Passive Income: 4 Ways To Make $100 Per Day

Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t love to earn an extra hundred dollars a day in passive income? 

The dream for most people when it comes to: 

• personal finance, 
• building wealth, 
• and making money 

is pretty straightforward: earning enough passive income to enjoy your days without financial worries, knowing that money is continuously flowing into your account, even while you sleep. 

However, there’s a catch. 

Every time I watch a YouTube video or read an article about making passive income or low-effort side hustles, I often think, 

Are people really doing this?

Sure, the idea of writing an ebook that makes you a thousand dollars a day sounds great, but it’s not something most of us can start working on immediately. 

So, let’s get real. 

Now before we start, this is Ivan here from the Vanilla Investor, a former investment analyst and with over $100k invested in the markets. 

My goal is to bring you simple finance at your fingertips. 

We’re going to talk about 4 practical ways to make a hundred dollars a day in passive income that you can actually start working on today.

The first one would be dividends, which is the closest thing to passive income I can think of, followed by:

2) REITs
3) Index Funds

And finally, just your plain old savings. 

So by the end of it, you should have at least one (or maybe more) income source that is bringing in dollar bills for you passively once you are done setting it up. 

While some people claim that passive income is a myth, saying it’s impossible or doesn’t exist. 

From my own experience, I can assure you that passive income is real. 

However, it’s not what you might think. 

You can’t get something for nothing, despite what scammers might want you to believe. 

True passive income requires effort upfront. 

It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it will take some work to set up. 

The key is to leverage your time and resources today so that you can continue to earn money in the future, even when you’re not actively working. 

It’s about working smarter, not harder. 

By investing your time and resources wisely now, you can build a stream of income that grows over time. 

Yes, it’s possible to reach a point where you’re making a hundred dollars a day in passive income, but it won’t happen overnight. 

It involves strategies that may require initial work, like: 

• creating content, 
• building a business, 
• or investing in assets that generate returns. 

And here’s the thing: everything I recommend here, I’ve tried myself.

I’m running my YouTube channel and working a full-time 9-5 job, and I still use these methods to generate passive income. 

If I can do it with a busy schedule, so can you. 

Just remember, you need to put in the time and effort upfront, and don’t expect instant results. 

If something promises quick money with no effort, it’s probably a scam. 

Real passive income takes time and consistency. 

Set your expectations right from the start, be ready to put in the work, and you’ll be on your way to financial success.

#1: Dividends

When you buy a stock, you're essentially buying a tiny piece of ownership in that company. 

This doesn’t mean you can walk into a place like Starbucks and claim ownership just because you own one share, but it does mean you're entitled to a portion of the company's profits. 

Many companies share a part of their earnings with shareholders through dividends. 

Take Starbucks, for instance. 

They pay a 2.79% dividend annually. 

So, if you invest $100, you'll earn $2.79 every year in passive income from that investment. 

However, to make $100 a day purely from dividends at this rate, you’d need to invest around $1.3 million in Starbucks stock, which isn't practical for most of us. 

But don’t worry, some companies offer higher dividend yields, meaning you could make the same $100 a day with a smaller investment. 

For example, Chevron offers a 4.1% dividend, AT&T pays around 6.2%, and Coca-Cola pays about 3%. 

If you choose high-dividend stocks, you might only need about $590,000 invested to reach that $100-a-day goal. 

I know it sounds funny to say you have “just” $590,000 lying around. 

However, patience and consistent investing can get you there. 

With our AT&T example, if you start with nothing and invest just $15 a day while reinvesting all the dividends, you could reach $100 a day from dividends within about 30 years. 

And this doesn't even take into account potential stock price increases or dividend hikes, which could speed up your progress. 

Think of it as the cost of a daily Subway sandwich. 

However, not all dividend stocks are created equal. 

Just because a stock offers a high dividend doesn't mean it's a good investment. 

For instance, Cisco Systems offers a 3.5% dividend, but its stock price has dropped by 16% over the last five years. 

Compare that to: 

• Nvidia, which surged by 3200%, 
• Tesla, which rose by 1000%, 
• or Walmart, which increased by 84% and also pays a dividend. 

The key is to choose dividend stocks wisely, focusing on companies with strong growth prospects and solid fundamentals, not just those with high dividends. 

To help you get started with dividend investing, you might want to try the stock research app, Seeking Alpha. 

They’re offering a 20% discount off your premium membership if you sign up here. 

Seeking Alpha is a great choice because they offer in-depth analysis with 24/7 coverage on your favorite dividend stocks. 

So if you are looking to uncover hidden gems that you might have otherwise missed, check it out here for 20% off today!

#2: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

In simple terms, buying into a REIT means you're investing in a company that owns and operates real estate. 

These companies pay you back a portion of their profits in the form of dividends. 

It’s like owning a piece of the real estate market without actually having to buy property yourself. 

REITs can focus on various types of properties such as:

• medical buildings, 
• shopping centers, 
• senior care facilities, 
• or residential apartments. 

So, you can kind of say you own part of a shopping center without having to deal with all the hassle that comes with it. 

This makes REITs a great option for anyone who wants to dip their toes into real estate investing but doesn’t want to deal with the complexities of buying and managing a property. 

Imagine not having to find the right deal, go through inspections, come up with all the upfront money, or deal with tenants calling you in the middle of the night about a broken toilet. 

Some examples of REITs are Realty Income Corporation, which owns over 6,500 properties. 

Or National Health Investors, which pays a 6.1% dividend and focuses on senior living and medical buildings. 

There’s also VNQ, which tracks a variety of real estate investments all in one index fund. 

The downside of REITs is that you don’t get to leverage your investment like you would with physical real estate, and you miss out on some tax benefits that come with owning property directly. 

However, the big advantage is accessibility — anyone can invest in REITs with any amount of money, without having to handle all the legwork themselves, even if you don’t have a perfect credit score. 

If your goal is to make $100 a day in passive income, adding REITs to your investment portfolio might be a smart move to consider. 

It’s a relatively simple and low-effort way to get involved in the real estate market. 

Real quick, if you like what I am covering so far, then you might like my completely free newsletter where I also talk about investing and personal finance tips like this one. 

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#3: Index Funds

And, of course, we can’t talk about passive income without mentioning the ultimate method: investing in index funds. 

This is probably the easiest way to start generating passive income with minimal effort. 

I’ve covered this before, but let’s break down how you can scale this up to make $100 a day. 

An index fund is essentially a collection of various stocks that you can purchase all at once for a low price.

It offers excellent diversification and gives you exposure to a broad segment of the stock market. 

To get started, you just need to invest in something like a total stock market index fund, such as the one from Vanguard (like VTSAX). 

And that’s it – once you buy into the fund, you’re done. 

You don’t need to manage it actively. 

Then, there’s something called the "4% rule." 

This rule suggests that you can withdraw 4% of your invested money each year for the rest of your life without depleting your funds. 

So, if you have $100,000 invested in an index fund, you can safely withdraw $4,000 annually as passive income without running out of money. 

This is as hands-off as passive income gets – you just invest and then sit back. 

To reach $100 a day through index funds using the 4% rule, you would need to have about $912,500 invested. 

Now, this isn't an overnight achievement. 

However, index funds historically return about 8% per year, adjusted for inflation. 

By investing consistently, such as $500 a month, you can gradually build up to that amount over time, roughly over 30 years. 

I understand this might not be the quick solution many people hope for, but true passive income often requires time and patience. 

It’s not something that happens instantly or even within a few years. 

It’s about making steady progress over the long haul. 

If you’re looking for a completely hands-off method to make $100 a day, investing in index funds and sticking to a long-term plan is a solid, sustainable way to achieve that goal.

#4: Saving The Difference

Thankfully though, if you don’t like to wait, there’s a practical way to boost your savings and effectively make an extra $100 a day without any gimmicks: by cutting back on your current expenses. 

According to the consumer expenditure survey, the average household spends over $60,000 a year, and a significant chunk of that, about $18,000, goes to non-essential items. 

This means that if you go through your budget and trim down unnecessary spending, you could potentially save an extra $1,500 a month. 

That’s like finding an extra $30 a day that you can put towards other uses or investments. 

In a way, saving money is almost like earning passive income. 

By cutting out these extra costs, you're essentially freeing up money that can be reinvested or saved. 

This can speed up your journey to making $100 a day in passive income faster than you might think. 

To start, just take a look at your budget today and see where you can cut back. 

The key to realistically making $100 a day in passive income is to not rely on just one method but to use a mix of strategies that I mentioned previously. 

Don’t make it overly complicated—stick to the basics, and over time, you’ll see progress. 

Now I know what you are thinking, some of you might not be consistently tracking your spending, or you might not even have a budget yet. 

If that’s you, then read this article here on how I manage my money with the 50/30/20 rule and you can use that as a guideline for your own.

Thank you for reading, cheers!

- Ivan