A lot of people dream about being able to travel as much as they can and whenever they can.
Unfortunately, a lot of times we are stuck with a certain number of available days off and limited funds.
By learning how to budget for a trip, and create several different sources of income which do not necessarily keep you tied to one place, you can achieve your dream of traveling and having the time to do things you truly enjoy.
Rental properties
If you haven’t invested in a rental property as yet and you do not have enough money to, both, go on your adventure across the world and buy a rental property, there are several ways you can still do this. Perhaps, getting a mortgage for a house you could rent is not the best solution right now as you will then need an income sufficient to cover your expenses and the new mortgage. Do not give up, there is a vacancy opening up right now. With you being away from home, you will need a house-sitter. Instead of getting a house-sitter, you can find a storage unit to safely store your belongings and rent your home to a trusted individual. If there is no one who could recommend a trustworthy tenant, perhaps you should interview those who answer your add and be very strict when it comes to the criteria. In order to maximize the rental potential of your property, you can even divide it into smaller units and rent 3 flats instead of one house. If you are considering this option, then perhaps even a mortgage could make sense. Also, you can rent your garage or cellar as storage units, and leave someone in charge of the key, just in case.
Invest in REIT
If you do not feel like renting your home, and you do not have enough to buy a rental property, you can invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust. With people worldwide complaining of the high rents and high real estate prices, you have a strong reason to believe that you will have a good return on this investment.
Writing books
Writing books, e-books, making audiobooks… any one of these will help you get to your passive income. The subjects can be various. In order to sell your content, you need to know your audience. If you are writing books related to your niche, as a form of “how to” or professional development, perhaps you are better of writing an e-book, easily available to those who can stumble upon it while doing their online research. Any content which proves to be successful can, later on, be published. You can even use your personal journal from your travels and shape it into a book.
Sharing your photos with the world
This is pretty much bringing your social-network activity to a higher level. Instead of posting photos for the world to see, or apart from posting photos for the world to see, you can sell them on Shutterstock, PhotoDune, DepositPhotos, or a similar website. You will probably need a semi-professional camera and a good eye, to begin with. After a while, you will be able to invest in better equipment and gain a sense of the market to know exactly which types of photos can bring you the most profit. Depending on how skilled you are with editing photos, you can outsource this part of work to someone who will be able to do it quickly and at a low charge. All you are left with is uploading, writing descriptions or choosing the best-related keywords.
Invest in alternative business loans financing
When you put the word investment and alternative financing in one sentence, the first idea that comes to your mind is peer-to-peer lending. Basically, you will be financing a high-risk loan with a really high-interest rate. The investment has its risks, as they usually do, but the return is much higher than what you could expect from a savings account and still somewhat safer than buying stocks.
Invest in a business
You can select a business which seems promising. Offer to participate in the initial investment to help get the business started. With a share big enough, you can act as a “silent partner”. This will bring you a portion of the profit. The original business owner will prefer conducting business this way as they will still be able to make decisions on their own and bring their ideas into life according to their initial plan.
Sell internet domains
This is something you could definitely do on the side. It will not necessarily bring a great profit but occasionally you will hit a jackpot. First of all, you need to buy a domain, you think someone else would want for their business and sell it. You need to make it clear you are selling the domain and you can either put it on an auction and have potential buyers bid for it, or set a fixed price. This is something you also need to learn to balance. If you see that a domain has been sitting with you for some time, you are better off setting a fixed price on it. This will make it instantly available to a and you will also give them less time to change their mind. Catchy domains such as business.com are long gone so you will really have to put your mind to work and be both practical and creative.
Sell web elements
If you are a graphic designer by trade or you have some experience with it, these are the right digital products for you to sell. You can advertise different elements separately and sell them as such. You can create different patterns, themes, logos etc. and earn repeatedly from the same product. A couple of good ones could get you very far.
Create an online course
Think of those things people come to you for advice and structure them into a course. It can be anything from strictly niche-related skills to living a healthy lifestyle or finding your way around certain countries. Remember to be creative and informative. The people are buying instructions which by rule contain information, doing it well the first time will have them coming back for more. You can sell the courses on Udemy or similar marketplaces. Alternatively, you can start a YouTube vlog and hope to attract as many subscribers as possible. However, unless you truly enjoy this, keeping an active vlog requires a lot of work and time.
Start an e-commerce website
If you are more into actual products rather than the digital ones, you can start your own e-commerce page. Setting up the website will require some work, as well as getting the rankings for the page. This is why you should be very clever and try to find a line of products not everyone sells and advertise it locally. Including drop-shipping could really make your life less difficult as you will not have to worry about storing the items you sell, as well as, posting them, but have them sent to the buyers directly from your suppliers.
Passive income means that most of the work is done on the front end, and it, later on, requires a different level of maintenance. The goal is to get various sources of income going until they add up to something which could actually make you completely free with very little maintenance work you could successfully outsource and still end up satisfied with what you earn.