9 Best Passive Income Investing Books (2024)

Passive income is income that does not involve active work. Typical forms of passive income include real estate rental income and dividend stocks, but with the explosion of e-commerce and other internet-based business models, there are now lots of ways to develop passive income. Of course, a journey of a thousand miles has to start with a single step—and for someone who does not know about passive income, reading about it might be that first step.

9 Best Passive Income Investing Books

1. Infinity Investing
2. Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement
3. The Power of Passive Income
4. The 4 Hour Workweek
5. Why Doctors Don’t Get Rich
6. Passive Income Ideas
7. Choose Yourself
8. eScape: The Four Stages of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur
9. Passive Investing Made Simple

When you think of passive income, you probably think of someone sipping a colorful drink on a tropical beach, occasionally checking their phone or laptop to see how much profit is rolling in from their wealth-producing investments. The fact of the matter is, however, that almost everyone enjoying the results of a passive income idea had to put in some hard work to get there, whether that means slowly learning the ropes of how to manage a portfolio or rental properties, or spending hours and hours reading about how to invest in the stock market.

The idea of passive income is often packaged and sold as a sort of pipe dream; where no work can turn you into an overnight millionaire. But the reality is thatlotsof work is often involved, and the biggest part of the effort is, more often than not, self-education. Thankfully, the process is fairly simple. In fact, many of the best passive income investing books are easy to read and include entertaining anecdotes as the author frequently weaves their own rags to riches story into the book.

Top 9 Best Passive Income Investing Books

1. Infinity Investing

Author Toby Mathis breaks down the divisive secret behind why rich people accrue more wealth and the rest of us don’t, while skillfully explaining how you too can be among the rich.

As one of the founding members of Anderson Advisors, Toby has worked with investors, entrepreneurs, and business owners around the country to maximize the return on their investments and minimize their losses to taxes. He understands the wealth building game from multiple sides, and has seen firsthand the power of creating a simple plan and sticking to it.

One central pillar to his wealth building approach is that the jargon and mathematical complexities of investing prevent many people from taking the first steps toward self-education; that said,Infinity Investing by Toby Mathisis all about demystifying money and describing investments in a simple, straightforward way.

2. Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement

Author Rachel Richards writes this book from a place of experience. She was able to quit her job at age 27 and live off her many streams of passive income. Her book starts out with the somewhat deflating fact that anyone under the age of 40 will need around $2 million in order to retire with enough money to cover their expenses safely. Wouldn’t it be nice to live the life you want without having to pinch pennies just to make sure you can get by in your later years?

InPassive Income, Richards presents 28 different time-tested passive income ideas that do not include pyramid schemes or multi-level marketing. This passive income will allow you to have the flexibility to do what you want to do in life—without being trapped in a 9 to 5 job.

The title of the book says it all. While strategies likemicro investingto slowly build a nest egg should not be overlooked, you’ve got to be a little more proactive if you want to retire early.

3. The Power of Passive Income

Can you make money work for you, instead of having to work for money? Absolutely, according to author Nightingale Conant, and that’s exactly she covers in her book—a self-described, long -term, no fuss wealth building plan that will help you escape the workplace cubicle.

Conant is a household name in the self-improvement world, and she’s teamed up with Entrepreneur Media to create a motivational and instructional textbook for how to escape the rat race that entraps so many of us. Much of the strategy revolves around identifying your own personal strengths and weaknesses, so you can recognize passive income opportunities and follow through with them instead of getting bogged down in the time for money approach to work.

4. The 4 Hour Workweek

Tim Ferriss’s4 Hour Workweekis viewed in many circles as a passive income bible. The basic premise of the book is developing an online business and taking yourself out of the business by having remote workers or automated systems do all the work—a truly powerful passive income machine.

This book was the first major work to introduce the idea of drop shipping (having your supplier mail products directly to your customers under your brand label so you can avoid keeping inventory). Ferriss also promotes the idea of selling information (classes and online courses), since it’s the most cost effective to produce and distribute.

5. Why Doctors Don’t Get Rich

So many people think that the key to building wealth or getting rich is all about becoming a doctor or lawyer. After all, aren’t these high paying professions? As author and medical doctor Tom Burns will show you, there is more to wealth building than making money.

Putting your money to work for you in the form of investments, avoiding costly mistakes, paying less taxes (legally of course), controlling your time, and engaging in self-improvement are all ways to become rich—which ultimately means having control over your life and being able to make the choices you want to make.

With a forward by Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad), you know this book is slated to deliver some timely big picture wisdom about investing.

6. 101 Passive Income Ideas

There are tons of ideas for passive income floating around the internet, but not all of them are actually good ideas that have been vetted or tested. That’s where author Frank Coles comes in, with more than 100 different ideas for creating a passive income stream, each one requiring no more than a $1k (or less) to get started. From publishing e-books to peer-to-peer lending, Cole covers the gamut of no-work side hustles that can bring in extra money without having to take on an additional job.

What makes this book even better is that each idea is backed by information—Coles gives each one a risk score, startup costs, difficulty level, and profit potential so you know exactly what you are getting yourself into.

7. Choose Yourself

Choose Yourselfis written by stock market expert and entrepreneurial evangelist James Altucher. The premise of his book is that our changing world has forever eliminated the traditional security found in a typical 9 to 5, and that the time is nigh for everybody to take their financial fate into their own hands by cultivating skills and developing their own business. In other words, choosing themselves over a system that won’t support them financially.

The new way of doing things means you can find a fulfilling career path that allows you to be creative without the traditional gatekeepers of old. With case studies and witty insights from his own personal stories, Altucher will motivate you to choose yourself. This book is also a great introduction to an inspiring author whose other writings might interest you if you want to learn more about investing or entrepreneurship.

8. eScape: The Four Stages of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

Anik Singal, author of eScape, was set to become a doctor and make his parents happy—but something just did not feel right. Anik began to plug away at the idea of making money online, joining forums, asking questions, and learning—until he became one of the biggest names in email and affiliate marketing.

Email marketing is Anik’s entrepreneurial bread and butter, and many of his classes, books, and videos will teach you how to build an email list and generate cash from clicks. His book,eScape, is a bit more big-picture in the sense that it discusses some of the necessary character traits a person needs to cultivate in order to really become an entrepreneur or investor who benefits from passive income. Though it’s not a detailed roadmap to making money, it’s a good book to read for reframing the way you think about success and motivation.

9. Passive Investing Made Simple

Becoming a real estate investor and drawing portfolio income from a rental property empire has long been a staple of passive income. For many people, though, it seems much more complicated than building wealth over time through a retirement portfolio of index funds that generates dividend growth.

Authors Anthony Vicino, Dan Krueger, and Gina Barbaro will show you how easy it is to invest in apartment communities through syndication. You may have heard of investing in a REIT, which is sort of like a real estate investing mutual fund. But withPassive Investing Made Simple, you’ll learn how to take this cash flow idea one step higher with a real estate investment strategy that involves pooling resources with several other individuals to buy an apartment building (or even more than one). It seems like an unlikely investment, but this book provides a how-to roadmap that will break this real estate crowdfunding opportunity down step by step.

Passive Income Requires Work Upfront, But It Can Lead to a More Fulfilling Life

Generating passive income is, in reality, not a passive investment up front. In order to create a passive income source, you will often have to put in the initial investment of time or money. However, once your passive income opportunity has materialized into real monthly income, it could replace the active income of a traditional salaried job. That’s because the end goal of the passive income strategy is not just about producing additional income, it’s about having the freedom to do whatever you’d like, when you want to.

A successful passive income investment not only helps you build your savings account, it also allows you to spend more time with your family, pursue your favorite hobbies, give to causes you care about, and travel the world.

Many of the authors we mentioned will give you investment advice and passive income ideas, but they also talk about the importance of living a meaningful life.

If you’re looking to create a more fulfilling, financially independent life,join Infinity Investingtoday! Our experts do more than give stock tips—they also provide strategies for creating a life free from financial worries.