The Oracle of Omaha
There is a famous quote by the man they call the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” This quote is at the root of Micro Real Estate, because the machine placed on micro real estate makes money while you sleep.
Automation is the key to separating your working hours from your income. That’s not to say that automated machines are the only way that automation is possible, since Warren Buffett’s money largely comes from other people working for him and from his investments. Mr. Buffett clearly receives income from automated processes (i.e. processes that do not require his intervention), and I’m sure his companies make use of software to automate employee tasks and make his employees more efficient.
Decouple Money from Time
But that’s enough about Buffett. How are you going to make money while you sleep? Or more specifically, how will you decouple your time from the money you make? There’s many passive (or more realistically, semi-passive) income sources that you could try to set up, but if you don’t find something that you can stick with for at least 2 years, you’re probably not going to be able to generate any significant amount of income. The main problem with passive income sources is that they are not passive for at least a couple of years, and they don’t generally make much money during that time period either. It is certainly a struggle, just like any other job.
There’s also no reason that a vending machine couldn’t supplement your existing business. For example, an Italian restaurant could sell their own sauce from a vending machine outside the storefront that operates 24/7.
Leverage Your Time for More Money with Automation
Luckily, there are some active (and maybe semi-passive) income sources that leverage your time. What does that mean? Well, it means that your hourly rate for the work you do is pretty high. The classic micro real estate example is vending machines, because, well, there are many vending machines that make hundreds of dollars a month with only a few hours of work.
Vending machines are really automated sales machines that make money from foot traffic. That’s all it is. You could sit at a table in a high foot traffic area and sell your wares (if you’ve ever walked around NYC, I’m sure you’ve seen street vendors selling their wares on crowded streets), or you could put a vending machine in the same spot and get all your time back and still make sales.
One emerging area of leveraging your time with automation (aka increase productivity) is artificial intelligence passive income (AIPI). You can use AI tools to create images (like with DALL-E), write articles or books (with ChatGPT), and write code (also with ChatGPT).
Opportunity to Make Money from Machines
There’s about 7 million vending machines in the US, and while you might think that means the market is saturated, all it really means is that where’s there’s fish, there’s food. Vending machines are an effective way to make money while you sleep, even though you will need to spend a few of your waking hours driving to, stocking, and maintaining the machine.
EV Chargers are still in their infancy, and there is even more opportunity to start a EV charger manufacturing, installation, or operating company since the market and companies is likely to grow significantly in the next few years.
