For a long time, passive income was really only discussed in the context of investing. The idea was that you would invest your money in real estate or the stock market, and by doing so, you would generate passive income.
However, in 2024, there are so many other ways to earn passive income. And the best part? You don’t need to have tons of money or even any money to start generating passive income.
In this post, I’ll share 11 passive income ideas to try in 2024 if you don’t have any initial funds!
What is Passive Income?
Before we delve in, let’s discuss what passive income actually is.
To put it simply, passive income is money earned with minimal effort or direct involvement – it’s a stream of income that flows in with little to no active participation on your part.
Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s essential to understand that, despite their name, passive incomes aren’t 100% passive. You won’t start earning money without investing some time, effort, and sometimes even money upfront.
Examples of passive income include rental income from real estate, dividends from investments, royalties from intellectual property, and certain types of online businesses that can run on autopilot.
However, in this post, we’re going to skip the passive income ideas that would require you to invest money upfront.
Photo credit: daveynin, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
Is a Side Hustle Considered Passive Income?
You may be thinking that passive income sounds a bit like the 21st-century buzzword: the side hustle.
A side hustle is an additional job you have alongside your main job, whether it’s being a notary, tutoring, dog sitting, or house sitting. People often start a side hustle to make a bit of extra money on the side.
Now, is a side hustle considered passive income?
A side hustle can sometimes stem from a passive income stream, but not always. For instance, blogging can become a source of passive income once established, though it could also be considered a side hustle if it’s not your main source of income.
Are you curious about side hustles and looking for some ideas? Click here to discover 18 side hustles to ACTUALLY make money (& not waste time).
Can You Generate Passive Income With No Initial Funds?
When it comes to generating passive income, the most common methods involve some upfront costs.
Investing in the stock market, dropshipping, or even building a website would require you to invest some money to get started.
But what if you don’t have any money to put towards a passive income stream? Can you still generate passive income?
Yes, you can! You can generate passive income with no initial funds; you just have to get creative.
11 Passive Income Ideas for 2024 With No Initial Funds
Below are 11 passive income ideas for you to try in 2024 if you don’t have any initial funds.
1. Sell Your Unused Internet Bandwidth
What’s a great way to generate passive income if you don’t have any money to invest?
Sell something you own but aren’t using!
On average, most households spend $65 every month on internet. However, many aren’t utilizing all the internet bandwidth they’re paying for.
Internet bandwidth is the amount of data that can be downloaded or uploaded from your computer, and you pay for it whether you use it or not. Whether you’re actively using your internet, on vacation, or asleep, you’ll still receive a bill for the same amount of internet bandwidth.
What if I told you that you could generate a steady stream of passive income by selling that internet bandwidth you aren’t using anyway?
Companies like Honeygain, Peer2Profit, and EarnApp help you sell this unused bandwidth and, in exchange, pay you monthly for allowing usage. Here’s how a user made $1000 in passive income in 2022 by renting out his unused internet bandwidth!
That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that you will have no authority over what people do on the internet using your network. You can hide your IP address, but this still doesn’t guarantee it’s entirely safe. So, make sure to do your research and check with your Internet Service Provider before getting started!
2. Share Your Personal Vehicle
Speaking of renting out things you aren’t using, let’s say you work from home, and your car sits idle for most of the day. You can generate passive income with no initial funds by renting out your personal vehicle.
Renting your vehicle occasionally can earn you an average of $300 a month! If you own a van that you can rent out full-time, you could earn even more—$1,000 to $2,000 per month.
The most popular car-sharing marketplaces include Turo, Getaround, and Hyrecar. These marketplaces insure your vehicle, prescreen your customer base and provide you with 24/7 customer support and roadside assistance.
3. Wrap Your Car With Advertising
If you’re not keen on renting out your vehicle, there’s another way to turn it into a source of passive income.
Companies such as Wrapify, Carvertise, and StickerRide will pay you to wrap your car with advertising.
By allowing brands to showcase their logos, messages, or product images on your vehicle, you essentially become a mobile advertisement, reaching a diverse audience as you go about your daily routine.
The best part? Once you’ve got the ad decals or wraps on your car, there’s not much else you need to do. Whether you’re stuck in traffic, parked at the grocery store, or cruising down the freeway, you’re earning money without lifting a finger.
You don’t have to agree to wrap your entire car in advertising either! You have the flexibility to choose from different advertising options—decals, partial wraps, or full wraps. Decals, the smallest form of ads, could be stickers or vinyl graphics placed in specific areas, such as your rear window. A partial wrap involves a vinyl graphic covering doors and possibly the bumper section, while a full wrap encompasses your entire vehicle, including the hood, doors, and windows (excluding the windshield).
By wrapping your car in advertisements, you could potentially earn anywhere from $100 to $500 a month. However, if a company is promising significantly more, be wary! The car wrap advertising industry has its fair share of scammers, so do your research before committing to any contract.
Photo credit: JeepersMedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
4. Rent Out Your Unused Parking Spot or Garage
Let’s say you don’t own a car. Can you still generate passive income? Absolutely!
If you don’t own a vehicle, that probably means you have an unused parking spot or garage. You can make money every month by renting it out.
For instance, if you’re renting in an apartment complex, chances are a free parking spot is included in your rent! So, if you don’t drive, ask your landlord for a discount on your rent in exchange for the unused parking spot.
Alternatively, you could be earning as much as $4,200 per year with your empty garage or $450 per month renting out your empty parking spot!
First, check your Lease Agreement, talk to your landlord, or check with your HOA. If you get the green light, you can choose to rent out your space through a reputable company like neighbor.com or spacer.com. By renting out your parking spot or garage through a third party, you get free host liability coverage and property protection plans. The third party will even cover the cost if the renter doesn’t pay. Using a third party does mean there will be additional fees, so keep that in mind.
To avoid these fees, you can always post your garage or parking spot on websites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. If this is the route you choose, make sure to draw up a Parking Space Lease Agreement to ensure that you are protected.
5. House Sit
Do you work from home? If so, you could generate passive income with no initial funds and enjoy a change of scenery by working from someone else’s home.
Many homeowners don’t want their home to be left unoccupied when they go on trips. So, they pay people to house sit.
House sitting is just as easy as it sounds. Depending on the homeowner, they may ask you to water their plants or check their mail, but that’s usually as far as the list of demands goes.
According to ZipRecruiter, you can make an average of $17/hour house sitting. To get started, check out TrustedHouseSitters, HouseSitter, MindMyHouse and HouseSitSearch for gigs in your area!
6. Rent out Your Spare Room
Heading out on a month-long trip? Rather than hiring a house sitter, consider becoming the one generating passive income by renting out your spare room on Airbnb or Vrbo. These platforms connect vacant spaces with people looking for temporary places to stay.
You have the freedom to set the rules, determine your price, and let the platform handle the logistics. Your unused space transforms into a home away from home for travelers, students, or anyone in need of a short-term stay. It’s a great way to generate passive income with no initial funds!
7. Audit Your Utility Bills
Another way to generate passive income with no initial funds is to save money on a service you’re probably over paying for. How? By auditing your home utility bills!
Some people may not consider this passive income, but in my mind, making some simple, energy-saving changes to your home once and spending less on your energy bills each month is a way of making money.
To start, call up your utility company and ask if they provide free home energy audits. If they do, an energy assessment auditor will give you recommendations for how to make your house more energy-efficient and lower your utility bills. They will identify potential errors in your utility bill and areas for improvement. The result? Substantial savings on your monthly utility expenses.
Let’s say you gave your utility company a call and they don’t offer free utility home audits? You can conduct a DIY energy audit instead. Click here to learn how.
8. Open a High-Yield Savings Account
Raise your hand if your savings are sitting in an account that’s earning you 0.0000001% interest.
Trust me, you’re not alone. Dealing with money is so intimidating! In fact, a couple of years ago, my hand would’ve been raised. However, my friend talked me into opening a high-yield savings account, and now I’m earning a competitive 4.50% high-yield rate with the Marcus by Goldman Sachs online savings account.
Transferring your money to a high-yield savings account is a super easy way to generate passive income. And the best part? There are no monthly or maintenance fees and no minimum to open and keep your high-yield online savings account. Plus, unlike a certificate of deposit (CD), you can take your money out at any time.
If you’re interested in opening a high-yield savings account through Marcus by Goldman Sachs, feel free to use my referral code to earn an extra 1.00% APY for the first 3 months. So instead of earning 4.50%, you will earn 5.50% (thank you in advance!). If you’d like to explore other options for high-yield savings accounts, click here for the best high-yield savings accounts according to NerdWallet.
9. Sell Stock Photography
Are you a photographer? Selling stock photos can be a worthwhile passive income stream. You take a photo once and can license it over and over again. However, it’s not for everyone. Just because you have the latest iPhone and hundreds of photos in your camera roll doesn’t mean you can simply submit these photos and expect to make bank. Stock photography is an incredibly competitive business and will require you to do a decent amount of keyword research (to understand what photos companies actually want), carefully select a niche, and have a social media presence.
With this being said, there’s no harm in trying! If you’re interested in giving it a go, here is a list of the 17 best websites to sell photos online in 2024, along with some tips to maximize your profits.
10. Create and Sell Digital Products
Creating and selling digital products is another popular passive income stream in 2024. However, just like selling stock photography, the competition is fierce, and the market is already oversaturated.
To stand out from the crowd, you’ll want to create a product that is truly unique and solves a problem. Trust me, being a copycat doesn’t work. Recreating something you saw in a YouTube video that promised to make you $8,000 A MONTH won’t work; you’ll probably just be wasting a bunch of time. After all, if it were that easy, everyone would do it.
With that being said, if you have an idea that is special and unique, selling digital products is perfect, especially if you don’t have any money to put towards a passive income stream. There’s no monetary barrier to entry.
Some popular ideas for digital products include selling Excel spreadsheets and printables on Etsy. Keep in mind that by selling through Etsy, you will be charged a $0.20 USD listing fee and 6.5% transaction fee. To avoid this fee, you could build a website and sell your digital products through there, but creating a website isn’t free. You’ll end up spending money upfront on a domain name, hosting, and a theme. Creating an eBook using your expertise and life experiences is another great idea for a digital product.
11. Start a YouTube Channel
You may have picked up on a theme here—creating stuff is a great way to generate passive income!
If you don’t mind being on camera, are creative, and have something to share, consider starting a YouTube channel. Unlike creating a website, which costs over $100 to start up and even more to maintain, starting a YouTube channel is completely free.
To start making money on YouTube, you’ve got to hit at least 1,000 subscribers and clock in 4,000 watch hours in the past year. Alternatively, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 10 million valid public Shorts views within the last 90 days. Once you hit either of those marks, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and start cashing in on your channel.
On average, a YouTube channel pulls in about $0.018 per view, which adds up to $18 for every 1,000 views, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
Here’s how to start a YouTube channel and get paid!
Find the Right Passive Income Idea for You
There you have it, 11 ways to generate passive income in 2024 if you don’t have any initial funds!
Just because you don’t have any money to invest doesn’t mean you can’t earn passive income. In fact, there are plenty of ways to make passive income in 2024 with no money.
Whether it’s by renting things you own but aren’t using or creating something, these 11 passive income ideas can help you make money while you’re not actively working.
Have you tried any of these passive income ideas yourself? Let me know in the comments below!
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