How Much Money Do I Need To Invest To Make $3000 A Month?

The first thing I want you to know is that it’s possible. Some people are already making more than $3,000 per month, and they are not one of the wealthiest names you have heard about.

To get started, you need time, strategy, and money to make more money. It will require hard work and sacrifice that will be worth the effort in the end.

There are several ways you can invest money to generate $3,000 per month. I will share a detailed example and other options you can explore to reach this goal but first, let’s look at the significance of this magic number.

The Significance of $3,000 Per month

Escape From Rat Race

If you have currently maintained a low cost of living or live frugally, $3,000 a month income could be your rat race number.

Your rat race amount is that income which you require per month, so you’re out of this rat race, from this corporate world, and have the choice of opting to leave your work or operate part-time, do ministry, volunteer, and pursue your heart desires or passion.

Security and Confidence

A happily married couple kissing and holding their baby girl. They're happy to be secured and confident in their financial future.

An extra $3,000 a month will give you confidence and security if you happen to be laid off or downsized for any reason.

You would still be able to afford the necessary things you need to keep running until you find another job.

A Formula For Success

Once you understand how to generate $3,000 per month and put it into action, it will be easier to get to $5,000 per month or even $10,000 and more per month. Then, it’s a formula you can repeat.

How Much Money Do I Need To Invest To Make $3000 A Month?

Now to the real question. How much do I need to invest in making $3,000 per month?

To avoid the pitfall of throwing figures all over the place, I’ll show you an easy process using the Real Estate example:

The Real Estate Example

Here’s an example I would like to use to illustrate how to make $3,000 per month in real estate.

Let’s assume a small office building in a commercially viable area, and the purchase price is $1,000,000. A 25% down payment is expected; after the down payment, your mortgage is $750,000. It’s the same as buying a house.

You need to pay 5% interest with a 30-year amortization. So your monthly payment will be $4,026 monthly. If we multiply that by 12 months, it comes to $48,312.

The expected income is $156,000 annually for this building, but we will deduct a 5% vacancy factor because we might not have a 100% rent all through the year.

Someone will move in or out, and there might be delays in getting another occupant, hence the 5% factor. That brings your income down to $148,000.

After that, you have to deduct, let’s say, 35% as expenses for property management, insurance, repairs, taxes, administrative cost, and others. So 35% from $148,200 will bring your income down to $96,330.

This figure is called Net Operating Income in finance. So if you go ahead and deduct your annual mortgage from your Net Operating Income, you should have $48,018 left.

I like to put all this in a simple 3-part form;

  • The Price of the Property $1,000,000
  • Deduct: Down Payment $250,000
  • Equals: Mortgage @4% P.A $750,000 ($48,312)
  • Expected Income from Rent $156,000
  • Deduct: 5% Vacancy Factor $7,800
  • Equals: $148,200
  • Deduct: 35% Property Expense $51,870
  • Net Operating Income $96,330
  • Deduct: Annual Mortgage $48,312
  • Equals: $48,018

If you divide $48,018 by 12 months, you will arrive at around $4,000 per month.

The amount you invested in this project is the down payment which is $250,000.

For some of us, this $250,000 might sound big and impossible at the moment. I want you to hold that thought for a moment. Try not to get hung on the figures.

How to Finance the purchase of a $3,000 Per Month Commercial Property

Use Your Self Directed IRA or Solo 401K

You can cash out your 401K, or if you have an IRA or self-directed IRA, you can use the fund.

Use Your Fund

If you don’t have $250,000, you can start with a smaller amount for a lesser deal using your fund.

OPM – Other People’s Money

Your target here is to raise $250,000 to generate a cash flow of $48,000 per annum. Suppose you raise this fund from investors with a promise of ROI (Return On Investment) of 6% per month. That will be $15,000 annually to be paid to investors.

Your breakdown will look like this:

Annual rental income $48,000 (from the previous example)

Deduct: 6% Payment to Investors $15,000

Net Income                                               $33,000

If you divide $33,000 by 12 months, you will arrive at $2,750. That is a little short of $3,000. Again, the focus should be on the process. If you get the process right, you will be able to make even more than $3,000 monthly and still pay your investors comfortably.

Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
A couple have just applied for a HELOC on their current house.

I genuinely prefer to use lines of credit and situate deals in which the property covers the payments for the line of credit. For example, let’s say you borrow $250,000 from your line of credit, then the property you bought will generate the monthly revenue on such a line of charge.

Therefore, if you borrowed $250,000 at 5% interest amortized over three decades, your payment is $1,342 per month or $16,000 annually.

Bear in mind, the home cashflows are $48,000 per year, so if you pay $16,000 annually for your home equity credit line, you’re left with $32,000 annually.

Simply put…

  • Annual Rent Income: $48,000                    
  • Deduct: Annual Line of Credit: $16,000
  • Net Annual Rent Income: $32,000

Again, the emphasis is on understanding the process and be able to use it effectively.

Buy An eCommerce Store

A young man is shopping online on his laptop. E-commerce is a booming business to be in these days.

You can find thousands of Shopify, Amazon, and other e-commerce stores available for sale. If you have a knack for online business, you can pay 2 to 3 times the annual revenue for these businesses.

To achieve $3,000 per month, you will be paying something around $110,000 in a revenue-generating online business. Check out Flippa for more on how to buy or sell an online business. 

A good revenue-generating online business could earn you more than $3,000 per month.

Additionally, you can sell the online business at any time and make some cool cash to reinvest. Online businesses are quick and good deals because it’s low effort since all the work would have been done for you. 

A well-managed online business has the potential to skyrocket in revenue within a short time.

For instance, Blush and Bar were acquired in 2017 at $7,500 when earning $1000 per month. Two years later, it reported a revenue of $1.3M and was sold for $550,000. Guess the percentage increase – 7,233%. 

The ETF Example

ETFs or stock is a popular means of generating income, but how much do you need to have invested to generate $3,000 monthly. The return on investment for the S&P500 index differs every year; however, in the past 90 years, it’s been an average of 10%. 

Since it’s impossible to know the future return on investment for the S&P500, we will work with the existing guide, 10% from the 90-year average.

Using the above information, you need to invest $368,000 to arrive at a monthly $3,000 monthly income. 

The calculation will look like this;

  • Investment in S&P 500 $368,000
  • 10% Return on investment $36,800

Your monthly income will be $36,800 divide by 12 months = $3,066

The danger of this approach is that in some years, as we have seen before, the S&P500 returns on investment have been lower than 10%.

When you withdraw $36,000 in the years when the returns fall below 10%, your investment would have been depleted, leaving you with lesser capital to work with. 

One approach I find exciting and usable is the 4% withdrawal approach. 

This method suggests that your portfolio should cover 25 times your yearly expenses. So if you withdraw 4% every year, you will not be at risk; instead, your portfolio will continue to grow. 

If we apply this method to generate $3,000 per month, the calculation will look this way.

$3,000 multiply by 12 months will give you $36,000. Now multiply this by 25 years; this will provide you with $900,000. If you invest the $900,000 into the S&P500 and then apply the 4% recommendation, you will arrive at $36,000 yearly and $3,000 monthly.

Remember the emphasis on the process. If you understand the process, you will have the confidence to explore other alternatives and expand your portfolio.

Once you can expand your portfolio, you will be able to make more than $3,000 monthly, and in a short while, you will start to think and speak like those big-name investors you hear about. 

Below is some other alternative investment to determine what you invest and how much returns per month. 

The Dividend Example

A big roll of a hundred dollar bills are next to a baby tree that says dividends. Like the baby tree, dividends help grow your already invested money to catapult your savings into wealth.

To answer the question of how much you need to invest in stocks to earn $3,000 per month, we need to consider the dividend yield of your portfolio or the shares you’re buying. Other factors involved include dividend increase and share price appreciation. 

You can calculate dividend increase for individual stocks you have, or you can compute a stock’s dividend yield as a proportion of the value of your whole portfolio.

While this contains stocks that don’t pay dividends, calculating dividends in this manner offers you a percentage that tells you how nicely the dividend earnings of a specific stock contribute to the worth of your whole portfolio. 

Let’s look at some examples;

1st Scenario

For instance, to make $3000 per month, you need a portfolio valued at $720,000, with an annual dividend yield of 5%. The table should explain better;

YearPrincipalYieldYear on YieldDividend
1720,0005%5%36,000
2720,0005%5%72,000
3720,0005%5%108,000


Note that in this simple scenario, we had the following variables;

  • Distribution frequency = Annual
  • Annual Principal Contribution = 0
  • Annual Dividend increase = 0
  • Annual share price appreciation = 0

All these other variables have figures in the real world, and when we put these figures, we will have a different picture.

2nd Scenario

YearPrincipalDividendYieldYear on YieldPrincipal IncreaseNew BalanceCumm
Dividend
1520,00037,5907%7.455,200525,20036,400
2525,20038,7517.147.685,252530,45273,899
3530,45239,9477.287.925,304535,756112,531
4535,75641,1817.438.165,357541,119152,329
5541,11442,4547.588.425,411546,525193,329
  • Distribution frequency = Monthly
  • Annual Principal Contribution = 0
  • Annual Dividend increase = 2%
  • Annual share price appreciation = 1%

We have a different picture showing you how much you need to invest in making $3,000 monthly. It further shows how your portfolio will grow as the dividend and year-on yield increase. 

The dividend yield is calculated by dividing the total amount of dividends paid during the year by the investment price at the beginning of that year.

Diversification

Diversification will help you spread the risk and reduce the volatility of an asset’s price movements and dividend reductions.

You may reduce the risk associated with individual stocks, but standard market risks affect just about any stock, and thus, it’s also crucial to diversify among different sectors.

A well-diversified portfolio is your sure bet for consistent growth and $3,000 per month earning for a long time.

As we have seen, you need thousands of dollars invested in making $3,000 per month, and not everyone can start from that high. Many of us began from the lower amounts then built and improved on the process that led to $3,000 monthly. 

So I will like to explore alternative investments to invest less capital and earn less than $3,000 a month.

P2P Lending

There has been an increase in online lending platforms to offer personal and business use loans or any other purpose. Platforms like ProsperLendingClub, and Peerform are vital players in this sector.

For instance, players like Mintos operate in Europe, while Funding Circle serves the U.S. and the United Kingdom. In addition, Yieldstreet allows the participant to make loans secured by collateral, which gives the participant more confidence and reduces risk. 

There are big and small players all over the place for you to choose from. Whatever the size of your capital, these platforms allow you to join other investors and lend your fund to qualified borrowers for returns.

Many make even more than $3,000 per month from P2P lending because they have mastered the process repeatedly and understand how it works.

Investment in REITs

A visual of many large buildings in a big city. Buying REITs can help you profit from the leases on these large buildings and the many offices in them.

I talked about how to make $3,000 monthly from real estate earlier. However, suppose you want to avoid a Landlord’s responsibilities and not deal with all the leg work. In that case, online investing platforms like Fundrise and Peerstreet are gaining ground and popularity. 

You can invest in residential properties without playing the role of a landlord. REITs take away all the bottlenecks and the capital restrictions.

REITs, or real estate investment trusts, are companies that own or finance income-producing real estate across various property sectors. With your little capital, you can invest and get your desired returns.

Equity Crowdfunding

Equity Crowdfunding and Angel investing have come to stay. But, admittedly, they are high risk because, according to a Forbes report, 90% of startups fail.

However, you reduce your risk or take a calculated risk by going through platforms like Wefunder, AngelList, SeedInvest, CrowdCube, Seers, and CircleUp. These platforms allow you to invest in startups offering shares in exchange for funds.

Some of these companies have become unicorns, while many others are doing very well today. The investors are happy that their risk paid good returns. Platforms like AngelList allow you to participate with as low as $1,000. 

Also, you can choose to be a Syndicate Angel Investor. As part of this group, you get rare investment opportunities from the Lead syndicate, which does all the leg work of due diligence and others.

The membership fee is usually low, but you get business opportunities that are not in the public space. You decide if you want to join other investors to invest, you also determine the amount you want to invest. 

Angel Syndicates are available on the platforms mentioned above and everywhere online. Just be sure to check the track record before you join.

Forex and Cryptocurrencies

A bunch of ethereum and litecoin coins laid out on a table.

Digital currencies such as Bitcoin have been providing astronomical returns for a few investors. However, the volatile nature of crypto makes them a risky choice investment.

The idea behind the usefulness, safety, and worth of cryptocurrencies is highly subjective. They are very popular now, but there is no guarantee they will be tomorrow. The present high evaluation of several cryptocurrencies may demonstrate that the fad has run its program.

Personally, I will not put my funds in crypto, but I have friends who have made returns on their investments.

All my Forex trading and investment attempts have turned out bad, and I know many others with sad tales. But, at the same time, I know some people with great experience who are still enjoying a good return on their investment.

The volatility and mystery are the main reason I’ve been a bystander when it came to crypto.

Forex is the virtual trading of foreign exchange, and it’s a multi-billion market that requires some level of expertise to be a successful trader yourself. Alternatively, you can invest in interest-paying traders. These guys take your capital for some form of periodic returns. 

These investments come with a strong caveat, warning you not to invest any money you are not willing to lose. So, ensure you know what you are getting into before you invest your hard-earned cash. 

Agriculture and Farming

A beautiful sunrise is coming up across a large farm, with some mountains in the distant.

This is an industry with unending potential. The growing population around the world is pushing the prices of food items up. After all, everyone has to eat. You don’t have to own farmland or till the ground to invest and enjoy good returns in this sector. 

Today we have exchange-traded funds you can invest in, like Van Eck Vectors Agribusiness fund (NYSEARCA: MOO) or the Investco DB Agriculture Fund.

These funds invest in agricultural commodity futures. Other funds like these invest in different agricultural enterprises, giving you a diversified agriculture portfolio with a single investment. 

Your options are many for investing in farmlands. For instance, AcreTrader allows you to buy shares in farmlands, while crowdfunding sites like Harvest ReturnsFarm Together, and FarmFundr connect you to agric businesses in need of funding for returns.

There are loads of other alternatives out there, for example;

  • Certificate of deposits
  • Treasury Securities
  • Income Annuities
  • Equity Funds
  • Gold
  • Commodities

The list is endless. You only need to choose what works for you. You need to know how to diversify your investments to not experience downtime on your portfolio.

Conclusion

To make $3,000 monthly, you will need to invest at least $250,000. However, I have done more than give you a blanket answer; I have attempted to show you how it works – the process. Once you understand how the process works, you will be able to multiply your returns gradually.

Additionally, I have shown you other investment options where you can get some form of passive returns. Choose your investment carefully, follow the process, and avoid gambling with your funds. 

The list of alternatives mentioned is by no means exhaustive. And we also have a post on what it takes to make $1,000 a month for reference. So, let’s exchange ideas in the comment section. How much are you making monthly, How much did you invest, and how often do you get your returns but ultimately, what’s the process? Let’s talk.

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