This is not what people mean by passive income. Yeah, if you have a few million dollars of capital already you can easily just toss it in the market and collect 4% every year indefinitely. Pretty much one of the only truly passive income streams there is.

The problem is how long and what you have to do to get that 3-5 million number. No one who is drawn to the “passive income” hustle is thinking “work a normal job for 30 years, live under my means, and invest everything I can”. They want to get much more immediate results so they can enjoy life on easy street because grinding it out for so long sounds extremely depressing.

What you describe is a retirement plan, not a passive income lifestyle. Kinda the opposite of escaping.

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bawolff 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> This is not what people mean by passive income.

This is literally the traditional definition of passive income - using your capital to generate more capital.

There is no free lunch, you need to provide something to get $$$. If you are providing labour it is by definition not really passive. That leaves land or capital.

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littlexsparkee an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You don't need millions - if things go modestly well and you have a high savings rate, you can get out in 5-10 and draw enough to cover modest means. I do agree that people eying passive income maybe have a different patience / willingness to sacrifice & self-teach threshold but the calculus of grinding for a few years to escape has its adherents.

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madaxe_again 20 minutes ago | parent [-]

Yup. This was my approach. Left my business a decade ago with low six figures cash in my pocket. It would have lasted about 18 months at my existing burn rate.

So I moved to a cabin in the woods in a country with a low cost of living, and stuck pretty much all of it in the markets.

Had I not done that, I would have had to go back to work - instead I lived a modest life (€500/mo, max) off the income from putting my apartment on Airbnb, and regained my sanity after a decade of relentless work while my investments did their thing.

Anyway, it’s a decade on, still haven’t done a jot of “work”, and the assets are now worth several million, and are being redeployed to continue to maximise value growth - and we now treat ourselves to spending months travelling at exorbitant budgets, real estate, expensive toys - and had enough stability to decide to have a kid.

So yeah, it’s possible - although had we grown at 6%/yr rather than an average of 80%/yr, it would be a different picture - but I firmly believe there are plenty of other opportunities for rapid capital growth elsewhere in the markets, and yet to come. I’m just some average dude who buys equities on vibes and then sits on them for a decade. If I of all people managed it, others can.

	▲	littlexsparkee 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Did you do a ton of research to make those picks? These days I just do broad market ETFs, don't trust myself to beat the market.

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chii an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

one word from the parent post sums up everything you said: patience. Or lack thereof (two words).