the main difference between creating and investing is represented by the frequency of buying and selling investing while not 100% passive is certainly a lot more passive than trading simply but while an investor does occasionally revalue into portfolio and make buying or selling decisions he certainly doesn't do it every day whereas some high-frequency traders even make multiple trades per second and sure a good investor should always stay informed but again even a few minutes per day might be enough traders on the other hand spend a ton of time fine-tuning their strategy sometimes obsessively tracking various metrics and so on at the end of the day most people can consider themselves investors you decide how much to save after receiving your paycheck when or if to buy a home and so on you can think of it as a hobby at most creating on the other hand is a quote unquote job or occupation because you invest a lot of time and need to be rewarded accordingly if you're a regular person and spend let's say two hours per year working on a ten thousand dollar stock portfolio you might be perfectly content with six percent or so profit wise if however you spend thirty hours per week trading which is over 1500 hours yearly those 600 bucks no longer seem appealing unless you like the idea of being paid 40 cents an hour in a nutshell we're basically talking about the difference between part-time and full-time the difference between hobby and job etc