You don’t have to work a traditional job to make money; in fact, you don’t have to work at all. While employment with a paycheck, also called active income, is the traditional method of earning a living, passive income is another overlooked revenue stream.
Passive income is the opposite of active income. You’re already earning passive income if you collect rent for a property or earn interest on a stock portfolio. Hopefully, you’ve come to this article to learn about passive income books that can show you how to make more money through passive income.
Why Should You Earn Passive Income?
Even if you enjoy your day job, wouldn’t you like to have a stream of cash to put away for unexpected expenses or to invest for your future? Passive income offers the opportunity for financial stability or to have extra money on hand for fun activities with the knowledge that you don’t need to borrow to experience new things.
Instead, you can escape the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and get ahead of your bills and expenses. Many people don’t experience financial freedom even with a well-paying job, but passive income can allow you a moment to breathe when you’re relaxing at home.
How to Start Earning Passive Income?
Educating yourself is the first and most crucial step to start earning passive income. Learn the lingo so you can understand the industry because what better way to earn income without working than learn from those who have done it themselves?
Next, take steps to identify and manage your income before earning so that you can move it smoothly to the right place when the money comes in.
Then, ensure you become and stay resourceful. Passive income comes from many different sources, so don’t discount an avenue unless you have a reason. Keep an open mind and surround yourself with people you trust.
Lastly, read more passive income books. Many investors are making millions (even billions) and have written books to share their knowledge about investing and creating multiple income streams.
Many passive income books available today, online or in physical print, are not necessarily a step-by-step guide but more of a self-help book. Those stories look to get your mind moving, change how you look at your financial status, and give you tools to start earning passive income.
Seven Books on Passive Income You’d Wish You Read Earlier
There are many ways to earn money out in the world if you know where to look.
The teachings from these books come from writers who are successful in earning passive income and offer advice and encouragement to readers who cannot seem to get out of the day-to-day grind of traditional income.
If you want another income stream, get ahead of the game and add these passive income books to your reading list!
1. Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is the first book of the Rich Dad series, and the 20th-anniversary edition includes even more insights and information as the author revises his earlier opinions.
Regularly placed in the top 10 personal finance book lists, Robert Kiyosaki tells readers how he grew up with two types of dads. His biological dad was “poor,” and his best friend’s father was his “rich” dad, but both taught him important life lessons.
Through this story and highlighting his mistakes and triumphs, he gives the readers tools to use on their financial journey to understand wealth and financial freedom. Kiyosaki also breaks down the difference between passive and active income, managing multiple income streams, how each can play a role in your financial success, and how to teach your children about money.
About the Author
Robert Kiyosaki is a businessman and a motivational speaker.
As of 2022, Kiyosaki has an estimated net worth of $85 million. Most of his career focuses on educating others on investing and providing financial advice. He has written multiple books, including the Rich Dad series, to share his story with others in hopes of giving them a new perspective on money.
While his books are not a step-by-step guide on becoming a millionaire, it is a great motivational tool to get a reader’s mind interested in financial literacy and investments.
2. 4-Hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss wrote this self-help book to break the traditional mindset that working full-time means at least an 8-hour work day. He provides readers with a new flexible idea and the tools to better optimize their productivity without overworking themselves.
According to the author, creating passive income by building their own business is the key; the rest is sitting back and collecting that income.
Ferriss utilizes the acronym DEAL, a 4-step method for earning passive income and living financially free.
DEAL stands:
- D is the definition (which is the most substantial part of the book)
- E is the elimination
- A is automation
- L is liberation
While many personal finance books are about the author’s story, this book provides practical tips and case studies to back his teachings and help readers apply them to their own lives.
Some of these practical tips include letter templates for readers to use for real-life scenarios in the work environment; just enter your information. 4-Hour Work Week is not a step-by-step guide on how to make $1 million, but it is a guide on how to live like a millionaire while earning it.
About the Author
Timothy Ferriss is a Princeton graduate known for his range of “4-hour” self-help books. Currently estimated to have a net worth of $100 million, he has written several books on mentoring others to improve their quality of life and challenge the status quo.
Outside of publishing, Ferriss is known as an “Angel Investor” and has invested or advised in multiple startup companies. One is Shopify, an eCommerce platform, and another is TaskRabbit, a freelance smartphone app that matches people with work to earn extra money.
His podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, regularly releases new episodes and continues to promote self-help advice for earning passive income.
3. The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau
For people looking to start a business on the cheap, “The $100 Startup” is a New York Times Best Seller giving readers six steps to launch a business for under $100.
Guillebeau encourages readers to follow in his footsteps, to break free from the active income that keeps them from living their life and following their passions, such as traveling to over 175 different nations.
This book is not a blueprint for success. It’s less focused on the technical aspects of financial literacy and instead promotes a vision of utilizing your passions to create or invest in a market that interests you.
Interest, he believes, is the key to longevity. In addition, he does an excellent job inspiring others to create passive income for themselves through his experiences.
About the Author
Chris Guillebeau is an author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker with an estimated net worth of $3 million that has never worked a “regular job.” He has written and published multiple self-help and self-motivating books to encourage others to become self-employed and earn passive income.
He organizes the annual World Domination Summit, a convention centered around adventure, community, and service.
4. Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement – Rachel Richards
“Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement” does what it says on the cover. Rachel Richards exposes the traditional setup of retirement, why it doesn’t work for everyone, and her way of reaching it faster while gaining financial independence.
Richard’s book serves as more of a motivational book, aimed to get our minds thinking outside the box and about multiple income streams instead of working until a set age and then retiring.
This book doesn’t tell readers precisely what to do. Richards doesn’t give you an action plan. Instead, she breaks down the different types of passive income and explains how to find the ones that will fit you and your lifestyle best.
She does an excellent job educating readers on the many levels of passive income and explaining how to gain financial independence and freedom.
About the Author
Rachel Richards is a former financial adviser who quit her job and retired at 27, later featured on CNN and interviewed for Business Insider.
Unlike other authors on this list, she doesn’t have an immense net worth making her suggestions feel more attainable. Instead, she lives off $15,000 per month in passive income, primarily through real estate.
Instead of, or as a supplement to her books, Richards also has an online course that educates others on understanding their expenses and income, offering different ways to earn passive income so they can work less.
5. The Unemployed Millionaire – Matt Morris
“The Unemployed Millionaire” breaks readers out of the mindset that making money takes money. The author, Matt Morris, gets personal with his audience and shares that previously, he was in deep debt and living out of his car.
Morris was able to turn his life around and become a self-made millionaire. While his book offers a step-by-step plan, the principles and strategies he discovered are the most significant takeaways. The author made a six-figure salary at 24 and reached $1 million at 29.
About the Author
Matt Morris is an author, motivational speaker, CEO, and mentor to entrepreneurs with an estimated net worth of about $14 million.
Morris has a large following on social media, where he posts inspirational messages aimed at earning more income. He bases his message on not succumbing to circumstance. Despite being homeless, he continued to push forward and ultimately reinvented himself.
6: The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason
While “The Richest Man in Babylon” isn’t directly about the idea of passive income, it is a valuable book to have in conjunction with others because of its advice on handling your finances.
This book of 4,000 economic parables is about a wealthy man recognized by some childhood friends who question his wealth. The book tells readers a list of principles to live by to build their wealth and how to manage it responsibly.
One of the most essential takeaways from this book is how Clason begins by teaching people currently in a traditional job setting how to control their spending. Knowing how to do this helps you to manage spending with multiple income streams.
While the book may seem a little old-fashioned, and its older setting is not for everyone, it provides scenarios with profound teachings for people who want to learn the fundamentals of money management and learn more about starting and managing passive income.
About the Author
George S. Clason was an American writer (1874 – 1957) who wrote pamphlets and articles about money management and being thrifty. “The Richest Man in Babylon” is his best-known book.
- Fire Your Boss – Jonathan Green
Leaving their traditional job is a common wish for readers looking into passive income, and “Fire Your Boss” provides an action plan to do just that.
Green includes sixteen different business models in his book that range in cost to start up and that work together, all while exploring the common mistakes new entrepreneurs make.
However, this isn’t a book about startups. While Green emphasizes earning multiple streams of passive income, he also talks about finding your value in the right company and staying employed even if you have to fire your old boss to do so.
About the Author
Jonathan Green is an author of the “ServeNoMaster” book and internet series, including a weekly podcast of the same name, with an approximate net worth of $17 million. Since 2010, he’s been educating others about financial freedom and moving away from what he calls the “cubicle farm.”
Conclusion
This list of passive income books is a great introduction to other income streams that are available if you know where to look. A key takeaway for readers of all these stories of financial freedom is what works for one person won’t work for everyone. Choose how to get there based on your lifestyle and financial capabilities.
You have plenty of options if you’re looking to get your mind moving and finally start earning. Reading one or two of these books will help you get familiar with the terminology and expose the reality of common money management mistakes.
