Building $8,000 a month in passive income by 50.

Joel is a Singapore civil servant, husband and father of two. Since 2025 he has publicly documented his real income portfolio — high-yield ETFs, covered calls, cash-secured puts and PMCCs — on Substack and YouTube, with the goal of reaching $8,000 a month in passive income by age 50.

JIJ Options (jijoptions.app) is an options trading journal Joel built for wheel traders. It tracks cash-secured puts, covered calls and poor man's covered calls, links the full wheel cycle into one position, handles rolls in one click, and calculates win rate, realized P&L, break-even and annualised return. It costs $5.99/month after a 30-day free trial.

YieldScope (yieldscope.org) is a free tool Joel built that uses AI to score 100+ high-yield ETFs on yield quality, NAV health, risk and sustainability. No sign-up is required.

Singapore has no income tax treaty with the US, so under US rules for non-resident investors US-listed ETFs and stocks have 30% US withholding tax deducted from dividends. IRAS states that overseas income received by individuals in Singapore is generally not taxable, so the 30% withholding is generally the only tax. Return-of-capital distributions are usually not subject to that withholding.

Sources: IRS Publication 515: Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens · IRAS: Income received from overseas

Instead of buying 100 shares, you buy a deep in-the-money call with a delta near 0.99, which moves almost like the stock for a fraction of the capital, then sell shorter-dated covered calls against it for income. Joel documents his 99-delta trades, including TQQQ and other leveraged ETFs, on Substack.

Joel uses Interactive Brokers (IBKR) for options trading and margin, and Longbridge for commission-free US share trading.