$10K Passive Income Per Year with Minimal Effort: Here's How

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Ready to live the dream? Passive income, meaning making money without doing much of anything, could allow you to work less, pay off debt, or build your investment account . But most so-called passive streams of income aren't that passive.

Real estate investments require you to be a landlord (and have a lot of upfront cash to invest), and running an e-commerce business requires spending time building a website and marketing it.

But there are ways to make passive income with minimal effort and without needing a business loan to get started. Let's look at four passive income streams that are actually pretty passive.

Put $200,000 in a HYSA or CD

The average rate of return on a high-yield savings account (HYSA) or certificate of deposit (CD) is currently around 5%. (Though that might drop as the Fed continues to lower interest rates.) So, if you're lucky enough to have $200,000 lying around, you can sock that away in a high-yield savings account or CD and earn $10,000 in a year. There's nothing to sell, nothing to buy, and no customer service required.

Yes, this suggestion is a little tongue-in-cheek. Setting expectations is important -- most passive streams of income are going to require either a large upfront investment or a bit of your time. If you have more time than money, keep reading.

Sell 1,000 $10 digital products

Digital products (think planners, coloring books, or worksheets), only have to be created once. After it's created, you'll likely have to do a bit of marketing to make sales, but that's it. Host your creations on Etsy, Teacher for Teacher, or Amazon, and you can make sales and outsource the delivery.

Rent your yard as a dog park for 1,000 hours

You've likely heard about renting your home or your car, but did you know you can also rent your yard for dogs? Similar to Airbnb rentals, the amount you can charge per hour depends on the size of your property and the amenities you offer. But renting your yard on sites like Sniffspot for $10 an hour for 1,000 hours will net you around $10,000 a year.

Sniffspot walks you through creating a listing and offers host protection insurance. Yards that have pools, ponds, or agility features seem to rent for more than just plain land. Even better, you don't have to be there or meet your guests.

Sell 250,000 $0.04 stock photo downloads

Similar to digital downloads, selling stock photos is one of the passive income streams where you create something once and can sell it over and over again. While the price of stock photos can vary by site and the type of image, most go for between $0.04 and $0.06 per download. If you can build up a large portfolio of in-demand images, you can create a decent side hustle.

The market is pretty saturated, so do some research to find out what types of images are popular. For example, interior design images do particularly well. Most stock photo sites give you access to a dashboard where you can see which images do well and where the downloads come from. You can use that data to be more strategic with your uploads.

Building a passive income stream takes time, but it can be done. Just avoid those people who try to sell you a course on how to do it. They've built their own passive income stream -- but it's likely selling courses.

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