How to Build Up a Passive Income Stream from Young

Yin November 13, 2009

CAREER, Income

This is the final part of the Article Series on Holiday/Summer Jobs for Students/Teenagers. This article will discuss on selecting a job that can help you to built up a passive income stream from where you are now.

Passive income, as the name implies, is earning income even while you are not working. Looking back, I wished I had the foresight to start some kind of passive income ventures when I was younger. Well, it’s never too late to start, so I want to share with you some things you can work on (together with your holiday job):

1. Starting your own blog(s) or website

Now, you can set up your blogs in a matter of minutes using free hosting like blogger/wordpress. Many bloggers started off that way. If you love to write and share your experience or have deep interest at a particular field, you can start your own blog about it. You will be surprised that many others out there who shared your unusual interest.

Here’s an example of a success story:

Fabien started his blog, Small Fish Big Money when he was just 15 years old. He writes with much more maturity for someone his age, and during my initial attempts at blogging, I’ve gotten many useful tips from his blogs. He monetizes his blog and gets consistent visitors by writing good articles. Compared to most popular bloggers, he actually took time to go into his visitor’s blogs and find out about them. Initially I’ve left a few comments on his blog posts and the next thing I knew, he wrote a nice blog post highlighting my blog and some of the posts that he had enjoyed.

2. Become an agent such as selling insurance/unit trusts

Why do I suggest that is because insurance or the unit trust field have a relatively easy entry point. In order to sell these products, you would probably require some recognized certification. You would need to take a course and pass an examination before you can begin selling the product. And the cost of courses and exams are normally largely subsidized- to encourage entry level. For unit trust, the minimum entry age may start from 21.

As a student and teenager, you’ll probably enjoy good initial success at selling policies to your favorite aunt and uncles, and even the family members of your close friends- so there’s already income there.

Because you start young, you can take your time to pick up your knowledge and skills that are valuable and probably applicable even if you decide to choose another field.

You may find that you like the field and decide to go into it full time. There is no pressure and the option for passive income would always be open to you.

However, do keep in mind that the most successful agents are those who are knowledgeable, well connected and provide good after-sales-support. If you have long term plan of doing this part time, you would still need to set aside time to keep yourself updated.

I know of an agent who is only 19 years old and is into the insurance line while waiting for his exam results. One can only imagine that by the time he reaches the age of graduation, he would have build up a good network while his friends are just struggling to earn a living.

If you are into gym and sports, you can also consider becoming a part time gym instructor or personal trainer. It provides good side income and once your popularity grows (it may take time but there’s no rush, rite) you can branch into other areas like writing workout books.

3. Joining a direct selling company

I know any people shun away from direct selling companies. I’ve written a previous article on Can Joining Direct Selling Companies Make You Big Bucks?. In the article, I mentioned that you can pick up a lot of good selling tips from direct selling companies. The most successful agents are normally not those annoying and pushy types.

An ex-coursemate of mine joined a direct selling company prior to entering university. Like all beginning sellers, it took time and a lot of effort for him to build up his business and network. Initially, he sold greeting cards by going from door-to-door at apartments.

He got a lot of rejections but some people bought the cards from him because they admired his hard work and guts. The cards were beautiful and reasonably priced so a number of us also bought a few packs each from him. He was always talking about his business idea and earning a living full time from joining this company.

Today, years later, he built up a good business and is really making a comfortable living doing this full time- by selling the products and also recruiting downlines. He achieved his dreams and what he told us that he had set out to do. But we all knew that he worked hard to achieve where he is today.

This concludes the Article Series for Holiday/Summer Jobs for Students/ Teenagers. I hope you can get some insight into the various options available. Even during economy downtime, you can still find a job if you have the determination, the communication skills and are willing to work hard. I wish you all the best in your job search.

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Article Series on Holiday/Summer Jobs for Teenagers/Students: