I can’t talk about saving money without talking about making it. And although I was never very driven to make beaucoup bucks, you need it to live. So when my 9-5 conflicted with the needs of my family (& sanity), my eyes were opened to a ton of passive income streams that could actually work for moms with circumstances like mine.

imagine this: making money with little to no work

Unbelievable, right? Sounds too good to be true, and I can’t tell you it’s easy. But I CAN tell you it’s amazing & possible. The biggest issue is having the motivation to make it happen.

And nothing is quite as motivating as being broke and having little to no time to make money.

When my baby was born, I was the breadwinner. I worked while leaking amniotic fluid, and went back to work exactly 12 weeks later. It SUCKED.

I wasn’t there because I wanted to be, I was there because my job was in jeopardy if I took even one extra day off and my husband decided to be a stay-at-home dad. And thanks to some ass-backward company policies, all of my vacation time was drained as soon as FMLA kicked in. I was paid for it, sure, but that’s not the point.

I needed more time to adjust, and a little flexibility from the 9-5 would’ve been great. This struggle sent me into a whirlwind of questionable career choices which ultimately made me even more miserable. So I quit. I quit my cushy corporate gig and traded it for fierce(r) frugality, freelance side hustles, and sweet, irreplaceable baby snuggles.

The benefits blew my mind. The money wasn’t better, and taking care of a baby is hard AF, but I wasn’t distracted in a cube for several hours every day anymore, and I gotta say, it felt good.

My mind was stuck on making money anywhere I could, but with a couple exceptions. No inflexible office hours and no micromanaging. It lit my creativity on fire, and not in a fingerpainting way but in a how do I make this work way, and how can I maximize it as easily as possible.

My recent income streams have been creative, but more importantly they’ve been inspiring. And they’ve introduced me to a world where regular people are making money out of thin air while they SLEEP.

What do you mean “passive income”?

Let’s define this for some clarity. When I say passive income, I mean the opposite of active income.

Active income is money earned for ‘working” in the traditional sense. You trade your time for money or you trade your products/services for money. Either way, you are actively earning it by spending time. When you stop working, you stop earning money.

Hourly wages are cut short when you have to leave early for a doctor’s appointment, and even a salary only compensates you for a typical workload. Leaving early might not affect your paycheck, but there is a cap. A ceiling. The end of the road.

So when I say passive income, I’m talking about money you earn without breaking a sweat or taking time out of your day. True passive income is earned while you’re sleeping, vacationing, relaxing, or trading your time for money somewhere else.

Passive income requires an investment up front, but eventually makes you money without lifting a finger. Think of it as earning on autopilot.

A brief synopsis of investment strategies

For people with money, the easiest way to make passive income is to invest. You use your money to bet on companies, products, property, etc. For lack of a better word: gambling (with more predictable odds).

Ummm ok yeah I’ll pass! <— this is how most people react to that idea.

That’s the sort of stuff that scares normal people away from the idea of passive income. Investing comes with a learning curve, and that’s true for both time AND money.

I’m sure you know this, but all investments are a gamble. Still, normal people don’t want to waste their hard earned money gambling on something they know nothing about. That’s smart and perfectly respectable.

The solution? Learn what the pros know. Because your chances of making the right bets increase when you know what the hell you’re doing. But even the *best* investors still lose from time to time, and that’s the name of the game.

The bigger the risk, the bigger the (potential) reward.

One of my favorite investors in Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, that guy knows his way around money. I’m not saying you should treat his words as gospel, but you owe it to yourself to pick and choose from his lessons.

If you’ve ever looked into creating passive income, you’ve noticed a trend.

Invest, invest, INVEST.

That’s cool, unless you don’t have enough money to really invest in anything. But that word can be misleading.

Money isn’t the only investment tool. Another one is TIME. And we already know that time is worth money. BILLIONS of people trade time for money every. damn. day. When I decided to leave my job, I was trading money for time with my daughter. I forfeited a salary so I could use my time elsewhere.

Then I discovered some awesome, easy options to start dabbling with passive income. But let’s start from the bottom.

You’re familiar with sweetest form of passive income. Money just waiting around set aside FOR YOU, like a trust fund packed with stocks, bonds, and other assets. I like to imagine the things I would have gone for if I didn’t have to worry about money. It’s at least something I want for MY kids.

But acquiring passive income and creating passive income are two different things, and we’re only going to talk about the latter. The trust fund babies of the world have parents/grandparents/relatives who did all this hard work. They made the money and it’s either been sustained through the same way it was created (think of heirs like Paris Hilton who will earn money as long as Hilton Hotels do) or intelligently invested to produce passive income.

And since you won’t be investing your money (yet), you have to invest your time. It might sound daunting, but you need this. Here’s why:

Why you need a passive income stream (or two) ASAP!

I don’t mean to jam this down your throat, but if you read the beginning of this post you get it. Passive income is the perfect income stream for anyone, but I have a soft spot in my heart for working moms because I am one.

Passive income is the BEST way to make money on the side for several reasons. Like:

• you work full-time but need more money

This is probably the most common problem for working moms. Our resources are already drained. Taking an EXTRA job is practically impossible. The solution?

Passive income.

Obviously. That’s what this whole post is about (but I’m sure you realized that by now lol).

I’ve recently realized that my *dream job* doesn’t come with a dream salary, so what’s a mom to do? Grind away at a job that drains me without offering some satisfaction in return?

Hell no! I’m making up for it with passive income streams. Earning an extra cushion takes the pressure off your day job to provide everything. Your 9-5 doesn’t have to be the end-all, be-all for your income.

• to leave the workforce for ANY REASON AT ALL

Whether you want to leave your job to care for a new baby, an aging parent, or yourself, a job shouldn’t be the only way you make money. I researched the damaging effects of leaving work for a baby, and suffice to say I talked myself out of it.

All this talk of lost wage growth is threatening and all, but there are worse things. Like relying on one stream of income and minimizing your potential to make money elsewhere.

• Diversifying your income isn’t just awesome, it’s smart af

We’ve seen what happens to hardworking, loyal employees. They’re kicked to the curb the minute a company touches hot water, or worse.

Some people have an easy time shaking those memories off, but I about a quarter of my finance degree was earned by studying the likes of Enron, Worldcom, and the 2008 Financial Crisis.

When you rely on one or two jobs for all of your income, what’s at stake? your kid’s college fund? your family planning? your house?!

Don’t let it happen to you, because there ain’t no stress like money stress. Passive income is a quiet little money maker ready to help you stay afloat. And the more, the better.

They say the typical millionaire has SEVEN different streams of income. How do you think that’s possible? I promise you they aren’t showing up to 7 different jobs everyday. (hint: they’re mostly passive)

• Not all income was created equally

Different streams of income come at different prices.

Money earned from a traditional job has taxes skimmed right off the top. Sound familiar? That is the cost of doing business. Additionally, unless you live and work in a free market, there are some dozens of roadblocks surrounding employment.

The laws surrounding passive income taxation are out of my wheelhouse, but believe me when I say it’s a better deal! That’s why there’s so much hoopla in the news about dodged taxes, yadda yadda. All I’m saying is, it’s not as sneaky as you might think.

Everyday companies have their own expenses for employing people. Regulations that force employers to offer you insurance if you work over 24 hours a week, for example. It can make your hireability very… fickle.

• A job can be limiting

Employers can’t discriminate for some things but they can discriminate for others, and that is a DRAG. They can discriminate against your education or experience and don’t have to justify it. Sometimes they can even be forced to NOT hire you.

When I worked for the US Military, I would meet with soldiers as they were leaving the service. They came to me for standard out processing, and we’d chat. There were a handful who were separated from service for disability at 19, 20, 24 years old, and they weren’t eligible to work ever again. 

At least, not in the traditional sense.

Losing your ability to work is a terrifying reality, and relying on government programs won’t get you far.

• There are only 24 hours in a day

When you add up momming and working, those 24 hours go FAST. And if you’re only making money from an hourly (or even salaried) gig, you are wasting valuable time. That’s harsh, but let me explain!

No matter how hard you work, you stop earning money when you clock out. And no matter how much you just love being mom, your time is still valuable.

With the right passive income stream(s), you never clock out. Your income isn’t limited to your wage or salary negotiation skills. Need I say more?

• Nothing worth having comes easy

Speaking of time…

You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce

Does that quote inspire or infuriate you?

I would argue that it depends on which side of the bed you woke up on today, but let’s look at the deeper meaning!

Whether Beyonce is raking in passive income or not (she probably definitely is), she is a hustler. She is the Queen of an self-made Empire, and that doesn’t just happen. It definitely wasn’t handed to her. I’m sure there are plenty of women as talented and beautiful or more, but that’s not what creates success.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work.” – Tim Notke” quote=”“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work.” – Tim Notke”]

So if you want to earn money without slaving away at a desk all day, it’s not going to come easy.

• To retire sooner!

Oh retirement… it’s a strange subject to bring up with older generations. So many of them have been counting down the days until their social security benefits kick in, but wait! There’s like, no money, and what’s left is chump change thanks to the rising costs of living.

If you want to retire AT ALL, you need to be saving more and/or creating sustainable income streams.

With enough passive income coming in the door, you can quit your job but keep earning/saving/LIVING. None of this wait till your 80 and THEN go to Europe.

Alright, hopefully I’ve convinced you that you need this, so let me get into how you can make it happen!

The Best Passive Income Ideas for Moms & how to create passive income with no money

Creating passive income without money is no easy feat, but it’s definitely possible! All you need is a little creativity.

My all-time favorite example of making money out of thin air was a story shared in Rich Dad Poor Dad. As kids, the author and his friend noticed some comic books going unused, so they approached the owner and asked if they could have them (for free). Long story short, they set up a comic book library for local kids, paid an older sister to run the joint, and made money without even being there.

See? Creativity. They saw a need, provided a solution at a competitive rate, and hired help. They didn’t need money to start the business, all they invested was their TIME.

Because the only way to make money without spending money is by spending time.

Make sense? The best way to create passive income with no money is to provide a good or service that cost you nothing but upfront time. 

Examples include:

Selling digital art

Some people call them printables or a variation of those words, but the idea is the same across the board: you create the design, and you sell digital copies. 

The only investment is your time & creativity.

In addition to quotes planners, checklists, and even birthday invitations are smart ideas that SELL.

Writing an ebook

Put your words together and package them up in an ebook. It costs nothing to produce, only your time and energy. This one is a bit labor intensive, but Self Publishing School offers some sweet FREE information on how to publish a book in 90 days.

There are a lot of tactics surrounding making it a success, so it’s worth looking into that too. But a properly marketed book can bring in THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A MONTH. Completely passive. If you play your cards right, you can have royalty checks just rolling in for years.

Creating a course

Creating a course is a bit labor intensive, but I guess that’s up for debate. Writing a book might be trickier, but once you have a book creating a course is easy.

You don’t need a blog, or even “influencer” status. You can create and sell a course on Skillshare. There is a $15 monthly fee once the course is up and running, but you can cover that with course sales and you can earn royalties forever.

Skillshare is an amazing online resource for almost everything in the modern age.The instructors cover topics from Adobe Photoshop to Investing in Stocks. You can get a premium account free for two months through my link here.

If you were worried about the skills required to create, sell, market, and really PROFIT from any of these projects, Skillshare is a great place to learn about ALL OF THAT.

Passive income is the smartest side hustle

Seriously. There are so many perks to creating passive income (which I’ll mention again) but not only does it make you sound smarter, it actually makes you smarter.

Just keeping your brain occupied with the prospect of capitalizing on ripe opportunities will make you sharp. I won’t say that requires a sharp personality, but it does require an available one. And people are usually unavailable because they are overwhelmed with things like not having enough money or spending your money on useless things.

The best part has to be the freedom it affords you. You will stress less about earning enough when you are earning without spending your time.

However you decide to pursue it, you can’t go wrong. I mean who can pass up recurring, limitless money?

Without wasting your brainpower wondering what needs to be done to make ends meet/payoff debt/save for something, you will be living life and finding MORE OPPORTUNITIES. Because you can’t cash in on a good deal if your preoccupied and/or broke.

I strongly believe that moms can benefit more than anyone, because our most valuable commodity is time. Time with our babies, time with our families, time living life.