To keep track of how I am doing in my quest for early retirement I have decided to add another monthly financial measurement. I will be tracking my passive income. For the purposes of this measurement my passive income will be my online income, interest, and stock dividends. My online income is only partly passive but to keep things simple I am counting all of it. Since I will likely keep blogging whether I need the money or not it doesn’t seem too inaccurate to include my online income in my passive income total. My online income, interest, and stock dividends can vary quite a bit from month to month so I am going to measure my passive income by my trailing twelve month average. This should smooth out the peaks and valleys a little. Hopefully the overall trend will be that of rising passive income.
Over the past 12 months my passive income has averaged out to $412.04 a month. My goal is to have this consistently over $1000 a month. At that point I will consider myself retired. Even once retired I will continue to participate in money-making activities of my choosing so it wouldn’t be the traditional form of retirement.
I’m trying to achieve a passive income of circa £1,400 per month at that point i will consider myself retired. Like you i will still do some things on an ad hoc basis to earn money but not the 9 – 5 rat race.
BTW have you thought of doing doc review to earn extra cash?
Dreamer – I have applied for a couple of doc review jobs but haven’t been hired. Most of these jobs want licensed attorney rather than just J.D.s. The prospect of a doc review job isn’t enough to me to justify the expense of sitting for the bar and maintaining a law license.