Passive Income: “The Rich Don’t Work for Money….

…They Make Money Work for Them.”

If you received half a million dollars every hour since the year QUT started teaching until the end of o-week1 you would still have less money than Jeff Bezos2, in fact you would be more than $23.8 billion short3. @JeffBezoz if you’re reading this, it’s easier to become a billionaire if you don’t pay your workers or tax! Come on babe, get ethical.  

If you’re a numbers person you would have realized this was calculated at 24 hours a day. A recent survey showed that the average GLASS reader spent 16 hours a week working while studying. Robert Kiyosaki states in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad that ‘the rich don’t work for money, they make money work for them’. Kiyosaki discusses the idea of passive income in Chapter Two of his book by pointing out that tying your income purely to an hourly wage or yearly salary does not allow you to reach your most efficient earning potential. Passive income can be accrued whilst you’re off walking your dog or studying for exams. It includes; dividends, interest and royalties. This is contrasted to income earned while ‘actively’ working at a set hourly wage. In order to receive income over 24 hours a day as Jeff Bezos does, passive income is the answer. 

Under the Fair Work ombudsman’s Hospitality Industry Award: Level 1 Kitchen Attendants have an hourly pay rate of $25.08 on weekdays before 7 pm. 5 At the average of 16 hours per week spent working by GLASS readers this only yields a $401.28 weekly income. By taking some of the income earned through a wage or salary and investing it in a low fee index fund, high interest-savings account or monthly subscription to an E-commerce platform it is possible to more than double your weekly earnings. Just as Bezos receives a large amount of passive income from his 16% ownership of Amazon, you too can trade shares on platforms such as CommSecNabTrade, Stake and Plus500. 

Receiving dividends or capital gains in companies is an effective way to make passive income however not recommended for a beginner. Earning passive income on intellectual property such as graphic designs, music, domain names, articles and photos can be an amazing alternative for creatives to earn money and grow their portfolio. 

Since investing in shares may not be the first step in exploring the world of personal finance, here are a few websites and apps that can help you to monetize your hobbies; 

Redbubble.com 

Awesome products designed by independent artists. 

Redbubble is one of the biggest ‘print on demand’ platforms. This means that you can design your product first, market it then manufactures it for the customer after it has been paid for. This solves a lot of inventory and overhead problems you may have encountered when selling your work. 

123rf.com 

123 Royalty-Free 

A website where you can upload your own photography, and you’ll receive 60% of the profit when someone buys the image. This is similar to canstockphoto.com, dreamstime.com and shutterstock.com which all require high-quality photography. However, foap.com allows you to sell iPhone images and pro.scoopshoot.com advertises photography assignments that you can fulfil via the app for payment. 

Shopify.com 

Build Your Online Store 

Shopify has a monthly subscription of around $48 AUD but provides an easy to use E-commerce platform that is often used with a ‘drop shipping’ business model. Dropshipping makes your site the intermediary between the wholesaler and the customer, market the product well and fulfil an order with the wholesaler once the customer’s order is placed. Shopify can be used in conjunction with Oberlo.com as a wholesaler. It is recommended that anyone interested should research both sites and the drop shipping method. 

Additionally, Shopify can be used similarly to Etsy just as an electronic shopfront. 

Marketplace.asos.com 

Home to the best independent brands and vintage boutiques. 

If you have an eye for fashion and enjoy sifting through Salvos then this is the platform for you! Similar to Facebook Marketplace, ASOS Marketplace allows you to buy and sell clothing. Unlike Facebook Marketplace, it has an E-commerce function that allows payment to be made on the site instead of cash or bank transfer. 

Patreon.com 

Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid. 

As an alternative to adverting revenue, it is possible to get money simply by asking ‘fans’, readers or viewers to subscribe to your platform and pay a set amount each month. You can make an account on Patreon and encourage those consuming your creative content to give money each month to support you. 

Think of it like ‘crowdfunding your salary’. You can design your Patreon platform to release content to ‘tiers’ of subscribers e.g. ‘those with subscriptions of $3+ receive a 20-minute podcast recording’ or ‘those with $10+ subscriptions receive a personalised thank-you note. 

Paypal.com

Paypal.com/donate/buttons

PayPal has an option for embedding a donation button on your site. It is possible to put a cute message nearby like ‘buy me a coffee’ to encourage viewers of your content to show their appreciation in a monetary form.
 

PS: we don’t endorse or get kick-backs from any of the above products, they are examples given in good faith only. 

Don’t forget that your professional education is just the beginning of your career, it’s what you do with your business and personal brand that allows you to make a positive impact on your community. By competing successfully in the professional market place, QUT graduates can show the world how to run businesses ethically can be run ethically and fairly. Move over Bezos, a new way of doing business is dawning!

 

Footnotes:

1 21st February 11:59pm 

2 $115.6 billion USD which is $169,044,192,000 AUD 

3 $23,867,690,000 

4 Via Instagram stories on @qutglass 

5 http://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000009

Jasmin
Jasmin

Jasmin is a second-year Law and Business student at QUT.

Articles: 12

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