Here are some of the ways that other people generate residual income. Some of these might require some attention, but if there is enough income, you can pay for someone to manage it for you, as in the first example.
Income Producing Real Estate - Buy an apartment building, put management in place, and have the cash flow deposited into your account. This is a classic form of residual income. Just be sure there is going to be enough income to cover the management fees too. This is getting harder to find in may areas, but it is crucial. Otherwise, you lose money or manage it yourself, in which case, instead of investment income, you just bought yourself another job.
Invent Things - Not an easy field to get into, but this could be a fun one. Inventors often license their inventions to companies, which means that as long as they keep selling, the originator has a stream of royalty fees coming in.
Write A Book - Traditionally, authors get about 5% of the retail price of a book. Some authors are still collecting checks from books they wrote 50 years ago. Set up a web site and sell e-books, and you can keep 90% of each sale. Nothing to ship, and if you have a processor handle the orders (that's where most of that other 10% goes), you won't have to do much more than answer an occasional e-mail.
Make Music - Musicians get royalties as long as people still want to hear their songs. Song writers do as well.
Insurance Sales - Sell a policy once, and you normally get a commission every year that the person renews. Some insurance agents retire young with a healthy stream of residual income.
Other Investments - Dividends can be considered residual income. So can income-producing stock and bond funds. If the value of the underlying investment rises, the dividend may rise too, meaning you may eventually be getting very high returns for your initial investment.
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This is a great way to make money today.
