Become Financially Independent Without a Job | 9 Proven Ways

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Becoming financially independent without having a job is not easy, but it is certainly possible. 

The purpose of this article is to give you nine proven methods in which you can achieve financial independence without working a typical 9-5 job. 

But before getting into each way this can be done, it’s important to note that even though you might not need a job, you’ll still have to work hard.

So without further ado, let’s get started. 

If it was easy work, everyone with or without a job would be financially independent, which as we know, is not the case.

Here are 9 proven ways in which you can become financially independent without a job.

Invest in Real Estate

One of the most popular ways financially independent people achieved this status without having a job is through real estate investments. 

Upfront capital will be required in order to invest in real estate, so you’re going to have to work for that. But once you grow your real estate portfolio to a certain level, it can provide you with monthly income until the day you die.

Now there are many types of real estate investments you can make such as residential, commercial, industrial and retail – to name a few.

But starting out, investing in residential real estate is probably the way to go.

Buy a house, rent it out for more than the mortgage costs you and then earn the difference – each and every month.

Once you have the property paid off, then you’ll really start to see the cash flow roll in. 

Why? Because you no longer have to pay the mortgage, so whatever you charge for rent each month is what you’ll make in profit (excluding maintenance costs) every.single month. 

Again, investing in real estate does have upfront costs that a lot of the other examples will talk about later won’t, but it also has the greatest upside in terms of predictable income.

Start a Blog and Write Evergreen Content

Starting a blog is a great way to become financially independent without having to hold down a 9-5 job.

Take it from me, running a blog requires work, but you can make a ton of money with a blog without having to work 40 hours a week.

Not only that, but if you write evergreen content, once your blog gets established and has authority, well then you’ll have your articles generating traffic organically for years and years – without you have to do anything – hence the word organic!

That’s why I included evergreen content in this method, because running a blog that writes content on topics that change every year such as “10 best iPhones of the year” is going to require a lot of work to keep updated.

But with content that will never change such as “ when did Michael Jordan retire from the NBA”, well that answer is never going to change. If you write a great article about this topic, you could organically generate traffic and earn money from this article for years and years.

If you do decide to go down this route, I’d recommend Bluehost as your web hosting provider. I host all my websites on Bluehost and have had nothing but a great experience.

Once you have evergreen content that ranks well on big search engines like Google and Bing, then all you need to do is monetize that content with things like ads and affiliates and you’ll get cheques every month from articles you wrote years ago.

Creating quality, evergreen content is the key here. 

For a step by step guide on how to start a blog, check out my article Start a Blog in 3 Easy Steps | Step by Step Guide (2022) This article will give you a detailed, step by step guide on how to about getting a blog setup. It’s the exact same method I use for setting up the current blog you are reading, and again – it’s really inexpensive. The web-hosting platform I recommend is less than $5 per month.

Invest In Dividend Paying Stocks

Another great way to become financially independent without having a job is to amass a large, dividend investment portfolio that consistently pays you every month or quarter.

Building up this portfolio will take time, so you’ll have to work hard and you’ll have to be patient, but this is something you can start today.

I recommend using an online brokerage called Questrade if you plan to start investing in these types of stocks, my recommendation article here explains why I love Questrade and use them myself (Only Available for Canadians).

I would say that anywhere from 4%-6% annually (and that’s high) is considered to be a good dividend payout, so if you do the math on that, it’s not hard to see that you’ll need a large amount invested to make a dividend-income that’ll sustain you financially. 

But if you do get to this level, you are laughing. 

Talk about passive income, you don’t have to do anything else! You literally just sit back and collect cheques from the companies you’ve invested in.

Some common, well known dividend paying stocks that I personally invest in (as proven below) include Exxon Mobil, AT&T and Scotiabank, just to name a few.

Again, I will leave a link here to my recommendation page on Questrade if you want to learn more about them.

Become an Online Influencer

Have you ever considered trying to become an online influencer in order to become financially independent?

Similar to a lot of these methods, being an influencer takes work, but it certainly isn’t a job where you’ll have to be at a desk for 9am sharp.

And when I say online influencer, I’m not talking about becoming an Instagram model, while that’s an option, there are many other ways you can become an influencer online.

You can start a Youtube channel (will talk about that later), start a Facebook page, start a blog, start a Snapchat account if that’s your thing!

It really doesn’t matter what medium you use to get attention, use Myspace if that’s where your audience is. Okay maybe not Myspace, too far.

Point being, different industries will have their viewers consume content in different ways.

So whatever topic or industry you decide to become an influencer in, create content on a platform where your potential viewers spend the most time.

Once you gain an audience and generate a following, then it’s time to monetize your influence through things like public speaking, paid promotions, affiliate marketing and online courses – to mention a few.

Also I should mention, I am not above following attractive models on Instagram, but just know there are other ways to become an influencer!

Start a Online Subscription Business

Of all the options I talk about in this article, starting an online subscription business will probably require the most work to maintain. 

But as someone who works for an online subscription business, I know first hand how powerful (and amazing) recurring revenue can be.

Once you get a customer, you can generate monthly revenue from them for a long long time – as long you continue to deliver on your product or service.

When your business grows to a certain level, you may need to hire employees to manage your subscriptions, but hopefully by then you’re making enough money each month that hiring someone to do this is just a drop in the bucket for you.

Online Subscription Business Ideas

• Beauty Products – Example – BirchBox
• Sports Accessories – Idea – Hockey Tape
• Apps – Example – Spotify
• Pet Products – Idea – Poop Bags

Again, what I love about subscription based business is the recurring revenue aspect of them.

For anyone looking to become financially independent without having to rely on a 9-5 job, predictable income streams are what they want. 

Online subscription businesses offer exactly this. Predictable, scalable revenue.

But again, as mentioned above, it takes hard work. So roll up those sleeves and get after it.

Start a Successful Youtube Channel

Starting a successful Youtube channel is another great way to become financially independent without having to hold down a job.

Obviously the key word here is successful, people don’t just start a Youtube channel and make millions the next day. It would be nice though wouldn’t it.

With that said, you’d be shocked at how many “Youtubers” there are in the world today. A Youtuber is basically just someone who makes a full time income from their Youtube vidoes.

Forbes states here that Youtubers make around $5 per 1000 views, which on a surface level might not seem like a lot, but it’s not uncommon for videos on Youtube to have millions and millions of views – so if you do the math, there is certainly money to be mad.

Additionally, similar to writing a blog, making evergreen Youtube videos is the way to go – in my opinion.

You could make a video today that earns you money ten years from now while you sit on the beach sipping piña coladas.

Create Products and License Them to Bigger Companies

Now similar to another example I give later in this article, I don’t have experience with this.

I have never created my own product and licensed it out to another company, let’s just get that out of the way first.

But, just because I haven’t done it myself, doesn’t mean I don’t know that it is a great way to become financially independent without carrying out a job.

In short, develop a kick ass product that is better than the competition, patent it and then license it out to a large company. 

These companies will take on all the risk from there. They’ll manufacture it, distribute it, and they’ll pay you a small license fee for every unit sold in perpetuity. 

I’m not an expert in this at all, so I’ve included a few links here below on how you can get product licensing deals. If you’re interested in this idea as a means to become financially independent (without having a real job), then I’d considered reading them.

• 10 Tips for Landing a Product Licensing Deal – Startupnation.com

• 15 Steps for Licensing Your Product or Service to Another Company – Smallbiztrends.com

• How to License Your Invention to a Manufacturer for Royalties – Toughnickey.com

And again, I want to reiterate that I have no experience doing this myself, but I also have no experience playing in the  NFL, but I still know it pays really well. 

If you’re anything like Kevin O’leary from ABC’s Shark Tank, you’ll love a good royalty check! 

Check out this video here where he talks about licenses and royalties. 

Inherit a Large Sum of Money

Another way to become financially independent without having a job is to inherit a large sum of money.

Now you might be mad at me for even including this method, obviously the ability to inherit a large sum of money is somewhat out of your control – but if you do get a large inheritance, what you do with this inheritance is within your control.

If I received a large inheritance and I didn’t want to “work” another day in my life, I would likely invest this money in the stock market.

As discussed earlier, dividend generating stocks are a great way to earn passive income. You really don’t have to do a whole lot. But what you do need is invested capital.

So that’s why a lot of people won’t choose this method, they don’t want to wait 30 years to save up enough money to be financially independent from their investments. 

But if you inherit a large sum of money, you don’t have to work, save and invest, just skip to the investing part and start generating passive income instantly! Lucky you.

With all that said, I’d definitely recommend talking to an expert before putting your money anywhere.

I know what I know and I know what I don’t, how to invest a large amount of money from an inheritance is one thing I can ‘t say I’m familiar with.

But I do know that a lot of money which is invested properly can create a world of financial independence.

Start a Vending Machine Business

Now you might have looked at this heading and wondered, “wtf is this guy talking about.” But hear me out.

Starting a successful vending machine business is one of the most underrated ways someone can become financially independent without having a job.

Of course, like everything, it’ll take a little upfront work and capital to buy your first machine and figure out how the industry works. But once you have things running like a well oiled machine, you’ll make a ton of money.

Similar to inventing and licensing a product, I’ve never done this myself, but I know people who have, and my gosh, it seems too good to be true.

You buy a vending machine, negotiate a deal with a building owner to put your machine on their property, fill the machine up with whatever you fancy, make a killing, rinse and repeat.

Check on online marketplaces like Craigslist or Kijiji for used vending machines to buy.

Quick Tip #2

As just mentioned, I haven’t started a vending machine business myself, so I won’t act like I have, but I did read this great article (by JustBusiness.com) – How to Start a Vending Machine Business: Cost, Tips, Pros and Cons. 

So if this is an option you are considering, I’d highly recommend the read.

Similar to a subscription based business, once you have a lot of vending machines and you’re making enough money, you’ll be able to hire someone to refill and maintain the machines while you watch Netflix and drink beer for the rest of your life – all while collecting huge cheques every month.

Not bad if you ask me!

Conclusion

So that’s it. To recap, here are 9 proven ways you can become financially independent without having a job.

1. Invest in Real Estate
2. Start a Blog and Write Evergreen Content
3. Invest In Dividend Paying Stocks
4. Become an Online Influencer
5. Start a Online Subscription Business
6. Start a Successful Youtube Channel
7. Create Products and License Them to Bigger Companies
8. Inherit a Large Sum of Money
9. Start a Vending Machine Business

I usually try to come up with a clever conclusion or ending to all my articles, but I’ve been struggling with this one for too long, so I think it’s time to move on.

Thanks for reading,

Geek, out.