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!

Read Related Articles:
1. My Flat is Worth Half A Million?
2. Passive Income Update for October 2009

No Income Tax to Pay but must pay for Carpark

No Income Tax to Pay
Just finished filing my family's income tax.

After accounting for all the tax reliefs, rebates and stuff, my family has $0 in taxes to pay for the year! Perhaps its also because we don't earn that much in the first place.

Carparking
The only downside to the start of April 09 was the need to renew my carparking.

I renewed it for 3 months at a price of $270. Very expensive. That is equivalent to $3 a day!

Perhaps it is time to get a landed property so that I do not need to pay for parking.

Stock Purchases

Added 6,000 shares of Hongguo @0.125
Hope the bull market does not return too soon so that I can collect more stocks/REITs on the cheap.

P.S : To the team at SG Dividends, I have included a link to your site.

Cheers,
Financial Freedom

Networth Update for Mar 09

Added Pengrowth Energy Trust

Updating my passive income portfolio.
PenWest Energy Trust had a dividend cut to US$0.15 per unit. Also added Pengrowth Energy Trust into my portfolio. It gives US$0.10 per unit.

My updated portfolio for passive income for 31 Mar 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. 50 x PenWest Energy Trust = $11.00 per month
7. 100 x Pengrowth Energy Trust = $15.00 per month

Total avg monthly passive income = $259.05 (Mar 09)

Financial updates for March

This is a short post.

Just to remind myself that I added 6000 x Hongguo at $777.73 to my existing share portfolio.

In addition, opened a Citibank step up interest account to earn up to 1% interest for my deposits. Will take 12 months to step up to that 1% interest though.

Making an effort to update my monthly income and expenditure to this blog too.

My income for Mar 09 inclusive of bonuses and CPF contributions = $16, 381.

Hope to update my expenditure for the month of Mar 09 too.

First US Stock for my Dividends Portfolio

Updating my passive income portfolio

My updated portfolio for passive income for Mar 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. 50 x PenWest Energy Trust = $13.50 per month

Total avg monthly passive income = $246.55 (Mar 09) versus $224.59 (Oct 08)

Thoughts on Financial Freedom, Success and Happiness

Of Financial Freedom

I started this blog in August 2008. The main purpose of this blog then was to chronicle my journey towards financial freedom. After much thought on deciding what financial freedom meant to different people, I decided that financial freedom for me would be simply to allow my monthly passive income to exceed my monthly expenditures.

However, I have come to realise that while this might mean financial freedom in the pure income and expenditure department, it does not necessarily mean that I will become financially "free".

What do I mean?

It means that I could actually have passive income that is greater than my monthly expenditure but still not be contented with what I have. Thus in that sense, financial freedom will become an endless pursuit, a chasing after the wind, where I will just crave for more and more money.

Financial freedom is thus also about the state of my mind. Am I contented with what I have today? Will i be contented when my monthly passive income exceeds my monthly expenditure?

Only when one is contented can one then achieve financial freedom in the true sense of the word.

Of Success

What is success to me? Is it driving a nice big car? Living in a bungalow?

I have decided that true success is being able to contribute back to society - to be able to use one's labour for the benefit of others.

True success is also about not being bothered by how others view you. Why try so hard to impress people you don't like?

Of Happiness

One can be rich and still be not happy. Thus, riches is not the path to happiness.

Instead, happiness is found in having the basic necessities, having close friends and family, and having the freedom to do what you want when you want and not be bogged down by deadlines/meetings/last minute work assignments.

Conclusion

March 2009 marks a turning point in my life as I have become much clearer about what it means to be financially free; and also what success and happiness is all about. Previously I had a vague idea in my head what all these was about but I guess that the more I conversed with people, the clearer my thoughts on this matters became.

This breakthrough in my thinking was only made possible by deep reflection, talking to close friends and also preparing to switch my job.

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