How To Start 3 New Passive Income Sources Without Spending a Dime
One of the biggest lies that the average person ends up living is the idea of a single-income lifestyle. We’re all conditioned to believe that the default way of earning an income is through a steady 9-to-5 job. However, with good positions getting harder to find and paying lower than expected wages, we have a serious problem.
One report from the Bank of America Institute found that most members of Gen Z lack funds to cover even a single month of spending. Their spending-to-saving ratio was 1.93, which meant they spent twice as much as they had in savings. This is in stark contrast to Gen X and Baby Boomers, who had more in savings than what they spent.
If you want to keep your head above water in the future, now is the time to start setting up passive income sources. In this article, we’ll look at three options that can work with minuscule or no investment.
#1. Sell Micro-Digital Assets
Talking about the American Dream to someone in 2025 can feel like you’re almost mocking them. Some might argue it has the same impact as telling a depressed person to simply smile and be happy.
According to a survey of 8,709 U.S. adults by the Pew Research Center, 53% of citizens believe the American Dream is still possible. Meanwhile, 41% feel it was once possible but not anymore. Meanwhile, 6% believe that it was never attainable.
People’s priorities and spending habits have changed since the time the American Dream was ‘easy,’ but there’s one thing that still holds strong. Expertise. Micro Digital Assets, or MDAs, are one of the best ways you can earn considerably. They’re tiny pieces of specialized knowledge that you have come to acquire as part of your regular career or hobby.
If you’re a musician, it could be a highly detailed tutorial on how to achieve a technique like vibrato. If you’re a coder, maybe you could share a 12-step plan of what you did to secure your $600k position at Google. The options are endless. Take a moment and reflect on what you have to offer, and if you can package it well, it’s going to sell.
#2. Start a Website
For some reason, people have become extremely competition-averse in 2025. A solid, accessible passive income option will be dismissed because people worry about the competition. However, what are you doing with your free time, anyway? Why not give it a shot?
Starting a website, specifically a single-topic micro-site instead of a traditional blog, can be surprisingly profitable. Yes, you may have to pay, but there are many free plans out there. Even 100 monthly visitors can be enough to start giving you a passive income if your niche is specific. For example, posts that guide readers on the best CAD tools for students or budget meal ideas for diabetics. Anything long-tail will do, honestly.
Starting a website is also ridiculously easy today, and as Hocoos explains, you can have one set up in a matter of minutes. With AI-based website builders, you just have to answer a few questions about what you want and your goals, and the builder takes care of the rest.
#3. Release Your Own App
This is another great avenue of passive income that too many people sleep on because they feel it’s only something coders can benefit from. However, just like website building, app design has also become much more accessible in recent years. Some tools even allow you to design with drag-and-drop methods, which was unheard of earlier.
Of course, you won’t be making complex apps with these tools, but even simple apps have great potential for creating passive income. Don’t just take our word for it. Data shows that small developers enjoyed an increase in revenue to the tune of an extra 71% between 2020 and 2022. American developers enjoyed an even better 87% increase in earnings.
All it takes is a good idea and the follow-through to create something and get the word out. Often, that’s all the difference between people making thousands of passive dollars every month and you.
All things considered, passive income opportunities are everywhere and are not as inaccessible as the picture people like to paint. As we’ve seen, your options extend far beyond traditional advice like renting out space or investing in the stock market.
If you have even 1% of entrepreneurial spirit in you and a little free time, try out one of these ideas. You’ll be grateful if it works, and if not, you can learn from the experience and build upon it.
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