Many people find multi-step processes like that challenging, and its hard to get started when the result seems so far away. These all give pretty fast pay-offs.

The hidden side benefit, which I touched on in the last paragraph, is many of these could/will lead to gaining skills. It also opens the opportunity to develop skills in related areas (such as sales and marketing as your business develops, managing people if you hire employees, or negotiation if you start going after bigger jobs).

For someone who has the interest / ability / drive education would be another, probably better approach. If I way in my 20′s and “poor and unskilled” in Canada, I’d learn a trade in a heartbeat!

It’s probably worth taking that last point to heart and becoming skilled. I know that you meant it “tongue-in-cheek” and these are definitely good way to generate extra “bursts” of income, but they’re not necessarily efficient ways of generating longer-term income.

And that’s really the goal here, if you want money to invest you must have positive cash flow. If the only method you have to generate significant positive cash flow is to spend more time generating money then I think you’re failing at the most important long-term investment: you.

And the training can often be paid for. Most professional companies have some form of either a tuition reimbursement or a incentivized course list (pass these get more money next pay raise). If your company can’t help you, then ask the Canadian government. If you’re not earning “average wages” and you won’t be any time soon, then maybe it’s time to talk to EI. They’ll give you living expenses, help you get a student loan and may even help with tuition just to get you through college.

Being “unskilled” is a guaranteed method to make it difficult to save. If you’re earning less than $12-15 / hour (SK, MB and east), then your number one long-term focus should be pushing that salary. Working 60 hours @ $10 / hour is the same things as 40 hours @ $15 / hour. That’s extra money for every hour you work (which is what these “passive income” people are all trying to find).

If you’re an experienced professional making in the top quartile for your job description, or you’ve just topped out your current organization (“I already earn more than everyone else I work with.”), then maybe it is time for some “diversification”. But for any “poor and unskilled” people, the number one priority is to become skilled so that you can increase your long-term earning potential. The difference between “skilled” and “unskilled” is 50% to 100%. That’s $15 to $20/hour instead of $10. That’s 10-20k / year.

I’d say, you should start with education.

Sometimes free time is more important than extra money and I agree that, as guinness said, finding free time as you get a bit older and spread your time amongst more people, is more difficult