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Ask HN: What is a good side income for retirement?

3 points by daxfohl ↗ HN
45 now and it's hitting me I'm 10 years from a plausible retirement age. I have a cushion of stocks but would like something a bit more income generating. Doesn't have to be a unicorn, doesn't have to be software. Just something to generate a reasonable amount of moderately-passive income so I'm more comfortable retiring at 55.

My wife wants us to go into real estate, but for whatever reason it doesn't appeal to me. It seems debt-funded and one bad renter or contractor can blow through your earnings. Is there anything else anyone here has had positive experiences with?

3 comments

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smt88
Your question can't really be answered the way you want it to be. Anything that generates more income than stocks is also going to be riskier. If any of us knew a way to beat that law of investments (i.e. knew of an arbitrage opportunity), it would be immediately negated when we posted it here.

Real estate is generally a bad investment vehicle. You may want to look into self-storage franchising instead. It's almost zero work and (at least a few years ago) had fantastic ROI.

Definitely don't put your money into any kind of startup.

daxfohl
True, but I guess I am not asking about a direct competitor with stocks. Something that can be worked on and built up over ten years (requires more upfront than stocks), something that I'd be willing to spend some time working on after retirement (not entirely passive). There should be something that given a bit of elbow grease and time can provide a better return than a passive market investment.
smt88
It just depends on asymmetry.

If you started buying antique boats and fixing them up, you'd definitely lose money. But a lifelong shipbuilder might have a huge ROI.

So if you're trying to find the most sure-fire, low-effort income, I'd suggest something within the career you've already made for yourself.

For example, I know a guy who does consulting just building web APIs. That's it. It's not the most technical niche, but it's enough that he gets $150/hr on Upwork and actually saves people money in the longrun by being good at his work.