It has been a while I did set my general goal of saving million dollars before I will turn 60 (there is still plenty of time). The good news I've been on the right track for the past 5 months and I've been investing in peer to peer lending, dividend paying stocks and mutual funds.
I like the idea of getting monthly interest or dividend payments, and I started with investments in Latvian mintos peer to peer lending. Despite pretty high interest rates (more than 11% annually) I feel pretty concerned regarding peer to peer lending, especially in loans issued in Eastern Europe. That's the reason I started to invest in dividend paying stocks, unfortunately or for good, right now I'm still investing the same region I'm concerned with - Baltics. See: Dividend Paying Stocks In Nasdaq Baltic Market By Yield
The good thing about dividend paying stocks in Baltics, in general it's easy to find stocks with annul dividend yield higher than 6%, the bad thing - higher yield means higher risk and companies listed on Nasdaq Baltic list takes the same risk as this region (Eastern Europe). For now, I don't see red flags in the economies of Baltic, but I find them very volatile.
I finished month of April with EUR 25.83 in interest (that's about USD 28.22) with relatively small investment ($3,600) with all income made from peer to peer lending. In May I'm planing to receive about EUR 60 ($65.55) both from peer to peer lending and dividend paying stocks. While in June just about EUR 30 ($32.78) and here is why. My current investment in peer to peer lending generates about EUR 30 monthly, while dividends for stocks are paid annually or biannually, leaving some months with more interest received and some months with less.
That's the reason I love counting annual income. In general $100/mo equals to $1,200/y. And here comes in my first actually goal, to earn $100/mo or $1,200 annually from investments.
There are few possible scenarios to reach my goal - all of them ask for more invested money. Either I will tipple my investments in peer to peer lending or diversify with more dividend paying stocks.
I've already expressed my concerns regarding investments in Eastern Europe, though, as in general $100/mo is a relatively small income, I've decided to push more with peer to peer lending and dividend paying stocks in this area. As with current yield, to get $100 monthly, I could be fine with about $10,000 in total investment.
I'm looking to reach this goal by February 2018. After successfully completed goal I should re-consider my investment strategy. By now it's peer to peer lending and dividends paying stock. One of the further goals I already see is to invest in growth stocks, but as it requires more knowledge and a lot stock screening my current $100/mo goal right now seems the most applicable.