As a 50+  Gen X, I am interested mainly in earning passive income and keeping my regular job. I am getting closer to that retirement age and I want to prepare for retirement by having enough income to live comfortably.  That means I’ll eventually have enough cash flow from various investments and micro businesses, to support my lifestyle if and when I am no longer working.

The idea of earning income on a monthly basis consistently sounds amazing and who would not be interested in it, but the challenge is building passive income and getting it done. 

I do invest in stocks such as 401K and Roth IRA, but honestly I am not very savvy when it comes to picking individual stocks and becoming a Crypto currency millionaire, but I am interested in one day earning enough from my micro-businesses and thriving  from that

A friend of mine is currently investing in the stock market for the purpose of earning income from Dividends.  Basically Dividends means you buy stocks and the company pays you a percentage for having your money in their company.  He recently told me he was earning $500 dollars a month from his investment Dividends.  The problem was that in order to earn $500 dollars a month he has invested around $200,000 dollars: Basically $200,000 times 3% equals $6000 divided by 12 you get $500 dollars a month.

That’s great for him, but not everybody has $200,000 to invest and certainly not if you are nearing retirement.  I on the  other hand have multiple online micro businesses, one recently is earning me just under $500 dollars a month and it only cost me just under $200 to set it up.  Not bad huh!

If you’re interested in creating passive income and keeping your regular job then this article is perfect for you. 

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What is passive income
• Different types of passive income
• The good and bad of passive income
• How to start earning passive income

What is passive income

In its simplest terms, passive income is money you make automatically, which includes (in theory) that there are earnings without your active work. Typically passive income is known as residual income.

You do have to put work in creating the residual income initially in order to begin receiving the benefits on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. 

This concept is basically the opposite of having a job. Because a job requires you to work on a scheduled basis and in return you get paid an hourly rate.  You work 40 hours and you get paid for 40 hours.  Having a job is earning Active Income and is limited to how many hours you can physically work. 

Active income has many limitations: those limitations are the fact that we only have 24 hours in a day and most of us need time to sleep. 

Most people think of earning passive income in terms of real estate like having rental property, or investing in stocks and earning dividends or owning a brick and mortar business.  My generation focused on these types of passive income generating streams, but today most passive income comes from the digital world. 

Today many are earning passive income from blogs, creating courses and eBooks.

The key to earning passive income is to focus on micro-businesses and not on trying to hit a home run with one income source. Micro-business allows you to earn between $500-$1000 a month, then turning those profits into creating your second and third income source.

Different Types of Passive Income   

Unlike buying a storefront franchise or investing in stocks or trying to flip real estate that takes a lot of money, most of us that have regular jobs and have family obligations, we really should be looking at earning income passively. 

Let’s look at some of the ways I and others are currently creating passive income today. 

• Creating digital courses: You create the course once, begin to receive the financial benefits selling the course 24/7 online.
• Affiliate Marketing: Join an affiliate that you can be part of and begin promoting it online to earn continual income.
• Create an Ebook: Write an ebook that you are an expert on and post it online or on your website. 
• Creating a blog: Write a blog about relevant content and post ads as well as affiliate links, the blog needs to be quality content that is very niche focused. Quality is the key in writing a blog. 

In creating passive income, you are creating and seeking a new way for you to endure the many pitfalls that life throws at us.

I do believe those of us that take on the challenge of creating and selling digital products online are creating a new and enduring lifestyle that is different from the usual 9 to 5 grind.  You are creating your product, you are finding people to buy your product and you are benefiting from selling your product 24/7 online. 

This path requires us to be focused on the road ahead and not get distracted as we try to find our financial freedom.

Creating Passive Income doesn’t just magically happen.  It requires daily work and consistent effort.  But, all good things do take time. 

I think of us as balancing two separate lives.  We work our full time job earning to pay our bills and feed our family.  Then we work towards creating a future that means making income that streams to us constantly once it’s created.  It is nice once your efforts pay off and you begin earning $1,000 a month, every month.

The good and bad of passive income

To be perfectly honest with you, creating and earning money from passive income isn’t for everybody.  It does take hard work, dedication and a constant focused approach to getting it done.  Nothing is guaranteed, even if you spend months creating your micro-business, you may end up with nothing. On the other hand, your hard work may pay off and you begin earning more money than your current job.  Let’s look at the Good and The Bad of passive income. 

The Good

• You will have more free time: Time is a fleeting commodity that once gone, you cannot get back.  That is why this is one of the biggest “Good” things about passive income.  Time to do other things and not have to worry about being stuck on a second job to earn extra money for your family.  Instead, you use your time to do the things you really enjoy in life. 

• Create a new future: If you choose to keep your regular job or choose to quit your job and focus on your passive income, this allows you to create a new future, live in a new country, travel while earning.  The possibilities are endless and you are no longer tied to any one place and the opportunity to flex skill instead of suppressing your life.      

The Bad

• • Initially you will have to invest time and money to start:   To start earning income passively, you cannot avoid the initial work and investment of money you will need to commit.  Nothing good is free or without some work.  Earning passive income is not something that will magically quickly occur.  Many free resources do exist that can allow you to start with little investment of cash, but do require you to spend time learning and creating. Think of it this way, if you wanted to buy an investment property, it would take you years of saving money to invest in your first real estate property.

• It can be hard at the beginning:   I have started several online businesses and I have not made income from some of them, it’s not always easy and fast.  I have had the most luck in creating micro-income streams from digital content, but the truth is it’s not just about writing a few blogs, creating a few posts, writing an ebook and hoping that people will buy it.  The reality is that you have to do work to promote it online.  The promotion side is where a lot of people hit a wall and don’t go beyond.  This is the part that will take time.  

How to start earning passive income

Before you start trying to create your TREK to passive income, make sure you really have given it a lot of thought about your first micro-business idea. 

• What are the skills you are good at: We all have something we are good at. Perhaps you love cooking, maybe you are good at studying for tests, maybe you are good at construction.  Whatever it is, this is your niche you can teach to others.
• Get Your domain Name:  This may sound premature, but when I was in Graduate School I was taught that getting a $15 dollar a year domain name can save you thousands of dollars in the future.  Too many people get a business license and a corporation only to find out the domain name for their business is not available.
• Set aside a few hundred dollars:  it does not take much, but you will need to have a small budget to get started.  I recommend starting with a few hundred dollars, but be willing to work at finding free resources and be ready to do the work yourself initially.  

Once you decide your particular niche and have found a domain name and have a few hundred dollars set aside, you can start creating your passive income strategy.  That means you need a plan and how to initiate it.  Here are a couple of tips to get you started. 

Decide On A Path and Follow It Through

Don’t over plan, simply follow only once plan and don’t try to get caught in analysis paralysis.  One simple approach and one simple niche is all you need.  What I mean is, if you decide to do blogging, then focus on that, if you decide to do Youtube, then focus on that, but if you decide to write an ebook, but by all means initially only focus on that.  You don’t want to have too many monkeys on your back weighing you down. 

In your plan, whatever niche you decide, it all has to have a way to promote it and sell it. 

Once you create your product, you need to stick to your marketing plan for at least 3 to 6 months, you will see your work begin to generate revenue. Do not get discouraged and quit ealy. Stick to your plan and do it consistently.  That is why it is so important to pick a niche you are very familiar with and enjoy doing it, that way it does not seem like work initially. 

That is why I recommend not to invest a lot of money, but instead invest time.  If it does not work, you can always then pivot and try something else without losing alot of money in the process. 

Along the way you will have moments that quitting may seem like the only thing you will think about. You’re in a tunnel and I promise the light is at the end of the tunnel, you just can’t see it yet. 

Finding Positive People In Your Life.

Find people in your life that will be a positive force because far too many people really want you to fail. Why? Because, if you succeed it’s a reminder of their failures.

Listen to the experts that have done it before and how they have success. There are far too many people out there who also say “I want to make money without doing work” Who doesn’t, but most people don’t want to do the work to get there. 

Those of us that have been successful with specific passive income come with a reason. We have differentiated ourselves as a content creator.  But, the base of what we do over and over again and project to project is all the same. The systems are the same, but the product is different, but the process is always the same. 

When I first created my first ebook, I researched my topic and other writers on similar topics.  I kept a running list of all the authors that I wanted to be like. 

I then would reference those authors’ sites for ideas, book titles, content and book cover ideas. I saved a lot of money and time by modeling what they were doing and designing my website with the same concept. I simply found authors who were generating the revenue I wanted and I modeled myself after them.  My first ebook was priced exactly what others ebook prices were at as well.

In Conclusion

I have seen many people who start to create their passive income only to quit when it does not produce money quickly.  It can get demoralizing and frustrating at times. 

If you have decided to write your first ebook, or create a training manual or YouTube or blog, stick with it, don’t quit, unfortunately it does take time..

If things are easy, then everybody would be doing them right? Creating your TREK to passive Income does take time and effort. 

Here is what you can do to increase your chances for success  in creating your TREK to passive income. 

• Don’t ever quit your job while working on your passive income
• Save at least a few hundred dollars to start.
• Find time daily or weekly to consistently work on the micro-business.  Don’t try to do or figure everything out in one day.
• Commit to working hard and tell yourself, this will take time. 

Reaping the benefits of your passive income will happen with a little bit of effort and a little bit of time.