The 6 Most Underrated Passive Income Ideas of 2019

Everyone loves a side hustle, but passive income can be more than just a little extra to save for a vacation or a new car. Passive income can be a way to set yourself free from the 9-to-5 corporate job world and avoid the scam of Wall Street while you grow your income. The best passive income ideas of 2019 can set you on the path towards true financial freedom.

The 6 Most Underrated Passive Income Ideas of 2019

1. Digital Resources

Like all good passive income ideas, this one requires an investment of your time and effort at the outset. Once you have put in the time, you can sit back and reap the rewards. Digital resources refer to anything that you produce in digital form and make available for others to buy or rent or offer freely but monetize through advertisements.

What Are We Talking About?

Examples of things you might put up for sale or rent include e-books, webinars, classes or lessons, or video and audio materials. You might monetize through advertising on a YouTube channel. If you are an educator, you might consider posting lessons for other teachers to purchase and use. If you have a particular skill in carpentry, plumbing, or car mechanics, start producing videos that give helpful, step-by-step advice for people who want to enter the world of DIY.

If you have an especially deep understanding of economics, write an e-book or produce an online course to help people learn how to budget or understand world politics from an economic perspective. The possibilities are endless.

How to Make It a Success

In the digital age, anyone can publish their own e-book or put their own course online. To set yours apart, you have to produce a quality item that provides real value. If you want to do videos, for example, invest in the equipment you need to make good ones. Take the time to understand what makes a good video and an engaging presentation.

2. Invent Something

Everyone has ideas about a way to make a chore easier or improve quality of life. Not everyone has the drive to see through their idea and monetize it.

The Hard Part

The most difficult part of producing an invention that can bring in passive income is making it. If you’re not able to make it with your own two hands or code it on your own, you have to rely on someone else to do it for you. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to make money off it, but the more people you involve in the early stages, the less profit you get for yourself.

Find a Buyer

Once you have something you just know people will want to buy, it’s time to find a buyer. Your “buyer” could be regular consumers if you decide to sell directly. For truly passive income, however, your best bet is to get a patent and sell your invention to a company that would really like to use it. Just don’t sell the patent itself. Hold on to it and sell the right to make or use your product for a certain time or under certain circumstances.

3. Build and Sell a Business

Again, this requires plenty of upfront effort and investment. But if you’re able to grow a business to the point where someone wants to buy it, you could cash out after just a few years with enough to fund your retirement.

How to Start

A service business or online business will be easier to sell than a brick-and-mortar establishment. You might consider building up your business consulting company, an IT management firm, or a writing platform that provides high-level content. All you have to do is get it to the point that it is turning a good profit and is ready to sell.

Payment Strategies

You could sell for one lump sum, but it’s also possible to receive monthly or quarterly payments over several years. Buyers may find your business more attractive if they’re able to make monthly payments, and then you can be assured of passive income in the bank every month.

4. Sell Leads

If you have a business or website that attracts a certain sort of person, you might be able to sell leads. This is an excellent way to bring in passive income with very little effort.

How Does It Work?

Imagine you have a blog where you write about your diet and exercise regimen and give advice. Over time, you become a leading voice in this niche section of the Internet, and people regularly come to you for advice. You probably already know that you can make money by advertising on your website or by endorsing products. But every time someone voluntarily gives you their information, like their name and email, you have a sales lead that somebody would be happy to buy.

Companies that are in the diet, health, or exercise industries would find your leads particularly valuable because they know people who signed up for your website are interested in their health. This isn’t the most lucrative passive income source, but it is one of the most effortless.

5. Run Vending Machines

There are all kinds of vending machines, from those that sell sodas and water to the ones that let people wash and dry their clothes. You can also buy ATMs, game machines, and other similar tech.

Don’t You Have to Maintain Them?

You do have to maintain the machines, but as you grow your business, you can outsource this so that someone else handles the day-to-day effort of making sure machines are repaired, filled with change, and refilling stock. While you will have to pay a bit for the service, it provides you with truly passive income you can sit back and collect.

Making It Work

The key to making this work is choosing the right machines in the right places. An ATM in the middle of the mall is only going to work if the mall has good foot traffic. Vending machines near motels are usually heavily visited, as are vending machines outside big-box stores. Location is everything.

6. Real Estate

Perhaps the best of the passive income ideas of 2019, and maybe the most underrated, is real estate investment. This has more potential to create wealth for you than almost anything else on this list. In fact, real estate has always been one of history’s most reliable ways to grow wealth.

Getting Started

As with other passive income ideas on this list, real estate investment is going to take some work at the outset. What you’re working towards is a future of financial independence. It starts when you carefully research markets to find real estate with good potential to bring in consistent income.

At the beginning, it may be worth taking a very personal approach towards managing your property. As you build your portfolio, learn the ropes, and start to grow your wealth, you can turn over the day-to-day management to a property manager and simply collect your income.

Learn How to Grow Your Wealth

The best passive income ideas of 2019 all have something in common: they require an initial investment of effort before you can reap the rewards. Those rewards can be great, and especially if you have a little help to get you started down the right path.

To learn more about how to buy properties and invest in real estate to grow your wealth, listen to The Creating Wealth Show podcast and get the information you need to secure your financial future.