Reflection of my income streams and investment portfolio

I have a big roadmap of where my different income streams will be. For the past 8 years, I have been developing them. It is with this belief that will support my end goal of living a life that is contractually free, a 10 years plan in place. This post shall be a brief of where I am now and where I wish to be. By sharing, I hope to inspire everyone around me.

My Day Job

I have been strengthening my expertise in regional business development and cross-border negotiation, thereby building an excellent track record across diverse clientele in Asia and Europe. The positive mindset, constant thinking and humility of continuous improvement are extremely useful. The right characteristics offer me the pathway to senior roles, thus expanding my income base over the years. I seek to learn through newspapers and external publication, draw realistic scenarios from books and wade into deep waters to make tough agreements with c-suite business people. Finally, I pick up key abilities and personal experiences in closing deals face-to-face.

It’s important to self-reflect where you are right now and how you can have the relevant skills and expertise to scale up, so as to be hugely marketable. This should be the starting point for any young graduate, to invest in your skill bank for better income prospects.

My Investment

For my investment, I am looking at the objective of achieving “a monthly mid-range 4 figure sum”. In future, at least 90% of my investment revenue should be consistent and recurring. Meaning, I am able to get an average expected income per month. To do so, I have built a foundation, like a basic structure. So, I have been accumulating S-Reits (real estate investment trust) to get visibility in my cash flow. For now, Reits will form majority of my income producing assets. At the minimum, my average expected yield from reits is 6%.

The other is Singapore Savings Bond (SSB). Just parking away a sum of monies to get almost 98% risk-free with coupon rate of 2.63 % (paid twice per year) for 10 years period.

As for my growth stocks - I have defined my style, a “Market Opportunist”. I am not an armchair person, almost never to follow the herd but one who sniffs out opportunities. Once I pick out a potential lead, I will commence my desk research, followed by fieldwork and quantitative analysis to assess the financial health and probability of getting above-average returns. For cyclical companies - I have a systematic framework, using my personal worksheets, qualifying criteria and spreadsheets to help shape my thought process. It’s not going to be exhaustive; a fine balance to ensure my final decision has been well researched and informed.

My watch list is both the firms listed in Singapore Stock Exchange and international corporations who can be listed in America - think of the Uranium Producer in the Canadian mines, scalable IT companies in Russia to Spanish banks that have presence in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Other income streams

I have a freelancing business in enrichment and coaching - career management and sales development. It’s always self-satisfying and rewarding to make an impact on others in life, so that they have a helping hand to go one notch above.

Perhaps, this is something I might continue doing when I reach 55 years old!

I have also started a small stake in a Malaysian-based start-up whom I know the founders. There is an Exit Strategy in their business plan. Let’s see where this takes me.

The rest is mostly one off such as loan financing. Recently, I participated in one of the crowdfunding loan program in Funding Societies. It’s an Education company - 3 months loan, about 16% effective interest rate per annum. Put a small sum to test it out, pretty interesting! I received my Principle + interest amount over 3 months but I think equities would offer a better option from a risk perspective.

What’s next?

Of course, my days can’t be spent on commercial activities. I have to cater time for my family, business contacts and friends, nature and heritage watch, sports and gym. I am a big fan of experiences and memories, so I will be packing my bags to unique attraction and sites, as well as meaningful volunteer trips abroad. Actually, travelling broadens my horizon, giving me a window to know how others lead their lives, shape my analysis of stuffs around me. I made my personal maiden visit to the Cambodian villages. It’s a volunteering trip. Through a friend of mine, we have touched the hearts of many. This has indeed cast a strong impression. Truly engaging to support the under-privileged and making sure they know that education is the way out of poverty. The smile of the children and older folks are priceless. Despite the challenging conditions, they try to get the best out of simple meals and drinks.

Back to my investment……

Apart from continuously expanding my reits and shares portfolio to hit the monthly dividend target, I also will like to increase my exposure to more aggressive growth stocks. At an appropriate time to sell, this will give me additional financial ammo to reinvest into more income producing assets, thus my foundation of regular investment income gets stronger.

I do have fundamentally sound firms in place such as Boustead in my portfolio. But to capture the ever-changing growth trends, my key priorities are to look for turnaround prospects that have something in them and cyclical firms that are in spiral downturn but have valuable tangible and intangible assets. Cycle is up - I can expect a steep upside in my portfolio returns. On the other hand, I am not in favor of over-hyped assets through media publicity, neither chasing higher-up equity market prices.

Another of my focus is to invest in private companies, look for startups in seed funding round and possibly overseas properties that could provide above-average returns within my moderate-risk framework. All-in, my portfolio shouldn’t be too overly diversified. The aim is to be adaptable, move my funds around to seize opportunities (make money work harder) while the foundation (income-producing) is kept in place. To make this happen, I have learn to be sensitive to opportunities around me, for example I did a quick trend analysis to anticipate the probabilities. I will be investing in specific themes or firms in sectors that I am familiar/have prior knowledge.

In conclusion, my portfolio must be able to generate a solid pool of 4-figure monthly cash flow through income-producing assets, a vital component in the “Project Silver Milestone”

I hope you have a clear vision of your portfolio objective.

Happy investing!