Time is a valuable commodity. We only have so much of it, so what we do with it makes a big impact on our finances. We've all heard the phrase “ time is money” right? Well, all of us want more money so what if we could cash in our time for money. Technically you are already doing this if you are employed and you may think to yourself “ I spent all day working , I'm tired - I just want to relax with a cold one and watch the game. “ and that's fine - after all, a hard days work deserves some rest and relaxation to regenerate and re-energize. But what if you could use that free time to keep earning dollars while doing nothing but sitting back having a cold one and watching the game? It sounds a lot more interesting now, right? Wouldn't you like to be earning cash while you're sleeping? Impossible you say! But not only is it possibly , but millions of people are doing it every day.... and night. Of course you man need to sacrifice a few of those nights to learn how to do it and to get it set up – but once the wheels are turning – you can sit back and let the cash flow in.

Money. It's what makes the world turn. What many of us don't realize is that there is money sitting right in front us just ready for the taking. Most people would take the time to pick up a $1 dollar bill if you saw it laying on the ground – but if if was under a rock you would walk right past it. But if you KNEW that it was under a rock .. you would see everybody else pass it up – then you would go move the rock and collect your free money. I'm going to show you some rocks that you can move and find money underneath them.

This isn't going to be about how to get rich quick or how to make money for nothing. Many people have money, but really don't know how to deploy it so that it can earn returns for them. As a result – it slips through their fingers and goes away for good as they spend it on fruitless items that bring only temporary satisfaction but leaving them striving to attain more. They will say that they do not have money to invest , all the while clutching their smartphone and drinking a $5.00 coffee. If you think about all the things we spend money on - how many of them return money BACK to us? That lunch out at the fast food food place – that newest music CD - or that new TV - do any of those things bring money back into our account? No - they cost money and rob people of their opportunity to invest it.

But if you're willing to put some extra money towards profitable ventures instead of unprofitable ones – then your dollar will go out into the world and find money for you and bring it back to you. This is the proper relationship to have with your money. You work hard for your money and it should work for you too. Your dollar is like an employee - and it's job is to be a magnet for money. Many people misuse their employees by sending them on fruitless missions and then abandoning them in liquor stores, stereo shops and fast food joints where they get sent back to the bank's forced labor camps. These unattentive employers have lost the opportunity to use those valuable employees for greater things and now the bank has them back and you can be sure that they know how to use them. Don't be that way - be a good employer. Give your dollars good honest work and let them multiply and attract more money back into your wallet.

There are many ways to make passive income - more than what I'm going to mention, but this is a good start to get you thinking about what kinds of things you can do with your money besides go shopping with it.

To start with, you must understand that compound interest is your friend. Compound interest is when you earn interest on your money – and then THAT interest earns its own interest – and in turn – that interest also earns interest and so on. As you can see, compound interest can start to grow into a snowball of cash for you while you're dutifully watching the game or out fishing on the lake. ( or just binge-watching the Walking Dead) The point is – when you employ compound interest, you are starting to make your money work for you instead of the other way around. I don't know if Einstein really said this or not, but he is quoted as saying:

So tip #1 to make money in your spare time is to put your money to work somewhere where it can earn compound interest. A lot of people think of savings accounts when they hear compound interest – but those are a joke these days. With interest rates at 1% or less – were talking a dollar a year for putting away $100 – that's a weak return and even with compound interest it will take several years for a saving account to grow unless you are making regular contributions to it. either way, with the rate of inflation being 3% a year on average, earning 1% doesn't even keep up with the cost of living and your money is safely losing 2% sitting in the bank. I see a savings account as more of a resting place for my cash while I'm figuring out where to deploy it next. Here are some financial instruments that can earn interest for you while you sleep:

REITS

 
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) are a favorite of mine because they take all the dirty work out of owning property. With a REIT – a team of managers is handling a portfolio of properties. Some REITs are Equity based – meaning that they buy properties and manage them. Property types can be anything from apartment buildings to shopping malls, parking lots to condos and many other types. They acquire them, lease them out , and manage them - after expenses, they pay the shareholders ( you , in this case). Other REITs are Mortgage based where they do not buy property or manage them- instead , they buy mortgage loans and collect the monthly payments. A REIT can even be a hybrid of the two, buying properties and mortgages. In each case, they still payout on a regular basis. REITs return 90% of their earnings back to shareholders in the form of dividends. These dividends can have very high yields and when reinvested can lead to even higher returns.

One of the great things about REITs is that while the bulk of them pay dividends quarterly - many of them actual pay monthly too. You have the option of cashing out your dividend for that sweet, sweet money – or you can choose to reinvest so that you can get ….let's all say it again .. COMPOUND INTEREST. When you buy a REIT – you don't have to worry about picking the properties , collecting the rent or worrying about managing anything – all of it is taken care of for you and of course there are some fees for the convenience - but they are relatively small and calculated into your payouts so you likely wont even notice them.

Each quarter( every three months) or monthly depending on how often they payout – after they have collected all income and paid off expenses – they pay 90% or more of the profit to shareholders and if you choose to reinvest it, they will simply add it back to your account and buy more shares of the REIT. The next time you are paid a dividend, it is based on your new higher principle amount. REITs can pay anywhere from 2 ½ to 30% or more. Be careful of the higher paying ones as they can be more volatile, causing the price fluctuations to go from hot to cold on a moments notice. Look for more established REITs with proven track records and more stabilized returns. This passive income can pay you regularly and you don't even have to lift a finger.

CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM

 

Crowdfunding is all the latest rage and Real Estate is a great place to take advantage of it. With a crowdfunding platform – you get a chance to invest in projects that investors are putting together. You get to participate in the deal by becoming a money partner. They layout the plan on the website and you have a chance to review it. They will give you all the specs such as what they are going to build – how much its going to cost – how long they are going to take to complete it – what they expect to sell it for and what kind of income it can generate. You can see if the same investor has done other projects before and if they went over budget or time. Once you feel comfortable with a project that you want to be a part of, you select it and invest in it. Other investors will also be buying shares in the project. Once the project is fully funded, it is closed to new money. I begins the next phase of starting construction or renovations and you can sit back while someone else sweats out all the details. When the project is complete – they sell or refinance the construction and pay you back with interest – usually pretty good interest. These projects can return your money in as little as 3 months or up to a year depending on the size and scope of it. There are several crowdfunding platforms and all them operate slightly differently, but have the same basic objective , which is to invest in real estate deals for a return on your money – all from your own couch. Don't forget though – as an investment , it is subject to risk. The builder may never finish the project or it may go way over budget – this is the nature of investing. The crowdfunding platforms typically screen out the smaller developers and works to ensure that the investment opportunities that they offer are are solid, but that is no guarantee of performance.

BE A LENDER

 
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be“ it's been said – but that only refers to friends and family – when it comes to business – both can be advantageous to you if done correctly. For example – you can be a lender of money and earn interest for it. These days , you can use “Peer-to-peer” lending to earn some extra income with lending increments as low as $25 and you can select the credit rating of those you choose to lend to. In Peer-to-peer lending, you sign up to a website where borrowers are looking for loans – you set the maximum amount that you are willing to lend and set a bid for the interest your willing to take. Borrowers choose you as their lender and before you know it – you've become the bank. Once again – you're binge-watching the Walking Dead, but your money is hard at work for you.

There are also websites like BitConnect or Bit Petite where you can lend Bitcoin and make up to 4.5% a day on your digital currency – In this case , you are lending your crypto currency to a company and they use it to invest to make money for themselves. They pay you back a portion of their earnings - much the way a bank does, but they pay much higher interest rates than any bank. This highly speculative and of course they don't come with the protection of the FDIC so it is entirely possible that you could lose your entire crypto investment and have no recourse – but for those of you have a higher risk tolerance and some extra crypto sitting around, it's yet another option to put it to work.

NON-PERFORMING NOTES

 

I could dedicate a whole article to Non-Performing Notes and I will – but not today. Today I'm going to tell you the basics about non-performing notes and paint a quick picture of the potential rewards and the many exit strategies at your disposal. When we say "note" , we are actually talking about a **_promissory note_** wherein a borrower promises to pay the lender back. As long as they are paying off the note as promised, it's considered a "performing note". A note become "non-performing" when someone fails to pay their mortgage and they are in default. For years the banks have been foreclosing on people who have defaulted on their mortgage payments. This means that they evict the borrowers, take back possession of the property and then have to hire a management company to clean it up and secure it. Then they spend money on marketing so that they can sell the house and pay a commission to a real estate broker to list and sell it.

However, banks are not in the business of owning homes and selling them, they are in the business of lending and lately they are finding out that it can be more trouble than its worth for them to try to go after these assets – so instead of foreclosing on them, it's more expedient for them to simply bundle up the the bad notes and sell them for pennies on the dollar.

Hedge fund managers buy up these bundles and then weed out all the best ones for themselves -by best ones , I mean the most valuable and desirable properties. Then they bundle up the remaining properties and sell those to wholesalers. These wholesaler then sell off individual notes to investors. This is where you come in – you can buy a note a a steeply discounted price and then get the note performing again. You do this by hiring a loan servicing company to reach out to the homeowners and arrange to make a payment plan with you - usually for less than they were supposed to be paying the bank – once you get them to agree to a new monthly payment – they start paying , and you start collecting that mortgage payment every month. After they have been paying on the note for 6 months and you've been collecting that cool income - you can turn around sell that note at a profit to another investor as a ”performing note” ( now that they are paying the mortgage again) If they refuse to make payment arrangements with you – or they stop paying after making an agreement with you – then you can initiate a foreclosure and begin the process of taking possession of the house.

Once completed -you will now be the proud owner of a fully paid for house. At this point, you have
many exit strategies available to you. You can sell the property , rent it out, offer it as lease to buy option, live in it, hold an auction or whatever you see fit to make money out of it. Maybe you turn it into an airBnB, short term rentals for out of town visitors.

Because of all the laws involved with foreclosures, it's best to use a service provider who has the staff and experience to manage the whole process of getting payments and initiating foreclosure paperwork if necessary. This will keep you out of hot water and ensure that you have plenty of time to catch up all those missed episodes of “Son's of Anarchy”.

Stay Calm and Steem On

 

You like blogging or posting pics? Instead of spending time on Facebook doing it for free – maybe it's time to upgrade your game to Steemit and start getting paid for your posts. After all - your already here right? So get more active in it. Learn the ins and outs of how to maximize your time one the website. Learn to create quality posts. Spend time learning how to build a following and vote as often as you can without diminishing your voting power. The great thing is that there are so many ways that you can generate income with Steemit.

You can skip writing articles altogether and simply upvote for other people's content which they call “ curating”. After the author gets paid – everyone who helped to curate their content will also be rewarded – vote often enough and you could have a steady supply of income filling up your coffers over time.You can also get paid for making comments – got some thing useful to add to the conversation? Speak up and if you're comment gets upvoted then you can get paid for that too.

Keep in mind that you will be getting paid in cyrpto currency called "Steem" – however, it is easily converted back to real US dollars that you can spend at your favorite Apple store. Currently, one Steem dollar is worth about $1.06 and there are many videos and tutorials about how to use Steemit to earn money in your free time.

In Conclusion

So as you can see , there are many ways that you can make some extra cash in your spare time. Of course all of these are investments of time or money and involve some degree of risk, but if your willing to make some small sacrifices, the potential rewards could outweigh the risks and are certainly more likely to give you a bigger return than if you spent it at Starbucks. Just remember to never invest more than you can afford to lose and don't borrow money to invest in these things. Take a look at your budget and ask yourself if you can't let go of a few costly habits so you can afford to invest. Maybe a few less fast food trips, scale back on going out drinking a few times month, stop renting so many movies - whatever it is - we all have something that we could give up for the opportunity to plant our money in fertile ground.

Once you get into the mindset of putting you money to work for you and using compound interest to exponentially grow your income, you'll start looking for other opportunities to deploy your army of dollars to go out and bring money back to you.

 

---

 

Please be sure to check out my others articles on real estate, investing , and crytocurrency ( and some other random dog stuff)

How a Meetup Group Can Grow Your Real estate Business

Bitcoin Biggest Threat to US Financial System

House Flip: Kitchen Remodel is Happening

House Flip is a Disaster