Welcome 2009

So I end off the year 2008 with an estimated monthly passive income of $220.

The next goal that lies ahead for 2009 will be for me to increase my passive income to $400 per month. That will require an increase of $180 per month or $2160 per year. If I am able to find some investment vehicle that gives me a 10% cash payout annually, I will require $21,600 in cold hard cash.

Time to save up for my investments for the coming year!

Drinking and Eating Your Way to Financial Freedom

Eating out is expensive. A meal for 2 at a reasonable restaurant will easily cost you $50. If it is a really nice restaurant, maybe $100 to $150.

So what is the alternative? Well... you can always eat at home of course!

This is what I had for dinner today. It wasn't cheap but compared to eating out, it is much cheaper.

I had a Campbell's Soup. It was a long time since I drank Campbell's soup and now I remember why I like it so much. They just taste so GOOD! Even better than those Soup of the Day at some restaurants. Well, for appetizer, we had Campbell's Country Style Mushroom Chicken Soup. Simply YUMMY. One can of this roughly feeds two. Sprinkle some ground pepper and eat it with bread.

For the main course, honey glazed chicken:
Well, I tore this and sandwiched it between bread, dip it into some tomato sauce and dunked it into my campbell soup. Delicious.


Drinks - Yellow Tail Chardonnay


The cost of the meal (for 2) was less than $35 =)

NOL again

Okay. I bought 2 lots of NOL at $1.16 today.
Willing to keep it for long or sell it if it manages to go up.
At current price earnings, should be pretty safe to just hold

Financial Freedom Goal Setting

I have learnt from previous workshops that goals must be SMART:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Timely

In my earlier postings, I defined financial freedom for myself as when my passive income exceeds my expenditure. I gave myself the timeline of 2022 to bring down my monthly expenses to $2800 and to bring up my monthly passive income to $2800.

Based on increasing my passive income by $2400 every year, I will be able to increase my monthly passive income by $200 each year. The plan is as such

2008 - $200 (achieved)

2009 - $400
2010 - $600
2011 - $800
2012 - $1000
2013 - $1200 (Car loan fully paid for)
2014 - $1400
2015 - $1600
2016 - $1800
2017 - $2000
2018 - $2200
2019 - $2400
2020 - $2600
2021 - $2800 (Housing loan fully paid for)

Therefore, by 2022 I will be effectively financially free! Of course, this is based on the assumption that I have paid off all my car and housing loans by then.

Bank Account is Fat

Monday:

Bank Account is Fat from the year end bonus.. Looking for stocks to increase my passive income again.

Tuesday :

I put a queue of 3 lots of Ascott REITs to add to my income portfolio. I shall not engage in trading. This will be kept as part of my passive income portfolio/
I might put the remainder of my cash into my Maybank iSaavy account or simply buy more stocks. I actually put a queue earlier today but did not manage to buy it. Hopefully the market tomorrow will allow me to purchase this 3 additional lots of Ascott REITs

Wednesday:

Still did not manage to get Ascott REITs. Queued again 3 lots at same price.

Friday:

Still did not manage to get any Ascott REITs. Makes me wonder whether I should have just bought the stocks at whatever price the market was selling. Updated my networth (current @$467,372)

Trader or Investor

I bought 2 lots of NOL at $1.15 yesterday. Today, the price of NOL shot up to $1.34 and I sold it.

Was it right for me to sell? Only time will tell. But it seemed like too good a deal to miss. More than 10% gains in a single day.

So I guess you can call me a trader - investor. Investor because I keep some stocks for the long term. Trader because I do keep some stocks for the short term.

These are my current list of stocks:

1. First REIT
2. Ascott REIT
3. Suntec REIT
4. Pac Andes
5. Kingboard
6. Innotek
7. Unifood
8. NOL
9. China Aviation Oil
10. Hongguo

My Monthly Passive Income has hardly budged over the past month as I have not bought any income stocks. The $300 plus that I got in dividends for the Month of November will go to my Maybank iSaavy Account.

During this financial turmoil, I also have rebalanced my portfolio under my investment linked policy.

Equity markets (US, China, Europe, Emerging Markets) - 60%
Bonds, Fixed Income - 20%
Global Resources/Commodities - 20%

Hopefully this rebalancing of my portfolio will aid me in my financial freedom journey as my ILP now has over $20k in it.

Wanted to end one of my life policies but decided against it as its current surrender value is lower than all the installments I (and my parents) have paid for. My parents bought it for me when I was young and handed it over to me when I started work. While the current surrender value is very low (13k), the bonuses accumulated is close to 18k. By paying it off for another few more years, I should be able to break even and maybe surpass the installments that I have been paying for it. It is a life policy anyway so I will just treat it as part of my retirement plan.

During this period, I also increased my life insurance coverage and critical illness coverage.

Bonus Bonus Bonus!

Yup. The year end bonus is coming and I am expecting a nice yummy sum of money.

Have bought an additional 2 lots of NOL at $1.15 today to average down on my previous position.

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