12 Ways Retirees Can Make Money Through Passive Income

5. Become a peer-to-peer lender

This, too, takes a little work, but avid peer-to-peer (P2P) investors find the process quite stimulating. A brief description:

P2P sites — Prosper and Lending Club are two — accept applications from borrowers for loans.

Users like you can review these applications and decide if you want to put some of your money toward loans.

When the loan gets paid back, so do you — with interest.

A minimum of $1,000 is often suggested to get started. It’s important to diversify; specifically, funding more of the better credit risks rather than taking your chances on ventures backed mostly by the enthusiasm of the applicants. Overall, P2P investments “can provide solid returns that are really hard to beat”. As with any loan, however, there’s the possibility of default. You may not earn anything or may even lose money.