Ask HN: What was your best passive income of 2019? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What was your best passive income of 2019?

36 pointsnegrit30 comments

I have had success with class action lawsuits.

I kind like the surprise check that comes in the mail every few weeks. Once I got a check for $1200. Need to thank Ashley Madison lawsuit for that one.

Don't know if it counts, but I sold my house for 40% more than I bought it 5 years ago. Combination of market appreciation in the area and strategic improvements.

Also, I wrote a tech book a few years ago and still get a couple hundred bucks every quarter.

mind to share which was the topic and publisher of the book ?

Not at all tech related, but my friend and I loan money for mortgages to people who likely wouldn't be able to get one from a bank. Mostly fix and flips, interest only, two year term. Make 12% on each one.

12% a year?

Yeah, it's a mortgage. Interest only though, so it's a flat 12% / 12

What happens is they haven't sold at the end of the two year term?

Sometimes they pay it off, sometimes they extend. Defaults are rare, and we're first in line.

> Defaults are rare,

Because we've been living through a lengthy real-estate boom that will likely bust in the coming year or two. I'm sure you've kept that in mind, but that's the reason defaults have been rare.

I like the idea, however. How do you find your flippers?

Interesting! How did you get into this and how much capital was needed to start?

How did you find these deals? Did you find them directly or through a service like Patch of Land?

I bought a few shares of Apple at 149 during the silly market overreaction of 2019 and have almost doubled my investment at current prices.

I’ll post mine since I started the topic. I sold a couple pictures of my travel this year. Got a few hundred bucks out of it. I’m pretty happy about it since the goal wasn’t to make money out of it.

Cool, what kind of photography was it? Landscapes?

Travel photography, so landscape/drone photography.

Where/whom do you sell those? I have a friend who'd love to do such photography for money, but what's the market really...?

I published then on my instagram and travel magazine like condenast traveller reached out to me to buy them.

30% returns across a few hand picked stocks, VTSAX, and VOO. The hand picked stocks are a good chunk of the SP500, and so this isn’t all really that diversified... I know.

1.8-2.2% returns on cash. Meh.

A niche shopify store netted me low 5 figures without much work.

What are you selling?

You'll never know :)

Made some good money on the stock market, some modest bets and a lot of index funds. Made about 10% more than s&p 500 for 2019.

My best was dividends on a REIT and that was followed up by royalties from a book I published a couple years ago

Bought bitcoin at 4K, sold at 10k.

I'm wondering how this comment will age in 10 years...

As wise I'd bet

Global indexed funds. 23% gain in 2019. Nice.

AMD stock

stock dividends.

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