Many of us have regular jobs or are retired and rents are our second income.

I think, from posts here, that lots of us have third income streams as well.

If not, what are some of your ideas for generating third streams of income?

Buy and resell from auctions?

Swap meets? Estate sales?

Rehab jobs for others?

Consulting on real estate deals?

Hard money lending?

Perhaps selling something that you would use if you could not sell it.

I used to sell children's clothes on eBay in my kids sizes- if I couldn't sell them, the kids used them.

1. Pension

2. Social Security

3. Rentals

4. Equity Investment

5. Consulting

I'm going to jump in and share a simple idea. I'm trying to buy a small building now, but if I write about that I think too many people would say I don't have the funds and turn away

I am more interested in things anyone can do.

My 2018 idea is to sell anything and simply include shipping. To advertise that shipping is an option. I think people are ready for this.

What am I going to sell? Anything I get for next to nothing. I am lucky in that I seem to come across a variety of things at bargain prices.

I have nearly no risk yet great potential.

My saying is, You have five fingers, you should be active in five ventures.

DH went and got an auctioneer's license not too long ago.

It required a certain amount of class time prior to taking the exam. However, DH found that he relied a lot on his knowledge of Texas law in order to pass the exam, because there was a lot of legal material that was on the exam that wasn't addressed in the classes.

He needs to participate in an auction at least once per year. So he uses it enough to stay active, but not enough to really be a significant source of income.

If he wanted to, he would be able to sell our personal houses at auction, but if he ever wanted to auction off someone else's house, he would either need to have a realtor's license, or have a realtor present. There might be other classes of "things" that have similar additional restrictions.

These days, 99% rents only + small investment income.

I used to be an eBay Power Seller back in the day. I shopped for women's Plus-Size clothes at our many discount stores in Northern Virginia and sold them for much profit to (mostly) women in the mid-west.

1) Day job

2) Rentals

3) Military duty (National Guard)

4) Tax liens / flips

I used to get paid for directing my church's bell choir, but once I took a position on their Board of Directors there was a bylaw that prohibited me from receiving any income to avoid conflict of interest. It was mostly beer money anyway...so I just had to buy a couple more rentals to replace that income. ;-)

Aside from my day job (IT consulting) and my rentals -- and ignoring retirement stuff (like IRA/SIMPLE/401K) since I'm not at that point yet, my current income streams includes:

- Social media consulting/maintenance and digital strategy/planning for a "B list" rock celebrity.

- Cryptocurrency mining. This started out as a fun hobby just to check it out, but currently brings in about $1500/month. (Note that this changes drastically though -- so last month it might have been $750. Next month it could be $2000. In any case, my equipment is already paid for, so it is all gravy at this point.)

- John...

Absolutely! And, they are incredibly efficient as far as heat generation goes. In other words, my mining rig draws about 1400 watts and puts out about the same amount of heat from a 1400 watt space heater. So, it is basically a wash compared to a space heater -- except that it makes money while heating! :)

- John...

I just got the same idea as David!

Real estate in my self directed Roth IRA Ba-by! Tax free income!

Son12 had a great littel biz in high school. He'd go to thrift stores and but up t-shirts with any artwork on "bag day" (Fill a grocery bag with clothes for $4. 50-70 shirts per bag.)

Listed them on ebay for $4 + $4 shipping. Stuff them in an envelope for $1. Nothing to break.

Meet a guy scanning books at a thrift store. He works Saturdays and brings in $500 a week by finding text or business books and shipping the to Amazon. He makes the listing but Amazon holds them, packages them, ships them, collects the money, keeps a small fee, and pays him.

BRAD

Sid! I played hand bells for 18 years, and still have the twinge in my left wrist from playing 4-in-hand to proved it.

Our income streams:

1. Hubby's pension

2. Rental profit

3. Investments dividends

4. Inherited IRA from my dad, required RMD

David: The fans on the graphics cards (GPUs) required actually push a decent amount of air -- so I don't have anything extra except for a couple of 120mm system fans (that actually blow the cool air into the system).

I do two mining rigs per rack. I use these racks from Home Depot:

www.homedepot.com/p/30-in-H-x-24-in-W-x-14-in-D-3-Shelf-Wire-Unit-in-Chrome-EH-WSTHDUS-005/204466879

So, I have six "rigs" total -- which means 3 racks. One rack will heat a room very nicely. In fact, at work in my office, I finally had to move it OUT of the office because it was like 88F in there with all of my heat turned off! :)

Note that almost all cryptocurrencies took a huge dive today. So, mining is worth about 60% of what it was yesterday! We'll see what it does in a week. :) I just ordered another $1500 worth of equipment...

- John...