This page represents a general look at my financial progress over the last 13 years divided into various categories. It details how I got started, what kind of companies I invest in, and the important financial lessons I’ve learned to make me a better investor. Hopefully my quirky strategies will inspire others to reach for their financial goals as well. 😀
Dividends Progress
Dividends are a great way to get started in the world of investing. It starts off slow at first, but over 10 or 20 years it’s possible to build quite a significant stream of income from it. I started in 2009. In 2019 I was making about $14,000/year. By 2029 I aim to make at least $40,000 annually from dividend income. Click here for more details about my dividend progress.
Incomes / Expenses Progress
It’s important to track our incomes and spending because in order to build our investments we need to be making more than we spend. I was able to double my income in the last 6 years through a combination of salary increases and finding new sources of income. But my expenses have also crept higher. The trick is to increase income while keeping a lid on spending. I track my income statement every year to make sure I’m living within my means. Click here for more details.
Net Worth Progress
Financial success is mostly about building up assets. 😀 Making the maximum usage of what we have is the ultimate reward. Net worth is the value of all net assets, a barometer for wealth…
My strategy has been to buy up appreciating assets that also generate income. But I don’t have to earn a lot of money to do this because when interest rates are low like they are now, I can leverage other people’s money. Since I started working I’ve managed to buy an apartment for $230,000, two separate farms for $150,000 and $172,000, a rental property for $450,000, and various stocks valued at more than $500,000. Over all this time most of those assets are worth more now than when I initially bought them. I update my net worth once a month.
Road to Financial Freedom
The whole point of this blog is to track my progress to have enough income generating assets to live a financially free life. I anticipate it will be a long and slow process just like it would be for anyone else. But so far I am having a lot of fun watching my financial security become more and more self sustaining every year. 😀 I will be financially free when my passive income for the year reaches 100% or more of my expenses for that same year.
| Year’s End | Passive Income to Expenses |
| 2009 | 1% |
| 2010 | 2% |
| 2011 | 11% |
| 2012 | 13% |
| 2013 | 15% |
| 2014 | 20% |
| 2015 | 31% |
| 2016 | 39% |
| 2017 | 50% |
| 2018 | 60% |
| 2019 | 71% |
| 2020 Estimate | 100% |
Passive Income – After tax income that requires little or no work to maintain. The tax consideration is calculated under the assumption that I do not have any supplementary active income, ie: a job. Examples of passive income include dividends, royalties, rent, pensions, child care benefits, etc.
Expenses – My total spending for that particular year. This will always be a moving target due to inflation and lifestyle changes.
Hmmm. I really like your idea of making milestones for your passive income to cover X% of your expenses for the year since just shooting for 100% is a crazy far off number. I may start doing that, thanks!
Aiming to meet a girl by 2030? I hope you meet someone before then since that seems crazy far away! I’m hoping for by 2020 and you’re probably close to my age since I graduated within the last few years as well.
Sounds like you’re well-prepared for your financial plan 🙂
Thanks Miss. Hopefully I’ll meet someone sooner rather than later :). If everything goes to plan I’ll be married by 2020, and my kids will begin school before 2030. But unlike a personal goal, there are some variables in this plan that are out of my control. So I’m giving myself some wiggle room here and just see how it plays out.
I LOVE YOUR GRAPHS!
Also, great work! I how you calculated how much of your expenses your passive income can cover… I’m going to go do my own calculations and maybe set some goals for the end of the year.
I’m especially impressed by how much you’ve been able to grow your net worth on a modest income — it makes me feel a little guilty actually haha
Nice job. You’ve really motivated me!
Nice of you to drop by (~_~). What I’ve learned is to set smaller goals first and then build them up over time. Looks like you’re already doing really well yourself.
Liquid,
Great website! I really enjoyed the content, the graphs, your passive income goals, basically the whole enchilada! As the saying goes, nobody plans to fail, but most people fail to plan. Looks like you’re well on your way to financial independence and you’re displaying great foresight and discipline. It will serve you well as you get married and have kids in your coming years, and saving becomes much more challenging. As a 49 year old husband with 3 kids, I can tell you that you’re doing it right by keeping your expenses low and focusing on growing your asset base and net worth. One of the things I seriously under-estimated is the cost of raising children. It has made saving/investing very difficult given the myriad of expenses for my kids. Anyway, I started investing seriously in dividend stocks in 2004 and I’m up to $1,400/month in passive dividend. My goal is $3,500/month by the time I hit 60. Anyway, congrats to you and keep up the great work you’re doing with your website and your personal financial situation.
Thanks for the encouragement Dean. That’s really motivating to see how much dividend income you’re making now and how persistence ultimately pays off. I hope to be in a similar situation as yours some day.
Do you reinvest the dividends, liquid?
Yes, for the most part. I do it through DRIPs across all my accounts except my margin accounts because I kind of want the dividends to pay for the monthly incurred interest ::0)
The reason I buhogt this book was because I am looking for a way to invest some money I received when my Mother passed a few years ago. I knew that if I didn’t get that money working for us, we would fritter it away just covering day to day emergencies. I have always believed that real estate investing was the best way to become rich, but I also knew there were a lot of horror stories out there of people making big mistakes.This book explains everything a passive investor needs to know about buying income property. It doesn’t hide the risks and it showed me several profit centers that I never considered before like tax savings from depreciation, IRA investing and inflation proof income.My biggest concern about investing has always been that I don’t want to be a landlord I don’t want to manage property. Passive Real Estate Investing gives a clear, compelling argument for using competent, professional, licensed property managers. Joe Crump tells us that hiring a property manager is no different than hiring someone to clean our house or do our taxes or clean our teeth and he seems to have empirical proof and firsthand knowledge of every claim he makes. This guy has clearly been around the block.I also liked the step by step scenario (sort of a blueprint) that he laid out for turning a small amount of money into a reliable income in just a few short years. I’m set to retire in 3 years and I want to make sure I invest the money I have wisely, so it will give me a healthy, permanent, passive income when I do. I also want that money to be safe. Although the money I inherited seemed like a lot of money in one lump sum, I knew that investing it in a money market account or mutual fund wasn’t going to get close to giving me enough income to continue my current standard of living. I also knew it wouldn’t last very long if I dipped into the principle to use for living expenses. I wanted something that would give me long term income starting almost immediately. The methods Joe Crump teaches in this book are exactly what I need to help me take that money and use it wisely.The Bad Although he covered a dozen different ways to find properties and even gave his own recommendations about how to find deals, I would have liked to have seen more detail about the active investing strategies he used to build his own portfolio. Apparently, he covers this material in other programs that he sells on his websites. To compensate, he gives the buyers of the book a bonus audio that you can download from his site for free that gets into more of the minutia of finding deals. I just started listening to it, but so far he is covering ideas and methods he claims to use everyday to make offers. These are ideas that I’ve never heard before (and I’ve read a lot of books on investing).Despite these issues, I still highly recommend this book especially for folks who are lucky enough to have some money to invest.One thing I should note he also explains how he buys and sells properties to investors. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about fix and flip, but never one with so much knowledge on how to sell to other investors rather than to people who are buying houses to live in. It’s very smart once you hear how he explains his reasoning for doing it this way.He even uses no money down strategies for buying some of these houses and explains how you can do it exactly the way he does it (although he also uses cash to buy REOs and other distressed properties).Last thing to wrap it up I REALLY appreciated him giving us a free audio download of the book. I was able to read on my way to the office. Why don’t more Kindle books give you the audio version when you buy? Kudos for that.