My Passive Income (Month of Jul 10)

CPF(OA): $192 (from interest and dividends)
Cash: $1727 (from dividends and other passive incomes)
Total: $1919
Target: $3000
Achievement: 63.9%

There are no changes in my passive income 1 and 2.

For passive income 3, there is an decrease. I have sold all my 10 lots of Starhub shares for a profit and I have bought 7 lots of Singtel shares this month.

For passive income 4, there is increase of $10. However since it is still in the building stage, I will be expecting it to go up and down. In my post "Forget about achieving Financial Freedom if you do not have perseverance or refuse to learn.", I have mentioned that it will take time and effort to build up passive income.

Do I need an iPad?

iPad had been launched in Singapore on 23 Jul 10, and many diehard Apple fans had queued up before the launch in order to become the first few to own it.

Price:
Here are the pricing for six different models during the launch:
WiFi(16GB) - S$728
WiFi(32GB) - S$878
WiFi(64GB) - S$1028
WiFi+3G(16GB) - S$928
WiFi+3G(32GB) - S$1078
WiFi+3G(64GB) - S$1228

As we can see the price is ranging from $728 to $1228. The price is more expensive than a normal netbook which usually costs about $500 to $700.

Functionality:
The iPad can be used for Web browsing, e-mailing, viewing photos, listening to music, watching movies, playing simple games, word processing, creating spreadsheets, presentations and displaying e-books . Well all these functions can also be found in a laptop or netbook.

Portability:
iPad is very portable to be carry around. It is only about 680 (Wifi version) to 730g (Wifi + 3G version) whereas normal netbook will weigh about 1kg. With its thickness of about 1.34cm, it will very easy to hold with your hand. A screen of 9.7 inch, it is almost comparable to a normal 10 inch netbook. Due to its size and thickness, it is very easy to slide the iPad into most of the bags or haversacks.

Will an iPad benefit me?
In my opinion the price of the Ipad is too expensive for me considering the maximum storage space of 64GB. Many cheaper laptops and netbooks have already equipped with storage space of more than 100GB. As to me, there is no extra functionality being provided by the iPad as compared to a laptop or notebook, so there is no extra value to me if I buy it. For people who know me as a person who do not like to carry many things around, an iPad will certainty not suitable for me even though it is very portable.

Conclusion:
I do not need an iPad!!! I am still happy with my ASUS laptop.

My Investment portfolio has reached S$100k.

For those who have been following my other blog "My Investment portfolio in Singapore" would know that I have been slowly building up my investment portfolio. For every one or two month since Sep 09, I have been buying shares regularly and till today I have build a portfolio of $100k. The dividend yield of my portfolio is about 8% per year, which is about $8000 per year or $667 per month.

I always like to buy shares of companies that have strong fundamentals and give good dividends. And also I have come out with my own version of "My Rules of Investment" which will help to prevent myself from making any investment mistakes. To me buying shares is like buying a system that creates a source of passive income to me. Unlike trader or speculator, I am not so worry about making losses in stocks as long as the company is still giving good dividends. In fact, I like to see market to crash as it will provide me with the opportunity to buy good stocks at cheaper price.

Happiness is just about having enough.

To me, happiness is about having enough in everything we want in our lives. It can be having enough food to eat, having enough time to spend with my family, having enough time to enjoy my hobbies and interests, having enough time to sleep and having enough money to spend.

However if you do not have enough in certain aspects of your life, you may have a feeling of being deprive which is the main cause of unhappiness. By having not enough food to fill your stomach, you will feel hunger. By having not enough time to spend with your family, you may feel like a stranger to your family. By having not enough time for your hobbies and interests, you may feel unsatisfying about your life. By having not enough time to sleep, you will feel tired. By having not enough money to spend, you may be worrying about getting into debt.

Having more than enough is good but not necessary however. The ability to enjoy current happiness is much more fulfilling than trying to have more things in life.

Don't over commit your money.

A lot of people might be thinking of how much money they could make in the future and have started to over commit their money. With this in mind, they will start to buy big ticket items like a big house, luxury car, going for expensive tour paid by instalment. However if the future earning turns out not to their expectation, they will be burdened by their debts and will feel miserable for a very long time.

To avoid this problem, proper money management must be in place. One must know not see their future earning as a gauge to fund their current monetary commitment. In fact using current earning might not be good gauge also as one might just lost job on the next day. The best way is to know yourself how much money you can earn at a minimum based on your current ability if you happen to lose your job tomorrow. Next thing is to minus away 20% of the money for your savings. This savings will help you in case you are jobless. The remaining 80% of the money will be used for your expenses.

So for example, if you think that you can only earn $3000 per month, then $600 will be your savings and $2400 will be your maximum expense per month.

My First Half Financial Report for 2010 (Jan 10 to Jun 10)

Half a year of 2010 is over, and now it will be a good time to generate my first half financial report for 2010 (Jan 10 to Jun 10).

My Monthly Expenses:
For my monthly expenses, there are not much changes at all in this half a year. I always keep my expenses as low as possible by not spending money on the things that I will not need. For this part, I will give myself a "A" grade.

My Passive Incomes:
For my passive incomes, I have managed to increase it from $1640 (Dec 09) to $1990 (Jun 10). That is about $50 increase per month. In my New Year resolution, I have set two milestones for my journey towards financial freedom. The first one is to achieve a total passive income of $2000 by end of June 10 and the second one is to achieve a total passive income of $2400 by end of Dec 10. I have slightly missed my first target by $10. For this part, I will give myself a "B+" grade.

My journey towards financial freedom:
I have getting closer to achieve my financial freedom. I will need to generate an additional passive income of $1010 per month (Total Expenses of $3000 - Total Passive incomes of $1990) in order to achieve my aim.

My Assets:

These are the assets that I have. I am proud to say that I do not have any liability.