I started out my journey some 4+ years ago and back then I had set out a 10-year projection target for myself. I tried to review them at the every interval of my birthday month to see how I was doing and if the target was overly ambitious.
Projection Target
| Year | Year | Starting Capital | Cumulative Annual Capital Injection | Dividends on Starting Capital | Total Yearly Dividend Payout | Monthly Passive Income |
| 0 | 1/9/2012 | $100,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $6,000.00 | $6,000.00 | $500.00 |
| 1 | 1/9/2013 | $166,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $9,960.00 | $13,920.00 | $1,160.00 |
| 2 | 1/9/2014 | $245,920.00 | $60,000.00 | $14,755.20 | $19,190.40 | $1,599.20 |
| 3 | 1/9/2015 | $345,030.40 | $60,000.00 | $20,701.82 | $25,453.25 | $2,121.10 |
| 4 | 1/9/2016 | $469,594.05 | $60,000.00 | $28,175.64 | $33,302.84 | $2,775.24 |
| 5 | 1/9/2017 | $627,460.53 | $60,000.00 | $37,647.63 | $43,245.80 | $3,603.82 |
| 6 | 1/9/2018 | $828,572.82 | $60,000.00 | $49,714.37 | $55,909.12 | $4,659.09 |
| 7 | 1/9/2019 | $1,085,594.23 | $60,000.00 | $65,135.65 | $72,090.20 | $6,007.52 |
| 8 | 1/9/2020 | $1,414,705.83 | $60,000.00 | $84,882.35 | $92,807.76 | $7,733.98 |
I started out really wasteful when I started working, always buying the latest trend of clothes and gadgets to keep up with the world. By 25, I realized that I had wasted piles of years of savings that could be used to fund greater needs for the future. One day, right around my 25th birthday, I started to ponder on my financial future. I had a good job and a good income but technically my net worth is still zero. I was eagerly awaiting for the next paycheck to come, only to find myself doing the same thing the following week. The euphoria moment I get when I saw those money hitting my bank account died off very soon. Realistically, I was only 25 years old at that point in time, so maybe I was doing relatively well I thought. Or maybe I was not. I wasn't really sure of my situation.
One day, I decided that I had to be more sensible towards my financial situation if I were going to be successful and so I decided to pen my every thoughts and plans into this blog. I have also been aggressively saving and investing my way toward financial independence for the most part of the past 4 years. I have purchased shares in great companies like ST Eng, SIA Eng, SPH, Singtel, Sembcorp Ind, Vicom, Neratel, Reits and many more on market dips in order to build up my arsenal of solid dividend payers. Slowly but surely, day by day, I continue my ascent to the top and hope that with time and persistence on my side, I will be able to reach the summit - the end goal of my financial independence.
Today, and on this very day, I'm proud to reach my first milestone of hitting $250k in my stock portfolio. It's an achievement that doesn't comes easy, with plenty of ups and downs along the way and I will be the first to admit that the idea of giving up often ponders inside my mind. Fortunately for me, luck and persistence take the better off me and so here I am still alive, kicking and pushing closer to the end goal. I've tried various methods on both defence (savings) and offence (higher income) and it seemed obvious that both are equally important. I've also thought that with the world's best defence but with very little offence to attack things were not going to be easy. So I've decided to upgrade myself with skills that are relevant and can improve on my productivity at work. I guess this is where the value of my MBA comes in - a very debatable tangible and intangible costs and benefits it can offer. The learning and interaction with the other bloggers have also pushed me to understand more towards financial goals.
Achieving my first milestone now does not mean that I will achieve my end goals in 6 years time easily. In fact, it is going to be even more difficult than ever. But now that my goals are in place and I'm on a designated path for financial independence, I live my life everyday with these end goals in mind. Hopefully, the desire and hunger to achieve the goal is still there by then.
For those who strives to achieve financial independence but does not know where to start, I hope this will give you some motivations and directions. Things are not going to be a replicate of what you see here because each of us has a different set of story but this is my story - and hopefully it can bring the changes to those who needs it.
