The fact is, this is taking longer than I expected. I had a feeling, perhaps based on my previous experiences, that this would be an undertaking, an endeavor, and an uphill battle. I could have done the math at the beginning of this project and found the amount I would actually need to save to get to $100 dollars a month.
I didn’t do that because, quite frankly, I think it would have put me off the whole idea. Now that I’m in it, I think I can take an honest look at what lies ahead. I want $100 dollars per month. That’s $1,200 dollars per year. My current portfolio yields about 7% (which is actually high and possibly unsustainable). That means I need a portfolio worth $17,142.86 dollars.
That tracks with what I’ve said previously that this will take about 3 years. I’m 1 year in so it doesn’t seem so bad. The only way I could have even started this, though, was to create simple goals. Earn $50 dollars a week outside of my regular job, buy 1 stock a week, etc. Otherwise I would have thought it was impossible. But small, consistent behaviors really do add up and seeing that play out has been so inspiring. And now I can see how the payoff will be worth it. Passive income provides so much on a psychological level that I think I will probably continue this project well after I hit my goal.
With my stock purchases today I hit $1 dollar a day in passive income.