Journey to Financial Freedom

I've never believed that we were born to work our entire lives.. Hence, my decision to kick start this blog to share with people my road to financial freedom & hopefully spur my readers to also begin their own road to financial freedom.

"Happiness is best experienced when shared".

Financial freedom means to not have any liabilities & thus, "not having to be a slave" to our jobs. It helps you to sleep in peace & also gives you the "power" to leave your current job & look for another or, simply not work at all. Passive income is therefore very important for anyone who wants to be free financially. 

How then, can an average someone like myself or you be able to have passive income? Many people think that we need lots of money in order to invest. Some feel that they need to buy a property, rent it out then collect monthly rental fees & when they think about buying property, they sigh and often say they don't have that much capital for downpayment of the desired property. 

I don't disagree that buying a property is bad. In fact, buying the right property is a good investment. However, this is not possible for students or someone who just entered the workforce for less than 5years. 

REITs also known as real estate investment trusts were started out about a decade ago in the Singapore Stock Market. It is one form of investment that I highly recommend to anyone who wants stable passive income. Different REITs are listed on SGX for e.g Suntec REIT, Starhill Global REIT, Cambridge Industrial Trust etc. 

Different REITs own different real estate properties. For example, Suntec REIT is a retail and office REIT whereas Cambridge Industrial Trust is into industrial properties. By buying the stocks of these REITs, you are a shareholder and in some sense you own a portion of their real estate properties. REITs collect rental income from their tenants & it is compulsory for them to distribute 90% of that rental income to their shareholders unlike other non-REITs stocks which pay out dividends when the economy is performing well or when the company still makes a profit in an economic downturn. However, dividends pay out by non-REITs are inconsistent and depends on the company's overall net income profit for that particular year. As REITs pay out stable dividends (since rental fees imposed on tenants are stable; long lease), dividends can be our source of passive income.

I am vested in REITs as I strongly believe that real estate properties are stable and will appreciate in value in the long term as land becomes scarcer and world population continues to increase. REITs are not high volatile stocks & relatively low risks in my honest opinion. Thus, it suits my risk appetite. Everyone is different & maybe investing in REITs might not be suitable for you. But if it is, there's no harm following this blog.

Our most valuable asset is time. Time runs out when we age and therefore, we should start investing while we are still young. Do not wait til you are in your late thirties or forties or fifties and justify it's then a "ripe" time to invest for retirement. 

Time is our most precious asset & the irony is that it is free given to us from God. It is of utmost importance to invest in yourself before investing in the stock market. Investing in the stock market is less risky with the right knowledge and guidance. Hence, for those who intend to invest in the stock market or equities whether high volatile stocks,  blue chip stocks or REITs, please ensure you do your own research/homework/effort to obtain the right information so that you can invest confidently and sleep peacefully at night. 

This blog will track my own road to financial freedom and hopefully inspire others to also embark on their own journey! (If you don't like the idea of visiting my blog daily to check for new posts, you can enter your email & subscribe below to receive emails whenever I publish a new post)