Anyone here know how to make money?

[howman]

Serious question... does anyone here know how to make a lot of money?

I have been a student of the self-help genre for many years. Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, David Allen (heard of him?), Robert Allen, Ken Roberts, etc. I've bought into different money making systems. Nothing has worked so far. I'm not blaming the gurus or their systems mind you. I am just explaining where I am coming from.

While doing a mind dump for GTD, I created a someday/maybe item for myself that says:

"Earn a full time salary through passive income."

Looking at that sentence now I realize it is a goal and not a project. That's okay. The important part is that I captured it in my trusted system. Now I need to process it.

I know this forum has a diverse crowd. I would like your opinion on how you would go about achieving this goal - breaking it down, defining it better, taking actions, whatever. If you already earn a full time salary from passive income, I really want to hear how you did it.

Thanks!

[TesTeq]

Serious question... does anyone here know how to make a lot of money?

"Earn a full time salary through passive income."
It is nothing personal but I hate such attitude. It is a lazy man attitude.

Examples of successes are very rare and just because they are rare - they are successes. How many people can sell pixels on their website? How many people can sell 1000 paintings with numbers from 1 to 1000? How many people earn full time salary from Google ad programs? And these people were not thinking how to do nothing and earn money but they implemented a one-time brilliant marketing idea.

There is no free lunch. I believe that only active people who are working with passion can earn decent money.

But just in case I have two real life examples how to make easy money:
1. Buy a good quality copy printer and carefully distribute fake money.
2. Create Future Advanced Knowledge Enterprise Company (FAKE Company), persuade investors to invest in your Internet Multimedia Web 2.0 project and disappear with the money (or construct investment agreements that will allow you to take money without any risks).

[kewms]

The classic approach is to inherit or accumulate sizable assets and live off the income. The new approach is to sell your company to Google (or Microsoft, or whomever) for a gazillion dollars and live off the income. Either way, you've got to have money to make money: the income is earned by some form of existing asset.

How you achieve that will depend on your time frame, your existing resources, and your personality. You could start a company, you could invest in real estate, or you could get to know your rich uncle Fred.

You might track down a book called "The Millionaire Next Door," which examined people who became independently wealthy in a single generation (ie not via inheritance). Most of them were entrepreneurs. Very few were highly paid professionals, like doctors and lawyers.

Also, most of them worked very hard to achieve their goals. As TesTeq said, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Katherine

[remyc88]

The easiest way to earn more money is to spend less! Remember that for every dollar saved, that's almost like 1.3 dollars earned (or more depending on your tax rate) :)

[Popeye]

Hey c´mon...

it´s easy...


There is a few ways to get rich without hard work..

1. but a ticket in a lottery and hope, hope, hope...

2. find a rich person and get married...

3. invent something that people all over the world needs two times a day...

or... here comes the winner...

4. start working and save your money you get from your active income....


and...

"I know this forum has a diverse crowd. I would like your opinion on how you would go about achieving this goal - breaking it down, defining it better, taking actions, whatever. If you already earn a full time salary from passive income, I really want to hear how you did it."

If I had this gift to get rich from a passive income... it would be my secret. ;-)


Remember, you harvest what you are sowing. there is no shortcuts...

[Steve Wynn]

I think the simplest way is to find something you are really passionate about, and that could be anything, then see if you can make a career out of it. You tend to find that the people that have been really successful in this world have had a real passion for something.

I don't think any income is passive, the word passive means 'lacking energy or will' , 'lacking initiative or forceful qualities' how can you generate income based on that?. Even with Web products that might be sold 24/7, there is always hard work involved. Orders to be processed, complaints, refunds, administration. I don't believe passive income exists.

Behind every successful person is one key element, a lot of really hard work performed over a substantial period of time. If that hard work is directed in a worthwhile manner then one of the benefits may be lots of money. But I think if you are doing anything just for the sole purpose of making money, you will probably fail. You need to focus on providing a product or service that people want. Providing your customers with something of value.

"Earn a full time salary through passive income." is a potential outcome of finding something you are really passionate about, making a business out of it and working hard. But I wouldn't view it as a goal to start with. Your goal needs to be measurable and specific. If you are going to set goals, set them high, then work hard to achieve them.

All the best

Steve

[mcogilvie]

Serious question... does anyone here know how to make a lot of money?
.

Experience and observation suggests it usually involves working your a** off.



While doing a mind dump for GTD, I created a someday/maybe item for myself that says:

"Earn a full time salary through passive income."




What's a full time salary for you? $30K? $60K, $100K? $200K?
What assets do you have now?
As a rule of thumb, right now you can generate about $30K after inflation per year per million dollars of assets at very moderate risk, and low effort. That's a 3% return. More risk and more effort can earn you more money, but not necessarily.

[ommoran]

Serious question... does anyone here know how to make a lot of money?

Just to be facetious... it's three easy steps.

1. Realize that people struggle with Time Management.
2. Write a book on time management.
3. Live off the proceeds.

:grin:

[crankit98]

Hello All


The only real way to earn money is to WORK HARD.

Wether you start an online business as we have or
working offline.Hard and Dedicated work will get the job
done.No other way,online or off.

So,get with it.

[Mags]

Well, I understand the question completely. It sounds like we may have somethings in common.
As far as 'work hard" "find something you love" "etc'... all of that rigamarole... there's still more to it than that.
I haven't figured it out completely myself.. YET... but I am getting closer.
What I can tell you is that I have been working 15+ hour self employed days since 1986 and have not been able to achieve the INCOME that I made in 1984...when I was employed. I made $140,000 that year....and quit because I didn't like the work.
I'm close again...and I believe that GTD will help get me there. But in the interim, I've read Baldoni, Carnegie, Covey, Corcoran, Peale, Bruce, Blanchard, McKay, Ziglar, Peters, Popcorn, Cooper, Naisbitt, Robbins, Gibran, and just about anything else you can name.
All of those are great thinkers... but I don't thing (now) the books weren't ABOUT making money. They were about organization.
For me at this point, making money has to do with getting paid for your services, at a reasonable rate, and being fair with the customer.
At the beginning of this year, I began working on that part of my business.
I always have been lucky and have attracted good clients. Since I started billing for my time more 'appropriately', my income has tripled. My workload is still about the same...and I have lost a few clients...but I'm ok with it.
Anyway...that's my story and I'm stickin to it.
btw... I started this AM with setting up GTD on the OLD trusted system I used in 1984. It was suprisingly very similar to what I had... which helped me move pretty quicly.
Here is a link to the blog about it... with some pictures of my 'new' system.
http://www.surfinwithstan.com/gtd .... the images are under the "materials" tab... and there is a link to the cards I created. You'll have to have MS Publisher to view/print/use them though.

[treelike]

I think that an important thing is to keep your mind open to new opportunities which can appear at any time and any place. You get a lot more ideas from actually doing stuff, going places, communicating with people, watching things than sitting down in front of a blank piece of paper with a cup of coffee "trying to think of an idea". Take the piece of paper wherever you go and collect the everyday ideas for processing later. The more you look at things with an opportunistic attitude the more opportunities you see.

The second part of it is trying out all the ideas, 99.999999% of which will fail. Most fail at the first hurdle i.e. whether you have (or want to risk) the money and time required to try out the idea. You maybe only need one or two of the ideas to be really successful.

Having said all that I don't personally want to spend my entire life in the persuit of money. I want to minimise the time I have to spend doing stuff which I need to do but don't particularly enjoy so I can spend more time doing stuff I do enjoy. Money is just something I need which I don't particularly like.

[howman]

I never said anything about not working hard nor did I say I was looking for a "get rich quick" scheme. I think some of you are reading this wrong and/or have a preconceived notion about the phrase "passive income".

Maybe the problem is the way I worded the goal. According to Steve Wynn (great response by the way; thanks for your input), there is no truly passive income. I can see his point.

Maybe the goal should read something more like:

"Earn $X a year in income generated by a business venture or investments (not from regular salary)"

The underlying motivation here is, I do not want my financial health to be fully dependent on salary income. Consider the goal an insurance policy against job loss. Or consider it "diversification."

Mags, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I too was self employed for many years but recently moved into the salaried work force. I would like to suggest another book and author to add to your long list, Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932156852/sr=8-5/qid=1152445086/ref=pd_bbs_5/104-5882627-4092745?ie=UTF8). Especially read chapter one where he explains how much you really need to charge for your billable hour.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Anyone else wish to add to this?

[TyQ]

I do not believe that there is truely passive income. Stocks and Mutual funds come close, but you still have to watch things fairly closely and do extensive work before hand to make a sound investment. And unless you are playing with a big chunk of change, it will be difficult to earn enough to live off of.

I have seen hands off business owners earn plenty without actively working in their business, but they still watch things like a hawk. And to get to that point they had to work very hard.

I think the best thing anyone can hope for is a semi-passive income (or incomes) that they watch very closely -- there never is a free lunch.

[jpm]

I never said anything about not working hard nor did I say I was looking for a "get rich quick" scheme. I think some of you are reading this wrong and/or have a preconceived notion about the phrase "passive income".

This discussion has been interesting from this forum as it is outside the scope of other forums I follow where these matters are discussed frequently. I think the reactions from several people have been interesting.

There are a lot of misconceptions about "passive income". Partly because there are late night infomercials selling a dream, partly because few people really understand investing.

Passive income is different. It takes less of your time, but is not effortless. Leave for Tahiti for a year and you will come back to find your passive income investments in shambles... but you can probably get away to Hawaii for a couple of weeks several times a year.

You'll typically need to spend a few hours a week managing your passive investments. Compare that to the 50,60,70+ hour a week job that many of us work today...



Maybe the goal should read something more like:

"Earn $X a year in income generated by a business venture or investments (not from regular salary)"


This is better. But I'd prefer you be more specific. What is $X? $50,000, $100,000, $200,000? Once you know what $X is you can determine what your asset base and return on assets will need to be.

By When? Through a business? through investments? What kind of business? What kind of investments?

If X is $100,000 and you choose real estate you'll need about $1 million in assets at 10% return to generate $100,000 annually. If you are going to run a business you'll need approximately $500,000 in assets and the ability to generate about a 20% return on assets.

Personally I like real estate. I invest in single family homes at the 3 BR/2BA entry level in the market. I can easily rent these to families who pay rent on time, handle much of the simple maintenance, and tend to stay in the same house for multiple years. In addition to modest cash flow, they are easy to leverage, when I find a bargain I get walk-in equity and the properties also appreciate. (Building an asset base by buying assets at a discount is much better than paying retail with after tax earnings from a job).

That being said, all of the advice above is good. Keep your job. You'll need w2 income to live on and whatever vehicle you choose your job income makes you financable.

Save your money. I'm sorry when I was young I did not save my money. I really didn't think it was worth it for a 3-6% return. Don't settle for that. 10% is pretty easy to obtain with real estate. I've had returns of anywhere from -20% to about 80% with my real estate investments. (Yes I have lost money too, so you must be prepared to take on some risk). Had I started investing in Real Estate when I was younger, I would easily be a "full time investor" by now.

Do what you love. Making money is hard work. Especially if you want to earn passive income. You'll be doing a lot of it, so you'd better enjoy it.

Avoid bad debts. Buying a new car on credit is not "Leveraging an Asset". Save your credit for buying things that put net cash in your pocket.

Find a Mentor. There are good ones out there. They can help you avoid the mistakes they made along the way and can pass on the knowledge they've gained.

Keep a great attitude. No matter what you think you're right.

Whatever vehicle you choose make sure that delivering a quality product or service to your customer is more important to you than making money. Wealth is simply a byproduct of providing great value to customers.

best of luck.

[howman]

JPM,

I sent you a PM. Please check your inbox.

Thanks.

[tim99]

I never said anything about not working hard nor did I say I was looking for a "get rich quick" scheme. I think some of you are reading this wrong and/or have a preconceived notion about the phrase "passive income".But the answers you got here are typical. I am shocked at music forums where a person asks how to play jazz or how to become a full time employed musician, and the first answers are always "there are no shortcuts." Well, HELLO, the orignial poster never said they were looking for a shortcut. In fact, in my opinion, if a person is asking to increase their income, learn jazz, become a full time musician, they already know that there will at least be a period of a few years where they will be working there rear off more than the typical person.

Last year, the boss/owner/president of the company I was working for hired a business coach from a company named Action International. I do not work for them and this is not spam or an ad, it is just the facts. Anyway, his coach was coaching him on how to remain the owner of that company, but to reduce his time working FOR the company, so that he could either pursue his other interests, or...start another company. The book Rich Dad, Poor Dad talks about this.

Most of my friends who are "self employed" do not own a business that they could sell or that they could "manage" with minimum input.

One of the music stores that I go to, and the cleaners that I do my shirts at, both have the owner of the company working for that company. Basically, they own the company they work for. Even though they have employees, you could argue that they own their jobs, not their businesses. However, the laundry guy and the music store guy have businesses that they could sell. So they are working on increasing the value of their business. If the business owns the land and the building it is using, even better.

I worked for a business where the land and the building was owned by the three guys who owned the company, and the business paid those guys rent, and after 15 years, those guys owned that land and that business. They slowly sold out and where set for life, before they where 60.

The Brusters near me is on a large plot of land between two shopping centers. The guy who owns it bought it for the future land value, and simply runs the ice cream store to pay for the land. And he owns the franschise for that area, so there is value in that. He plans to sell the land with an agreement that he will build a Brusters as a part of any future development.

Anyway...it is a crime that in america a young person who is looking for a way to create wealth that in turn creates a passive income is called lazy. It is a crime that our education system does not include business ownership as a part of a possible future for young people. Most kids who graduate from high school say that they want to do something that involves being an employee of some comany they do not have control of.

And "passive income" does not mean lazy, and it does not mean investment or interest from a large sum of cash.

Last. All my friends who are into real estate and small business ventures also have jobs. And they are looking for ANYTHING that will pay for its self. Read that again. Pay for itself. If you can buy an apartment building. Even a small four unit building. And the income from that venture will simply pay for itself, and your loan is for 15 years...BINGO...in 15 years you have income from that property, along with the increased value in that property.

Really last. Don't be the guy who mows the lawns, be the guy who goes door to door signing up customers, and hiring more guys who simply do the daily mowing. And then keep a sharp eye out for the guy who is going to take your place, so you can now leverage those existing customers you already have a relationship with to now be washing their cars. Then you again replace yourself and leverage those customers and provide home improvements.

These are just examples. And you may know all this.

One of the radio stations in my city has a daily talkshow by a guy named Dave Ramsey that is a real eye opener. His system is for being debt free, which in combination with investments that pay for themselves would create an early retirement.

[howman]

Tim,

A business that pays for itself. You hit the nail on the head. Don't work IN your business, work ON your business. This is exactly what Kiyosaki and Gerber teach.

Thanks so much for your post!

[tim99]

I am facinated with your experience with the "make 15,000 a month now" schemes. I play guitar, so I know that the "learn all the notes on the fretboard tonight" are just schemes. But I do not know enough about the "self employment" market to understand it. Every year there is a big "show" in my town where companies come to present "self employment" oppertunites. People go to shop for companies to go with. From what I can tell, these companies are basically looking for independent, maybe 1099 type of people, to be their sales force with no to minimum investment by the head company. And these people do not have much opportunity to increase their business to the point where they can hire enough people to pay for their salary.

I would imagine if this was my area of knowledge, I would have rules of thumb as to how many employees of what type and at what level or how much real estate would need to be accumulated to provide a specific yearly income.

[tim99]

Last post today. Honest. My brother-in-law runs branch banks.

We went to browse at the new PORCHE dealer down the street from him on christmas day to get out of the house for a little while because the golf course was closed.

And I asked him what people do to be able to buy these cars. He said that they usually own or run business. I thought about it and said, you mean that they are not working as what they have a degree in. He said yes. They may have gone to school to be a biologist, but they are not that now. They now own the company that sells the samples to schools for there lab experiments. They are not doing a job they got with a resume that shows a specific knowledge requirement for a specific salary. But he also said that they may have been a typical salary worker out of school for several years while they studied the business and looked for an opportunity, not to move up in that company, but to move out to own a competing or supplying business. I know a guy who left his brothers construction company as a purchase agent to start a business to provide material to his brother's company, and now has grown it to provide material to other companies as well.

Ok. This thread is now on a good track. Let's keep it going and stay away from those page one type comments.

[howman]

Thanks again Tim for your supportive posts.

Just so you know, I did not take any offense from any of the posts here. I raised the subject to get honest feedback from a diverse audience. I would prefer to hear everyone's opinion and not just opinions that match mine.

I am beginning to learn that most people have different perspectives throughout their life. Just because you think the world works a certain way now doesn't mean you wont change your mind later. I think back to the beliefs and values I held as a teenage and as a college student and I compare them to my beliefs and values now. Big difference.

So for the people who read my post and didn't like what I had to say, that's okay. It's is merely a case of perspective.

[tim99]

You have a very healthy attitude.

It is not correct to believe that everyone is like you, or that everyone else is a specific way. When people say that "everyone" gets angry at other drivers in traffic, they are just plain wrong. When people say that "all men" or "all women" or "all architects" are a specific way, they are just plain wrong.

When we realize that others are different from us, only then can we actually start to learn from them, because their opinions will be filtered by their own experience, attitude, and current mental health.

I have spent a lot of time and money on music. I have not read all the books I have bought cover to cover. I do not do all the things that people have recommended for me to do. I can not remember all the advice my teachers have given me. I am not where I want to be or where I expected to be after this time and effort, but I have improved, and am better than those who did not spend the time or money or effort.

Stay on the path. Focus. There are guys on the PGA tour who where not the best player on their college team. But they stuck with it. I asked a good golfer once what all the guys on tour had in common, and he said "work ethic, they are all willing to work hard for long periods of time, on one specific thing, with no visible improvement, and no outside encouragement."

[howman]

Tim99, I sent you a PM. Check your inbox: http://www.davidco.com/forum/private.php?

[remyc88]

You should also check out a book called The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887307280/sr=8-1/qid=1153162242/)

The overall idea is that most small businesses are started by technical (i.e. skilled in a trade) people and that's all fine and dandy until the person decides to take a break. Essentially, the technical person IS the company and without him or her, the company would fail.

So the idea is to evolve from a technician into a manager by creating a system of actions where you can train people to take over your job. The goal being that you don't have to be there all the time for your business to succeed.

It's an interesting read and though it seems to simplify things and sometimes it doesn't seem relevant to certain fields it does present some interesting ideas.

[tjisolutions]

Back to Kiyosaki - have you read "The Business School for People Who Like Helping People? (book) It is all about building a network marketing business. This is about the only way that people without a lot of money can earn a sizable "passive" income in as little as 2 to 5 years. It takes a LOT of hard work, and realizing that you don't know what you don't know. Find a mentor who can lead you through the minefield. Expect tons of critics.

It is happening every day. There are many people I know by name, a few personally, that don't need to use alarms anymore. They still work very hard, but they are living their priorities, not just their obligations.

Paul Zane Pilzer has written a new book about how there will be 10 million new millionaires in the next 10 years. How? Home based network marketing businesses combined with the wellness revolution going on. The market? mostly baby boomers. http://www.paulzanepilzer.com/

Stephen

I was going to recommend Networking as well. If you get involved with the right company it is a great way to make a sizable residual income.

Having said that (and this is for all the negative responses that stephen and I will get) I have been involved in networking for a few years and here are the real live results I have witnessed

My up up up up line has been "financially free" for 28 years

My up up up line has been "financially free" for 22 years

My up up line has been "financially free" for about 6 years

My up line has retired his wife a month ago

My wife retired in 1999

A guy that a quitter found in my business retired his wife in 2001

... with the exception of the first one, these are people whose phone numbers are in my cell phone book, I know their kids, we exchange christmas gifts and we enjoy free time together. So I am not a person that just got involved wagging my tail and wetting myself

[amandasdad]

Bravo and indeed there no such thing as a free lunch!
Look at Bill Gates: He has created a lunch he can live off of for the rest of his life, but however, do you really think it was handed to him?

HE WORKED HS BUTTOX OFF
Bet your booty on that one

Everyony needs to work to attain their goals, I know I always did



It is nothing personal but I hate such attitude. It is a lazy man attitude.

Examples of successes are very rare and just because they are rare - they are successes. How many people can sell pixels on their website? How many people can sell 1000 paintings with numbers from 1 to 1000? How many people earn full time salary from Google ad programs? And these people were not thinking how to do nothing and earn money but they implemented a one-time brilliant marketing idea.

There is no free lunch. I believe that only active people who are working with passion can earn decent money.

But just in case I have two real life examples how to make easy money:
1. Buy a good quality copy printer and carefully distribute fake money.
2. Create Future Advanced Knowledge Enterprise Company (FAKE Company), persuade investors to invest in your Internet Multimedia Web 2.0 project and disappear with the money (or construct investment agreements that will allow you to take money without any risks).

[JohnV474]

This is a great topic, and the amount I'd like to say overflows the space that's available. So, here are some thoughts:

* Gjerdingen, from the IU Maurer school of law, wrote a very helpful article called "Rules of Investing--Everything You'll Wish You Knew at 25". He lays out a plan and gives specific investing advice--among the best I've found. Google can find it for you.

* Passive income can come from investments (above) or from others' work--i.e. employees. Gerber (E-Myth) talks about systematizing your business so others' work doesn't require your input. Ferriss (4HWW) talks about automating your system to replace you.

* Magic of Thinking Big is a great book that explains one point: there is a lot less competition for far-out goals than there is for medium goals. There are more applicants at entry-level positions than top management positions.

* 80/20 Principle by Koch is a great book as well, with a specific section on best investment bangs for your buck and how to be disproportionately wealthy in your field.

* To make a lot of money, hard work is (almost) always required, however, most hard work does not lead to making a lot of money. It all depends on what work is being done.

The funny part of answering your question is that lots of people have made lots of money by doing lots of things. One friend made a lot of money by being a landlord/handyman. He compounded his earnings by doing all maintenance/repairs himself and using real estate appreciation to then purchase more properties, which then increased in total value even faster.

Others have made money solely from investments. Others have made money from starting businesses, working for several years, and then selling them while fully-functioning--anything from painting street gutters to jewelry stores.

In many ways, the best way to make money is to learn how to earn a very lot of money for your time (80/20 principle addresses how, specifically), and then work less. It's not exactly passive income, but the net effect is similar. For example, can you figure out a way to make $50 in an hour of time? How about $500? How about $5000?

Specific businesses that can be set up to require very little input from the owner are: pay-and-spray car washes; storage units; selling or reselling information/products online.

Or, you could help someone who wants to work for himself and is willing to let you have a cut in exchange for helping him grow faster. Good examples are lawncare and housepainting, because the value is in the labor not in equipment. If you help someone go from running his own small show to having several lawn/paint/whatever crews around, he could double his income without lengthening his workweek. He could be his own boss and you could be simply an investor.

Of course, the best way to have more money is to spend less of what you have. However, this doesn't "make money" per se... though it could if those resources were redirected to areas of higher return. In general, if you just look for where your resources can get more return--much more thoroughly than most of us do--then that is about all you need to make more money.

JohnV474

[SGTM]

I just don't think there are formulas. I know hard working poor and lazy rich. I know people who hate what they do and make great money and I know people who love what they do and don't.

I actually think it is more about satisfying the "market" and not yourself. You can satisfy the market through innovation, great value or great service. There are probably many people getting rich making Ipods and IPads as an example and some love it and some hate it. They are getting rich because the market likes the products, not because of their passion or lack thereof. To the extent you "love" what you do to satisfy the market great.

In order to make a huge passive income you have to still create something that can "live on" for a long time be it capital that can earn interest or dividends or songs or books that will sell forever. The creation of the source of the passive income I think again takes into account the satisfaction of the market.

Good luck

[productivity]

This question is definitely something to be pondered upon if you're thinking of earning easy money. There's no such thing unless you're doing something illegal. :D
Seriously, you make money if you work hard enough to earn them. Sometimes if we're lucky enough, we get to win some if we try our luck on lotteries and such. But basically the idea is simple, we work hard for the money (as the song goes :D)...

[howman]

Wow, my thread is now resurrected four years later. The Internet never forgets.

JohnV, thanks for the great response. I found the "Rules of Investing" paper and will read it now.

SGTM, I agree with you about satisfying a need in the market. I am sure there have been thousands of "great" inventions over the last hundred years that just "never found a market". In fact, I started a web business many years ago with the hope of selling to a certain industry only to find out later that industry was apathetic to my idea. Lesson learned.

By the way SGTM, I clicked over to your blog. I'll check it out today.

Thanks everyone.

[JohnV474]

Only today did I notice that this thread had been started years ago. Ha!

But it's a great topic anyway.

JohnV474

[8online]

I have to agree that "passive income" is kind of the wrong track. In the beginning there's always hard work and determination. Once you've passed the tests and challenges and still are going strong, then - and only then - can you talk of passive income. You deserve to lean back now. However dont let things rest on end...do check your autopilot every once in a while. Because you never know when the game changes. Typical scenarios of passive income after initial hard work would be writing a couple of bestsellers, a couple of hit songs, or building a website marketing empire.

[cojo]

I'm just curious here.

WHY do you want to earn passive income?

In other words, if you're wildly successful, and you suddenly have a bank account flush with cash, what will you do with yourself?

I imagine most people will take a vacation, or spend some time with their family, or fix up their house, or just relax. But after a month or two, when you're done with all that...what would you do?

Would you write? Volunteer to change the world? Exercise? Create art? Practice yoga or martial arts? Write computer programs? Cook gourmet meals?

The reason I ask is because passive income normally requires the "money makes money" method, and the problem with that is that you need money in the first place, and if you already had money you wouldn't have asked this question on a forum.

Therefore, you need money. And apparently you're unfulfilled with what you're doing now, and you probably want a passive income so that you can quit whatever it is you do that is unpleasant, and start doing something else.

So why not find a way to take your passion and get paid for it? If you manage to do this, live frugally and spend less than you earn, you will be on your way to saving enough for a passive income, AND you will be doing the thing you love. What's more, you'll probably build yourself a successful career, because the best workers are the ones who are passionate about it, and the respect and pride that comes with a great career is a good feeling.

They say "do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." I did precisely this, and it's not ALL roses and gummy bears, but I don't dread going to work in the morning, and I come home singing. Life's too short to do something you hate.

Maybe your goal isn't really "earn a passive income"; maybe it's "start earning money doing something I love".

Not sure if this applies to you, but if it does, I urge you to take it to heart.

[howman]

Very well said cojo. Thanks for the advice.

[richardtgray]

The easiest way to earn more money is to spend less! Remember that for every dollar saved, that's almost like 1.3 dollars earned (or more depending on your tax rate) :)

I agree! To add to this, pay all your credits first. How can you earn when you have a lot of credits to pay for? Credits are bad, savings are good. ;)

[GTDerEvan]

fivefingers, you've been reported. Your spam isn't even relevant to the contents of this forum.

As for how to make money in an ongoing fashion, it depends on several factors, from interests, to income goals, to lifestyle goals. If the goal is to not have to work, typically you're going to have to learn the hard way that it won't happen without a ton of work up front. If the goal is to do something more productive than "working for the man", it's not all that difficult to develop an income you can live off of while doing what you're passionate about and what you care about.

I'm open to discussing this further via email (mailto:evan@gtdreviews.com) if you'd like. In any case, I wish you the best in whatever you pursue - just make sure you're making the world better by creating or contributing something, and not being a leach off of those who are.

Cheers,

[AbegailAany]

The best ways and the only BEST ways to make money is putting efforts into your business or career. Money from lottery won't last wrong, most of the time.

[quitehypnotic]

Find a topic you enjoy discussing and then create a blog around it. With a little time and effort you can build a regular following and monetize your site with adsense and useful affiliate programs.

[kthlrsn]

It is nothing personal but I hate such attitude. It is a lazy man attitude.

Examples of successes are very rare and just because they are rare - they are successes. How many people can sell pixels on their website? How many people can sell 1000 paintings with numbers from 1 to 1000? How many people earn full time salary from Google ad programs? And these people were not thinking how to do nothing and earn money but they implemented a one-time brilliant marketing idea.

There is no free lunch. I believe that only active people who are working with passion can earn decent money.

But just in case I have two real life examples how to make easy money:
1. Buy a good quality copy printer and carefully distribute fake money.
2. Create Future Advanced Knowledge Enterprise Company (FAKE Company), persuade investors to invest in your Internet Multimedia Web 2.0 project and disappear with the money (or construct investment agreements that will allow you to take money without any risks).

You don't need to be so mean. I myself make a little off the net but not very much. I have tried so many programs. It can drive you nuts! I know that I will find a good program that fits my mentality. Don't be so mean on people who are still looking!

[TesTeq]

I have tried so many programs. It can drive you nuts! I know that I will find a good program that fits my mentality. Don't be so mean on people who are still looking!

I do not believe in passive income schemes. I think it's a waste of time to look for such opportunities. I think people should look for their success elsewhere.

[kelstarrising]

Hi Folks

We are closing this thread. It's not relevant to GTD and it's starting to become a mud sling.

Kelly