Top Ten Money Saving Tips For Financial Freedom

Here are my 10 Money Saving Tips for one to gain financial freedom. Saving money is part and parcel of the process towards financial freedom. Every penny saved is a penny earned.

Imagine the effect of compounding if you were able to save $100 a month and invest it in an instrument that gives you 5% returns per annum. After 30 years, you would have a pretty cool sum of money.

So here you go. My own Top 10 Money Saving Tips:

1. Don't eat at fancy restaurants. If possible, eat at home. If not, just eat fast food. It is much cheaper than eating at a fancy restaurant. Don't upsize your meal. If you just want a burger, order a burger instead of adding a meal on top because it seems like value for money to pay an extra dollar to have a large fries and drink.

2. Save electricity. Off all lights when not in use. Do not leave the heater on if you are not using it.

3. Cancel your global roaming. Most people have global roaming attached to their mobile phone plans. Cancel it if you are not going overseas.

4. Park at a cheaper carpark. Different carparks have different carparking rates. Choose the cheaper one and walk a little.

5. Read your news online. Don't buy newspapers everyday especially if you won't have the time to read it. Just read your news online.

6. Visit the Library. Don't spend money on books. Borrow books from the library.

7. Wash your own car. You save money on both petrol and the expensive car washing services provided by those petrol stations.

8. Pump a cheaper grade of petrol. The grade of petrol should not make much of a difference. I always believe that it is psychological feeling that people get when they use a higher grade of petrol and think that their car responds better to it.

9. Don't buy magazines. You can read them online too! Just surf the net and I am pretty sure that you will come across various sites that gives you the information that you want totally free of charge.

10. Give Starbucks a miss. A Caffe latte probably cost you around $5. That is money that could easily buy you lunch or dinner. Skip Starbucks and make your very own coffee instead.

So there you have it. My own top 10 list for saving money.


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A Millionaire by 30

I was browsing through some books in the bookshop lately when I came across this book about a typical guy who worked 9 to 5 and managed to increase his personal networth to a cool US$1 million after like close to 8 years of work, investing and buying property.

It made me remember that during my schooling days, I always thought that I would become a millionaire by 30 too!

HOWEVER, somehow I put that dream aside to chase other ideals like friends, family, etc.

Also, it just does not seem realistic to be a millionaire by 30 in Singapore right?

So reading that book was really a wake up call. Afterall, that guy who wrote the book lives in one of the most expensive cities in US. Credit must be given to him that he pursued his dream non-stop from his early twenties all the way till his 30th birthday.

My 30th birthday is like 2.5 years away.

And I am not even close to being a millionaire. Combined with my wife, we are probably only at the halfway point. Is it too late to chase the dream of being a millionaire by the age of 30?

I also came across a book by Adam Wong (an internet marketer) who was mentored by Adam Khoo and went on to earn six digits through internet marketing and stuff.

The common thing about these two guys is simply this : Both were focused on their goals and they did not let people around dissuade them from it. To them, being rich was sort of like a certainty that they were pursuing. They did not see it as a dream that could not be attained. Furthermore, both these guys are not your "scholar" kind of people who go to top universities and stuff.

Hmmmm... A millionaire by Thirty?

Anyway, conducted a flurry of trading activity over the past few weeks. Some decisions might not have been too wise.

Since NOL went XD, I will get around $120 from the 3 lots that I hold. I sold 2 lots @$1.36 to make a nice little profit on top of my dividends.

Bought 5000 x KingBoard @0.14 and 6,000 x Hongguo @0.125 and 1000 x CitiCorp@US$4.09
Sold the 5000 x KingBoard @0.17 to earn a tidy profit of $90

My First Cheque from Penn West Energy Trust

So I received a total sum of $6.66 for my 50 shares of Penn West Energy Trust. See picture of the cheque from Penn West below:


The distribution was actually a grand total of $14.12. HOWEVER, after deducting for a 30% withholding tax, postage/handling charges of $5 and a 7% GST, I am left with a paltry $6.66.

There you have it, my dividends nearly halved by all these expenses. Oh well, guess I will just have to accumulate more of Penn West Energy Trust for all these expenses to be worthwhile.

$10.70 refunded back

Called up DBS to cancel off my debit cards which I have not been using. They decided that they would reimburse me the annual fee which was just recently charged. Yipee!

Managed to save a total of $10.70

It's not alot I know but every little bit counts.

Financial freedom afterall is bringing down my monthly expenditure and bring up my monthly passive income.

I have done a quick look at my portfolio and realised that contrary to my beliefs, I have not been investing as aggressively as I would have liked during this bear market. Most of my stocks that I have bought are still in the red.

Except for NOL which I have bought at a lower price than today's closing price, the rest of my stocks are all bought at a much higher price. Time to load up on all my stocks again.

Added PWE into my Portfolio

Added 50 shares of PWE. Also bought 500 shares of Citicorp @2.92

My updated portfolio for passive income for 11 Apr 2009 is as such:

1. 12,000 x Ascott REITs (DPU = 4.28 per half) = $85.60 per month (decrease in DPU)
2. 17,000 x First REITs (DPU = 1.94 per qtr) = $109.93 per month (increase in DPU)
3. 1000 x Suntec REITs (DPU = 2.858 qtr) = $9.52 per month
4. 3000 x NOL (estimate 8 cents per year*) = $20.00 per month
5. Maybank iSavvy Deposit = $8 per month
6. 100 x PenWest Energy Trust = $22.00 per month
7. 100 x Pengrowth Energy Trust = $15.00 per month

Total avg monthly passive income = $270.05 (Mar 09)

Taking one step at a time towards my financial freedom.

Leaving Assets For Future Generations

I got into a talk with one of these financial planners lately. The topic we talked about was basically insurance and how one could virtually give one's child/children a good inheritance.

The idea might sound warp but it is worth thinking about. Basically, it involves you just buying a whole life insurance and not drawing that money out/surrendering the policy/or letting it lapse.

As death is certain, you can be assured that your beneficiaries will receive whatever amount is the sum assured on your life as well as any accumulated bonuses. So perhaps for a total price of $100,000 over say a period of 25 years ($4000 per year), you are able to pass over quite a sizeable fortune (maybe $0.5 million) to your child/children when you die. That is of course if you do not surrender the policy or anything before your appointed time with the Maker.

Just food for thought =)

By the way, I added another 200k insurance which brings my total insurance to $560k life coverage.

Have updated my adsense earnings for the month of March here.

3 Sources of Passive Income

Been seeing a lot of advertisements on the newspapers recently advertising how some people are willing to teach you how to make passive income by either joining their seminars and stuff. Well, I will just share mine openly since I believe that knowledge ought to be free for all.

In this post, I will be revealing the 3 sources of passive income that I hope to achieve by the end of this year. For this year, my goal is to achieve a passive income of $400 per month or $4800 per annum. I am looking to 3 areas/ sources to grow my passive income.

Source #1 - Dividends and Distributions from Stocks/REITs

This is currently my main source of passive income. I hope to achieve a minimum of $300 per month or $3600 per annum of passive income from dividends and distributions that I receive from both Singapore and US listed stocks.

Source #2 - Paid Advertisements on Blogs

I am currently relying on Google's Adsense to make some coffee money. It is peanuts really. Hope to achieve a stable $20 per month by the end of this year.

Source #3 - Writing Options

I have opened an OptionsXpress account. Basically, I hope to sell naked puts on fundamentally good stocks. Should the puts be exercised, I won't mind buying the stocks. If not, I will just be happy to make money from these puts. I hope to make this source of passive income operational by May 09.

There you go! My 3 sources of passive income. Feel free to comment or share your sources of passive income with me!

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