Personal Passive Income and Expenses Monthly Report - August 2016

Hi Everyone!

This post might come a bit early but just two days won't make any much difference. I just got my recent salary increment, which is around $200, feel very happy because an increment is an increment, and I have hit my targeted salary, making $4,000 per month!

One target achieved, 4 more to go! 

Secondly, I just received $64 worth of dividends from Singtel, which is a good thing and this raise my passive income in 2016 to $1,405.65! Well, it might be little, but my actual investment journey starts mid of next year (after I purchase my first property).

I am on my way to hit my goal for myself of generating $1,500 worth of passive income before I hit 28 years old. My investment is still float above $3,000 for now, generating around 4.2% dividend yield per year I guess.

Savings and Expenditure - August 2016

Based on the graph below, my expenses break down are as below (pretty much the same as last month) - but the good thing is that all the target are green! I didn't exceed any of the category:

1) Travel: $120 (Planned) VS $120 (Actual) - I bought adult concession so the amount is fixed

2) Food (Weekday): $160 (Planned) VS $122.20 (Actual)

3) Bills: $120 (Planned) VS $65.13 (Actual) 

4) Entertainment: $120 (Planned) VS $119.75 (Actual)

5) Others: $580 (Planned) VS $511.00 (Actual)

Overall: $1,100 (Planned) VS $938.08 (Actual)

150K progress - August 2016

As of now, my savings is around 75%. 25 more percent to go before I hit my target, which boils down to around $37,500 more to go!

Conclusion - August 2016

My expenses is under controlled, but hard to say for the next few months because of my wedding expenses. Well, $37,500 more to goal to hit my target, hope I will achieve that goal at the mid of 2017. I believe my passive income will generate around $160 per month by the end of this year. 

Also, very happy that I achieve one of my goal which is hitting $4,000 monthly income and hope I can reach my target soon enough! Can't wait to buy my first property and start my investment journey full time!

Plan-it for the Plan-et: Sustainable Finance for the 21 st Century Family

Hi Everyone!

This is a guest post by Cara MacMillion (MBA), and it's an honor for me to have her post written on my blog. So the guest post is as below, do enjoy!

Plan-it for the Plan-et: Sustainable Finance for the 21 st Century Family

Go for it!

You have financial goals; you have written them down...now what?

Move forward.

The biggest mistake people make is inaction. I was recently coaching a couple on setting financial goals. We started the conversation on a warm summer day in 2016. But the couple was still discussing a bad financial decision that they had made in 2006. Somehow, they just decided to stay in 2006 and so they did. And so did their finances.

Treat your finances like a business. Get the emotion out of it. Check your ego at the door and focus on your values and your goals. How long would you stay employed if you refused to move forward and adapt? As an employer, I can tell you I would be setting both of you up on performance improvement plans.

Go ahead. Set yourselves up on performance improvement plans.

So here are the first steps of the Financial Performance Improvement Plan:

1. Pair up with a loved one and separately write down your budgets.

2. Write down financial goals that you hope to achieve in the next 90 days. (I.e.; take a vacation, buy a new car, fix the car, paint a room etc)

3. Determine how much each of those goals would cost and add up your wish list.

Now, this last step is the most important. You see, if you are living in the past and you keep reliving that one bad decision then you cannot move forward. So go on a date in a public place. It can be a coffee shop, a restaurant or pub, or even a picnic in the park. Get out of your regular surroundings! You are about to hold a strategic planning session. Executives always move strategic planning sessions outside of their regular work surroundings so that they can change their perspective and their thought patterns. Follow their example!

As you relax, follow an agenda. Give your budget to your partner and you take theirs. Read them alone and make notes. Each takes your turn asking questions respectfully to ensure complete understanding. You will have a complete first draft of your budget. You have each created one and you can now blend the two budgets together into one. You share accountability for the future.

Now dream a bit. Celebrate a bit. Share your wish list in the same manner. Do any of the goals match? If not, that is ok. This is why you cannot move forward. To get past this, you should agree to accomplish one goal from each other’s wish list in the next 90 days. And accomplish it.

Congratulations! You are now working together on your sustainable financial family plan.

Personal Passive Income and Expenses Monthly Report - July 2016

Hi Everyone,

Finally, it is the end of July 2016 (in fact today is the first day of August), as this is a monthly personal financial report, I will be doing a summary of my passive income, expenses and savings in this blog post. With this blog post, I will be able to note down my progress every month.

Investment and Passive Income - July 2016

My investment still remains the same as compared to June 2016 as I did not make any move into purchasing or selling any shares. Currently the market is pretty unstable (sometimes bull and sometimes bear) and also I need to prepare savings to purchase my first property next year as well.

My passive income in July 2016 was $238.37 which are all main from OCBC 360 interest, UOB One account interest and credit card rebate. This is a good monthly income as it can cover my travel expenses. However, the extra $100 from UOB credit card is given quarterly, so technically, my monthly interest is around  $138.37, which I have successfully met the target set on the previous month (target $138). My next month's passive income should hit $140 (hopefully I could).

Savings and Expenditure - July 2016

Based on the graph below, my expenses break down are as below (pretty much the same as last month):

1) Travel: $120 (Planned) VS $120 (Actual) - I bought adult concession so the amount is fixed

2) Food (Weekday): $160 (Planned) VS $94.20 (Actual)

3) Bills: $120 (Planned) VS $89.22 (Actual) 

4) Entertainment: $120 (Planned) VS $122.80 (Actual)

5) Others: $580 (Planned) VS $545.11 (Actual)

Overall: $1,100 (Planned) VS $971.33 (Actual)

Goal - July 2016

I have yet to achieve any goal for this year yet.

150K progress - July 2016

As of now, my savings is around 73%. 27 more percent to go before I hit my target! Wish me luck!

Conclusion - July 2016

This is a good result whereby my entertainment target was the only one that exceed the planned target. However, the overall expenses still within $1,000. This is indeed a good goal for me and I am really happy about it. Of course, I did not included my wedding expenses as I have already set a side the amount that I needed for wedding. 

My passive income was also doing a good job of having $138.37, which hit the target that I set formy self last month. With this amount, it can help me to clear my travel expenses with a bit of leftover.

Up till now, I have met none of my goals! But these goals are to be met during the last 2 to 3 months of this year. So by then I should be able to clear them all I believe.The biggest headache is my $150k goal. Certainly, I have increase 3%, leaving me with 27% more to go, however, it would mean that I need 9 months (if I manage to save 3% of 150k per month) which will be quite hard so hopefully my bonus can play a big part in clearing this hurdle.

So wish me luck!