Including one or more passive income sources in our retirement plan is crucial. It enhances our income, minimizes the risk of investments in the capital market, and helps us stay active and nimble.
Passive income refers to any income source that requires minimal maintenance of the actual product or service. The costs of keeping the product alive and selling it should be as low as possible. This effort can be regular, say once a year or occasional modifications to comply with shifting laws, trends and technology.
The product or service need not be digital. People designing mattresses and receiving a royalty for it also enjoy passive income. If there is a new development in sleep science, a new design can be released. There is no need to pick on the old.
The point that most people fail to understand about passive income is the “passive” part (minimal effort) refers only to the product or service sold. Sustained, disciplined effort is necessary for the “income” part.
For passive income to work, yes, the product should be evergreen, have low running costs and require little maintenance, but that is only one side of the coin. Passive income also means regular income. Any product must consistently meet new sets of eyes for a steady income.
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Passive income that arises from human endeavour requires active, growing visibility. The passive only refers to the commodity sold. The income part requires it to be regular and substantial. This may sound like a bad deal. It is not. It could be a fantastic deal.
Imagine yourself as a blogger, YouTuber, social influencer, etc. You have created a passive product and realised the importance of active visibility. You build content consistently. Content that is helpful and not directly related to the products. This is not labour; this is not tiresome as long as you genuinely love what you do. You think about what to do next when you sleep and wake up pumped.
This is engagement—the best way to kill time. Time to insert the obligatory Confucious quote (paraphrased): “Create a passive product you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” This is also a great way to spend our retirement – a part of it.
That brings us to the connection with retirement planning. Imagine creating a passive product that brings in only Rs. 2500 a month. This is small. No one will invite you as a keynote speaker to a passive income conference. Who cares? If you nurture it consistently, it could grow to 10% of your monthly expenses, 30%, or 60%, and then it is something.
Most investors will have a retirement corpus lower than needed to combat inflation and emergencies. There are two key reasons for this: (1) They are spending more than they should and therefore not investing enough, and (2) they are not investing it in the right asset allocation because of either fear or greed.
Imagine an income stream that slowly grows over decades and is equal to half the monthly expenses of a retiree. This can make a huge difference to a retirement. Enter an income source (up to 3 is possible) in the freefincal robo tool and see the corpus drop.
With such an income source, a large chunk of the corpus can be left alone untouched for a longer time. You can handle a downturn with more confidence if you have some equity exposure. So, it is a no-brainer that an additional source of income would help.
Of course, that income can also be active via consulting or a second job. Reliance on active income in old age is not a good idea. It is also a no-brainer that those who wish to continue exchanging their time for money can/should do so. They should not rely exclusively on it. Passive income requires effort, too, but the obligations are lower.
How do you create a passive income stream?
Of course, it will take time and effort, so those decades away from retirement should sow the seeds today. Time management is the only requirement. If you tell yourself, “I will allocate one hour per week to work on a future income stream (active/passive), ” you have to put in that one hour, rain or shine.
Theoretically, active or passive income is the overlap of skill and utiity. Practically it is all about consistency
- Which of your skills would solve a problem for others while making you happy and content? The answer is your passive income stream.
- Then you need to learn how others monetise this content and how you can do it differently. Why should someone pay you when there are others?
- Start an online presence: tweet about developments in your skill space. Write short articles on Facebook, in a blog, and on YouTube. Create a community; create an identity (even if people hate your views, they should not be able to ignore you). Polarization works!
- Develop trust in your community.
- Recognise their problems. This would inspire not only new content but also new products.
- Do not start selling anything until people write to you saying: “I want you to help; how do I pay?”
- Recognising all this will take years and years.
Perhaps you studied a degree that you did not like. Worked a job only because you had to. You can correct those wrongs here with some introspection. With some planning. If you need help getting started, try our course: Increase your income by getting people to pay for your skills!