For many people, living overseas is an exciting adventure and a chance to discover oneself. The thrill of exploring a foreign land is something that many people simply never do.
However, funding these excursions isn’t always cheap. Ideally, you want money coming in from somewhere.
But where?
That’s what this post looks at. We explore some of your options and what you can do to bring in money passively while abroad (and potentially away from your job).
Dividend Investing
Dividend investing is the most obvious option. Dividends usually pay a little above the base rate, providing you with a nice, stable income.
Ideally, you want to choose the most stable companies for dividend investing. These pay out regularly, year after year, providing additional interest income. Coca-Cola is a good example.
However, you will need some seed capital to make this idea work. Usually, you’d be aiming for around $100,000 to get you started with paying your living costs if you’re going to a low-cost location.
Find Rental Properties
Another option is to find and own rental properties in your home country. These days, getting an expat buy to let mortgage is simpler than you might think, and is set up for people who want to live abroad.
Rental properties can be quite profitable if you know how to rent them out. The renter essentially pays the mortgage and a small premium, providing you with a little profit every month. Then, years in the future, you can wait for the property to appreciate and take the profits out of it. Alternatively, you can live it in when you decide to return home, eliminating the need to pay someone rent. While the above mortgage option is a good route, you may also find that investing in the real estate itself becomes more possible if you structure a DSCR loan for real estate investment, especially if you want to manage multiple properties.
High-Yield Savings Account
A less popular option is to explore using a high-interest savings account. These provide you with a guaranteed fixed income, depending on the rate you select.
These days, many international banking apps like Wise provide this option automatically. They provide exposure to the base rate in whatever your home currency is, or the currencies of your cash balances.
These rates are usually at or below the base rates, but real rates of return can vary substantially, so always check.
Affiliate Marketing
Moving away from financial instruments, you might also want to look into affiliate marketing for making money passively overseas. These require a little setup in the first place, but then once they’re up and running, you can earn a lot.
Your goal here should be to create content that funnels people to your affiliates. Then, whenever they make a purchase, you get paid a commission.
This works overseas because it is fully online. You never have to go home because everything else (including product distribution) is done by the underlying brand.
Lending
Finally, you can get into the lending market. Here, you effectively lend your money and get other people to pay interest on it.
Lending works overseas because, again, it’s passive. You don’t really have to do anything other than check in with your investments occasionally.
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