20 Passive Income Ideas that Will Improve Your Financial Life (2024)

Have you heard of passive income? Passive income is income that comes in from a source that you do not actively work on and it is sheer brilliance when you are looking to improve your financial life. Are you looking to improve yours? Are you ready to finally be done living paycheck to paycheck? Are you ready to get off of the never-ending hamster wheel of working just to pay bills? I get it, I know exactly how you feel and I want to help you break the cycle!

We have all heard the phrase “Making money while you sleep,” right? Many of us have viewed this as a silly notion that could just be dreamt about, but it is a reality. You really can make money while you sleep!I want to be very clear with you here though, most passive income starts with one of two things. Risk or work. You have to put one of these two things in to succeed with passive income. You either need to work hard and put the time in to create something that generates income, or you need to be willing to put money up in hopes that it will create passive income for you. Do you think you can do one of these things?

If you are ready to look a little further into it, here are 20 passive income ideas that will improve your financial life.

1. Savings account. This is one of the few things that require virtually no work or risk (other than the work required to earn money in the first place). You simply put your money into an interest-bearing savings account. Do note though, that these are typically very low earning interest rates so, in order to earn any real passive income, you must put a lot of money into savings.
2. Switch banks. If your savings account is exceptionally low earning, consider doing a little research and switching your savings to accounts that pay over 1%.
3. Investment accounts. If you are willing to put a little more risk into it, you can start investing your money in stocks. If you are new to investing, you can start with an Acorn account (you can invest as little as $5) or another similar account where you can start small, while you get your feet wet in the investment world.
4. Peer to Peer Lending. Have you heard of Peer to Peer lending before? Check out LendingTree.com where you can invest as little as $25 into loans, with good returns.
5. Rental property. Rental properties are often a big investment, but they can pay off over time. Realize that you either need to hire a property management company or take care of the work needed yourself, but this can mean lots of extra money each year.
6. Blogging. This is one of those passive income ideas that require a lot of work in the beginning. Bloggers don’t just write a couple of posts and hit it big, it requires a lot of time, hard work and dedication. Once you reach a certain point, though, it is definitely possible to be getting a check each and every month. Passive income from blogging typically comes from ads that are placed on your site.
7. Affiliate links. If you start a blog or a website, you can use affiliate links to help generate passive income as well.
8. Estore. If you open up an online store and use a dropshipping service, there isn’t too much for you to do really, other than maintain your e-store. It will require hard work and investment up front though.
9. Write an ebook. Do you consider yourself an expert at any subject? Consider writing and self-publishing your own ebook. You can create a kindle format version and sell through Amazon for very little out of pocket. Whenever someone buys a copy of your book, you will earn money. Bonus: There are some big-time authors that got their start this way.
10. Create printables. Are you good at graphic design? Are you a whiz with Canva? You can make printable papers such as chore charts, journaling pages, planner papers, etc, you can upload them to Etsy and get paid each time someone downloads them.
11. Sell your photography. There are some websites and apps, such as Foap, where you can post your photographs for sale.
12. Use cash back credit cards. If you are good at about paying your credit card off in full every month and I mean really good about it, one way to earn good passive income is to pay your bills with your credit card. You will earn cash back with all of these purchases and since they are your bills, they are likely to be higher amounts.
13. Use your car for advertising. You have probably heard about this one, but you really can get paid to place advertisem*nts on your car. There is often a mileage requirement.
14. Rent out your car. Does your car spend most of its time sitting in your driveway? Make it pay for itself by renting it out.
15. Rent out your RV. Do you have an RV? Chances are, you don’t ride around in it year round. Why not rent it out during the times when you aren’t using it? There are companies out there that handle all of the work for you!
16. Rent out a room. Do you have an extra bedroom at home? Why not rent it out? Either full time or as a rental space for people needing temporary lodging in your area?
17. Rent out your garage or space in your barn. Do you have a decent amount of property? Do you have extra space in your barn, shop, or garage? People are always looking for places to rent to store their boats, RVs, etc.
18. Pay off your bills. Okay, this one doesn’t sound like income but think about it. If you aren’t paying extra interest every month, that is more money in your pocket that can go toward savings and investments.
19. Create an online course. Again, do you have expert knowledge in a certain field? You can create an online course and make money when people buy the course. Courses are great because you only have to create it once regardless of how many people take the course.
20. Use cashback sites. Websites such as Ebates give you cash back for shopping that you are going to be doing anyway.