PASSIVE INCOME IS THE BEST
Let's talk about one of my favorite subjects. Passive income is something that everyone loves whether they know about it or not. Passive income by definition is the "unearned income that is acquired automatically with minimal labor to earn or maintain" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_income) This means that you are earning profits by doing almost nothing. Some examples of passive income are dividend investments, rental properties (sometimes these take a lot of effort), collecting royalties on things like photos or songs, retirement funds, and more. The ability to collect passive income is usually due to someone putting in effort prior in their lives. With stocks, you had to earn money to buy the stocks and hold them. With rental properties, you had to buy the land or building and screen tenants. Although it is called passive income, it often takes a lot of time to do.
One fun thing with passive income is social media. Now people are earning wild amounts of passive income with social media especially YouTube. I dream of being able to do this one day, once I get more subscribers. Larger YouTubers make a good amount of money on their videos, because even though the typical video gets most of its views early on after it's posted, you can still earn money from you older videos. Some YouTubers who make gaming content will continue to get income from their old videos simply because everyone once in a while people will view them. This creates a crazy amount of passive income in the long run, and the more content they create when the are growing their following, the more money they will have in the future. Twitch streamers often have YouTube channels also just because they can create a lot more income and reach a different audience via posting on a YouTube channel.
I've been stuck on a passive income fix for a while lately. I post about it quite often on YouTube and TikTok because I think its very important for our generation to realize that they money we are saving now will create so much more for us in the future. Take a look at this chart from U.S News Money:
To simplify it, the more you can invest when you are younger the more profits you will reap when you get older. The crazy thing with this chart is that $200 a month is very doable for people. I know a lot of people are tight with money, and trying to get better with it, but think of how little $200 is. It could be not going shopping for a month. It could be selling a piece of furniture you don't like or need. It could be NOT GOING OUT TO EAT AS MUCH! That one is in caps for me because I eat out quite often and I need to stop. If you invested that $200 into a Roth IRA you would be able to pull out that $520,000 without paying taxes on it. That is a 5x on your money and that if you sell at 65! You don't have to cash it out then, you can live off of the dividends and keep it growing for your next generation!
To be honest though, it takes a special kind of person to do this. The reason I know that is because if it were really this easy, everyone would be rich. Since we don't like in a world with millionaires everywhere, obviously life gets in the way sometimes. Hopefully this shined some light on how important investing is at a young age. Gen Z so far isn't known for being good with their money, but I think between technology and resources available for everyone, we can change that. Good luck fighting those demons of spending money! Check out my socials if you will and leave a like and comment if you enjoyed this post. I am always happy to talk about passive income that's for sure! Until next time money makers!
-Spence