On October 31, 2015, I celebrated my 35th birthday. That was also the year I had became a father for the first time. Needless to say, it was a year full of milestones, changes and things to reflect on.
That evening, after having taken my 6 month old son to visit relatives for his first trick-or-treating, I was driving back home from an errand and literally parked my car for a brief moment and thought to myself: I just turned 35, what do I have to show for it? While I meant this in terms of personal development in general, it was more specifically from a financial prospective. Though I had already been pretty good with my money, I thought I could do more. For example, while myself and my wife had personal savings and something we always did, I thought I needed something on my own. Something that allowed me to try somewhat riskier investments than I would otherwise be able to do with family savings.
An idea flashed into my head, the result of having read a lot about investing, stocks trading, and dividend income the last few years. The idea was that I would start saving small chunks of money and within 10 years (by age 45) I would hopefully have enough money to generate $12K in annual ($1K a month) side income from dividends alone! That would be a start but would scale it through dividend reinvestment the first few years.
And I literally started that same night, and for the next 7 years, I never stopped. In fact, at one time, I had some side gigs and saved most of that money for this new 10 year goal.
Through 7 years and with 3 more to go, while I am not 100% on target, I am consistent with my savings and stock investments. In fact, I took advantage of the March 2020 lockdown and the current economic downturn, to be stock at a big discount. In the next 3 years, I will continue to reinvest my dividends to buy more stocks where possible, and stay consistent with saving and investing in good dividend paying equities.
There you have it. A decision literally made from thin air, all while driving and having decided to park to review my personal development after making it to my mid 30s. This has already changed my life and will do even more as I start reaping the rewards of this decade of sound and consistent investing in dividends paying stocks, in the form of a stable passive income.