By Merry Riana

(Continued from last month's article.) 
To read the Part 1 of this article CLICK HERE! 

It all started from an investment competition conducted by an investment club in school. I participated with a friend and our team won as the champion of the competition. As the competition was based on a real-life simulation of the Singapore stock market, I thought that if I were play stocks in real -life, I would be successful too. Thinking that since I won the competition, maybe in real life I could also make some profit and this time it would be real money. And so, I entered the stock market. 

In my quest to achieving my dream of being successful while I'm still young, I took the risk of playing the stock market. I invested my hard earned savings to attend investment seminars, to read investment-related books, to buy investment analysis software, and so on. I used my savings to buy and sell stocks. The strategy I used was a very risky method of buying the stocks in the morning and selling it again probably in the afternoon. My days were filled with anxiety and frustration as I made loss again and again in every transaction. I was confused. I had followed every instruction i learnt from the seminars, books and software, but I still couldn't get it right. I did not have a mentor whom I could turn to for advice. I was alone. 

Realizing that most of my savings have been used up, I withdrew from stocks, to cut losses. After calculation, I lost more than $10,000 in just 30 days of playing with stocks. All my savings that came from my hard work for the last 4 years were all gone in just 1 month of stocks trading. 

Even after this experience, I still would not give up my dream of being successful while I'm still young. I knew I had no savings left. But i also knew that I have learned many precious lessons those days. Lessons that a normal student would never have the chance to learn in school. I learnt that not every business opportunity is a good opportunity. I learnt that there is no short-cut to be rich and successful except through hard work. There is no get-rich-quick scheme or a hot-stock-tip that can bring me instant success. 

And that's my experience with investment income. I guess I was just not too investment-savvy yet back then. 

Finally, there is this third type of income. This type of income is the least known among the three and that's why so many people are not even aware that this type of income exist in the first place. 

The third type of income is called passive income. It is an income that comes to you regardless of whether or not you are working. That's why it is called passive income. 

(To be continued in next month's article.)

Merry Riana is a Millionaire Entrepreneur, Best-Selling Author & Motivational Speaker. To know more about Merry & get her book 'Dare to Dream Big', free-of-charge, visit www.MerryRiana.com