All categories

Passive Income Strategies from College to Retirement

January 20, 2022 • 6 min read

As much as it might sound like a pipedream, the idea of making money while you sleep is quite real. Real estate investors refer to it as “mailbox money” because all you have to do to get it is walk out to your mailbox. This, of course, raises the question of what you need to do to get your mailbox primed to receive that money in the first place. That’s where these passive income strategies from college to retirement come into play.

What is Passive Income?

The phrase passive income applies to any money you get for which you did not have to work continually (which is active income). In other words, it’s money you accrue without punching a clock to earn an hourly wage or working every day to justify the continued payment of your salary. Simply put, passive income is derived from an investment you make which subsequently generates ongoing returns. By the way, that investment can be made in the form of cash or time, as you will see below.

An important thing to recognize about passive income is it tends to start as a trickle before it becomes a stream. Therefore you need to start early in life and reinvest consistently to create passive income upon which you can rely in retirement.

The good news for college students is you can also create nice short-term passive income for yourself along the way. So let’s take a look at some ways to earn passive income for college students and others that can provide passive income for retirement.

Passive Income Ideas for College Students

1. Create a YouTube Channel

YouTube has democratized television so that anyone with a passion for a particular subject matter can create video content and earn residual income from views of it. Odds are, if you like something a lot, others do too. All sorts of people are making money talking about the things they love, whether it’s the latest tech, fashion, makeup, cooking or whatever. The possibilities are limited only by the number of people on the internet.

2. Rent Your Textbooks

One of the most overlooked costs of a college education is the price of textbooks. Publishers know they have a captive audience and book prices are often reflected in this fact. A number of companies have established programs in which students can get paid from letting other students use their books when they’ve completed a course, rather than selling them back to the campus bookstore at a significant loss.

3. Sell Class Notes

Take good notes of every lecture and sell them on to students taking the class in the future. You can also make a good business selling your notes to students who are in the class with you. Some people miss classes, others just don’t take good notes. Either way, there’s an opportunity to create a passive income stream. Type them up nicely and distribute them via email. Invest in a server and allow students to download the materials after providing a credit card number if it really takes off. You can even hire other students to take notes in classes you don’t attend and pay them royalties when their notes are purchased.

4. Turn Your Car into a Mobile Billboard

Companies like Carvertise, Nickelytics and Wrapify will pay you to place their advertisers’ messages on your car. However, there are scam companies out there as well, so you need to choose carefully. Signs you’re dealing with a legitimate organization include a thorough application process, readily accessible contact information and prominently displayed physical addresses. Honest companies also have strict standards you must meet to be considered. Moreover, they’ll wrap your car for free, rather than charging you a fee to do it. Compensation is spelled out up front, as is the duration of campaigns.

5. Produce a Blog

Similar to idea number one above, your passion for a particular topic can be monetized and set up to pay you on an ongoing basis. The key is to find a popular niche and create content others will find valuable. Monetizing your blog can be accomplished with ads, affiliate programs and hosting sponsored content. In all honesty, this undertaking is pretty labor intensive up front, but get it right and that investment can pay significant long-term dividends.

Passive Income Ideas for Retirement

The key to ensuring a strong passive income stream in retirement is to start well before you retire — the younger the better. In fact, many of the ideas listed above for college students, such as creating a YouTube Channel, producing a blog and mobile advertising can carry on throughout the rest of your career and well into your retirement years. The other two can be turned into ongoing business concerns by hiring students and putting management teams in place to keep them going at scale. With that said, here are some of the more traditional methods of creating passive income for retirement.

1. Real Estate

Many of the world’s greatest fortunes have been built on real estate. People will always need someplace to live and you can profit by providing it. That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg though. In addition to owning rental properties, you can invest in a real estate investment trust (REIT) which can spread your dollars and the risk across a multiplicity of properties. The concept of Crowdfunding has also been applied to real estate, in that you can invest in a project with a number of other people and benefit financially. These are just a few of a number of ways to generate a passive income in real estate.

2. Participate in a 401(k) Plan

Most employers switched from traditional pension plans to employee-financed 401(k) plans back in the 1980s. This shifted the burden of planning for your retirement years from your company to yourself. Today considered one of the three legs of the stool that represents your retirement income (along with Social Security and savings), participating in the 401(k) plan your employer offers is a must — and even more so if the firm offers matching funds because that’s free money.

Without going into too much detail, a 401(k) plan diverts a portion of your annual income into a savings and investment account before the dollars are taxed. These funds are invested according to your tolerance for risk. The proceeds from those investments are reinvested as the account grows over the years. Started early in your career, such an account can give you a nest egg from which to draw monthly passive income in retirement if you contribute to it and invest it intelligently.

3. Traditional Investments

Investing in the financial markets is a proven way to grow your money if started early in life and done consistently. High dividend stocks, annuities and bonds all have the potential to generate passive income you can enjoy in retirement, with the understanding that all investing also carries with it the risk of loss. The key is consistency and faith. Investing a set number of dollars each month and having the temerity to hold on to your investments during the inevitable downswings can find you positioned to enjoy a nice retirement passive income stream.

4. Alternative Investments

Alternatives represent an opportunity to diversify your portfolio while simultaneously providing an opportunity to earn passive income. Yieldstreet offers a broad range of such investments across a number of alternative asset classes including art finance, real estate, commercial finance, legal finance, and more.

With target yields typically between 3% and 18%, depending upon the investment, these opportunities previously were available exclusively to institutional investors and high net worth individuals. Yieldstreet has made it possible for retail investors to participate as well.

Certain Yieldstreet offerings feature short durations and minimums as low as $10000. Even better, many of these investments are backed by collateral, which provides a measure of security for your capital. Alternative investing with Yieldstreet may be a smart way to supplement your passive income stream, regardless of where you are in life.

The Passive Income Mistake to Avoid

As you may have gleaned from the ideas above, passive and effortless are mutually exclusive. You will have to put forth some effort to get that passive income stream flowing. This is true whether creating passive income for college students, or setting yourself up for retirement passive income. Of course, any and all investments take time and effort to check in on.

What's Yieldstreet?

Yieldstreet provides access to alternative investments previously reserved only for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. Our mission is to help millions of people generate $3 billion of income outside the traditional public markets by 2025. We are committed to making financial products more inclusive by creating a modern investment portfolio.

¹ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any historical returns, expected returns, or probability projections may not reflect actual future performance. All securities involve risk and may result in significant losses.

² Represents an average net realized internal rate of return (IRR) with respect to all matured investments in your portfolio, utilizing the effective dates and amounts to and from the investments and net of management fees and all other expenses charged to the investments. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. All securities involve risk and may result in significant losses, including the loss of principal invested.[read more]

³ "Annual interest," "Annualized Return" or "Target Returns" represents a projected annual target rate of interest or annualized target return, and not returns or interest actually obtained by fund investors. “Term" represents the estimated term of the investment; the term of the fund is generally at the discretion of the fund’s manager, and may exceed the estimated term by a significant amount of time. Unless otherwise specified on the fund's offering page, target interest or returns are based on an analysis performed by Yieldstreet of the potential inflows and outflows related to the transactions in which the strategy or fund has engaged and/or is anticipated to engage in over the estimated term of the fund. There is no guarantee that targeted interest or returns will be realized or achieved or that an investment will be successful. Actual performance may deviate from these expectations materially, including due to market or economic factors, portfolio management decisions, modelling error, or other reasons.

⁴ Reflects the annualized distribution rate that is calculated by taking the most recent quarterly distribution approved by the Fund's Board of Directors and dividing it by prior quarter-end NAV and annualizing it. The Fund’s distribution may exceed its earnings. Therefore, a portion of the Fund’s distribution may be a return of the money you originally invested and represent a return of capital to you for tax purposes.

⁵ Represents the sum of the interest accrued in the statement period plus the interest paid in the statement period.

⁶ The internal rate of return ("IRR") represents an average net realized IRR with respect to all matured investments, excluding our Short Term Notes program, weighted by the investment size of each individual investment, made by private investment vehicles managed by YieldStreet Management, LLC from July 1, 2015 through and including July 18th, 2022, after deduction of management fees and all other expenses charged to investments.

⁷ Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Yieldstreet Prism Fund before investing. The prospectus for the Yieldstreet Prism Fund contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by referring to www.yieldstreetprismfund.com. The prospectus should be read carefully before investing in the Fund. Investments in the Fund are not bank deposits (and thus not insured by the FDIC or by any other federal governmental agency) and are not guaranteed by Yieldstreet or any other party.

⁸ This tool is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any information provided here as investment advice or a recommendation, endorsement or solicitation to buy any securities offered on Yieldstreet. Yieldstreet is not a fiduciary by virtue of any person's use of or access to this tool. The information provided here is of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of this information before making any decisions based on such information.

300 Park Avenue 15th Floor, New York, NY 10022

844-943-5378

[email protected]

No communication by YieldStreet Inc. or any of its affiliates (collectively, “Yieldstreet™”), through this website or any other medium, should be construed or is intended to be a recommendation to purchase, sell or hold any security or otherwise to be investment, tax, financial, accounting, legal, regulatory or compliance advice, except for specific investment advice that may be provided by YieldStreet Management, LLC pursuant to a written advisory agreement between such entity and the recipient. Nothing on this website is intended as an offer to extend credit, an offer to purchase or sell securities or a solicitation of any securities transaction.

Any financial projections or returns shown on the website are estimated predictions of performance only, are hypothetical, are not based on actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Estimated projections do not represent or guarantee the actual results of any transaction, and no representation is made that any transaction will, or is likely to, achieve results or profits similar to those shown. In addition, other financial metrics and calculations shown on the website (including amounts of principal and interest repaid) have not been independently verified or audited and may differ from the actual financial metrics and calculations for any investment, which are contained in the investors’ portfolios. Any investment information contained herein has been secured from sources that Yieldstreet believes are reliable, but we make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy of such information and accept no liability therefore.

Private placement investments are NOT bank deposits (and thus NOT insured by the FDIC or by any other federal governmental agency), are NOT guaranteed by Yieldstreet or any other party, and MAY lose value. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority has recommended or approved any investment or the accuracy or completeness of any of the information or materials provided by or through the website. Investors must be able to afford the loss of their entire investment.

Investments in private placements are speculative and involve a high degree of risk and those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest. Additionally, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted securities that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns. Investments in private placements are highly illiquid and those investors who cannot hold an investment for the long term (at least 5-7 years) should not invest.

Alternative investments should only be part of your overall investment portfolio. Further, the alternative investment portion of your portfolio should include a balanced portfolio of different alternative investments.

Articles or information from third-party media outside of this domain may discuss Yieldstreet or relate to information contained herein, but Yieldstreet does not approve and is not responsible for such content. Hyperlinks to third-party sites, or reproduction of third-party articles, do not constitute an approval or endorsement by Yieldstreet of the linked or reproduced content.

Investing in securities (the "Securities") listed on Yieldstreet™ pose risks, including but not limited to credit risk, interest rate risk, and the risk of losing some or all of the money you invest. Before investing you should: (1) conduct your own investigation and analysis; (2) carefully consider the investment and all related charges, expenses, uncertainties and risks, including all uncertainties and risks described in offering materials; and (3) consult with your own investment, tax, financial and legal advisors. Such Securities are only suitable for accredited investors who understand and are willing and able to accept the high risks associated with private investments.

Investing in private placements requires long-term commitments, the ability to afford to lose the entire investment, and low liquidity needs. This website provides preliminary and general information about the Securities and is intended for initial reference purposes only. It does not summarize or compile all the applicable information. This website does not constitute an offer to sell or buy any securities. No offer or sale of any Securities will occur without the delivery of confidential offering materials and related documents. This information contained herein is qualified by and subject to more detailed information in the applicable offering materials. Yieldstreet™ is not registered as a broker-dealer. Yieldstreet™ does not make any representation or warranty to any prospective investor regarding the legality of an investment in any Yieldstreet Securities.

Banking services are provided by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.

Investment advisory services are only provided to clients of YieldStreet Management, LLC, an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, pursuant to a written advisory agreement.

Our site uses a third party service to match browser cookies to your mailing address. We then use another company to send special offers through the mail on our behalf. Our company never receives or stores any of this information and our third parties do not provide or sell this information to any other company or service.

Read full disclosure

Privacy PolicyData Security

Website Data Collection Preferences

AccessibilityTerms of UseForm ADV Disclosure BrochureForm CRS