Top 10 Best Books on Passive Income

Is passive income real? And if it is, should you read books about them? And if you should which are the top 10 best books o passive income?

Let’s go over all of these questions (and then some).

So…why read books when it comes to passive income? 

Well…the most successful people in the world (who have multiple passive income streams) have a few things in common. One of the things they have in common…is that they read books.

Bill Gates reads 50 books a year, while Elon Musk is said to read two books in a day (although don’t quote me on that one) and many of the most affluent people in any industry follow what is called the 5-hour rule.

The 5-hour rule is a simple rule where you have to spend at least five hours per week to dedicated learning. Nothing more, but definitely nothing less. Pretty simple.

So if you want to learn how to succeed in building a passive income business, you could definitely start to read books. I recall a big Youtube mentioning to start with books, when you want to learn about investing and the likes…so it’s probably not a bad idea.

Okay but what books should you dive into? Cause we don’t want to be beating around the bush, we want to go straight into the best. The cream of the crop.

Well…in this article, I’ve compiled several recommendations for the best books on passive income—all of which will help you create a plan on how to build those streams for yourself.

Note that these are some of my personal opinions, on what I’ve been able to find out there. We all have different tastes, so take it with a grain of salt.

1. “Passive Income Ideas” by Michael Ezeanaka

This book is a list of 50 passive income from home ideas that anyone can start today. Apart from the list, the author provides a score for each type of passive income.

It is a thorough analysis of different passive income streams that will help the reader understand how different businesses work. It also provides steps on how you can scale up your business, or save time by avoiding business ideas that you should not pursue.

This is a book for individuals who are determined to build a passive income—those who want to see it through the end until they retire.

2. “The Unlimited Income” by Rayan Parker

This book provides a list of ways to earn passive income for beginners.

The list is exclusive to the most common ones done online, such as building an online store, creating a YouTube channel, creating online courses, and blogging.

In this book, Rayan discusses the mechanics of how to earn from passive income streams, and how you can get started with them. The book is not a manual on how to make these different businesses successful, but it is rather a primer to the best choices you can possibly make.

I was a bit hesitant to consider this book, since the author has very few other books in store, and also on different topics outside of investing and passive income…so I still doubt the legitimacy of both the author and what he has to say. 

With that said, one again, this is a primer and not a complete how-to, super in-depth book. It’s also ver cheap and great for beginners, which is what most of the readers on this site are.

3. “Passive Income” by Samuel Holder

In this book, Samuel Holder guides the reader on how to make money online through the most profitable online businesses that anyone can start today.

These methods are:

• Amazon FBA
• Social Media Marketing
• Dropshipping
• Affiliate Marketing
• Merch by Amazon

In this book, you will learn how to create a business that earns $12,000 per month. While the book does not provide an exhaustive step-by-step process for each business, it gives readers a clear idea of how these business models work. By the end of the book, you would have made a decision which of these models you should pursue.

4. “Affiliate Marketing 2020” by Christopher Clarke

This is a step by step process how one can succeed in the affiliate marketing business model. The author, Chris, provides an insider’s secret to how affiliate marketing works.

The book is designed for beginners, and you will learn the following:

• How affiliate marketing works
• How to set-up an affiliate marketing system
• Ways to generate free traffic
• Mistakes you should avoid

The book also teaches you what niche to select for your business. After reading this book, you will be armed with knowledge on how to build your affiliate marketing business from start to finish.

5. “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss

Don’t think I could have made this list, without including this book. Pretty much everyone who has ever tried to make money online or has been interested in the “laptop lifestyle” and passive income, has either read this book, head about this book, or both. 

This is a book that has garnered more than 3,500 5-star ratings in its history. The book is about setting up a business that you can outsource to other countries, which will put you in a leadership or management position for your businesses.

This book shows:

• How the author earned $40,000 per month
• How to outsource many tasks to other countries and pay for cheap labor
• How to remove 50% of your work so you can live your life the way you want it to

Tim Ferris is an acclaimed author—this book made it big in the financial and self-help industry, and it is a definite must-read book. You can also find the audio version on Youtube, and you can watch it at 2x the speed to save some time.

6. “Job Escape Plan” by Jyotsna Ramachandran

This book lays down sevens steps that you can follow to build a business and then quit your job. It starts with motivating you to build a business so you can escape the rat race.

The book covers:

• How to develop the lifestyle you want
• How to have the right business mindset
• How to choose the online platform to run a business

The author does not advocate that you leave your job now (that is one terrible ass idea). Instead, it tells people how to build a business, scale it to earn consistently, until it is earning enough to replace your employment income.

7. “Passive Income In 90 Days” by William U. Peña

The focus of this book is to teach you three methods to earn money in as short as 90 days. These methods are:

• Selling courses on Udemy
• Selling eBooks
• Selling your products on Amazon

It’s a bit funny because this book of course…is sold on Amazon. It’s got a few good reviews on it, but let’s hope William Peña actually has MORE than just this book on Amazon, because that would defeat the purpose, right?

Regardless… the idea behind this book, is leveraging existing platforms that get tons of visitors and customers, and having your own royalty, and digital “property” sell on said platforms. And yes, you can actually make a lot of money writing ebooks and selling them on amazon.

You’d have to choose one of these three to get started, and then the book will show you a step by step process on how to make the business model work.

You should be ready to at least get started when it comes to building your passive income sources…completing this book.

8. “Dropshipping” by Michael Ezeanaka

Michael Ezeanaka making yet another appearance, in the top 10 list, with his book on Dropshipping.

Personally, I think Dropshipping…is far from being a passive income source since it forces you to keep an eye out for suppliers, scaling, customer service, fulfilment, brand building and more…

But since it’s so important, going into the future, with more and more companies going online…I thought I’d add it to the list. 

Now, this book not only talks about dropshipping, but it also shows you the actual step-by-step guide on how to build a dropshipping store, which is not bad.

A few things to point out…it’s from 2018 and these things change very fast. So what might be working in 2018, might not necessarily work any more (or might be substantially different) in later years.

Also, even though you should not judge a book by its cover…I think the author could have worked a bit more on the cover. It looks kinda…weird to be honest.

The things you will learn here are:

• Advantages and disadvantages of dropshipping
• Steps to starting your dropshipping store
• How to start the company if you are not from the United States
• Where to get funds

9. “Real Estate Investing for Passive Income” by Chris Albert Johnson

If you want to build a passive income via real estate, you have to read this book. The things you will learn are:

• The current state of the market
• Why real estate is a good investment
• Part-time and full-time real estate investing
• Taxes for real estate

The book also discusses the several ways you can invest in real estate, plus how you can buy properties and track them if they are growing or not.

10. “Investing for Beginners” by Carl Hitoshi

This book covers a few particular types of investments, such as ETFs, the stock market, and Forex Trading. So a little more in the “traditional” side of things, as opposed to some of the other titles mentioned in this article. 

In this book, the author discusses the following:

• An explanation of the different types of investments
• Instructions how you can make your first trade
• How to set the right mindset if you lose in your trade
• What portfolio diversification means
• Techniques to master different investing strategies

After reading the book, you should have a clear grasp of the money market and how you can start investing in these markets. The book shows many techniques like buy and hold, or how to analyze trends in the market so you can make the right decisions.

It’s a good starting point, although there are also some pretty nice complementary content, that I think you should consider when it comes to these types of investing, like Youtube videos, online training courses, and even try paper trading (trading with “fake cash”) os as to get you ready for the real deal.

Summary

It takes time to learn, that is true.

But the time you spent is the knowledge that no one can take away from you…and that is also 100% true.

Take it from me, I absolutely hated reading a few months ago, and now I can’t stand not having a book to read at any give time.

In this article, I go over some of the best books for passive income, that I’ve found, that are more tailored for beginners, and not so much advanced investors, and such.

Some of the books in the list, are not very well known at all, others are super popular and pretty much everyone has (at least) heard about them.

But at the end of the day…books are still a great way to learn and absorb new knowledge, not just “as opposed to”, but in addition to watching videos and taking courses.