Most of us will work in order to make money. This is the traditional way to make money, but there are some people that seem have an income but do not actually work. How do they do it and is it something that everyone can do?
Interest
One way that many people make some extra money is by getting interest on their savings. This used to be a good way of getting quite a bit of money when interest rates were high. Now though, the rates are low and many accounts pay less than one percent in interest on savings. This means that most people are not able to make a significant amount of money, perhaps even less than inflation. There are some savings accounts that pay higher rates. These are ones that do pay more, but you will have to toe the money up for a year or more or give notice on the account when you want to make a withdrawal. So although these accounts will make you some money without you having to work, it is not a significant amount.
Investments
Investments will often give a better return than savings and so some people choose to have these instead. However, investments are very different to savings and carry an element of risk. You will have to therefore think carefully about having one. Basically an investment is where you buy something and hope that it increases in value before you are ready to share it. You can use a fund manager to decide on what is purchased but you will have to pay them a percentage of the returns for doing this. The risk with an investment is that the money that you invest could all be lost as the item that you purchase with it could potentially become valueless. This is rare but it is very possible that your investment could go down in value. People tend to hold onto investments for a long time in order to try to prevent this from happening and so this could be something that you will need to consider doing and therefore make sure that the money you invest you ca afford to be without for at least a decade.
Stock Market
The stock market is a form of investment and so the same risks apply as do to other investments. However, it is something that many people treat differently. Some people buy shares in a specific company and this can include the company that they work for. These can be great as you may be sold them at a low price or given some free shares along with ones that you buy. These are much lower in risk as you have paid so much less for them that if the value does go down, you will still be able to make back more money than you paid out, at least in most cases anyway.
Property Rental
There are many people that do not trust the stock market that much and therefore have decided to put their money into property instead. This means that there are not a lot of landlords who own just their own home and another house that they rent out. Some buy the houses out right; others have a mortgage which they pay with the rental income that they make. Doing this can be a good way of making money as you get monthly income from the renter. However, there are many things that you have to pay out on a home such as a letting agent, repairs and decoration, annual checks, credit checks and tax on your income. You will also have to pay capital gains tax on the property of you sell it.
Business Investment
Some people choose to invest in businesses because they feel that this is a better and safer place to put their money. If it is a business that you are familiar with, perhaps a friends small business or a larger company that you know a lot about then this could lower the risk as you will have an idea of how well it will do. Some people choose to fun business through peer to peer lending, this is where you loan a business some money and they pay you back with interest. There are different companies that you can go through to do this and the loans are assessed with regards to risk and so you can decide which might be the best option for you depending on how much risk you are prepared to take.
