2013 target: Building Assets to create more passive income streams

I was thinking back on the times when I just graduated in May 2008. That was when I finished university exams and started work as an engineer, almost 4.5 years ago.

Fast forward to 2012 now, I resigned from my engineer job and went into tuition full-time. Seriously, I still wonder if it was the correct move. But as my girlfriend told me, look forward and don't look back. It's never easy to strike out solo. [On hindsight, my previous company is freezing the pay of its employees a second time since 2008 due to losses.]

Without the security of a stable income, and with a little more time on my hand these days, I begin to think of how to how to bring on more income streams to supplement the meagre tuition income I'm receiving. My main consideration now is not to just bring on more business for tuition, but to build value and assets out of this business.


In essence, I need to build assets as much as I can. Asset rich cash poor strategy. The areas I will be looking at....

1) Building Paper Assets, i.e. equity portfolio.
In 2012, I have made some changes to my portfolio. The main strategy is to sell stocks with lower dividend yield while realising the paper gain. This include GLP, CMA and Capitaland, and this will boost my war chest as well as improve liquidity. I will be analysing and be more focussed on quality dividend counters (there is none that is interesting now).

As of today, I have received $11.1k from my equity portfolio. With dividends still coming from SPH, REITs and telcos, I will comfortably cross $12k in dividends this year.

However, it is worthy to note that without a stable income, building this will only prove more and more challenging. Which means I have to look at other streams as well......


2) Building Intellectual Assets
I am aiming to publish one small book by next year to sell to all JCs. The content of this book is a little unique as it has not be done before. It is only for physics, but I believe my idea is good, and soon, other tutors or centres will likely copy this idea for other subjects. I hope they do for the benefit of all students in Singapore.

With the uniqueness of the content, I am hoping to expand and create one for O levels as well, and market it to the different secondary schools.

Also, I will try my best to wrap up the remaining missing content for my A level Physics Guide book, and come out with end of chapter summaries and worked examples to make the book more complete.

Also working to attempt writing an O level physics textbook with a well known publisher.

All in all, this will build my intellectual assets, which will also boost reputation in the tuition field. And it will boost my income streams.


3) Building Business Assets
I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I need to think of a unique selling point. After some thought, I might probably focus on building a centre to be an authority, or powerhouse, in maths and physics tuition. There will definitely be other subjects as well, but the rate of growth for them will likely be slower, since my core competency is in the delivery of maths and physics content.

In terms of assets, I will be making a few more apps for the app store, as well as try to export these apps to the Google Play store for Android devices. This will cost money, but hopefully it will increase my visibility. I will also be looking into web apps.

In addition, I will be building powerpoint slides, videos, and additional learning materials for all my maths and physics lessons, so as to be more systemized, structured and professional in my lessons. These need lots of energy and time, but definitely, synergy can be found with building of the intellectual assets.

These will form the business assets.


4) Explore further business opportunities
Tuition is seasonal, so as the year end approaches, there will be more spare time. There are 2 other potential business ideas I will be exploring. If successful, this will add another income stream. All are in the initial stages of thought, and nothing has been confirmed yet.



Property is not in consideration as my funds are too low at the moment for it. Lots of work to be done, lots of fun to be had I hope. Sleeping time now after the rant.