Passive income refers to income that you are able to earn without being actively involved in the process. Passive income streams do not always require high start-up costs.

Here are 5 practical, useful ideas to earn a passive income with low start-up costs:

Creating your own Website

Creating a website of your own is an excellent way to earn passive income. Website domain names (the unique name that identifies your website) can be purchased for as low as £10. You can also hire the services of a reliable web hosting company at very nominal rates. A web hosting company rents you ‘space’ online to operate your website.

Royalties on Books/E-books

Although writing books (both offline and online) is a job that involves hard work and time, you have to remember that you need to do it only once to earn money repeatedly from the same product. Once your book (paperback or Kindle version) becomes popular, it keeps selling itself over and over again.

Renting Out Space

If you have inherited or bought a house of your own, you may want to consider renting out space to earn passive income (If you rent your home, this may not be possible as most rental contracts do not allow sub-letting). If the house has more rooms than you need, then it’s worthwhile looking for a tenant who would be willing to pay for living space. The Rent a Room Scheme allows you to earn a threshold of £4,250 a year tax-free by letting out furnished accommodation in your home, so instead of letting that spare room remain empty why not put it to good use and make money from it instead?

Selling old, unused items

Most of us have loads of unused items that gather dust in the attic or basement. Old furniture, for example, can be very valuable and fetch a decent sum of money. Visit the flea market every weekend to get an idea of the items that fetch good prices and sell the things that you no longer use or need. You can do this on a regular basis to de-clutter your home as well as earn money!

Investing your Money in Fixed Term Deposits

You can invest your savings in fixed deposit schemes in UK banks. You can choose to invest your money for a period from as little as three months to as much as 5 years. Your money earns interest which counts as passive income. Interest rates typically vary between O.50% to 2% depending on the amount and time duration.

It’s possible to generate passive income from low cost start-ups. Over time, the income has the potential to add up to a tidy sum.

Do you have any suggestions for passive income streams that can be put into place without a big financial outlay? Share them with us in the comments below.