*This blog post is my personal opinion only and contains affiliate/referral links.

My 30th blog post is simply titled “My 30th Pandemic blog post”. I began this WordPress blog last March as a form of quarantine journaling about my financial journey. It’s a topic that i am always interested in and have been implementing on my main income at work and personal savings. I have the usual retirement and pension from work and also on non-work accounts, and they all run passively like clockwork. What it means is my index funds, mutual funds and ETFs are on auto-deposit and DRIP.

That is principally stress-free investing because i let “managers” and “robovisors” run the show of my portfolio. I still have them and still happy with their performance.

Then it all change after i started this blog and i read about other blogger’s FIRE journey, and i become more active and hands-on on my stock selection. The pandemic and the quarantine time gave me ample time to learn a company or stock’s financial and technical analysis, and really brush up on my financial literacy. This is the impetus to set up my hand-picked dividend portfolio.

The first wave of the Corona virus pandemic was devastating to the world economy and it was mirrored on the collapse of the stock market. Although that was an unfortunate event, I personally found that a prime event to study and bet on the stock market. And later on i was learning options too. The learning curve, as with anything else, is naturally beset with mistakes and lessons, but once i crossed that hump, i am better equiped to face it on the next try.

Twitter became a source of income stream ideas too. There are literally hundreds of free and paid courses out there that anyone can learn to kill a boring quarantine and turn it to a productive venture. Thanks to these online creators i now have multiple streams of income that generate cash flow even when i’m sleep.

Cautionary word about finding the right side hustle for you though, is that you have to try and find the right fit for you and your enjoyment. I never thought i would like designing at first, but it really satisfies my creative outlet so just like that it is a nice marriage of art and business.

As i end this post, i just want to say that if we open our eyes to opportunities, there are hidden gems out there that we can explore and turn into a supplemental income. We are all on the second wave of the pandemic right now, and there’s a chance that we may have a vaccine tomorrow or next week or month. Some have gone through life changing experience on their jobs, and may never have the same job benefits that they have. Some are still waiting and some are back on the workforce. But we, at any point of this quarantine, are all still looking.

I have many plans to follow through as i continue my personal finance and side hustle education here in the blogosphere. I want to start a growth stock portfolio soon and i also want to build web sites for business, just to name two. I’ll keep you up to date, as usual, and in the meantime, i wish you luck in your pursuits.

Peace.

Jay