Everyone wants to talk about passive income. It's a sexy idea with lots of promise, but most of the ideas that people push are impractical and/or inaccessible to the masses. The good news is that passive income streams do exist – you just need the right expectations and approach.

6 Real Options for Passive Income

Let's start by explaining what passive income is.

According to the IRS definition, it's money that's earned from one of two sources: investments or businesses that do not require active and ongoing participation.

But that's only half of the story.

Passive income isn't totally hands-off. While it tends to be sensationalized as a "get-rich-quick" scheme that requires no time or effort, nothing could be further from the truth. Passive income still requires work – often considerable work – you just do it on the front end.