he secret to be happy ever after? Simple, finance the happiness, earn as much as you can, or marry somebody who can do it for you.

If you are eligible for the later category and believe in making merry on somebody else’s account, this finance advice is not for you. However, if you have failed to locate the rich one for you or are enforced by destiny to work your way around the financial management mystery, read on, because there is a crucial secret in store.

Money is important and this is a proven fact, which is not dependent upon any referrals for validation. Considering the relevance of the concept, therefore, all aims must be targeted at increasing it, to whatever levels. As the wise men said, beg, borrow, steal, but do whatever you can. In our case, we would suggest focusing on the key finance source and at the same time, working out an alternate earning source, by way of passive income.

What is passive income?

Passive income is a form of earning, which is irregular and does not requires dedicated effort from the earner. That is, it is a financial source, which once created, can be left in the hibernation mode, to generate funds. As apparent from the concept definition, passive income acts as a prudent extra earning source, which keeps adding on to the financial inflow.

How to earn it?

Passive income can be earned in a number of ways. In fact the earning options in this category, owing the tremendous popularity of internet as the preferred communication channel, have multiplied exponentially.

Online presence, currently serves as the most crucial form of passive earning. Create a website, add the desired zing flavour to it, attract reasonable traffic and forget about it. But before forgetting, make sure to list with internet advertisement managing sites, like Google ad sense, which will pay for the popularity of the portal.

Income from property or rental finance is the next listing in the category of passive income. While you might think that the investment itself is to large a component, checking out the available options in this category, can clear doubts. India presently is undergoing a massive construction drive, with societies and community centres coming up in every nook and corner. Investing in these newly constructed dwellings usually requires manageable deposits and even easier monthly instalment, which in turn can be bank financed. It is thus a matter of few years, post which the investment would perfectly fit in as a source of passive income.

Pension – Nothing much can be done here, you’ll have to wait to get retired, unless of course early retirement options are applicable.

Indulging in businesses like network / affiliate marketing, wherein initial effort yields desirable finance oriented results, over a number of years.

Other options in the passive income category are dividends / interests from shares / securities, book royalty and any other business, which does not, seeks active participation.

Nothing ever remains staid for long in the realm of internet search. Only this afternoon, a little-known firm called Microsoft, is interested in building its online advertising empire with the acquisition / merger (depending on what report you read) of another little company you may have heard of, called Yahoo!

This is indeed, big news! Its, what is known in the finance market, a “Whopper!” of a news story! But what does it all mean and who benefits?

The benefits from this news are apparent from today’s NASDAQ figures. The market was so buoyed by the rumour, that the Yahoo! share price jumped a massive 19% from $5.19 at opening to $33.37 within minutes of the news being released. A quick glance at Bloomberg also shows that this is the greatest jump Yahoo! has seen in 4 1/2 years! If I were a Yahoo! shareholder I’d be dancing in the streets just now!

Interestingly, the news didn’t do much for Microsoft’s share price which were down slightly by 1.7% to $30.47 (at time of writing). Doesn’t this seems strange? Well it is on the face of it.

However, despite recent efforts to break into online advertising, Microsoft have struggled to make headway against the current search engine of choice: Google. This means that software remains Microsoft’s biggest profit driver, and spending the whopping amount of $50billion to acquire a company in the area you’re least experienced – not to mention least profitable – makes people nervous.

Especially city people!

Chris Cathcart, finance vertical strategist for bigmouthmedia said of the proposed deal:

“Recent years have not been kind to Yahoo!, and their growth has been slowing down. Last quarter, their revenue growth was 7% – the first time its been below 10% in five years. This deal will be good for both them and Microsoft as the deal will take Microsoft’s online market share (in the US) from 12% to 38.5% in comparison to rival Google’s’ 48% market share.”

However, it’s all yet to be seen if any deal is actually going to transpire as both Yahoo! and Microsoft are giving the media the traditional “No Comment” response. On a personal level, I hope it does go through: its been a while that anything this exciting happened in the markets – let alone the search engine industry.

And its good to see Microsoft getting back into the things they’ve been renowned for in the past, with the return of their in-famous “Can’t beat ‘em, Buy ‘em!” attitude. The difference is this time they are taking on a big dog! And big dogs often bite!

The capital city of India, New Delhi is one of the top three preferred investment destinations in Asia. The economic boom in the country’s economy has filtered down to almost all its sectors, especially real estate. The rising income levels of the people and the consequent increase in the buying capacity are contributing positively to the surging real estate sector.

Noticing the positive Delhi property news, many people are purchasing property in Delhi either for future occupation or for rental purposes. Rentals in legal commercial property have risen by 20% to 30% in the past few months. On the whole the real estate demand in the capital is increasing by 30% to 40% yearly.

The spreading metro network in Delhi has spurred the property prices along the planned routes. The Indian government has reduced the stamp duties and has allowed a 100% foreign investment in large projects. Also, the sustained activity of the MNC’s and the $23 billion software service sector is a major factor. So, it not surprising that the demand for the residential and commercial property is dramatically soaring. It is likely that in Delhi and the adjoining areas the demand for organized retail space will rise to $14 billion by the end of the year 2007.

Since a hoard of finance companies are offering great deals and dipping interest rates, buying Delhi properties has become all the more easy. Many prominent financing agencies like HDFC, ICICI, RBI HSBC, etc. have set up bases in Delhi and the stiff competition is benefiting the consumers. Homes for sale in Delhi are an attraction to the customers who no longer have to struggle with their financial statuses to purchase them as easy home loan facilities solve that problem.

If you also want to buy a house in Delhi, there are a number of available options from apartments to villas. Buy a flat in Delhi and you can be sure that the investment journey will be hugely profitable. Not only are the prices expected to rise in the future, they are expected to bring great returns to the property owners in Delhi. With the Taj Expressway and the NH8 Highway projects on the charts and the expected makeover to be given to the city for the Common Wealth Games 2010, the real estate delhi prospects are very bright.