LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME

A UK-based chocolate manufacturer, Hotel Chocolat, has come up with a novel way to raise capital for expansion. Instead of borrowing money from banks or issuing regular corporate debt, it has decided to raise about $7.5 million USD by issuing “chocolate bonds“. Instead of a regular dividend payment (well technically it’s a coupon payment and not a dividend), these bonds will pay dividends in chocolates!

In order to be eligible, you need to be a member of their “Tasting Club”, which already has 100,000 members. For an investment of $2,890 USD or $5,760 USD, you can get a juicy annual dividend of 6.72% or 7.29% delivered to your doorstep every other month.

If you’ve ever been to high-end confectionery, you’ll know they charge a couple of dollars for each piece of candy.  So spending a few thousand quid might not be such a bad investment. Especially since bank yields aren’t very impressive right now. At least it guarantees you won’t have to spring for chocolate for three years, even if the rest of your portfolio tanks!  Read more... (235 words, 9 images, estimated 56 secs reading time)

According to Robert Zoellick, World Bank President  and former Goldman Sachs head and US Secretary of State, you shouldn’t take the US Dollar’s reserve currency status for granted. Swelling government deficits and the strength of emerging countries is weakening the demand for the dollar. Time to head for the exits?

So how should you diversify out of the dollar?

According to Zoellick, the Euro and the Chinese Yuan are good alternatives (source: BusinessWeek). But a lot of people think that investing in a basket of currencies is a better approach. In the short-term, currency volatility is unpredictable since exchange rates are more likely to be impacted by government policy than fundamentals. In the long term, all fiat currencies devalue and buying gold and silver is probably a better bet. But if you really want to park your savings in cash, consider a currency that has stronger fundamentals the the US dollar, the British pound and euro.  Read more... (393 words, 8 images, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

What Every Investor Needs To Know About Tax Liens!

Today’s guest post comes via Blunt Money, an Arizona-based wife and mother, who’s had experience with being divorced, unemployment, under-employed, employed and self-employed!

What are Tax Liens?

Tax liens are liens placed against real estate to secure the debt from unpaid taxes. They are first liens, which means that they (in theory) must be repaid before any other debts that the property might be collateral for. Like everything else regarding tax liens and investments, there are a few exceptions to this — nothing is guaranteed.

The process of investing in tax liens and the amount of interest you can earn from them varies from county to county, so it’s best to get specifics on the exact requirements from the particular county you’re interested in.  Read more... (1004 words, 14 images, estimated 4:01 mins reading time)

A couple of years ago, I went to a real estate seminar and met a successful businessman. He was in his sixties and I was amazed to learn that he had more than a dozen small businesses going and was also trying to start his own bank.

Since I wanted to find out how did he manage to run so many different ventures, I offered to buy him lunch. (Incidentally, that’s a great way to cheaply pick the brains of someone who normally wouldn’t give you the time of day!)

Most of the various businesses he ran were some how interconnected and did a lot of business amongst themselves. Since they were in somewhat related fields, the management was a lot easier. For example, one of his businesses was writing newsletters for Trade Unions and another one was printing & mailing services.  Read more... (428 words, 9 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Is it possible to earn passive income for domains? Absolutely!  It isn’t rocket science but it does involve a little bit of work. Here are the simple steps:

1. Buy a cheap domain name.

2. Decide how you’re going to monetize it. Either through ads on a niche site, affiliate sales, or domain parking.

3. Get up and actually do the work.

Buying Cheap Domains

GoDaddy currently has a great promotion on .info domains. They’re currently selling for only $0.99 instead of the usual $9 dollars. That’s about 90% off the regular price, and I spent the past several days getting about 15 domains that I think I might be able to monetize in some form or the other.

People might feel more comfortable or might more easily remember .com domains, but if you’re targeting search engine traffic it probably shouldn’t matter very much. A lot of the domains have dashes in them (example Sterling-Silver-Rings.info, but again, for visitors coming from a search engine it shouldn’t matter too much.  Read more... (728 words, 8 images, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

Finally I’m getting some traction with my passive income! After all, that’s what this blog is all about. The total for March 2008 is $2, 667.18, and I’m ecstatic to have broken the $2,500 per month barrier. If I can sustain it at $2,500 per month, thats $30,000 per year. While I’m not living in luxury, it’s definitely a great safety net to have. This represents a 11.9% jump from February’s passive income and it has been growing at a steady clip for quite a while now. Hopefully, I shouldn’t have a problem maintaining it.

Here’s the breakdown:  Read more... (1008 words, 8 images, estimated 4:02 mins reading time)

• Online Income: $1645.30
  • Adsense: $339.28
  • Linkworth: $456.70
  • TLA: $103.61
  • Kontera: $62.07
  • Direct Ads: $330
  • Prosper Referrals: $175
  • Amazon: $117.82
  • Domain Embarking: $60.82
• Savings Accounts: $133.10
• Real Estate Trust Deed: $0
• Direct Oil Drilling Investment: $270
• Dividends from Canroys: $517.71