Passive income, despite its name, requires some initial hands-on work to get off the ground. Although certain side gigs can yield returns without requiring much effort on your part, in general, it still takes time to at least set up a passive income stream.
This discourages some people from pursuing their passive income goals. If they have busy lifestyles, they may feel they don’t have enough extra time to start their projects.
Even so, if you’re a busy person because you have a demanding job, that means you likely have a commute, which is valuable time you can spend establishing a passive income stream. The following examples illustrate how.
Earning Money with Apps
This tip only applies to people whose commutes involve taking buses, trains, or other forms of public transportation. If you need to drive yourself to work, you obviously can’t perform any tasks that distract you.
That said, if you do take public transportation to work, odds are good you already use that time relatively passively. Perhaps you listen to music or browse the Internet on your phone while heading to the office.
Consider using this time to earn extra money instead. For instance, there are many apps and websites that allow users to earn rewards for filling out surveys. Although you can’t make a substantial sum of money after just a single day of using these apps, if you use them during your commute to and from work every single day, over time, the money you make will add up.
Conduct Research
You need to thoroughly understand all the risks and requirements associated with your passive income idea before pursuing it. This is one of the main reasons making passive income requires initial effort—conducting thorough research is a key step to avoiding mistakes.
For example, you can potentially earn a lot of money with little effort by investing in the stock market or real estate, but you can also lose a lot of money if you don’t invest wisely. Researching investment opportunities and strategies beforehand can allow you to make smart investments.
Luckily, this is another task you can complete during your commute. This is true even if you drive yourself to work. All you have to do is make a list of reputable audiobooks, audio courses, podcasts, and related materials associated with your chosen passive income stream. Listening to them during your commute is an easy way to conduct the necessary research.
Listing Ideas
Regardless of the passive income strategy you pursue, it’s often still necessary to modify a general idea with your own specific ideas before you can earn money from it.
Consider the example of self-published e-books. Many people in recent years have successfully earned passive income by publishing their own books online and sharing their expertise with readers.
You can do the same. However, for your book to succeed, it needs to fulfill certain requirements. It needs to provide readers with genuinely valuable information, it needs to fill a niche, and it needs to stand out from the competition.
In other words, you can’t simply dive into the process of writing a book and expect that the end result will be a success. You need to come up with a strong book idea beforehand.
You can use your commute as a time to come up with as many passive income ideas as you can. Although many of your ideas may be weak at first, by “exercising” your brain in this capacity, you’ll eventually find you’re coming up with smart ideas on a consistent basis.
Don’t dismiss the value of this exercise. Serial entrepreneur and business expert James Altucher credits his success in part to his habit of listing 10 new ideas every single day. He takes a general topic, such as books to write, and doesn’t stop until he has 10 ideas. This habit has helped him come up with new businesses, books, and much more. This same idea can help you come up with passive income ideas, and it’s something you can easily do during your commute.
The main point to remember is that you likely have more time to pursue passive income than you realize. If you have a commute, you have at least two chunks of time during most days to start taking steps toward your financial goals.