The Retirement Newsletter: Passive income in your retirement
Issue Number: -22 — is there such a thing as passive income?
Welcome
Welcome to issue -22, where I will look at passive income in our retirements. Does it exist?
What is passive income?
Now, that is a good question.
If you look on YouTube or Google for side-hustles to make some extra income, you will find lots of advice about various schemes. And there will often be talk about passive income.
So, what is passive income? Well, it’s income that you get that involves no work. Think about that. No work, and you earn money. It doesn’t make sense.
I believe there is no such thing as passive income, and all income needs some work. The closest we can get to passive income is if we inherit money and then live off that money or the income from the investment. And, even that is not truly passive. First, there may be the ‘work’ of putting up with the person from whom you inherit — harsh but possibly true. And second, you need to manage the money, which involves research and work to identify how to get the best return.
You could consider your pension as passive income, but it isn’t. You had to work for the money that is in the pension. And you may have to manage the pensions — more work.
And that brings us to side-hustles and passive income.
No side-hustle can generate passive income, as some work is always involved. But, some side-hustles are closer to being passive income than others.
During the last two years or so, I have written about fourteen side-hustles (see Issue -30: Happy Birthday! The Retirement Newsletter is 2!) that you could do to boost your pension income:
Reading — see Issue -92 of the newsletter where I looked at Reading as a side-hustle.
Exercise — see Issue -89 on Exercise as a side-hustle.
Writing — Writing as a side-hustle was discussed in issue -86.
YouTube and Photos — I first explored this in issue -84 — YouTube and Photos as a side-hustle.
Online Courses — see Issue -80: Online courses.
"Knitting" (without wool) — in Issue -76 — ”Knitting" (without wool) — I considered turning any hobby or pastime into a side-hustle.
Relaxing — Issue -73 looked at Relaxing as a side-hustle.
Gardening — gardening as a side-hustle was covered in Issue -67 — Gardening.
Walking — Walking as a side-hustle was looked at in issue -60.
Being a couch potato — Issue -58 looked at Being a couch potato as a side-hustle.
Travel — turning a love of travel into a side-hustle was looked at in issue -47, Travel.
Do it yourself (DIY) — in issue -44, I asked if turning Do it yourself (DIY)skills into a side-hustle could bring in some extra income.
Photography — in Issue -39, I revisited Photography as a side-hustle.
Paid Newsletter — setting up a Paid Newsletter to bring in some money was explored in Issue -38.
And at first glance, they all appear to need a lot of work to generate income. But it depends on how you approach the side-hustle.
For example, take number 8, Gardening (Issue -67 — Gardening).
In the Gardening issue, I wrote about five ways you could take your interest in gardening and turn it into a side-hustle to make some cash:
Grow your own
Grow and sell
Garden for others
Start a blog, a newsletter or write an eBook
Set up a course
And if we look at those five more closely, we find that 1, 2 and 3 involve a lot of hard physical work as you have to do gardening, and they don’t scale. If your business takes off for either 2 (Grow and sell) or 3 (Garden for others), then in the case of ‘grow and sell’, you have to get more land and do more work, or in 3, you must employ staff. They don’t easily scale.
Side-hustles 4 and 5 (start a blog, a newsletter, write an eBook or setting up a course) are not that physical. And they scale. If you write a blog post and one person reads it, followed by 9,999, you don’t need to do more work for the 9,999. The post is there. The same is true about newsletters, eBooks and courses. Once you have produced the ‘product’, you are done. There is no more work unless you have a community attached to the ‘product’ and engage with the community.
But, and there is always a but…
With Blog Posts and Newsletters, they may scale, but you have to keep producing more content.
For example, this newsletter. When I started, only one person read it — me. Now, considerably more people read it (hopefully), but I am putting the same effort into producing each newsletter. And an issue gets the majority of the reads in the first week and then tails off. Hence, I must produce a new newsletter (more work) if I want more reads and engagement. The same is true of blog posts.
Of the potential gardening side-hustles, the only two that approach being ‘passive’ are the eBook and the course. Both need considerable effort up front to produce the book or course. But, once completed, both require very little work apart from the occasional update, promotion, and engagement with any community associated with the product.
So, is there passive income in our retirement? Sadly, I think not. Everything requires some work.
If you think I am wrong and you have the perfect passive income stream, then why not share and leave a comment?
Travel — Nostalgia Corner
This week, I continue thinking back to my visit to Myanmar (Burma) in March 2015:
Myanmar (Burma) — Eating out in Yangon (Rangoon) — Finding food in Yangon — Two good meals and one not so good.
Myanmar (Burma) — Carpeting the street in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) — why? — I’m still unsure why. It looked like it was for a celebration. A wedding, maybe?
Myanmar (Burma) — Looking for Taukkyan War Cemetery — When your travel App gets it wrong, and boy, did it get it wrong.
Myanmar (Burma) — Plan for my last day in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) — Where to visit on my last day? Big plans for my last day.
Myanmar (Burma) — Taukkyan War Cemetery, Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) — I finally found the Taukkyan War Cemetery and as usual, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery was beautifully maintained.
Next week, some more on Myanmar and some observations about pink nuns.
Next week
Next week, in issue -21, I will look at every-green income and ask if it exists. And I might reflect on a recent meeting about my pension. Or, depending on how my pensions meeting goes, the issue might be just about the meeting.
See you next week.
Thanks
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Until next time,
Nick