Passive Income Ideas 2022
What is Passive Income
Passive income is any income you didn’t swap bits of your life for. That doesn’t mean it’s easy money: sometimes setting up the conditions for passive income involves a lot of work: for instance, the advice “write a book and put it on Amazon” is easy to say, but a lot more difficult to do! Equally, one piece of legendary advice from one of those “passive income articles” was “start an ATM business”, and it’s difficult to know where to start with that idea. Though I do know where I’d probably get the cash from!
Why should I earn a Passive Income?
Life is tough these days. Many businesses have decided that their staff are not actually worth very much. There’s a cost of living crisis almost everywhere.
Everyone could do with some income that just happens (though remember: it’s taxable!). Especially if they don’t need to put huge effort into setting it up.
Usually, passive income can’t achieve miracles though. Passive income is best looked at as something to re-invest (if you don’t need it right away), or something to smooth life a bit.
Moving away from Traditional Streams of Passive Income
The world isn’t short of passive income sources, but it is short of ones that actually generate a nice stream of income. There are lots that generate a trickle, and quite a few that might result in you losing part of your money – which I guess could be called “passive-aggressive” income.
Traditional Savings Accounts
We all know how this works: you give a bank some money, and they add interest every so often. Whether you can get access to your money again is dependent on the account, but the higher rates usually require months of lock-in.
Pros: Your deposit is protected by the Government. Probably better than hiding your money in a sock.
Cons: Very low rates indeed. Better rates require lock-in of money. Socks are more comfortable.
Purchasing Dividend-Yielding Stocks
These days, it’s much easier to buy stocks and shares than it used to be. There are lots of online brokerages, and if you’re feeling like 1/10 of a Netflix, you can use sites like eToro.
In theory, you get a passive income.
The whole point of share ownership is that you benefit from the success of the company you bought shares in.
If they make a profit, they (might) give a dividend to shareholders. In practice, picking stocks properly that will generate dividends is not trivial, requiring extensive financial knowledge. If you don’t do that analysis, you’re basically just gambling.
There are investment funds that will return a passive income that balances the risks from chosen shares. Some follow a market index (called a “tracker fund”), but these are really more for investing than getting an income out of it straight away.
Of course, the other drawback is that the price of shares and funds can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you put in. And dividends aren’t guaranteed anyway.
Pros: Investing in stocks and shares can be tax-free in the UK thanks to “ISAs”.
Cons: Dividends are not guaranteed. A substantial minimum investment is required to overcome fees. Dividends are usually paid yearly, so income would be lumpy. Requires expertise to invest. Considering the risk, dividend yields can be surprisingly disappointing.
Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending
Companies such as “easyMoney” (from the people who brought you that annoying boarding policy at Gatwick) operate peer-to-peer lending based on property lending. This is the most active part of the borrowing economy, but it’s hard work: every loan you make is one that you have to approve based on the borrower’s details. Your eggs are never all in one basket, but it’s a lot more finance-related work than you’d probably want.
Pros: Reasonable if unspectacular return, easy enough to do.
Cons: Continual decisions needed, your money is under threat from default.
Start Earning a Passive Income through Cryptocurrency
Much of traditional finance is disappointing because it’s not for regular people. If they benefit, they benefit by accident.
But what of Cryptocurrency and Decentralised Finance, those great equalizers?
They can certainly earn you a passive income. But, in Cryptocurrency, everything is exaggerated compared to traditional markets. The losses can be steeper, the wins can be greater.
Even the risks get larger: for instance, in Crypto P2P lending or other Decentralised Finance activities, because there’s an entire layer of “possible scam” attached.
Earn High Rates of Interest by Investing with AQRU
Luckily, you can take advantage of exaggerated interest rates simply and easily with AQRU. Interest-bearing Crypto accounts are made possible by a huge increase in borrowing in the Crypto space: and where there’s borrowing, there’s lending and interest!
AQRU offers you a flat rate of yield on your Crypto (or even digital versions of regular currencies) with no strings attached – 0% on the two biggest Cryptos, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and up to 7% on US Dollar stablecoins.
It’s easy to start investing with us: you download the app or visit the website and onboard. Of course, there’s registration and verification – you shouldn’t trust any provider that doesn’t do that. It makes life safer for everyone.
When you sign up (and even before you start sending us selfies), we invest 10USDC for you. The interest isn’t exactly going to buy your next coffee, but it’s something… and you can see the interest being added per second! (it’s calculated per day, which is still great for compound interest).
You can invest a lump sum but you can also invest over time: the minimum deposit is only the equivalent of 100 Euros, and there’s no deposit fee. You can access your money at any time, too. The only fee is $20 to withdraw to Crypto. Other bonuses include a $75 referral bonus (T&Cs apply).
If you don’t have Crypto already and want to invest in BTC or ETH for a diversified portfolio, then you can buy them in-app and save on transmission fees with trusted provider “MoonPay” (Fees will apply, though).
So, one of the easiest passive income ideas for 2022 is to open a Crypto interest account! Who would have thought it?