Passive Income Update

It has been a while since I last consolidated my passive income. Instead of waiting for the new year, I shall attempt to do a mid- (or more like three-quarter) year review.

The journey towards financial freedom is a long and arduous one, which makes it really easy for me to lose steam and lose sight. I hope that this stock-take of my achievement thus far will put me back on track and provide me with the motivation to push on.

Let's cut to the chase:

9M interest income = $3135.17

9M dividend income = $2839.24

Total passive income for first 9 months of 2017 = $5974.41

This works out to be $663.82 per month.

I need to caveat that the interest income is expense-driven, i.e. by fulfilling credit card spend requirement to qualify for higher interest rates on saving accounts like UOB ONE and BOC SmartSaver. This source of income is not foolhardy. In the event that I lose my job, I will have problem hitting these minimum credit card spend requirements, thus drying up this income stream. 

For dividend income, I must say I haven't been exactly building up my portfolio with high-quality, high-yielding counters. Often, I am tempted to trade, taking profits and trying to buy back lower. Not being able to do this well means that my overall portfolio yield hasn't been fantastic, as oftentimes I will miss the chance to buy-back lower as the counter continues to scale higher prices. Though I am trading much, much lesser now, my self-discipline still has rooms for improvements.

More than 50% of my holdings are in cash now. I will lose sleep and make more emotionally-driven buy/sell decisions if I allocate more to stocks. Holding more cash while markets continue to break new highs gives me peace of mind. 

Author : F4FF

Share this

Related Posts