We have emphasized the importance of passive income in previous post. But how can we increase our passive income? Like I mentioned before, my passive income jumped from $7,500 in year 2006 to $12,000 in year 2007. I have not set a goal for this year yet. I am still evaluating what’s a realistic goal for me. My guess is something around $15,000 or $16,000. My ultimate goal is a 6-figure passive income. I don’t know how long it will take yet, maybe 5, 10 or 20 years. So, I am looking for different ways to boost my passive income.

There are many different sources of passive income, interests from CD, stock dividends, rental income, earnings from online affiliate programs or ad programs, or income from any well-established business that requires minimal maintenance efforts. Something like starting business or real-estate investing may be more complicated to some people. To keep things simple, let’s just look into some easy ways to boost up passive income that everyone can start immediately.

Here is one of the things I did in 2007 to pump up my passive income.

Interests from Banks
This is the easiest thing you can do. Simply put your cash into higher-yield CDs, savings or money market accounts. Online banks are getting more and more popular. They usually offer higher rates than your local banks. Not sure which bank to use? Simply go to bankrate.com where you can compare CD or savings rates from various banks. I live in California and I used to put my savings in Bank of America. My savings in Bank of America only gave me yields of less than 1 %. Then I realized citibank e-savings was offering over 4% interest rate. With the recent Fed rate cut, citibank online savings now only offer 3.25% only. However, you can still find good rate at E*trade which still over over 4% for their online savings. If you have $10,000, you get more than $400 each year. If you have $50,000 cash, you get over $2,000 per year. Those are free money. Don’t miss it.

Here are some of the banks currently offering high-yield savings and CDs:
E*trade
Emigrant Direct
HSBC Direct
Discover Bank

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