Five Cents Ten Cents

Flickr image "beautiful stream" by holl_and

My blog monetisation efforts has been one of my greatest achievements in moving myself towards financial freedom. I started out serious blogging to see if I could establish an income stream that would allow me to quit my day job and to retire without working (as what many of those make money online scams and advertisements promise!)

Can Quit Your Day Job?

But the reality was that it’s quite difficult to make enough for you to quit your day job. Thus, my explorations into blog monetisation has been coming to 2 years and I am able to generate S$100 to $350 per month with minimal effort after the first six months. Nowadays, my main blog that brings in real income is fairly passive, I receive updates on the information from a forummer I know whom I give a share of the advertising revenue.

Some of you may scoff at the amount, but I am thinking ahead that if I can sustain this type of income stream with the level of effort that I’m already putting in, this could be one of my personal CPF Life type of scheme.

Your Personal CPF Life Income Stream

For those of you who may not know, CPF Life is the compulsory life annuity that will kick in when you hit the retirement age of 62 (now) or 67 (in the future). It pays you an income for life and is funded by locking away a portion of your CPF minimum sum amount.

Planning ahead means that I am also looking around and thinking of how to create such income streams that are self-sustaining and require minimal effort. In addition, I realise that I need to continually invest in myself in terms of skills, knowledge and relevant experience that can be monetised when my career transits from an 8-5.30 job to a freelance/self-employed basis.

On that note, I’ve volunteered to develop and deliver in-house training to my fellow colleagues on top of my regular work assignments. This initiative helps me to boost up my visibility within the organisation as well as to hone and develop my training skills. I intend to build up this skill set and the networking so that it could be a viable second career when my daughter becomes independent and can fend for herself.

It is these series of small steps in changing habits that result in more enduring change. My blog monetisation started out as a small experiment which I intend to continue so long as I have breath and it pays for itself and more. My experiment in eating healthily for breakfasts (rolled oats and raisins) for coming to two years have given me a figure that I once lost for many years but only regained from healthy eating and moderate exercise.

My investment returns for 2009 were the result of efforts since 2003 to invest in the Singapore stock market and to learn until I was competent enough to make 8%+ returns way above any “risk-free” returns on 1-2% on fixed deposits or money market instruments.

Take small but concrete steps.

Do, learn and grow.

Exploring Possibilities

The more I travel along this journey towards financial freedom, the more I realise it is about being open to possibilities and taking a plunge to do small experiments to see if an idea can work out or not in bringing one closer to financial freedom.

What are you thinking of during this Lunar New Year period that will bring you closer to financial freedom?

Be well and prosper.