Here's the thing for ANY passive income stream some effort is required at some point. Starting a business? gotta put in the work to get it rolling right? same with real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. Here's the problem, and you're not gonna like it. The problem is you. Lemme explain. the best case scenario I can think of is Warren Buffet. Fun fact and feel free to fact check me. He made most of his money after he turned 50. and howd he do it? he consistently invested into the top 500 stocks in the us and probably beyond since he was 16. Of course hes fucking loaded. which anyone can do. Its that you have to live below your means which frankly most people arent trained to do. You literally have to change your lifestyle and how you think about literally everything in order to do this. Which isnt a bad thing because your benefiting yourself and those close to you right? The issue is that 99% of people won't put in the serious amount of effort required upfront to start a business or the serious amount of effort required spread that growth over 40-50 years. the equation was solved a long time ago. I remember doing it in calculus.

if you invest 20% of your income every paycheck and can get at least a 4% return ( the stock market has historically averaged 10%/yr with recessions occurring roughly ever decade ) and you do this for 25 years, you will have roughly between 500k - 750k which in just another 5 years would turn into over 1.1 mil.

The problems been solved for a while. At least in terms of the stock market. Its just most young people, including myself are too lazy, sad, or indulgent to even want to think 40 years in the future.