One of my big goals in 2021 is to increase the amount of passive income that I make each month to hopefully help me along my savings journey, and increase reliability and sustainability once I achieve my goal. To do that I am exploring several avenues, from dividends to interest, to cryptocurrency. Here’s a to the penny breakdown of how much I made in March 2021.
Note: Some of the links provided below are affiliate links, and by using them I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
How did I make Passive Income?
Throughout March 2021 I made passive income in a variety of ways. The largest of which was through stock and ETF appreciation, and cryptocurrency. Each method had its own pros and cons, and each method paid out more or less than others. So let’s break it down.
Portfolio growth
I currently have a TFSA where I hold several ETFs and stocks through Questrade (for a list of what exactly is in it check out this article) and throughout March my holdings changed in value a fair bit.
At the beginning of March what I held was valued at approximately $5,058.48, at the end of March that value had risen to $5,166.10. Primarily driven by the rebounding of the stock market, in particular the financial sector. This means that in total I made approximately $107.62 of passive income simply by holding investments that I have already held for several months.
Dividends
The holdings I mention above are invested in VDY or the Vanguard High-Yield Dividend ETF. And this pays dividends every month. Primarily based around the financial sector it usually averages between $0.11 and $0.18 per share for a dividend payout, with February’s payout (received in March) being $0.16155 per share. This means with my 30 shares of VDY I made a whopping $4.85.
This may not seem like much, and it honestly isn’t. But it is still 100% passive income that comes in every single month.
Interest
I earn interest three ways across how I hold my money. Through my chequing account (0.025% through Tangerine), through my Savings account (Promotional 2.75% through Tangerine), and from holding my cryptocurrency in an interest-bearing account (6% through BlockFI).
I recently switched over to BlockFI from Coinbase so I only earned one day’s worth of interest from my holdings there, equating to about $0.02. From interest in my traditional accounts, I earned $0.01 from my chequing account and $0.70 from my savings account.
This means that throughout March, I earned $0.73 in interest across all of my holdings.
Cryptocurrency
Throughout March, my passive earning from mining cryptocurrency (check out this article for all of the details on that) was slightly lower than in February. Presumably, there and more and more large mining operations came on board, but the process was still extremely profitable.
Throughout March I exclusively mined Ethereum, making approximately $87.01 in Etherum. This value was also appreciated throughout the month as cryptocurrencies of all kinds saw growth of exponential levels. However, for my calculations, I am choosing not to take it into account and am instead taking the value at today’s prices.
Coinbase Earn
Coinbase Earn is a program that is offered by Coinbase (a cryptocurrency wallet website) for using their platform. Essentially when you deposit $100 (or in my case get $100 mined) you unlock the ability to watch videos on their platform (takes about 10 minutes to watch all of them). Watching these videos earns you $35 in various cryptocurrencies.
How Much Passive Income Did I Make in Total?
So, with everything taken into account, this means that for March I have made a total of:
$235.21
This level of passive income, while not nearly enough to live on, is phenomenal. All of it was truly passive, and it continues to grow month over month.
If you have any ideas or thoughts on ways to grow passive income make sure to comment below and let me know.
