3. Become a Peer-to-Peer Lender

What is peer-to-peer lending? In short, P2P lending sites such as Prosper accept loan applications from borrowers. Investors like you can put some of your money toward loans to those borrowers. When loans get paid back, so do you — with interest.

Overall, P2P investments “can provide solid returns that are really hard to beat,” according to financial guru Clark Howard.

As with any loan, however, there’s the possibility of default. You may not earn anything or may even lose money. Sound too complicated? Maybe this simpler form of P2P is for you: Worthy sells 36-month bonds for $10 each. The money that comes in is loaned to U.S. businesses, with lenders who have purchased these bonds getting 5% interest on their investment.

To learn more about peer-to-peer lending you can check out the detailed article we have for you here on Save Your Bucks.  PEER TO PEER LENDING

4. Get Rewards for Credit-Card Spending

If you’re going to shop with plastic, make sure you’re rewarded. The form that the reward takes is up to you. Some people covet airline miles. Others take their rewards as cash or a credit against their monthly statement.

The number of rewards credit cards — and their pros and cons — can be a little dizzying. An app called Ibotta lets you earn cash rebates on purchases from retailers, restaurants or movie theaters. Or you can do your online shopping through cash-back portals like:

• Rakuten (previously known as Ebates)
• TopCashback
• SwagBucks Shop

These websites enable you to earn cashback on purchases from thousands of online retailers. To learn more about them, check out  17 APPS THAT PAY YOU.

5.  Sell Your Photos

Smartphones have made decent photography possible for just about anyone. The next time you capture a killer sunset or an adorable kid-and-dog situation, don’t keep the image to yourself. Apps like Foap — which is available for Android and Apple devices — will help you sell it.

You can do even better if you have a good digital SLR camera, a tripod and other equipment. Stock photo companies like Shutterstock and iStockphoto, which favor high-definition, high-quality images, are venues for selling images on just about any subject you can find.

 

6. Write an ebook

It’s possible to bring in cash without a high-powered book contract, thanks to self-publishing platforms. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, for example, allows you to write, upload and sell your words fairly easily. My two personal finance books are for sale on Kindle, and they provide a steady stream of passive income.

I also sell PDFs of the books through my website. I use a payment platform called E-junkie to handle payments and deliver the book downloads — and this brings me more money per book than Amazon does, even when I offer readers a discount. 

If you’re fond of a particular fiction genre, write the kind of stuff you’d like to read.

Nonfiction sells, too: cookbooks, travel guides, history, memoirs and how-tos are a few examples. Or maybe you have a specific skill to teach — job-hunting or food preservation or raising chinchillas.

This is a huge market. You don’t need to write like a college professor-level writer to make money writing. Article writers, blog writers, review writers and more are in huge demand.  Here is a course that you will find very beneficial.

7. Create an Online Course

If you’ve got useful knowledge, why not monetize it? Sites like Teachable and Thinkific will help you build a course that could change someone’s life, either professionally or personally.

Note that online courses are not limited to computer-based topics. A quick search turns up classes on:

• Cake-making
• Watercolors
• Digital scrapbooking
• Drone cinematography
• Free-diving
• Blacksmithing
• Yoga
• Parenting
• Novel writing
• Job hunting
• Building a pet-care business

And that’s just for starters. Like writing an ebook, creating a course will take some work. But again: Once it’s up, the work is done.

10. Create an App

Maybe yours is one of those minds that says, “There should be an easier way to do (whatever)— and I think I know what it is!” If so, creating an app could bring in extra income.

It could also bring in zero dollars. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? For example, personal finance writer Jackie Beck — who cleared $147,000 of debt — used her expertise to create an app called “Pay Off Debt.”

Not a coder? App-builder services exist. The WikiHow.com article “How to Create a Mobile App” tells how to get started. It’s a time-consuming process. But that’s one of the beauties of retirement: 

You set your own hours.

11. Become a Package ‘Receiver’

OK, this idea is unproven — so far. But it’s a solution whose time has come. The boom in online shopping has been a boon for thieves who find it easy to swipe packages left outside front doors before intended recipients get home from work.

You might be able to do your part to thwart those lowdown thieves by marketing yourself as a “professional package receiver.”

Try this: Put the word out — through friends, social media, places of worship — that you are available to accept deliveries. If a package is for someone in your neighborhood, you could watch the shipping company’s tracking info to be at the home to take the package in. Or you could specify that packages be shipped to Original Recipient, c/o Professional Package Receiver — that’s you.

Before asking a fee of, for example, $1 per package, ask the person who wants to hire you what it’s worth to them. You might be surprised by a response like, “I’ll give you $5.” Decide, too, whether you’ll be charging per package or per order, and whether you’ll set a weight limit, such as no packages over 30 pounds.

Have you used any of these (or any other) passive income strategies? Tell us all about it in the comments.

Retire on your own terms with help from this course

The Only Retirement Guide You’ll Ever Need gives you the knowledge you need to retire on your terms. Sure, you can pay a financial adviser, but this online course gives you total control to create a customized retirement plan around the things that matter to you — without the fees you can expect from financial firms and advisers.

You’ll get expert, personalized advice. You’ll have access to the latest tools. You’ll have ongoing support. And when you’ve completed the course, you’ll be ready to approach your retirement with confidence and with peace of mind.

It’s time to plan the best years of your life. Let’s get started.