I have been dabbling in stocks for the last 10 odd years and I have to admit I suck – period. I realised that I have zero interest in crunching numbers or reading analyst reports.  I look at bloggers and analysts who spent hours scrutinising financial reports, looking at charts, doing back testing, attending AGMs etc and I realised that that is not for me. If it is not for the fact that I have to have some form of investment for retirement, I would have washed my hands off investing now. In the past when I see courses or seminars on investing, I will try to sign up but after a while I begin to find it boring and I am still nowhere closer to my 'end game'. I will like to remind myself that I am a mediocre investor. If the professionals spent hours each day to in just trying to achieve 10% annualised returns, how can I better them without spending the same amount of time and effort? I find working to be a more sustainable and less stressful way to achieve financial independence. Rather than having investing classes, I hope to see more courses to help people manage and enjoy their job. Instead of calculating how I fare in my stocks and them shaming or praising myself on the performance, I decided to set a goal and how far am I from achieving it. My target is to have the Lazy Man Portfolio generate $20,000 per annum. Based on 5% yield, I should be able to reach my target at age 54.  Instead of focusing on portfolio growth, I will look at how I can achieve the yield in absolute amount.

Year	Age	Portfolio (Start of the Year)	Yield (%)	Yield ($)	Cash Injection	Portfolio (End of the Year)
1	39	$86,000.00	5.00%	$4,300.00	$11,000.00	$101,300.00
2	40	$101,300.00	5.00%	$5,065.00	$11,000.00	$117,365.00
3	41	$117,365.00	5.00%	$5,868.25	$11,000.00	$134,233.25
4	42	$134,233.25	5.00%	$6,711.66	$11,000.00	$151,944.91
5	43	$151,944.91	5.00%	$7,597.25	$11,000.00	$170,542.16
6	44	$170,542.16	5.00%	$8,527.11	$11,000.00	$190,069.27
7	45	$190,069.27	5.00%	$9,503.46	$11,000.00	$210,572.73
8	46	$210,572.73	5.00%	$10,528.64	$11,000.00	$232,101.37
9	47	$232,101.37	5.00%	$11,605.07	$11,000.00	$254,706.43
10	48	$254,706.43	5.00%	$12,735.32	$11,000.00	$278,441.76
11	49	$278,441.76	5.00%	$13,922.09	$11,000.00	$303,363.84
12	50	$303,363.84	5.00%	$15,168.19	$11,000.00	$329,532.04
13	51	$329,532.04	5.00%	$16,476.60	$11,000.00	$357,008.64
14	52	$357,008.64	5.00%	$17,850.43	$11,000.00	$385,859.07
15	53	$385,859.07	5.00%	$19,292.95	$11,000.00	$416,152.02
16	54	$416,152.02	5.00%	$20,807.60	$11,000.00	$447,959.62
17	55	$447,959.62	5.00%	$22,397.98	$11,000.00	$481,357.61

  There are still a few hard questions that I have to ask myself: 1) Is 5% yield a realistic target considering I hardly spend any time reading up on stocks? 2) Is my current portfolio generating at least 5% yield, else how should I re-balance it? 3) A huge portion of my portfolio is in cash but I do not want to rush to invest it. 4) Is $11,000 cash injection a year sustainable considering that I will have more liabilities in the future. 5) I have not yet taken my spouse into consideration. $20,000 is barely enough for one let alone two. 6) Are plans like OCBC Blue Chips Investment Plan, POEMS Share Builder Plan etc a viable option?

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Asahi Girl Photo Credit: Cocoa