I love my Happy Cash Flow Retirement series dearly. One of the reasons is because I always feature some kind of alcoholic beverage on the cover. In the series, this will be article number two (read the first one here) and book number five (see the first four books here). It always reminds me of how far we’ve come in regards to our retirement mindset.
Happy Cash Flow Retirement 1 – 4
I used to believe that my military pension and working another job after retirement was how to structure my life. I would just work until I was 65 years old and have two pensions and social security.
Then I woke up and said, wait, why the heck would I do that? I actually wrote an article the first day that I figured it out for myself. I titled the article “No Freakin’ Way I am Working Another 25 Years.”
20 Creative Ways to Make Money From Home
I had just turned 40, and the prospect of working for other people for another 25 years repulsed me. Don’t worry; it makes me even sicker now. It’s not that I mind working that much. I do, however, mind wasting my time.
Every minute I work on my books and blog is a minute that builds towards something more significant than my wife and me. Every minute creates more passive income for our future selves. We are laying the foundation for our eventual freedom from the workforce.
When I go to work, I am building towards someone else’s dream. We waste time doing things that produce no tangible results or products. Once you have the mindset of an entrepreneur, it is tough to shut it down during work hours.
However, while I grow my passive income streams, I will continue to work. It’s all good; it is a fair trade-off for now. I did not grow up with the words “passive income,” so I have to create my version of the dream.
Don’t Gamble Your Retirement Away 2
What is my version of passive income? My passive income comes in five different varieties; retirement income, investments, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and business income. We must branch out and understand all five of these income streams because it lessens the urgency of each.
If you only understand real estate, the better real estate investor you have to become. If you only understand investing in the stock market, you need to get better returns from equities. This goes for the rest of the asset classes as well.
Now, if you understand each one, you can leverage what you need from each. I don’t have to be a super strong real estate investor because I have a military pension. I don’t have to 10X my cryptocurrencies because I have a dividend portfolio.
Hustle in Your 20s and 30s, Enjoy Your 40s and 50s
Indeed, building a healthy cash flow retirement system is all about leveraging all asset classes together. That way, you can ride the waves in each direction and minimize the downturns when they occur.
How do we get smart in each of the asset classes? I am a massive fan of reading books. Now that you know the different asset classes, you can slowly target your reading to build your knowledge base.
I write about each of the asset classes—at least an article every day. I am slowly building my knowledge in each. As I develop my knowledge, I create my Happy Cash Flow Retirement system as well. Let’s see what I have in my passive income portfolio as a 40-year-old today.
- Retirement Income. I am still on active duty in the military, with 22 years of service. I am building a nice-sized military pension. I am also building up my Roth IRA.
- Investments. We have a $190,000 dividend portfolio. We plan on having $1 Million before I retire from the military.
- Cryptocurrencies. Capital gains from crypto can be impressive, but I invest for the great interest rates on staking your coins.
- Real Estate. We own three houses, and someone else pays all of our mortgages. We will probably buy a couple more places along the way.
- Business. I build my royalties by writing books and my automated business income with a blog and affiliate marketing. We have more business plans for when I retire.
You see, nothing too complex here—just understanding how all these systems work together. When planning your HCFR, know that you do not have to go all-in at once. Start renting a room and investing that cash in dividends or begin writing a blog about your crypto portfolio. It is only as complicated as you make it.
I know that conventional wisdom is to work for 45 years, build a 401K account, and pray for your investments (and social security) to last your lifetime. But does that make you sleep well at night?
Passive income and cash flow are the answer. Your knowledge compounds and your money compounds. Every single thing you do towards your retirement compounds. So take it seriously, stop buying materialistic crap, and jump into the cash flow game. When you hit your stride, it’ll be the only game you need to play.
- Build Passive Income: 21 Passive Income Ideas (book)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself (book)
- Retirement Planning: Retirement Planning at Any Age (book)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends (book)
- Cryptocurrencies: My First Book on Cryptocurrencies (book)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate (book)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business (book)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever! (book)(Web Edition)(Art Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
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- My first Children’s book: A Child’s First Book on Passive Income (book)
- Book Reviews: 54 Takeaways from 54 Books (book)
- Want to Build Passive Income from Books and Affiliate Marketing? (Learn here)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer? (direct)
- My Favorite Chromebook: The Ultimate Chromebook (direct)
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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