I want rather than what I have to.

In the past, I had revenue generating webapps, but I sold those in order to
build some capital for future projects, savings, etc. I should probably get on
to building another to be fair..

Oh, some low-maintenance Web hosting and domain registrations too for ultra
old Web design clients (when I did that sort of thing). Keeps the servers paid
up for me to use for my own stuff :)

~~~
charcoal
> Site / blog sponsorships.

How does that work, exactly? Do you mean, you put links on your page to those
other key companies and then get paid per click?

~~~
jharrison
If Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't answer this question perfectly, and in video form,
I don't know who does. Check it.

<http://tinyurl.com/6lpckv>

~~~
donniefitz2
Vaynerchuck ROCKS. Love this guy.

~~~
shiranaihito
You don't think he resembles a frantic sleazeball marketoid at all?

Compare: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk>

~~~
mikeyur
Not at all.

------
critke
online with <http://uploadthingy.com> \- not totally passive - new users
sometimes need some help - but once they're subscribed - well, they're
subscribed.

~~~
mlLK
I like how you brand yourself; reminds me of something like
<http://wufoo.com/>.

~~~
critke
ha, yeah. gotta love a 'thingy'. Already working on new thingys - too bad the
building part isn't passive.

------
btw0
I built a job listing site <http://job2you.cn> (in Chinese) days ago, I plan
to charge RMB 1000 per job post in the future when possible.

~~~
btw0
I wonder why people upmod me, there seems to be nothing special about my
little plain job listing site.

~~~
unalone
Because we find your project interesting?

------
rivo
Songwriting. Royalties. It wears off after a while, though. I'm not John
Lennon. And it's not stable income. But still. It feels great when the check
arrives.

~~~
avinashv
Where do you write for? Your own work, as a solo artist/band? Or for a
soundtrack or something? This is something I've been wanting to get into and
would love more information about.

~~~
rivo
I wrote a lot for my own band and that was probably the best way to get into
the business and get to know the right people. Our first album was released in
2004 and people still buy it (word of mouth) so I'm still getting royalties.
Lately, I've been writing for other artists as well but you never know if they
pick your song and when they do, whether it picks up or not. So luck is a huge
factor.

It's not something you pick up just like that. I've been making music as long
as I've been programming (about 27 years). So take this "passive income" and
divide it by all those hours spent. You'll get something close to zero.

There are books on the topic. I recommend "Tunesmith" by Jimmy Webb. It's
about the art _and_ the industry.

On another note, it's really hard for me to bring the two things together. I
could program audio software but that's programming, hardly any "art"
involved. Lately, I've been making music for computer games but that's just
the art, no technical knowledge required. As long as I can think, it's been
either/or.

I'm actually that "rockstar programmer". ;)

------
cperciva
I'm hoping that tarsnap (<http://www.tarsnap.com/>, online backups for the
truly paranoid) will end up providing a passive income stream at some point in
the future. I'm trying to take myself out of the day-to-day running of the
service by automating as much as possible; of course, right now I'm still
writing new code to improve tarsnap.

That said, tarsnap isn't profitable yet, so the fact that it can keep itself
running without help from me doesn't make it a passive _income_ stream yet.
:-/

------
snoid
sleeping at work

------
dangrover
I write Mac & iPhone software: <http://www.wonderwarp.com>

~~~
iamdave
Hey, what are some good iPhone development resources, I really want to get
into this sort of thing for shits 'n giggles. Oh and make some bucks on the
side

~~~
Zev
What I found useful when messing around with iPhone stuff was the pragprog
iPhone SDK book, Erica Saudin's iPhone developers cookbook and just reading
Apple's documentation on the subject I was working on.

If you want more mac side of things then iPhone, then i can't say enough good
things about Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X book.

~~~
pz
I second the Hillegass recommendation. Between that and example code and a lot
of head scratching i think i finally understand the iPhone dev framework. I
just put out my first app (iGo) and things are promising. We'll see but my
hope its enough to cover rent (in SF mind you) and tacos.

~~~
dangrover
Hey, what's the best place for tacos in SF?

I'm moving there from Cambridge, and I'll miss Ana's.

~~~
pz
pancho villa at 16th & valencia is pretty good and la cumbre around the corner
is also pretty good.

i also like the tonayense taco truck on harrison and the al pastor at san jose
at 24th & mission is delicious.

if you want something a little less authentic but healthier seeming, try
papalotes at 24th and valencia.

------
hbien
Referrals - <http://djangohosting.org>, it's very passive =]

I also make desktop software, but I think that's very active -
<http://gearsquare.com/actiongear/>

~~~
apgwoz
How are you making money on referrals for djangohosting.org? Most of the links
are "straight-up" without any referral id..

edit: oh, I see, just on webfaction

------
mikeyur
Hopefully my little site I just launched, <http://allblogjobs.com> , will earn
me a few bucks (at least enough to cover my diet dr. pepper addiction)

~~~
apgwoz
I hope it does earn you a few bucks, but one piece of small advice--there's
not enough contrast and that makes it hard to read. I like the design though
other than that. Good luck!

------
ComputerGuru
There's no such thing as lazy money.

~~~
crsmith
...unless it's inherited

------
kbrower
I made a website that helps you get free shipping on amazon.com(have not
worked on it for years and it shows) <http://www.filleritem.com>

------
stanley
Developing niche sites about topics that I find interesting. The residual
income is derived from AdSense, affiliate sales, link sales, banner sales,
etc. I focus 80% of my time on new/large projects, the remaining 20% on
maintaining older sites. Here's an example site: <http://www.applemacbook.com>

~~~
davidw
What kinds of things actually pay well?

~~~
stanley
Any niche where you can generate affiliate sales or leads is better than one
where you have to resort to Adsense or banner/link sales.

------
fehily
I wrote a few (new editions of existing) books:

[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-
url/103-3188...](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-
url/103-3188513-3470248?field-keywords=chris%20fehily&url=index%3Dblended)

~~~
SwellJoe
I found writing to pay too little for too much effort. But, then, I only have
the one book published. And, to be fair, I do still get a few hundred dollars
in royalties every quarter five years later. So, I guess if I were to write a
stable of books over the span of a few years, it could probably turn out to be
a reasonable income. But then, it wouldn't be very passive, would it?

New editions of existing books is an interesting twist, though. Did you write
the originals? If not, how did you end up doing the updates for later
editions? (I'd be kinda ticked if my publisher didn't come to me first for a
new edition of my book, for example...and it's one reason I didn't write a
second book...the apress contract actually had a weird provision about not
needing any permission from the original author to release new editions, and
granted them the ability to do odd things to the royalty structure for
subsequent editions.)

~~~
fehily
If you want to make an actual _living_ , then write 15-20 midlist books (or 5
bestsellers) and revise them regularly (the real money is in the revisions,
not the first editions). You can drop a note to an acquisitions editor to see
if any authors have refused their right to revise.

Even if you lose money writing a book (you probably will--that's why editors
rarely quit to become authors), you can still impress at contractor interviews
by showing up with your published book. Or use the book to raise your speaking
fees, etc.

~~~
SwellJoe
Yes, that's true. One of my best contracts was obtained because of the book.
It _is_ surprising how much caché a published book has. And for folks looking
to make a living from Open Source software, I'd recommend writing a book about
your project, since it gives you a huge amount of credibility within the
community.

Though there are some publishers who put out crappy books that I would think
would have a negative impact on your credibility. I won't name names, but two
folks I know to be very smart and definitely experts in their field (I believe
both are users here, though not frequent users), wrote books for Apress and
Packt, respectively...and both are pretty sloppy, occasionally repetitive, and
sometimes even wrong. The funny thing is that I know they're both capable of
writing great documentation, because they've done it for their projects for
years.

I had quite a bit of editor input throughout the process of writing my book
for No Starch, and I was one of the technical readers for an O'Reilly title,
so I know that a lot of effort goes into making sure books from top name
publishers (and mid-tiers like No Starch) are readable and reasonably
accurate.

Then again, I don't know that anyone who ever hired me because of my book
actually read it. So maybe it doesn't matter if the book is sloppy. Maybe it
just matters that it's available at Amazon.

------
michaelneale
Realestate (in the past), interest (boring), dividends (yes some companies
still pay !).

booring... I like the iphone answer better ;) Wish that was me !

~~~
sciolizer
Wasn't it Kawasaki that said getting rich is boring?

~~~
michaelneale
Could be. Maybe he is right - well I can't say I know what I am doing, its
more lazyness, some patience and general tigh-wad-ness on my part, not some
grand plan (wish I could say otherwise).

------
jfornear
I still get allowance

~~~
pistoriusp
Me too... Except I pay my own allowance. ;)

~~~
pistoriusp
I really do pay myself first... I remove a large chunk of my paycheck each
month and place it directly into savings.

------
babul
I have been working on my passive income streams for a few years now, in all 3
areas mentioned (and some others), I don't know how much value I can add but
here is my real-life $0.02.

PROPERTY: Real estate generates good returns principally because the numbers
are large to start with so even modest returns on the investment can be very
substantial in real terms. It is low risk if you are sensible and crunch some
numbers beforehand (to ensure affordability).

If you buy a good house at a good price (mortgage long-term affordable for you
even at low occupancy/yield rates) in a good area you will generally be able
to rent it easily at a good return. If the property increases in value, that
should be treated as a bonus. Get a few houses in same area and options such
as hiring agents to find/manage tenants and maintenance companies to look
after the properties become cost effective (though even with many houses on
rent I still found it was cheap and easy to manage these myself and still work
fulltime, the key is to have a list of good trusted tradesmen willing to do
jobs for you when you need them and pay them well (above market rate) for
doing a good job – it is cheaper in the long run and property is best played
as a long-term game).

Buy near places that always have good and constant footfall and preferably
long-term renters e.g. near universities (students will rent 1-2years
generally) or centers of commerce (office staff typically rent ~6months but
will pay more rent and have less wear-and-tear on your house). Favour long-
term tenants on cheaper rents less likely to bother you (usually they will
appreciate you charge them less and do most minor DIY jobs themselves, plus
you will have more candidates to choose from so can be more selective).

WEB: Websites/Online is far more hit-and-miss and frankly unless you are
building a mass-market and scalable product/service, ideally something people
want, it does not seem worthwhile to me. For better or worse (generally
better), you are already competing on a globalised playing field (with more
competition, copycats, lower barriers to entry etc.) and without the captivity
intrinsic to property. I am sure many aspire to become the next FaceBook or
social-network-thingy but that generally seems hard work and risky (er,
Pownce.com?). Focus on a disruptive technology product
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology>) making use of new
advances as they emerge, ideally combining or converging two or more
disciplines, aimed towards a fixed market willing to pay seems a better bet.
However, as I gear towards that, I have initially opted for the easy-wins of
technically less complex but almost totally automated and revenue generating
product-based sites like <http://www.sportingglory.com>. So far this has been
working very well. Once setup, they require less than 4 hours per week
combined, and provide long-term passive value without further the need for
major enhancement [if they were on a the BCG Matrix,
<http://www.12manage.com/methods_bcgmatrix.html>, they would be cash-calfs
;)]. I am now at the stage I can start having a go at the more adventurous
sites/products. Hence, for websites, I would treat them as businesses
initially and go for things you know you can build and create revenue from,
and convert them into passive streams later in the lifecycle (but you already
know that).

INVESTING: Investing (stocks, shares, bonds, savings accounts etc.) has proved
to provide constant but modest returns but that is primarily because I am not
a risk taker in areas I know little or nothing about and hence have always
invested in safe products/funds and stayed away from the stock market. This
has by far been the easiest way to make modest amounts of money (4-8% p.a.)
for almost zero effort (on my part) as most products can be
bought/setup/created in a few hours/days (trackers, bonds, funds) and managed
by a fund manager, or minutes (savings), with little more than needing to know
what the rough interest rate will be. It is a good way to park cash for a
while, especially if you are lazy.

However, given that many of the people with the largest passive incomes on the
planet (as well as some of the richest) belong to the world of Finance, I am
sure effort spent learning about how to operate and navigate in the Finance
world and invest wisely would provide the best forms of passive income I can
achieve, but sadly I have no real interest in it.

TRADITIONAL BUSINESSES: Bricks-and-mortar business in conjunction with a
partner, and the understanding that later on they will run the daily business
while you remain in a supporting role, has provided both the best experiences
and passive income I have achieved so far. This works especially well in
simple businesses e.g. restaurants/bars, where once things are up and running,
they basically run themselves (and they are fun to set up). Eventually even
your partner will basically just oversee staff and could run several outlets.
If you apply this to several businesses e.g. an estate agents, a law firm, an
accounting practice, and a I.T. services company, you unsurprisingly have a
series of businesses that literally grow each other, requiring little or no
extra time or effort from you.

(OTHERS: I'll save it for another day/thread. Way past my bedtime and it is
showing in the writing...)

------
ajhaveri
a friend and I are doing it through <http://www.smbzen.com> it's not exactly
passive income - we've been writing blog posts
(<http://bizjournal.smbzen.com>) to attract the target audience through long
tail searches, but it's been working so for, plus, the blog is nice way to
pick up some _business_ material to compliment the tech background.

------
babul
A portfolio of passive income web-properties that can be administered from
anywhere ...that _is_ the dream.

------
s_baar
Prezzle.com still generates payments from Cambrian House. It's a way to send
gift-cards without the user just getting an unthoughtful email or to send a
message for free that can't be opened until a specific time.

------
jordanf
www.kallow.com

~~~
tectonic
Do you live off of this?

~~~
calebelston
No, this is a new project we are starting. We hope it can help people cut
through the clutter and annoyances of buying electronics.

------
kajecounterhack
SEO consulting. It's actually sort of funny how little work I do relative to
how much people will pay for it.

~~~
SwellJoe
There are some things I could never do. I mean, running drugs I'd do if things
got tough. Being a pimp, yeah, I could do that. Burglary...sure, everybody's
got insurance, so it's really a victimless crime. Even murder for hire if
things got really bad (no women, no kids).

But SEO consulting, that's just sick, man.

~~~
mlLK
You stole my heart.

~~~
SwellJoe
Yeah, I guess I'd do that, too, for the right price.

------
radu_floricica
Rent on custom business software.

------
chris_l
There's no such thing as a free meal.

------
transburgh
iPhone app

------
donniefitz2
Crack cocaine, my friend. Not passive, but lucrative. I kid. I kid.

------
vaksel
I don't. With real estate and investing, a decade of growth can get wiped out
in 1 week. No stability whatsoever. Sure its fine to play with a disposable
amount and hope for a win, but just like Vegas, you have to approach it with
willingness to lose everything.

Oh and I don't mean that first house, as an investment....I mean that 2nd and
3rd you buy, hoping to make a few hundred K in a couple of years.

So for passive, you gotta go with something safe. Stuff like gov't bonds etc.
Because otherwise you are pretty much guaranteed to lose a ton of money.

~~~
sgoraya
?? _With real estate and investing, a decade of growth can get wiped out in 1
week._

Really? My father has been involved in RE for over 20 yrs, has done great and
is doing very well currently. There is much more to RE than just homes: Raw
land, commercial properties, multi-unit housing, agriculture land (which is
actually appreciating right now).

 _I mean that 2nd and 3rd you buy, hoping to make a few hundred K in a couple
of years._

This is not investment. This is flipping. Something that has got a lot of
ignorant people in a whole lot of financial shit now days.

\-- With my fathers advisement, we are making great passive income with the
four-plexes we own (think small apartments).

~~~
a10
If you didn't mind, I had a couple of questions for you on duplexes vs. four-
plexes. My email is contractdesign@gmail.com. Regards -- JP

------
jmtame
I'm sorry, but this topic is stupid. And I don't know why everyone upvoted it.

Do you honestly think you can get money passively? As in by doing nothing?
Downvote me all you want, but I'm actually disappointed to see a thread like
this on the home page of hacker news.

You guys should know that there is no such thing as "passive income" and
anything worth doing is going to be difficult. You are wasting your time
trying to find these "do nothing and make money" or "get rich quick" schemes.

~~~
crystalarchives
I think you might have a different idea of "passive income" than the rest of
us here.

Passive income is money generated without requiring you to go to work, trading
a set amount of hours for steady cash. Instead, it's spending the effort on
building something (whether it be a book for royalties, a website for
subscription payments, investments for interest / asset worth increase, or
real estate for rental money) that generates a cash flow without requiring the
40 hour work week.

Granted, it's not "passive" in that you still need to spend the time and
effort to get it up and running, but once your system in place there's usually
much less time involved to keep it operating, which is why this type of income
is much more attractive - you can scale this system to make much more money
than you ever could through salary.

However, the risk is correspondingly higher; if your product doesn't do well,
you don't get money, whereas you can get away with a reasonable amount of
subpar performance at larger companies without too much problem.

~~~
jmtame
Nope, I know exactly what this topic is about. I read 4 Hour Workweek too.

~~~
jodrellblank
Then how can you claim that passive income doesn't exist, when it clearly
does?

~~~
jmtame
How can you claim that Jesus doesn't exist, when he clearly is in the Bible!?

~~~
whatusername
Another try - Do term deposits / Government Bonds / ?? pay a higher rate than
the inflation rate?

If so - that is passive income. OBVIOUSLY it requires capital / time / effort
/ luck / something to start with... But once that part is done - the rest is
passive.

