How I’d aim for a passive income with £150 a week

I am currently following a strategy that I believe will allow me to build a passive income with £150 a week using stocks and shares. 

Equities are the perfect asset to build a passive income, in my opinion, because investors do not need a huge lump sum to get started. Indeed, thanks to the rise of free trading apps, investors like me can start saving for the future with just a few pounds every week. 

This is why I believe I can build a passive income stream by saving £150 a week. 

Stocks and shares for passive income

That amount, which equates to £7,800 a year, will not give me a passive income overnight. But it will form the foundations of what could potentially become a very lucrative portfolio in the long term. 

I will invest this money in high-income shares. Companies such as British American Tobacco, Phoenix Group and Legal & General are stocks that currently support an average dividend yield of around 7%. 

Assuming they do not generate any capital growth, this implies I can earn a return of £546 a year on my money. 

That is just the start. If I reinvest my dividend income back into this basket of shares, I believe I can build an investment pot of around £110,000 after a decade of saving. A dividend yield of 7% on this total could provide me with a passive income of £7,700 a year.

Of course, these are just estimates. There is no guarantee the companies outlined will maintain their dividends at current levels. A sudden drop in profitability could cause the firms to slash their distributions to investors, as happened last year when the pandemic crippled global economies. 

If these companies begin to reduce their dividends, I may have to seek out other income stocks. There are some other options, including Persimmon and Evraz but, like their peers listed above, the income from these corporations is far from guaranteed. 

Growth stocks for income

Still, as a way to build a passive income stream for life, I am comfortable using this strategy. Even if the companies I have picked for my portfolio start to reduce their dividend payouts, I can always look for income elsewhere. 

Another strategy I could use is to invest in growth stocks. These do not tend to support high dividend yields, but I can always create income by selling a number of shares each year. For example, if a growth stock returns 10% every year, I can always reduce the position by 10% to produce a synthetic passive income for my portfolio. 

So, all in all, these are the strategies I plan to use to generate a passive income from stocks and shares. Even if the dividend strategy does not produce the desired results, I can always shift to the capital growth strategy. 

Rupert Hargreaves owns shares of British American Tobacco. The Motley Fool UK has recommended British American Tobacco. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.