Buy a Property or Invest in REITs?

I have always wondered whether it is better for a person without much money or capital to invest in a property or to invest in real estate investment trusts. (Please read here if you have no idea what a real estate investment trust is)

Let's assume that a person has $100,000 in spare cash and is earning a decent salary.

With $100,000 he could pay a 20% downpayment on a $500,000 condo. He could easily rent out this condo for $2500 to $3000 per month. Excluding the estimated $1500 mortgage loan he will have to pay every month, he can potentially receive up to $1500 in rental income if he chooses to buy a property.

He will be getting a decent 18% rental yield based on his intial $100,000 investment. In addition, the rental income is paid monthly compared to a REIT's quarterly or semi-annual distributions. However, to invest in a property, a large amount of capital is needed for the downpayment. You also need to worry about obtaining a bank loan especially if the property is your 2nd property.

With a REIT, he will only be able to manage around 6% to 10% yield. He however needs a much smaller capital. With the REIT, he does not need to worry about tenants, collecting rents and stuff.

He can also diversify his money across various REIT sectors like serviced apartments, retail, industrial, malls and office space. Thus, his returns should be much more stable. He will have less to worry about in a certain sense.

I still believe that investing in property is much more profitable than investing in a REIT. However, REITs provide diversification oppurtunities, are more liquid, and much less cumbersome to manage.

Just my 2 cents

Read Related Articles:
1. Investing in REITs
2. Investing in Rental Property

Quit My Job, Blog and Travel the World

Quitting my job was one of the toughest decisions I made in my life. Nevertheless, I am glad that I made the decision.

My end goal is to be able to just blog and earn money while travelling the entire world.

This however is not achievable currently as I am still not drawing enough income from online sources. When my online income sources reaches $100 per day, then it could seriously be something worth considering.

On top of my online income source, I could rent out my apartment and get a decent amount of money too.

Travelling the world will most probably begin with a road trip to Malaysia through to Thailand and perhaps even driving all the way to China if that is possible. I will just drive all the way to Europe if I can.

Am I dreaming? Is this dream too far fetched?

Will I be able to realise this dream in the next 10 years, 20 years or never?

What must I do to increase my online income? Can I hit $10 per day by year end?

WE SHALL SEE..........................TO BE CONTINUED

How To Speak Like A Fund Manager

It is said that words maketh a person. Okay, I came up with that phrase =)

But the matter of fact is this: Words do shape our behaviours and thoughts.

The words that fund managers use also shape our perception of the funds they are managing.

You will never hear a fund manager that says things like: "We Buy China because we think it will go up."

Instead, they will most probably phrase it as "We are bullish on China because of its growth potential"

These two phrases actually mean exactly the same thing and there is no way to prove how true the statement actually correlates to real life. The way it is phrased however makes it sound more credible and professional.

Thoughts on the Sweat Debt

I woke up early around 7am. After some reading, checking on my adsense earnings and serving out my food in Cafe World (a game in Facebook), it was time for breakfast.


We went out to eat again.


For me it is always the same food stall but I simply adore the food. The hustle and bustle of the market just makes the food taste so much better. I ordered a cup of $0.70 coffee from the coffee shop. The uncle gave me a knowing look. I was his regular customer afterall.


After eating breakfast, it was time for a family walk as we walked around the neighborhood and did some grocery shopping.


Back home, we spent our time reading the newspapers.


I was just reading this article on the Straits Times which talks about the 'Sweat Debt'.

A global management consultancy firm (Hay Group) actually says that workers are feeling increasingly frustrated especially if they have undergone wage cuts and stuff.


A poll showed that 29 per cent of employees felt frustrated while 35 percent feel detached. Only 16 per cent felt effective in their jobs.

I am not too sure how the survey was conducted but it seems that a total of 64 percent are either frustrated or detached from their work.


That is a huge number of people who are totally not involved in their work. If work takes up such a huge amount of our waking hours, isn't it worthless to pursue something that we do not enjoy and which we have no attachment to?


Too many people work simply because they need the money to survive. They work for money. And yet they claim they are not a slave to money. How can that possibly be??


If they are doing something they do not enjoy for the sake of money, aren't they a slave to money?


Too many people sacrifice lots of their time and effort on earned income. They have not explored the potential of passive income from online sources, businesses and stuff.


And then I looked at myself and realised what a different life I am living from the rest of the people around me! It is 12 noon and here I am writing about the events that have happened to me in the morning =)


When others are dressed in their office attires rushing off to work, I am dressed in my bermudas and slippers going for my breakfast. I sometimes give an almost apologetic look to those whom I meet in the elevator and it seems that they look at me scornfully (especially those who have seen me so many times before).



This also got me thinking deeper about pursuing my dreams and goals that I have set for myself and how I should reward myself if I achieve them.

I am still very much like others working for a living. The only difference is that I hope to be financially free by earning passive income that is greater than my monthly expenditure.


For a start, I have been trying to earn more money using online sources. My daily earnings from online sources currently amount to less than $5 a day.


If I am able to hit the $10 a day earnings in online income, I will buy myself a PlayStation 3 which I always wanted.
Once I hit the $100 a day earnings, I will buy myself a Mont Blanc Pen



Once I hit the $200 a day earnings, I will go on a short holiday trip to Europe with my family.

How to Earn $180 Passive Income Per Month

It is 1.23 AM in the morning.

And here I am punching in some numbers furiously into my calculator.

So I did some rough calculations and it seems like I will be falling short of my passive income goal for the Year 2009.

I am still short of $180 dollars per month to hit my goal of $400 per month in passive income.

Any suggestions to achieving this figure?

I figured that if I invest my money in a REIT that gives me 10% yield, I will require a capital of $21,600.

I do have free cash sitting around that amounts to $21,600 but I am wondering whether investing in REITs is really the best option to hitting my objectives for this year. My current REIT portfolio already has healthcare, residential and office REITs. Perhaps its time to add some retail or industrial REITs in?

It is a pity that I sold away my canroys too as I felt that the capital gains that I got were quite substantial. After selling my PenWest Energy Trust, the price continued to ZOOM upwards way past the price that I sold it for. Nevertheless, I did make quite a good return on inital investment.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.......

Investment Ideas for Financial Freedom

A lot of ideas have been developed and contributed to the world of finance over the years. These include scholarly articles and books about money, investment and wealth.

It is one of my goals to compile all these ideas into this site so as to further develop and integrate these ideas into my own investment strategy and journey.

The list of famous people that I would like to learn from include the following:

Scholars and Their Ideas
1. Charles Dow
2. Louis Bachelier
3. Harry Markowitz
4. William Sharpe
5. Eugene Fama
6. James Tobin
7. Alfred Cowles
8. Franco Modiliani
9. Merton Miller
10. Burton Malkiel
11. Nicholas Nassim Taleb
12. Barr Rosenberg
13. John Lintner
14. Jack Treynor
15. Fisher Black
16. Paul Samuelson
17. Robert Merton
18. John McQuown
19. James Vertin
20. Hayne Leland
21. Mark Rubinstein

Investors/Traders and Their Ideas
1. Warren Buffet
2. Jim Rogers
3. Philip Fisher
4. Alexander Elder
5. Jesse Livermore
6. Peter Lim

Businessmen and Their Ideas
1. Donald Trump
2. Richard Branson
3. Bill Gates
4. Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad)


Help me expand this list! Any suggestions would be welcomed.

2 Months to End 2009

Oh No!!

It is just a short two more months to the end of 2009. And it seems like I have yet to hit my objective of $400 per month in passive income for this year!

How could I have fallen asleep and not keep track of my passive income earnings?

Last year, I managed to achieve my goal in a pretty short time simply by buying lots of REITs. This year however, the global financial crisis sort of through my whole REITs buying strategy off track. I got a little bit afraid of buying more REITs as most of my REITs had fallen in value.

I really need to get to work so that I do not fall behind my earnings goal. Otherwise there will be lots of catching up to do for the year of 2010.

Any suggestions please?

Read Related Articles:
1. Welcome to My Financial Freedom Journey
2. Financial Freedom Number
3. Financial Freedom Goal