With summer upon us, work can be far from some people’s minds. This can be exactly the sort of moment when passive income could potentially show its value, providing some extra spending money without needing to work for it.

One common way to earn passive income is owning shares in businesses that pay dividends to shareholders.

Helpfully, such a passive income plan can be tailored to somebody’s means even if they are modest.

Putting some spare money to work

For example, imagine someone has £1,000 they are not using.

They could put it into shares – spreading it across a few different ones to keep their passive income stream diversified – and then potentially earn dividends as soon as this summer, depending on what shares they buy.

£1,000 would earn around £31 per year at the current dividend yield of the FTSE 100 (3.1%).

I think a higher yield is possible even while sticking to proven blue-chip shares. But even, say, 5% would only equate to annual passive income of £50.

That could be some handy pocket money, but not much more than that.

Over time, though, it could grow, whether because more money is added, dividends grow, or they compound some dividends to buy more shares without needing more cash (or all three).

A carefully selected group of quality dividend shares strikes me as a realistic though not foolproof method to try and set up ongoing passive income streams.

Keeping a lid on costs

One thing that can eat into returns is the cost of buying and owning shares.

They could be fees, commissions, management charges for an ISA (even when you manage it yourself), and so on.

So, it is important to pay attention when deciding what share-dealing account, Stocks and Shares ISA, or trading app to use.

One income share I like

One share I think merits consideration for its passive income potential is financial services group Legal & General (LSE: LGEN).

Its 7.9% yield is the highest in the FTSE 100. Not only that, but the company aims to keep growing its dividend per share each year, as it has been doing in recent years.

From a passive income perspective, then, the appeal is straightforward. But dividends are never guaranteed to last. The company sold a large US business this year, so I see a risk that revenues and earnings in the residual business will be smaller in future.

The share price has gained 8% over five years. I see that as weak: the FTSE 100 has grown 46% during that period. Still, the limited price growth does mean the shares look attractively valued to me.

The company benefits from a proven, cash-generative business model, strong brand, large customer base, and strategic focus on a market segment with resilient demand. I see Legal & General as an income share for investors to consider.

Should you invest £5,000 in Legal & General Group Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Legal & General Group Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Here’s a quick and easy way to start earning passive income this summer with a spare £1,000 appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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As an investor who has earned billions of pounds in the stock market over decades, Warren Buffett can seem like he has the Midas touch.

Investors are often keen to learn from some of his legendary investments. They include the stake in Apple and decades-old investments such as the stake in Coca-Cola that has turned into a passive income gusher, thanks to that company’s long run of annual dividend increases.

Such investments certainly offer some useful and interesting lessons. But Buffett is a smart enough investor to know that learning from your mistakes is at least as important in the stock market as learning from your successes.

Not the answer most people would guess!

So when asked what his biggest mistake was, Buffett did not even hesitate to answer: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B)!

But wait, what on earth is he talking about? After all, Berkshire was a small, failing textile operation when he bought control of it. Now it is an insurance powerhouse with strong positions in other industries, and a market capitalisation north of $1trn. It is also sitting on a cash pile of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Why on earth would Buffett regard that as a mistake?

Think about omission not just commission

The error in judgement Buffett identified – in my view correctly – is that tying up capital in Berkshire’s original business came at a huge opportunity cost. Buffett spent years trying to improve the doomed textile operation. What if that time and capital had instead been put to more rewarding uses?

Berkshire Hathaway could probably have grown faster and now be a much larger company than it is.

As he explains when discussing why a cheap-looking but struggling business is rarely the bargain it seems, he said: “The original ‘bargain’ price probably will not turn out to be such a steal after all. In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces – never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen. Second, any initial advantage you secure will be quickly eroded by the low return that the business earns.”

This, then, was what Buffett calls a mistake of commission – something he did (that he then regretted). But he also warns about mistakes of omission. Those are opportunities he had the knowledge to assess and find attractive, but did not act on.

Buying Berkshire tied up a lot of capital in a bad business that could otherwise have been invested in good ones that were on Buffett’s radar.

This is a powerful, actionable insight!

This was an expensive lesson, but it was one that Buffett learned and took to heart. It can be tempting to look at businesses that have problems but look cheap and think of them as possible bargains.

Some of them are, but many turn out not to be. There is a name for this kind of investment: a value trap.

So Buffett changed his strategy to go hunting for brilliant businesses at attractive prices. That is not necessarily the same as a cheap price.

It is a lesson any investor can apply.

Should you invest £5,000 in Berkshire Hathaway right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Berkshire Hathaway made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Warren Buffett’s worst investment is surprising – but really instructive appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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Cast your mind back to the end of last year. One of the big stories in the UK stock market was that it had been another barnstorming year for Rolls-Royce (LSE: RR). Yet again, Rolls-Royce shares had been among the strongest performing FTSE 100 name of the prior 12 months. Investors such as myself were considering whether we ought to buy them.

Past performance though, is not necessarily an indicator of what to expect in future. So what has happened to Rolls-Royce shares so far this year?

A strong first-half performance

We are just several days away from the end of the first half of the year – and the Rolls-Royce share price has moved up 19% so far in 2026. That means it is 53% up over 12 months – and a stunning 1,247% higher than five years back.

So £5,000 invested at the start of January would now be worth around £5,950.

Along the way there have been some ups and downs. Back in March, as the Middle Eastern conflict made investors concerned about civil aviation demand and its potential impact on Rolls’ jet engine business, the share price was down 8%. So a £5k investment was showing a £400 paper loss.

At its strongest point so far this year, the share price was actually higher than now, up around 28%. That would mean a £5k investment was showing a paper gain of £1,400.

Deciding when to buy, sell, or hold

A paper loss or gain is just that, until the shares are sold and it becomes an actual loss or gain. The high I mentioned above was short-lived, so how might an investor have known about it without constantly monitoring the market. One way can be to set a standing sell order with a stockbroker once the share hits a certain point, even if only briefly.

Its opposite is a stop loss order – an instruction to sell when a share falls to a certain level chosen by the investor.

Say someone had set a stop loss order at 5% below the cost when buying back in January. That would have been triggered in March and the £5,000 investment would have lost £250. But the investor would have missed out on the subsequent recovery and price gain in Rolls-Royce shares.

In other situations though, a stop loss order can be a useful way to manage risk. It is easy to become emotionally attached to shares and hang onto them even when the investment case is weakening and price keeps falling. A stop loss order can be a tool that enables an investor to be more self-disciplined.

Investing for the long term

My general approach is to buy and hold for the long term. Long-term investing can be very powerful and Rolls-Royce shares over the past few years demonstrate why.

Along the way, an investor can also earn dividends. These share only yield 0.7% right now which, on a £5 investment today, would mean around £35 of dividends a year.

The dividend may grow – Rolls has ambitious financial targets, is cash generative, and currently benefits from strong customer spending in defence and power.

But the ongoing risk to civil aviation sits uneasily with me. Also, at 48 times earnings, Rolls-Royce shares look overpriced to me. So for now, I have no plans to invest.

Should you invest £5,000 in Rolls-Royce Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Rolls-Royce Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Here’s what’s already happened to £5,000 invested in Rolls-Royce shares in January appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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How has the Tesco (LSE: TSCO) share price done over the past few years? Very well, as it turns out!

Strongly outperforming its benchmark index

In fact, over the past five years, the Tesco share price is up by 95%. During the same period, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares (of which Tesco is a constituent member) is up 46%.

So Tesco’s share price gain during that period is slightly better than double that of the index. In financial terms, that means that £10,000 invested in the grocer five years ago (in June 2021) ought now to be worth around £19,500.

Attractive dividend opportunity

On top of that, a long-term shareholder would have benefited from passive income streams thanks to the dividends paid by Tesco. Currently, the yield is 3.3%. That is above the FTSE 100 average of 3.1% — not dramatically above it, but still above. So while I do not regard that as extremely appealing, it is still attractive nonetheless.

Remember though, that that dividend yield is for someone buying Tesco shares today – and the price has almost doubled in five years. So someone who invested five years back would now be yielding roughly 6.4%.

That seems like a very attractive dividend to me for a blue-chip business of Tesco’s calibre. It also means that, on top of the capital gains, someone who put £10k into Tesco shares five years ago would since have earned around £2,765 in dividends from them.

The dividend has grown strongly over the past several years and could keep doing so if Tesco’s business performance is good.

Is there an opportunity here now?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Clearly, buying at the Tesco share price five years ago and holding the shares until now would have turned out to be a lucrative move.

But I did not do that. What about now? Could it make sense for me to add the share to my portfolio at the current price?

As I see it, Tesco’s strengths as a business now are similar to what they were five years ago, such as its leading position in the UK market and a large base of shoppers and loyalty card users.

But what has changed is the valuation. Earnings have grown: last year’s diluted earnings per share were around 29% higher than they had been five years ago. But that growth is nothing like the growth seen in the Tesco share price. That means the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is now higher than it used to be.   

I don’t think this looks cheap now

With a P/E ratio of 16, I do not see Tesco as a bargain. In fact, at that valuation, I do not even think the share is attractively priced. After all, this is a mature business in a mature industry that is bedevilled by low profit margins due to intense competition around price.

So for now, I will not be investing. Fortunately, the UK stock market has other retail and consumer goods shares I think currently offer much better value.

Should you invest £5,000 in Tesco Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Tesco Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Here’s what a surging Tesco share price has done to £10,000 invested 5 years ago appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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Lots of people leave financial planning for retirement late, denying themselves opportunities to benefit from long-term compounding. Some people only start to think about a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) in their thirties or forties – early enough to set one up and build wealth in it, but still quite late.

Someone who starts a SIPP at 20 has a big head start on someone else in the same position who begins their SIPP at 40.

In your forties with no SIPP, is all lost? Fortunately, the answer is no! A 40-year-old could aim to build a SIPP worth well over £1m by the time they hit 67, the State Pension age that will come into effect over the next several years.

Here’s how.

Starting with serious intent

So 40 is not too late to start, but for a serious goal some serious effort will be involved as the clock is ticking. Let us say someone puts £1,000 a month into their SIPP. That will be made up to £1,250 a month thanks to tax relief. Compounding that at 7% annually, the SIPP will be worth over £1,153,000 by the time the investor hits 67.

The tax relief if as it sounds – basically a top up from the Exchequer (higher and additional rate income taxpayers will get even more than in this example).

That is a big benefit of using the SIPP structure compared to, say, a Stocks and Shares ISA. But there are constraints too, including no withdrawals before 55 and only limited tax-exempt allowance on withdrawals.

Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.

Slow and steady wins the race

I talked above about the clock ticking. But even starting at 40 still allows a 27-year timeframe for contributions to pile up and gains to compound. A long timeframe can be helpful as it can allow space for good periods in the market as well as bad ones, and hopefully gains can add up.

That does not mean the 7% compound annual gain target I mentioned above will necessarily be easy to hit. But I do see it as realistic.

What matters is that the investor diversifies the SIPP across a carefully selected range of high-quality businesses, taking care not to overpay for the share.

A growth and income opportunity

An example of how I try and put that into practice in my own SIPP is my shareholding in Greggs (LSE: GRG). The Greggs share price has fallen 35% over the past five years, but the business continues to grow and, to me, currently looks attractively priced for its long-term prospects.

The yield is 4.1%: not earth-shattering, but above average for a FTSE 250 company and, again, attractive to me.

I like the simplicity of Greggs’ proven business model. With several thousand shops, it has economies of scale no rival baker can match. It also benefits from resilient demand for affordable food.

But there are risks. High energy costs could eat into profits and a large workforce means that higher National Insurance and wage costs remain a risk.

From a long-term perspective though, I reckon Greggs is an excellent business and the share remains attractively priced.

Should you invest £5,000 in Greggs Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Greggs Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Here’s how a 40-year-old with no SIPP today could have one worth over £1,153,000 by age 67        appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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Ever wondered how lucrative it might be to put some money into the stock market with the goal of earning passive income?

That is an approach a lot of people take. The thinking is quite simple: many shares use some or all of a business’s spare cash to pay dividends, so by investing in them someone can enjoy some of that return.

Here is how much such an approach could earn.

Choosing high-quality shares

The projected earnings depend on something known as dividend yield. Yield is basically the amount of dividends earned in a year, expressed as a percentage of what the shares cost to buy.

One thing that is important to understand is that a dividend is never guaranteed. So when we are told a share has a 5% yield, for example, there is no guarantee it will keep paying £5 for each £100 invested. That will depend on how the business does and whether the board of directors prioritises dividend payments.

That uncertainty also helps explain why rather than plump for one share, it makes sense to choose a diversified portfolio, always looking for high-quality businesses with attractive share prices.

The UK stock market’s 100 most valuable listed companies constitute the FTSE 100 Index. Right now, it yields 3.1% so £20k invested in it (for example through a tracker fund) should generate annual passive income of around £620.

A 5% yield would mean £1,000 a year of passive income. That is already possible and, in fact, some shares yield well above 5%, so a higher income is possible too. Though it is worth remembering that when a share has an unusually high yield it can sometimes indicate the City perceives it to carry elevated risks.

From idea to income

How could someone go about putting such a plan into action? A useful first move would be deciding how to buy and hold shares. That might be a share-dealing account, Stocks and Shares ISA, Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) or trading app.

There are lots of different options. So it is important to take time when choosing one, as they the have different pros and cons.

One share to consider

Having done that, the next step would be to start investing the £20k. One share that I bought recently offers an attractive dividend yield of 4.5%.

I am also hopeful it may generate capital gains for me in coming years if the share price rises, following a 28% fall over the past five years.

The share is Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RKT), the FTSE 100 maker of consumer goods such as Vanish and Dettol. Its share price fall reflects risks that could still hinder performance, such as litigation costs associated with historical product liability claims.

Still, while the share price may fall further, I invested because I believe it could well go up in the coming years, Meanwhile there is an attractive dividend on offer.

With its premium brand portfolio, proven cash generation capabilities, and global presence in household product categories that benefit from resilient consumer demand, I see a lot to like here.

Should you invest £5,000 in BLCKMRKT right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if BLCKMRKT made the list?

Christopher Ruane owns shares in Reckitt Benckiser.

The post Here’s how much passive income £20k in the stock market could be earning right now… appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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The UK stock market has done fairly well so far in 2026, with the FTSE 100 index of leading shares hitting an all-time high earlier in the year.

Share prices moving up can often mean falling dividend yields, as yield is a function of share price and the annual dividend per share. Still, I have been hunting for income shares to add to my Stocks and Shares ISA and I still see plenty of opportunities in the market.

Here are five UK income shares I think merit consideration this June for a Stocks and Shares ISA.

M&G

FTSE 100 asset manager M&G (LSE: MNG) aims to grow its dividend per share annually and has managed to do so in recent years. Even after a 30% rally in its share price over the past year, M&G still offers a yield of 6.2%. That is double the FTSE 100 average and puts the firm among the top ranks of high-yield shares in the index.

Can that last? No dividend is ever guaranteed, after all. M&G’s strengths include a proven cash generation potential thanks to a business that has millions of clients. Its strong brand helps and a multinational focus gives M&G some protection against underperformance in any one market.

But it has struggled in recent years to get investors to put more into its funds than they take out, a risk to revenues and profit. It is on the front foot in that regard right now, but I still see it as a risk, especially in current volatile financial markets.

British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco shares are not the bargain they once were, with a price gain of 65% over the past five years. But the dividend yield remains attractive at 5.3%. So too does the company’s aim to continue its decades-long streak of annual growth in the dividend per share.

A declining number of cigarette smokers poses a clear risk to the dividend’s ultimate survival. British American Tobacco’s revenues are already declining. But it has a premium brand portfolio and proven cash generation potential.

Henderson Far East Income

There is life beyond the FTSE 100! I hold some FTSE 250 shares in my Stocks and Shares ISA.

The 9.4% yield offered by FTSE 250 investment trust Henderson Far East Income certainly grabs my attention. The portfolio’s exposure to big Asian growth stories is a positive, though a risk I see is current lacklustre performance of some sizeable Asian economies.

Domino’s Pizza

I have hung onto my shares in Domino’s Pizza, even though investor enthusiasm for the UK master franchisee has waned. The share price has fallen 52% in five years. Ouch!

The increased popularity of chicken is a risk to pizza sales. The chain has tried to mitigate that with its own chicken offer. I like the business’s profitable business model, strong brand and attractive economics.

Dunelm

With its cash generative business model and a 5.7% dividend yield, I believe the long-term income prospects from Dunelm are promising. It has a large estate of stores, sizeable online business, good understanding of what its customers want and an array of unique products that can help set it apart from rivals.

One risk I see is weak consumer sentiment. That could lead people to cut back on home decoration, potentially eating into revenues.

Should you invest £5,000 in M&g Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if M&g Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane owns shares in Domino’s Pizza Group plc.

The post A handful of 5%+ yielding UK shares worth considering for a Stocks and Shares ISA appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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For years, some investors were highly excited about the prospects for Ceres Power (LSE: CWR) – and for years the share price went in the wrong direction.

Those days increasingly seem like a distant memory. The Ceres Power share price has soared an incredible 665% over the past year. That gives the fuel cell specialist a market capitalisation of £1.3bn, earning it a place in the FTSE 250.

Ceres Power has taken advantage of its buoyant share price to raise around £100m of new capital this month by issuing new shares. This dilutes existing shareholders.

So far I have stayed on the sidelines, but could this growth story still have legs – and ought I to invest?

A revamped business model has helped Ceres

Part of the reason for the surge in the Ceres Power share price dates back several years. It had spend a lot of time preparing for a deal in China, sucking up a lot of management effort ultimately to no avail, at least in the short term.

Ceres revised its approach to the Chinese market and also built business with customers in other markets, such as Taiwan. It also started to ramp up the number of customers it had worldwide.

Part of the attraction of the current approach is that by licensing technology to some customers, Ceres can earn royalties – a less capital-intensive business model than doing everything itself. That saw Ceres’ first royalties flow last year.

Here’s my problem with the share price

Over time, that shift could turn out to be decisive. Ceres’ technology has long been admired, but the challenge has been how best to commercialise it at scale. The company’s business performance in recent years suggests it is now nearer than ever to achieving that.

However, while the surging share price suggests investor optimism has boomed, I still have some doubts.

Ceres remains heavily lossmaking. It is also burning cash. Last year, revenue actually shrunk rather than grew, but at £33m, was still substantial. Ceres is not just an idea in a lab like some rivals, but a functioning medium-sized business.

But the firm’s operating loss, at £48m, was even bigger than its revenues. Operating activities burned through £20m net cash, leaving the company with £83m of net cash and investments at the end of last year. That helps explain this month’s capital raise.

I think the technology has strong potential and I appreciate the moves Ceres is making towards long-term commercial growth and a more attractive business model. But this still feels like a punt. Ceres Power has been spilling red ink for years and continues to do so. It is still burning cash at a rate that alarms me given the size of its business.

So I will continue to watch the business but have no plans to buy this UK growth share.

Should you invest £5,000 in Ceres Power Plc right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Ceres Power Plc made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Up 665% in a year, can the Ceres Power share price keep going? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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The words ‘stock market crash’ fill many people with fear and foreboding. That is understandable.

A crash can mean the value of a share portfolio plummets in short order. While that may only be a paper loss, it is still disconcerting for many investors.

But there are two sides to every story — and that is also true when it comes to a stock market crash. In fact, for someone who is investing with the intention of funding their future retirement, it can actually offer a once-in-a-decade opportunity to buy a variety of brilliant shares at bargain prices.

The relationship between share price and dividend yield

A cheap share price can be attractive for someone whose objective is capital gains. But it also offers the opportunity to earn a higher yield than would be possible buying exactly the same share when it costs more.

That is because dividend yield is a function of dividend per share (which is the same for all shares of a certain class) and the price paid for it, which can vary for exactly the same share, depending on when it was bought.

A sudden chance to buy cheap

As an example, let me use FTSE 100 financial services provider Standard Life (LSE: SDLF). At the moment, its yield is 6.8%. That is already juicy and well over double the FTSE 100 average.

Someone who bought in February 2020 would be earning only a little more, as at that time the share cost around 98% of what it does now.

But the following month it plummeted in the pandemic stock market crash. That pushed the share price down to just over £5. That is around 62% of the current share price.

So someone who bought Standard Life shares then would now be earning a yield of around 10% not the 6.8% on offer today.

This could help target early retirement

That is a substantial difference, but 6.8% is already a big yield. Compounding at that rate annually would allow an investment to double in 11 years.

But compounding instead at 10% annually, doubling the investment would only take eight years. In other words, buying great shares when they are on sale could help someone earn a higher yield. That could potentially let them hit their financial goals sooner and retire earlier.

What I’m doing now

As it happens, even at today’s price, I think Standard Life is worth considering. It has a proven business model and deep expertise in an area of personal finance that will likely endure for decades, thanks to a focus on pensions and retirement savings. It benefits from economies of scale as one in five adults in the UK are clients.

One risk is its mortgage book. If the property market stumbles, it could be forced to write down some valuations, hurting earnings.

I do not know when the property market may next crash, just as I do not know when the stock market will next be hit. Instead of trying to time the market, I am using my time to update my list of shares I would like to buy if a crash gave me an opportunity to buy them at an attractive price.

Should you invest £5,000 in Standard Life right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Standard Life made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post Think a stock market crash would be bad? What if it could help you retire early? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

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• Here’s how someone could start investing with a spare £20 a week
• Could £300 a month and UK dividend shares yielding 5% really grow to £176,436?
• How much is needed in a Stocks and Shares ISA for a passive income of £500 a week?
• How to invest £20k in 3 FTSE 100 stocks to get a stunning 7% dividend yield

Rather than trying to earn passive income by setting up their own business, many people simply invest in proven, profitable FTSE 100 businesses.

The index of 100 leading UK companies contains a lot of mature, large businesses. While their growth opportunities can sometimes be limited, most of them have a proven ability to generate excess cash.

Most use at least some of that to fund dividends to shareholders.

So, how lucrative an opportunity might this be for people seeking to build passive income streams?

Average – or above average?

At the moment, the FTSE 100 yields 3.1%.

So, say somebody wants to target a monthly average of £500 in passive income. What would that require?

£500 per month adds up to £6,000 in a year. At a 3.1% dividend yield, that income goal would require an investment of close to £194k.

One straightforward approach could be to invest in a FTSE 100 tracker. Not all trackers pay dividends, though, so it is important to compare them carefully when choosing one.

That 3.1% average is just an average. Instead of a tracker, someone might decide to build their own portfolio of select FTSE 100 shares targetting a higher yield than the index’s average.

For example, if they can achieve a 6% average yield, a portfolio worth £100k ought to be enough to help them hit their target. That is still a lot of money – but meaningfully less than £194k.

Here’s an income share to consider

I see 6% as a realistic target in the current market.

Remember, that is just an average. So some shares in the portfolio could offer a lower yield and still earn a place, as long as the portfolio overall manages to hit the target.

As with any portfolio, it is important to stay diversified. FTSE 100 shares are typically large, proven businesses – but even a previously highly successful company can sometimes disappoint investors.

One FTSE 100 share I think merits consideration currently yields 6.1%. The company’s management aims to keep growing its dividend per share annually, as it has done in recent years.

Dividends are never guaranteed at any company, but I do feel upbeat about the long-term prospects here.

The company in question is asset manager M&G (LSE: MNG).

Proven cash generation potential

I like M&G partly because it has demonstrated that its business model can generate sizeable excess cashflows.

The asset management industry is huge. Thanks to resilient demand from customers, it is likely to stay that way.

That attracts competition – and I see that as a risk for M&G. In recent years it has battled to get its million of policyholders to pay more in than they take out. Lately it has been winning that battle, but if the tables turn again, that is a risk to earnings.

But with that customer base, strong brand, and deep financial management experience, I like the business’s prospects.

Should you invest £5,000 in Rolls Royce right now?

When investing expert Mark Rogers and his team have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Twelfth Magpie Share Advisor newsletter he has run for nearly a decade has provided thousands of paying members with top stock recommendations from the UK and US markets.

And right now, Mark thinks there are 6 standout stocks that investors should consider buying. Want to see if Rolls Royce made the list?

Christopher Ruane does not hold any positions in the companies mentioned.

The post How much would someone need to invest in FTSE 100 shares to target £500 per month in passive income? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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• Which British dividend shares could supercharge a passive income portfolio in 2026?
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