Updated Passive Income for 2008

Updated the current sources of my passive income. Maybank deposit is now giving me $13 per month instead of $12 per month which I estimated.

1. 11,000 x Ascott REITs (DPU = 4.52 per half) = $82.87 per month
2. 15,000 x First REITs (DPU = 1.91 per qtr) = $95.50 per month
3. Maybank iSavvy Deposit = $13 per month

Total passive income per month now stands at = $191.37

I will also wait for the distribution from First REITs and Ascott in end August to buy some more passive income generating stocks or REITs.

To buy Ascott REIT?

Should I buy into a 1 x lot of Ascott REIT at the current price of $1.00?

It has a DPU that is around 9%. This would help me roughly hit my desired passive income of $200 per month for this year.

Or are there better options around. Thinking of diversifying as I do not want to be too heavily invested in only 2 different REITs

Searching for that additional S$10 per month

Dear Reader,

I am looking for that additional S$10 per month passive income to hit my $200 per month goal for year 2008.

With current liquid cash of slightly over $20000, that leaves me with a roughly $1500 to $2000 (after setting aside 6 months of emergency funds) to invest to get that additional S$10 per month.

Any advice?

Current Sources of Passive Income

These are the sources of my current passive income:

1. 11,000 x Ascott REITs (DPU = 4.52 per half) = $82.87 per month
2. 15,000 x First REITs (DPU = 1.91 per qtr) = $95.50 per month
3. Maybank iSavvy Deposit = $12 per month

Total passive income per month = $190.37

It is quite amazing. I am nearly on target to achieving my $200 per month passive income for this year. $200 per month passive income however is only 4 percent of my current earned income.

My goal for the remaining months in 2008 will be to look for buying opportunities to enter into REITs or stocks with regular dividend payouts.

An additional goal would be to explore the use of Google's Adsense as an additional source of passive income.

Current Monthly Expenditure

This is a rough gauge of my current monthly expenditure. I will be including the housing installments even though they are paid by CPF as I hope that my passive income will be able to pay off the housing installments (if any) at the age of 40.

My current monthly expenditure in (S$)

1. Housing installments = 1096.00 (wife is sharing the burden)
2. Car Monthly Installment = 518.00
3. AIA Investment Link Plan = 350.00
4. Asia Life Policy = 154.20
5. Aviva Insurance = 51.72
6. Conservancy Fees = 49.00
7. Telephone & Internet = 33.96
8. Cable TV= 25.68
9. Mobile Phone Bills= 30.89
10. Electric, Water, Gas= 100.00 (estimated)
11. Car Insurance = 110.00
12. Parking= 150.00
13. Road Tax= 60.00
14. Petrol= 300.00
15. Food= 300.00
16. Tithes, Parents = 600.00

Total = $3929.45 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How on earth did my family accumulate so much monthly expenditure? And this is being optimistic.. there are months in which I spend much more on food, entertainement, miscellaneous stuff, etc....

Okay, maybe its because I included the housing installment which is actually covered by CPF now.

How can I decrease my monthly expenditure to S$2800 and below?

Sources of Passive Income

The following are sources of passive income that I have identified as being suited for my current situation:


1. Dividend paying stocks
2. Distribution from real estate investment trusts (REITS)
3. Fixed Deposit interests
4. Revenue from Adsense

Financial Freedom (Goal 2022)

My definition of financial freedom would be to simply have sufficient passive income (income that I do not need to work for) that would cover my monthly expenditure by the age of 40.

Simply put :

Financial freedom = Passive Income > Monthly Expenditure

That is a total of 14 years to achieve it. Hopefully I will achieve it by the 31 Dec 2022.

The purpose of achieving financial freedom is to give me the flexibility to pursue things that I enjoy doing and value in life. The goal of achieving financial freedom is just one of my many goals in life.

I intend to achieve this through the following steps:

1. Increase my monthly passive income to S$200 by end 2008. (S$2800 per month by 2022)
2. Reduce my monthly expenditure to below S$2800
3. Pay off all debts (HDB 4 room flat, car) or attain a debt level that combined with my monthly expenditure would not exceed S$2800

This blog serves as a journal to chronicle my journey and I hope that you would learn as much from it (be it from my failures or successes) as I would from the entire process.