Regular readers of my blog will know that one of my key investment objectives is to build a portfolio that can provide 5% dividend yield to me annually. I try to be a bit more kia-su (i.e. afraid to lose) by adding 1% to the more convention 4% Rule. If you have not heard of the 4% Rule (for retirees), you can find some references at the end of this post.

Yes, I just did it – with the dividends declared by Ireit today, the total dividends that I have and will receive this year has breached the 5% mark!

It is one full Quarter ahead of the my target plan, with a little bit of additional help by deploying leverage as a tactic, i.e. using margin account (which I had blogged earlier) to purchase some stocks that are seemingly undervalued and have decent dividend