# How can I make $3000.00 a month with investments.



## emperor (Jul 24, 2011)

Hello, I want to eventually make $3000 dollars a month on top of my working wage. 
I'm looking for a low to moderate risk way to accomplish this. (If even possible)

I currently have 110K

10K in a ETF (locked in 5 yrs)
15K in ING 1.5%
20K in 2% RRSP (locked in 2 more months)
rest is in a 1.3% savings account

I'm open to all suggestions that can help me achieve my goal, I'm only getting 1-2% a month so there should be room for improvement. 

Which bank should I be with, what should my TFSA be in? Should I be in stocks or real estate? Any suggestion are welcome.

I'm more interested in making money monthly or yearly instead of 10-15 years down the road. Is that alright or will I get much lower returns because of that.

Thanks


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

Low to moderate risk? I don't think it's possible without a lot more money.

With 300k and 3000 a month you are talking 12%, that's a lot! 600,000 you could achieve this at 6%, which would be easy enough with good dividend stocks but still not really low risk.

Real estate leveraging could help for sure, but you would need to find some good multi unit places I would think, still doesn't sound low risk to me.

I guess I'm saying you need at least a mil.... Unless you want to be more risky or spend time playing the markets.


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## joncnca (Jul 12, 2009)

jamesbe said:


> Low to moderate risk? I don't think it's possible without a lot more money.
> 
> With 300k and 3000 a month you are talking 12%, that's a lot! 600,000 you could achieve this at 6%, which would be easy enough with good dividend stocks but still not really low risk.
> 
> ...


yup, it's all in the math


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

OP's expectations are not realistic. $3,000 per month on a $110K portfolio a 32% annualized return. I'd say that 6 to 8 percent is a realistic goal for young investors who are mostly invested in stocks.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

emperor said:


> Currently I make about $120 a month which is pretty sad.
> 
> I save around 20K - 50K a year


I'm not following this...

Welcome to the forums though - best bet is to start reading the other posts in this forum. Keep Investopedia on bookmark to look up all the unknown words you'll come across.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Buy a bunch of lottery tickets, win $2 million, put it in a HISA at 2%, and bob's-your-uncle, you have $3k a month in very safe income.


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## emperor (Jul 24, 2011)

Thanks for the replies, my goal is 3000 a month. 
I don't expect to reach that now. I want to work towards that.

I saw a town house for sale for 90K that has a renter paying 750 a month, is that a really good investment then? After the 200 dollar condo fee I make 500dollars a month off 90K.

I'm not that interested in invest now and make money 15 years from now. 

I'm interested in invest now get money every month or every year max and try to reach my goal of 3000 a month.


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## Oilers82 (Jan 17, 2011)

Assuming $500/month income with $90K invitial investment that's $6000/yr which gives 6.66% yield. However you forgot to factor in property taxes, repair/maintenance costs and empty rent, so your yield will be closer to 5% a year.

You'd probably be better off with $90k in REI.UN lol.

But the point is, if you don't want to invest and make money later, you're really looking at income-producing investments. Dividend stocks, bond funds, REITs, actual real estate. Those are your typical income-paying investments. None of those would yield 30% a year.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

peterk said:


> I'm not following this...


What he meant was that he is currently making $120/month on his investments, not on his wage.

As for the OP:

This is not realistic.

With $110k, low to moderate risk, you are looking at $400-500/month.

Wanna make $3k?

$3,000/$500 = 6 

6 = $600,000

As someone said before, you would need about $600k to achieve your goal.


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

emperor said:


> Hello, I want to make $3000 dollars a month on top of my working wage.
> I'm looking for a low to moderate risk way to accomplish this.


The first question you need to ask yourself is what is the return you are trying to get for a low to moderately risky set of investments. 

So $3000/month is $36,000/year. 

@3%/year return, you'd need $1,200,000.00 in investments
@4%/year return, you'd need $900,000.00 in investments
@5%/year return, you'd need $720,000.00 in investments
@6%/year return, you'd need $600,000.00 in investments
@7%/year return, you'd need $514,285.71 in investments
@8%/year return, you'd need $450,000.00 in investments

Once you determine your risk level and return you want to achieve, then figure out how to save/invest the appropriate amount to get there.


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## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

If you want to keep your capital in tact and live off the distributions, then you may be looking at a $1M dividend portfolio at 4% yield which will give you $40k / yr.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

emperor said:


> Thanks for the replies, my goal is 3000 a month.
> I don't expect to reach that now. I want to work towards that.
> 
> I saw a town house for sale for 90K that has a renter paying 750 a month, is that a really good investment then? After the 200 dollar condo fee I make 500dollars a month off 90K.
> ...


All of the expectations of this poster are completely unrealistic. In fact this is borderline trollish.

In fact, the 6-8% mentioned above is also unrealistic for most people. These days most people are lucky to squeeze out 1-2% per year if they pay attention. Only the really really really good investors who spend a lot of time (not passively either) stand a chance of making better than 1-2%.

I don't sugar coat things. I don't know what is with all these posts lately but it seems we are seeing an ever-increasing number of newbie posters with unrealistic dollar signs in their eyes. It's like someone new to bowling, expecting a 260 average and expecting to bowl several 300 games per year. 

C'mon.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

It's really easy! Just give me all your money, I'll invest it in a little known, foolproof plan I've developed and I can get you 3k a month (for about 36 months  and a complete loss of your capital investment.)


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

Why such a fixed goal now? Take the time to learn about investing or hand the responsibility over to a capable financial advisor but don't have such fixed expectations...markets change and you can't guarantee a 3% return every time.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

the-royal-mail said:


> All of the expectations of this poster are completely unrealistic. In fact this is borderline trollish.
> 
> In fact, the 6-8% mentioned above is also unrealistic for most people. These days most people are lucky to squeeze out 1-2% per year if they pay attention. Only the really really really good investors who spend a lot of time (not passively either) stand a chance of making better than 1-2%.
> 
> ...


1-2%? Even after inflation that's a horribly low return. Are you talking just dividend yields on a portfolio? I'd lean towards 4-6% post inflation if I were to hazard a guesstimate (including capital appreciation).

Although I agree, coming in with 100K wanting a 40K return is ridiculous, but if the question is how much do I need to grow this 100K to reach my goal, it's not a bad question.


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## emperor (Jul 24, 2011)

I'm looking for suggestions to eventually reach that.

You mention 4-6% what would be a good place to invest to get that?

I'm getting 1-2% currently which is only 100-200 a month, if I can get that to 400-600 a month I'm already getting much closer to my goals.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

3k a month investment income has always been my magic number that would allow me to quit working... I've always assumed that I would need close to a million to do this... 900k would likely do it. And thats the primary focus of my savings and investment strategy.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> In fact, the 6-8% mentioned above is also unrealistic for most people. These days most people are lucky to squeeze out 1-2% per year if they pay attention. Only the really really really good investors who spend a lot of time (not passively either) stand a chance of making better than 1-2%.


The OP was unrealistic, but you're on the opposite extreme end. You can get a yield of 4 to 5% with very safe bank stocks.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

For yield alone, take all TSX listed companies, sort by yield and focus on those yielding say between 5 and 10%. Take out any of those that you don't think can sustain their payouts and you have somewhere to begin. REITs, royalty trusts, utilities, energy companies, infrastructure companies etc have stable cash flows without much opportunity for growth.

That's if you're purely yield focused.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

But then you'd be invested purely in Canada. I'd feel more comfortable if my investments were geographically diversified.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Sherlock said:


> But then you'd be invested purely in Canada. I'd feel more comfortable if my investments were geographically diversified.


At this point in time, I'm not 100% sure I would.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

After reading the OP posts, I think the best thing they should do right now is hang on to their money, and not invest it. Basically not screw up.

Read as much as you can, and figure out a few things first. Whether you want to invest in ETf's or dividend payers and re-invest the dvidends into new shares. IMO, for your knowledge a ETF that pays a dividend would be best, however you will get a lower return, than holding the equities on your own.

As per your home example, after taxes, insurances, repairs and such, at $500 a month, it sounds like you would be lucky to clear a 3% return on your investment.

90K in BCE for example would yield you about 5%, and if they increase their dividend, you get a raise.

I know this is overly simplistic, but you should do your homework, and make an informed decision.

As per your goal for 3K a month....Aiming to save 1mill would be a very safe yield on that.

All the best.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

Sherlock said:


> But then you'd be invested purely in Canada. I'd feel more comfortable if my investments were geographically diversified.


True, but like KaeJS said, that might not necessarily be a bad thing. Right now there are only a handful of economies to which I'd want exposure. Canada, Australia and Brazil are at the forefront, China, Russia, India to a lesser extent as there are much more rampant risks involved.

Think about companies that have either regulated or historically extremely stable cash flows. Long term contracts with strong credit counterparties. 20+ year government energy contracts. 10+ year leases to massive multinationals. A diversified tenant base, etc. 

You can get junk bond-like rates of return with minimal risk in some of these types of companies.


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## square one (Jan 19, 2010)

What about a bank income fund?

eg, BMO Monthly Income fund pays a monthly .06 per unit. So 50,000 units would get you $3000 per month distribution. Right now it would take a little under $400,000 to buy 50,000 units. Much less than the million that was suggested. What are people's thoughts about a plan like this? If I understand this correctly, this is without selling off any units.


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## heyjude (May 16, 2009)

And don't forget taxes......Dollar for dollar, it's more tax efficient to receive dividends than income. At least until they change the rules.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Square one,

Read this:

BMO Monthly Income Fund sets Yield Bar Unreachably High


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## square one (Jan 19, 2010)

Thanks -an interesting article. What would likely happen if BMO decides the distribution cannot be sustained? A decrease in the distribution? (To what?) Or if there are no changes made is it likely that the unit price would eventually fall and so, when units are sold, a huge loss? What is the worst case scenario? I guess I'm just thinking, in some ways it feels safer because they are a big bank... 
And in the meantime, people who own this will continue to reap the benefits of the nice monthly pay-out, right?

Are there any monthly income funds out there that are seen as being more sustainable long-term?


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

The TD Monthly Income Fund is more sustainable.

I have my TFSA fully invested with it and own ~1,000 units.

They only pay out a $0.04/month payout, which is quite low and most of their holdings pay out a higher dividend.

The fund is more based on income and growth.

Look at it here:

TD Monthly Income Fund

As for BMO, I think worst case scenario is the capital preservation (share price) falls, then they the cut distribution because its not sustainable and then they have less people investing in the fund which causes the price of the fund to plateau and you've basically made little or no gains. You are just receiving your own money in the form of income


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

KaeJS said:


> The TD Monthly Income Fund is more sustainable.
> 
> I have my TFSA fully invested with it and own ~1,000 units.
> 
> ...


Are you sure a TFSA is the best place to purchase an... income fund ?


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Right now, for my situation - Yes.

As opposed to....?


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> All of the expectations of this poster are completely unrealistic. In fact this is borderline trollish.
> 
> In fact, the 6-8% mentioned above is also unrealistic for most people. These days most people are lucky to squeeze out 1-2% per year if they pay attention. Only the really really really good investors who spend a lot of time (not passively either) stand a chance of making better than 1-2%.
> 
> <snip>


My by-the-book 90% equity 10% bond couch potato portfolio has return rate of 8% or so ....


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