Passive Income - What's Your's?

[Starchaser]

I've seen several references to developing a passive income. What's your plan to establish one?What do you anticipateit will be per yr/mo?

[Microship]

I am fond of "nickel generators," a term first used by Don Lancaster in his immortal Incredible Secret Money Machine back in the '70s. I've made this a central tenet of my business life for decades... it is simply the deployment of a large number of small, simple cash-flow sources in parallel. If one fails, oh well. If a single high-investment startup fails, it's a disaster.

In my case, it's a mix of online activies like affiliate links, small product sales, spin-offs from projects I'm doing on my boat, book publishing (on demand), random consulting, and soon, rental of my house when I move aboard. Theoretically, investments would be in the same category, but I no longer trust them.

Cheers,
Steve

[Ex-Calif]

Mine will be the old fashioned one

Retirement pay
401k
Social Security
Savings

One and three are going ok but I am in deep doo on two and four...

I have a ways to go and may consider converting two and four into rental property

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Starchaser

I've seen several references to developing a passive income. What's your plan to establish one?What do you anticipateit will be per yr/mo?

Remaining Single has been most rewarding...

[unbusted67]

Having a girlfriend has been most rewarding. And by passive income do you mean laying on your back eating pizza? Cause I've got that down.

I've got some BMI checks that come to me from time to time from a song I had in a movie.

[anjou]

Old Yorkshire saying - 'A penny saved is a penny earned' Its a good maxim and works well for me. Having an aversion to shopping and not buying crap i dont need, whilst living a minimilist lifestyle means what ive got stays mostly in my pocket. I was born with sod all, and ive still got most of it left.

[ColdFusion]

I'm still at the planning stage but when I first thought about living afloat several years ago, I started to live a minimalist lifestyle and spend very little compared to Joe Average. 'If it won't go on the boat then don't buy it' has been my motto for some time. I now practically live in one room + kitchen + bathroom of my house, in order to make the transition to living in a smaller space easier. My house is currently up for sale and when it sells I plan to buy somewhere smaller/cheaper to bring in some rental income. The rest of my income will mainly come from savings.

[Albro359]

I sold my business with a deal to keep me on for a year .. the new guys didn't like me and paid me a year's salary to go .. and not compete ...why would I want to do that ?..

So now, we're refitting the boat, we've got the rest of the proceeds invested in a new office block with a govt signed up tenant for 8 years that gives us 8.25% pa and that will provide our income for the foreseeable ...

We're off !!

How much do you need ?...depends ....I know folks who've done it on almost nothing.

In fact I know a couple that had a boat, sold their house and they're now on the 2nd Pacific cruise.... I think they're in Bora Bora right now.

So...what ever floats your boat I guess !

What'd Steve say ?...cut the lines and go !

Good luck

Alan

[dubW]

Current income is based on and will continue:
Teach on-line classes for major University
Publish articles
Invited lectures
Retirement income I (30 year quasi governmental career)
Retirement income II (10 year community college teaching career)
101K used to be a 401K
Social Security (in a couple of years, maybe)

[nautical62]

Putting maximum allowed into tax deffered retirment plan.

Personal savings

Charter boat income

Appreciation of real estate

Income producing hobby (photography)


All are made easier by keeping expenses down. - My current vehicle costs less than $1000 per year over the life of the car. (depreciation, not insurance and gas)

[anotherT34C]

I'm young and figuring social security to edge up in age to almost beyond my cruising years (thinking I probably won't be eligible to collect until over 80).

Plan A: My minimum age for retirement will be 49. At 50-ish, I figure to retire and teach part-time as an adjunct. In the meantime, I take advantage of sabbaticals.

Plan B: Wife becomes P.Diddy's lawyer. I retire immediately, and keep her happy as my passive income.

Plan C: Mom wins the lottery (I refuse to play... too good at math) and agrees to share, despite my constant complaints over the years about wasting money on lottery tickets.

Hopefully one of those will pan out...

[iiii]

Pension, Social Security, rental income.

[barnakiel]

Aside from whatever you already have in place, any rentable property is best for passive players, while small businesses that you generate and then rent to be run by others might give you better return if you are already an entrepreneur. I would go for property in any case as it is way easier to manage - just remember it is essential to diversify and it has to be in prime locations (busy malls, inner suburbia, apartments in city centers - in places where people live in cities, etc.)

If your investments do not give you return higher that government bonds/bank deposits then you can sell them off and place your money with a bank. However, with how fragile the US economy is, I would still keep some property as a security in case the US announces insolvency or when the inflation hits.

However, if you have a lot and want to just make sure it will last your lifetime, you may buy gold or gold certificates and then sell them off when the gold prices are at their peaks. Any long term oil instruments may be a better option, if you understand the respective instruments and markets.

Rgds,
b.

[onestepcsy37]

i retired early seven years ago. no pension.

when i decided to save for early retirement i began investing in the stock market. one day at a seminar i met an elderly retired gentleman who told me how he had retired with a steady income stream from bonds - corporate and government. he said he just kept buying a wide variety of bonds and had never lost a dime - not even during some severe downturns. i began researching bonds.

i was fortunate to get out of the market near the top of the 'dot.com' era. i began purchasing bonds (and occasionally certificates of deposit when they have good rates) and now have a 'ladder' - bonds and cd's with varying maturity dates that pay me regular income. it requires almost no management which is very important to me, and the main reason i've avoided real estate, rental properties, businesses, etc. my only real 'job' is to reinvest each bond/cd when it matures - about two or three times a year. although current rates aren't too attractive you must remember that in a 'ladder' situation you keep buying over a long period of time, when the bond market is up as well as when it's down. i have several long term bonds paying me around 8%.

it's also about the simplest investment you can make. just remember the two most important rules.
1) NEVER USE A BROKER. if you'd like to know why please email me.
2) NEVER BUY A BOND FUND. BUY INDIVIDUAL BONDS.

if you're still interested, heres what to do.
1) sign up with an investment house like fidelity investments. open two accounts - an investment account and a money management account.
2) use the investment account to buy bonds and cd's.
3) as your dividends accumulate, move them to your money management account. you will be given a debit card and a checkbook which will allow you to take money out of it. fidelity will also get you a credit card if you want one, and that can be paid from your money management account - automatically if you prefer.
4) when a bond matures, do not move that money to the money management account. use it to buy another bond.

now that's a whole lot simpler than managing rental property, real estate, businesses, or any other steady income stream you can think of.

and it gets better! i do all my income/investing work on the internet. that means i can be anywhere on earth where there is an internet connection and buy bonds or move money around. try that with real estate!

[hydrogonian]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

i retired early seven years ago. no pension.

when i decided to save for early retirement i began investing in the stock market. one day at a seminar i met an elderly retired gentleman who told me how he had retired with a steady income stream from bonds - corporate and government. he said he just kept buying a wide variety of bonds and had never lost a dime - not even during some severe downturns. i began researching bonds.

i was fortunate to get out of the market near the top of the 'dot.com' era. i began purchasing bonds (and occasionally certificates of deposit when they have good rates) and now have a 'ladder' - bonds and cd's with varying maturity dates that pay me regular income. it requires almost no management which is very important to me, and the main reason i've avoided real estate, rental properties, businesses, etc. my only real 'job' is to reinvest each bond/cd when it matures - about two or three times a year. although current rates aren't too attractive you must remember that in a 'ladder' situation you keep buying over a long period of time, when the bond market is up as well as when it's down. i have several long term bonds paying me around 8%.

it's also about the simplest investment you can make. just remember the two most important rules.
1) NEVER USE A BROKER. if you'd like to know why please email me.
2) NEVER BUY A BOND FUND. BUY INDIVIDUAL BONDS.

if you're still interested, heres what to do.
1) sign up with an investment house like fidelity investments. open two accounts - an investment account and a money management account.
2) use the investment account to buy bonds and cd's.
3) as your dividends accumulate, move them to your money management account. you will be given a debit card and a checkbook which will allow you to take money out of it. fidelity will also get you a credit card if you want one, and that can be paid from your money management account - automatically if you prefer.
4) when a bond matures, do not move that money to the money management account. use it to buy another bond.

now that's a whole lot simpler than managing rental property, real estate, businesses, or any other steady income stream you can think of.

and it gets better! i do all my income/investing work on the internet. that means i can be anywhere on earth where there is an internet connection and buy bonds or move money around. try that with real estate!

Thats a pretty great post onestepcsy37...Thanks for sharing..Would you mind going into a bit more detail?

If so, answering any of the below might be really helpful for someone endeavoring to do the same..

How long were you buying bonds before you had enough of a recurring income stream to retire?

If you dont mind, since this forum is essentially anonymous, how much passive income do you have per month from the bonds in your retirement?

Approximately how much capital do you have invested to bring that in?

Is there anything that you think could cause your average passive bond income to severely fluctuate before you die?

Have you ever lost money in the process?

Are you still recharging your account with new income, or does the account sustain itself solely by rolling over matured bonds?

What type of bonds do you prefer?

Do you think that future inflation (projected to be above average, to put it mildly) could have too adverse an effect on this strategy for someone just starting out?

Are there any resources that one could consult to implement this strategy most precisely and effectively?

I know thats a lot of questions, but those would be on the mind of anyone tempted to try it out. Answer as many or as few as you think might be useful to the forum.

Again, great contribution with your post