Are you looking to create a steady stream of passive income that can help make you rich, or at least richer than you are today? Regardless of why you’re interested in building passive income streams, having multiple sources of reliable income can open up many new opportunities and bring financial stability.

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In this article, we’ll explore passive income and the five types of passive income that can make you rich within five years if managed correctly. From real estate investing to creating an online course, there are plenty of ways to generate residual wealth today.

What Is Passive Income

When you think of income, you probably think of active income. Active income is what you earn from a job or business. Passive income, on the other hand, requires minimal work to earn. Passive income usually takes effort to set up initially but then pays out repeatedly and automatically in the future.

There are many different ways to earn passive income. There are passive income opportunities for people starting with an initial investment and even opportunities for those with very little money to start.

Dividend Investments

A dividend is a regular cash payment from investing in a company listed on a stock exchange. Another way to earn dividend income is to invest in dividend-yielding ETFs or mutual funds. No matter if you invest in individual companies or through a fund, dividends are usually paid out quarterly.

The more shares you own, the more dividend income you will receive. However, because most companies with dividend yields only pay a few percent for each share held, you must own many shares to make significant money. But on the bright side, investing in stocks requires little work, and you can continually invest more money over time.

After you receive the dividend, you can reinvest that money into the stock or withdraw it as income.

Rental Property

If you have extra cash, investing in rental properties can help create a large amount of passive income. You will need to have the cash upfront to cover the down payment, plus the ability to qualify for a good loan. However, you’ll then be able to lease the property to tenants and earn money through rent payments. Ensure that your monthly rental income exceeds your expenses, including the mortgage payment, maintenance, taxes, utilities, etc. Also, remember that you’ll benefit financially when the property appreciates.

Investing in real estate can be as passive as you want. If you hire a management company to take care of everything, you can sit back and collect the checks each month, but you’ll need to pay the management company’s fee. However, if you want to keep more income, you can do more of the work involved.

Royalties from Book or Course

Creating a book or course to sell requires quite a lot of effort upfront, but you can continue to earn passive income from sales and royalties for years.

If you are knowledgeable about specific topics like dog grooming, investing in the stock market, or fitness programs, you could create a course to teach others. You can control everything about the course, including the content, the sales price, and who you want to market it to.

Books require a lot more work and time. You may need to find a publisher, or you can self-publish. However, you can earn royalties from book sales for years, perhaps longer than courses.

Having an established following can make selling your book or course easier. If you have a following on social media, in a specific community, or elsewhere online, you can advertise your book or course to these people. They will likely purchase your product since you already have a relationship with them.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you share and recommend a product to others and earn a commission when someone purchases the product. Affiliate marketing can be done on social media, email, or website.

Affiliate marketing only requires a little money upfront to establish, but it does require time and work. You will need to reach enough people before making meaningful money. The more followers or website traffic you have, the more money you are likely to earn from affiliate marketing.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Another option for passive income that can help make you rich is peer-to-peer loans. These loans are from one person to another. They are personal loans that cut out the financial institution as the middleman.

You will earn interest based on the individual loan terms when you lend money to others through peer-to-peer lending. Websites like Lendingclub or Propser can be great tools because they will help facilitate the loan and provide a risk profile for the person you’re lending money to. Peer-to-peer lending does come with some risk, but you can mitigate some of the risk by lending to highly qualified individuals.

How To Choose a Passive Income Source

Deciding which passive income sources to pursue will depend on a few factors, including the amount of money you can invest, your interests, talents, or skills, and the time you can give to get something started. This will be different for each person. While one passive income model might be great for one person, there might be better fits for some.

Once you have one passive income stream started, many people decide to create multiple streams. This will require more time and potentially a more significant financial investment, but creating multiple passive income streams can be good financially.

The Bottom Line

Passive income can significantly increase your overall income without working additional hours at your day job. You can earn good money from passive income opportunities, but it depends on your financial commitment, how much work you’re willing to put into it, and a little luck.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 5 Types of Passive Income That Can Make You Rich in 5 Years