Passive Income for Retirement: 12 Creative Ideas to Boost Your Financial Security

Passive income for retirement are income sources that you benefit from without too much effort – the money just flows in (or, you enjoy earning it).

passive income for retirement
Enjoy your time with effective passive retirement income.

Passive income streams are therefore ideal for retirement. In retirement you are trying to maximize the time we spend on leisure activities while minimizing work or burdensome endeavors. You can generate passive income from savings, your other assets, or even with smart use of your time.

Here are a 12 plus ideas for how to create passive income for retirement or any financial goal:

1. Make Passive Income with Your Own Home or Property

Your home is probably your most valuable existing asset. You should definitely consider ways to use your home to create passive income.

a) Rent a room

House sharing is becoming more and more common. By renting a room (or rooms) you generate a great source of income and increase your social and support network which is critical to retirement happiness.

Learn more about home sharing.

b) Be a vacation rental

Airbnb has absolutely exploded in popularity. Listing your home on Airbnb  — either on a permanent or short-term basis — is an ideal passive income stream because it uses an existing resource to generate money.

This can be ideal if you are planning on traveling. Rent out your home during times when you could be away.

c) Rent your driveway

JustPark is a platform that lets you rent out parking places. this is an ideal opportunity if you live near a popular venue.

d) Offer a campsite

Do you live on a piece of land where people might want to camp?

Hipcamp allows you to host nature lovers while earning extra income.

2. Create Passive Retirement Income with Your Stuff

The sharing economy is alive and well and people are making money from all kinds of assets. Think creatively about what you own and explore ways to rent it out.

Do you have an RV or other recreational toys? People are making money these days by renting out their boats, motorcycles, bicycles and more…

If you have something that you think other people might enjoy, research sharing economy web sites for that particular object.

Here are a few examples:

a) Rent out your outdoor adventure vehicles

Do you have an RV, camper van, jeep or sprinter van that spends some time in your driveway? Rent it out!

Outdoorsy or RV Share: make it easy for you to make money from a potentially under used asset.

b) Make any kind of vehicle available for rental

Do you have a sports car? Just a regular old sedan? Any kind of vehicle that you don’t need to use daily?

Turo and GetAround are platforms that enable you to rent out your vehicles.

c) Float your boat

Whether you have a little tin fishing boat, a party patio barge, a water ski boat, a sailing ketch, a luxury yacht or any other kind of floating toy, Boatsetter enables you to rent your boat and make passive income for retirement.

d) Make your sports gear available

Do you have a bicycle? Snow gear? A stand up paddle board? Rent it out on Splinster.  To rent out your Surfboard, try Quiver.

e) Smile: you are making money from your camera gear

Cameras are beloved expensive items. But, if you are willing to share, you can make some passive income.

Available in most major cities Fatlama  and Sharegrid enables peer to peer rentals of camera gear and other electronics.

f) Wrap up your vehicle in passive income for retirement

A you ready to drive a mobile billboard? Carvetise and Wrapify put advertising on your car and you get income for just driving around as you normally do.

It might not be great for shy people, but extroverts are likely to enjoy the experience.

g) Ready to be a guinea pig?

Okay… Your body is not at all stuff. However, it is something you can use to generate income. ClinicalTrials.gov lets you search for sleep and other medical and psychological studies — some offering you monetary compensation.

3. Create Passive Income for Retirement by Investing in Real Estate

If you own your home, then most financial experts would say that you already have enough exposure to real estate for a well-diversified portfolio. However, real estate investing can be an excellent way to build wealth and is probably the most universally effective of all passive income streams.

You have many options for real estate as income:

a) Buy rental property

If you have some savings, you might want to consider investing in a rental property. Investing in a commercial building or a residential property can be an excellent way to boost monthly income. The trick is in having enough money to buy the building and ensuring that the rental income pays for the mortgage as well as profit for you. Ideally the property also appreciates over time.

However, depending on the property, owning rentals can require active time to manage — making it perhaps less passive than other investments.

b) Invest in real estate funds

If you cannot afford to purchase a property on your own, you have options. You can invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). REIT’s are a type of security that you can buy and trade like a stock.

c) Explore real estate crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a relatively new way to raise money for a business venture. The idea is that many people invest a small amount into a particular project. The crowdfunding concept is becoming an increasingly popular and low-cost way to invest in real estate.

Learn more at popular real estate crowdfunding sites like RealtyShares and FundRise.

d) Finance a Mortgage or Reverse Mortgage:

Perhaps you have friends or family who need or want to get a mortgage or reverse mortgage. You can finance a private loan. Just note that this can be complicated and there are downsides to mixing money with family and friendships.

Here are 8 Ways to Invest in Real Estate for Retirement.

4. Create Passive Income Streams Doing What You Love to Do

You don’t want to work — working is not a “passive” income stream. You want to be retired! However, maybe you enjoy cooking, woodshop or spending time with dogs. There are more and more ways to make money from these types of hobbies.

If there is something you enjoy doing, you can probably figure out a way to get paid for it.

a) Earn by spending time with furry friends

Do you love animals? Did you know that it is pretty easy to make good money while offering pet services? DogVacay and Rover make it easy to find gigs with animals.

Why not create passive income by dog sitting in your own home? Or, try dog walking which is a great opportunity to be healthy, have fun and make money.

b) Work with your hands

Do you enjoy working with your hands? Building things? Personally, I adore vacuuming (okay… maybe house cleaning is more work than fun). At any rate, it is so satisfying to complete a project!

TaskRabbit let you find gigs for home services like house cleaning, gardening, handy man, errands…

c) Cook up some passive income for retirement

Are You Happiest in the Kitchen? Do you pour over cooking blogs and race to get every new cookbook? Travelingspoon enables accomplished home cooks to teach lessons in their home. Chef’s feed by Tastemade enables you to stream cooking classes.

d) Handcraft your passive income

From crochet to custom artwork, Etsy is a platform that helps artists and crafts people to sell their handmade goods. Turn your creative hobby into passive income for retirement.

e)  Click your way to passive income for retirement

Are you an amateur photographer? There are lots of platforms like Shutterstock and istockphoto that enable you to sell photos online.

f) Tutor

Do you enjoy kids and were a pretty good student back in the day? Wyzant is a platform that connects tutors to kids who need help. From teenagers who need support with AP statistics to grade school kids who just need to get through their homework, tutoring is a great way to make money and be among the young — keeping you young at heart!

Choose to offer in person or online sessions.

g) Whatever you love, promote yourself and get paid

Whether you like repairing bikes, gardening or something else, there is probably somebody who doesn’t really enjoy that activity and they might be willing to pay you. NextDoor is a community message board, ideal for finding clients for these types of services.

5. Share Your Expertise or Your Passion and Make Some Money

By the time you retire, you have accumulated a lot of knowledge. If you would love sharing your work expertise or passion for a specific hobby or area of interest, then here are a few passive income ideas for you:

a) Create an Airbnb experience

Are you one of those people who loves to share your knowledge of your home town and you live in an area that receives tourists?

Do you have a special skill or insight that people would want to know about?

Sign up to host an online experience with Airbnb.  With the world slowly opening up again, you can also sign up to host an experience in person.

Dance parties, art workshops, meditation sessions, and tours of local sights, tastes or sounds are just a few of the really varied experiences that you could consider offering.

b) Start a blog

If you like writing, start a blog and share your expertise or passion online. Generate and

publish content and then you can run advertising on your content — generating passive income.

c) Launch a podcast

Do you enjoy talking with experts or peers about your area of expertise? Try recording those conversations and starting a podcast. Get sponsorship for your podcasts and earn some passive income.

d) Teach an online course

Online classes are a growing gig. An online class is kind of like a blog, but it is prepackaged and sold to people who want to learn what you have to share. Teachable.com and Udemy are popular online teaching platforms.

e) Become an Instagram or YouTube star

Do you get a lot of “likes” on your posts? Do you enjoy being in front of or behind the camera?  Have a nose for promotion and what really drives engagement?

You could become an Instagram or YouTube star. From cupcake bakers and gardeners to style icons, you can share your love of something and potentially start to get sponsorships for your posts.

6. Pay Off a Credit Card or Other Debt

Huh? You might be curious how paying off a credit card could be a way to produce income.

And, while it is true that you are not creating an income stream, you are eliminating a fixed expense which does permanently improve your cash flow – so the impact is the same as increased income.

Imagine if you could spend the money you use to pay off a debt every month! The same is true of paying off your mortgage — this is such a massive opportunity to have more money to spend every month and help you feel truly financially free.

Here are 7 Reasons to Pay Off Every Penny Before You Retire…

7. If Using a Credit Card, Turn it Into Income

If you are using a credit card for purchases, make sure your card offers perks that make sense for you.

Most top reward credit cards enable you to earn anywhere from 1 to 5 percent back. This translates to easy passive income.

8. Discover Passive Income for Retirement by Creating a Budget and a Detailed Financial Plan

Passive income can come from improving your own finances — now and for the future.

a) Budgeting

Budgeting is a powerful way to discover opportunities for saving money. When you document what you are spending you are likely to see easy ways to cut costs — improving your cash flow.

b) Creating a financial plan

When you plan for the long term, you will make smarter decisions now and find the motivation to create more income. The NewRetirement Planner makes it easy to create and maintain a financial plan.

9. Carefully Invest Your Money in Passive Income Sources

All profitable investments are technically passive income — but profits from savings are usually reinvested — growing your principle. However, some investments do offer a monthly paycheck — passive income.
Consider the following passive income investment opportunities:

a) Peer to peer lending

Lending Club is an example of a peer to peer lending platform. With Lending Club, you can provide loans to people seeking money for a business. While this can be highly risky, the platform enables you to invest in hundreds of different businesses all at once — offering you the potential for high returns while trying to minimize risk.

b) Annuities

Annuities are a way to lock in passive income. When you buy a lifetime annuity, you are exchanging a lump sum of money for a guaranteed income stream for the rest of your life — no matter how long that turns out to be. You can also opt to protect your spouse or other dependents with the income and you can even guarantee that the income will grow with inflation.

Use an annuity calculator to estimate how much annuity income your savings can buy.

c) High dividend stocks

Some stocks pay dividends. This money is considered a passive income stream – especially if you are not putting the money back into the company.

d) Bonds

Bonds are a popular retirement income investment. When you purchase a bond, you are buying debt. So, in a way, you are lending money and — in exchange — you get interest payments and the promise of repayment at a specified future date (maturity date).

Learn more about bonds and bond ladders.

e) Invest in a small business

Look around your town and think about the people you know; do you see a small business that is doing well – might they benefit from some kind of expansion? In exchange for your investment, the business could give you an equity position. The business owner manages the day to day operations while you act as a silent (passive) partner.

This can be rewarding, but very risky.

10. Explore Reputable Multi-Level Marketing

A multi-level marketing business sells products directly to consumers through independent sales people. The sales person is compensated based on their own sales as well as on their ability to recruit new sales people into the company.

So, income from sales you make would be regular income. Income from sales by your recruits could be considered passive income.

Multi-level marketing has a questionable reputation, but there are plenty of well vetted, even beloved companies that could be great work and passive income for retirees.

If you are interested, consider the following:

a) Avon

Avon is a publicly traded company with more than 5 million sales consultants. If selling cosmetics sounds fun to you, give it a try. I think you can still earn a pink Cadillac.

b) The Pampered Chef

Love cooking? Maybe being a sales consultant with The Pampered Chef is a good fit for you. Consultants host cooking shows in homes and sell merchandise during these demonstrations.

c) Rodan and Fields

Rodan and Fields makes skincare products developed by the dermatologists who also created Proactiv. They have over a billion dollars in sales.

d) doTerra

doTerra sells aroma therapy oils and kits and already reports to have 1,300 employees and a billion dollars in sales.

e) Forever Living

Forever living sells a range of health-related products including aloe vera juice drinks and cosmetics, supplements and more.

11. Put Your Cash to Work

The trick with successfully creating passive income is to pay attention to all opportunities. Making sure that your cash is earning as much interest as possible is an easy way to increase your passive income. Put your cash into a high-interest savings account.

Banks are paying higher rates than recent memory. You won’t get massive returns, but it is better than nothing and a low risk and easy way to modestly boost income.

12. Make Money Shopping and Browsing

If you are willing to let companies track your online browsing and spending, then you can generate passive income.

a) Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars gives you multiple options for earning money. You can play games, open emails and more.

b) Swagbucks

When you are signed up with Swagbucks and shop at Target, Walmart, Amazon and other major retailers, you earn money. Get additional income by watching videos, answering surveys and other online activities.

c) Rakuten

Get rebates when you shop while using the Rakuten browser extension. Just start an Ebates account, install the extension on your browser and shop as you normally would and get rebates.

How Does Passive Income Impact Your Retirement Plan?

Money you rely on for retirement should not be invested with too much risk. And, you want retirement income to be predictable.

When factoring passive income into your retirement planning, be sure to think about when the income stream might start and stop and only count it if you are relatively sure that it will come to pass.

The NewRetirement Planner enables you to enter passive income as part of your personalized and comprehensive plan.

NewRetirement Planner

Do it yourself retirement planning: easy, comprehensive, reliable

NewRetirement Planner

Take financial wellness into your own hands and do it yourself retirement planning: easy, comprehensive, reliable.

Share this post:

Keep Reading

All Posts
average retirement income 2022 Retirement Income

Average Retirement Income 2022: How Do You Compare?

Average retirement income 2022 – find out how your income compares to averages and get tips for boosting your income. Read now!

February 24, 2022
Retirement Income

Early Retirement Income: 5 Ways to Make Penalty-Free Withdrawals from Your Retirement Accounts BEFORE You Turn 59.5

Retiring before 59.5? Discover how to make penalty free withdrawals from your retirement accounts to help fund your early retirement.

February 15, 2023
tax withholding in retirement Earning

How Are Different Retirement Income Sources Taxed? And, How Does Tax Withholding Work in Retirement?

Retirement tax planning is a critical part of preparing for a secure future. The good news is that with so many possible retirement income sources, you have many different opportunities to potentially reduce your tax burden. And, you may even discover that reducing taxes can enable you to retire a little earlier than you might…

October 29, 2020