Are you feeling happy today? Happiness is not a feeling that we should chase. Instead, we should set the groundwork for happiness to appear via contentment and satisfaction.
Our two biggest barriers to happiness are relationships and finances (love & money). However, most people don’t study these two resources at all. In fact, they wonder why they cannot make any progress in these endeavors.
That stops today as we explore our ability to create a Happy Cash Flow Retirement (part 1, part 2, part 6). When it comes to love, you should read “How Not to Die Alone.” But, today, we will talk about money. Let’s start with what you expect from your retirement.
Write Book Reviews for Passive Income
Your retirement requirements. In the article “Your Retirement Requirements,” I ask about the non-negotiable goals you need to obtain before retiring. My two were to have $1 million in a dividend portfolio and pay off one of my homes.
By specifying your goals, you can work towards financial freedom. Accomplishing these goals will lay the groundwork for a peaceful, stress-free retirement. We can then layer on additional amenities, vacations, and luxuries.
Supplement your retirement. Part of the Happy Cash Flow Retirement (HCFR) mantra is to create excess cash flow. For example, I will have my military retirement to cover my expenses and extras.
But, I will use dividends to supplement my retirement. My $1 million dividend portfolio should produce me roughly $60,000/year in dividends. That is $5,000/month of pure luxury income.
Passive Income from DeFi 101: Interest from Coins
On top of that, I will use royalties to supplement my retirement. I cannot predict how my royalty income will look; however, let’s assume I can build it to around $3,000/month over the next few years.
Just with those supplements, I am adding over $8,000/month to my military pension. I am not even including TSP, social security, cryptocurrencies, and rental income. That’s a lot of cash flow.
Return to the Earth. Over the last few months, I made an effort to return to mother nature. I read “Apartment Gardening” and “The Homesteading Encyclopedia” to educate myself on sustainable living.
Mortgage Positive: Make Cash Flow from Your Primary Residence
As humans, we are the happiest when in nature. City living does not offer the long-term solution we thought it would. My mom would take us from San Diego to a small desert town near Arizona as a kid.
Grandpa and grandma had a couple of acres in the desert, including grass, fruit trees, and space to ride our bikes. Those moments are my best childhood memories, and I would bond with the desert setting forever (we own a home in Arizona).
So I owe it to my kids and future grandkids to provide them with a quiet, remote, lovely living area. They need a reprieve from city life, just as I had 35+ years ago.
You’ll Need $20,000/month in Passive Income
However, just because we live on the earth doesn’t mean we can’t be rich. As long as we have an internet connection, we can make money from dividends, royalties, and business.
We can also use our garden to fund our dividend portfolio via preferred shares. And use our livestock to fund our dividend portfolio via closed-end funds. We can convert our sustainable living into sustainable income for generational wealth.
It’s Raining Money. I want to shout out to one of my favorite books, “It’s Raining Money: How Dividends Can Change Your Life (book).” I absolutely love the cover art, but also the content.
My wife and I will approach $1,000 in dividend income this month. To say this is a life-changing amount of money is an understatement. I’ll describe what it feels like to have income coming from the sky.
Let Dividends be Your Lighthouse through Retirement
Have you ever been on a Temporary Assigned Duty (TAD) trip in the military or business travel in the civilian world? Your company gives you a set amount of per diem per day to eat and live.
You feel as if you are living for free because the company or government pays for everything you need for a few days or weeks. That’s how dividends feel. I received $52 in dividends yesterday before leaving work.
I wanted to spend this money on something frivolous, but I had already met all my needs. I no longer want much—maybe one video game a month. I ended up reinvesting this money—increasing my dividends for next month.
If you have never received dividends before, it’s something you must try. Yes, you will start by obtaining a minimal amount of dividends. However, buying a bag of chips with dividends is a fantastic feeling.
Do Men Want to be Providers?
The article “Your First Five Dividend Stocks” covers how to get started in the world of dividends. Dividends will play a massive part in your HCFR system.
Stay atop inflation. Inflation can hamper our retirement plans. Beating inflation is easy—make more money. There is no need to overthink inflation or interest rates; just make more money.
An excellent way to handily defeat inflation is by house hacking. You can turn a spare bedroom into the best source of income in your life. You only need to house hack for a few years to build an emergency fund and income portfolio that will last you a lifetime.
I cover more ways to defeat inflation in the series “Inflation Ate My Paycheck (101, 102, 103).” If you do everything the HCFR entails, you will kick inflation’s butt. However, keep educating yourself via books.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
I recently completed my 101st book, and I can say that I went from -$77,000 when I began reading to +$220,000 when I finished book number 101. So, reading pays off if you apply the teachings to your life.
Conclusion. The Happy Cash Flow retirement series is one of my favorites because I can combine multiple subjects into one article. But that’s how I view my retirement—a mixture of pensions, bonds, stocks, cryptos, rents, royalties, and business.
Passive Income for Christmas
Everyone’s HCFR system will be different. Don’t overanalyze your stock market performance, book sales, or crypto gains. As long as you study and make well-educated moves, you’ll be fine.
Don’t get greedy. It takes time to build something that will last. Things that you never thought would happen begin to happen all the time. I have already participated in three stock splits, with a fourth and fifth (Google and Amazon) coming soon.
The book “The Two-Income Trap” tells us that living an ordinary life will bankrupt your family and may lead to divorce and unhappiness. I started a family well before I learned of HCFR systems. It was difficult always to be broke and in debt—as I wanted to provide for my family.
We become financially free by reading, taking steps, and doing unconventional actions like investing in dividends and renting rooms. Now, it’s about setting our kids up for success. Indeed, we are living a Happy Cash Flow Retirement lifestyle. You can become free as well!
- PDF of the Month: 505 Takeaways from 101 Books (pdf)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself 2 (Free 196-Page PDF)
- Retirement Planning: Your Retirement Planning Guide 2 (Free 255-Page PDF)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends 2 (165-Page Free PDF)
- Cryptocurrencies: Counting on Crypto 2 (Free 159-Page PDF)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate 2 (Free 123-Page PDF)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business 2 (Free 185-Page PDF)
- Latest DGWR: Don’t Gamble with Retirement 6 (Free 409-Page PDF)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever 2! (book)(Web Edition)(Art Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out on Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
- Crypto Exchange: My Favorite Crypto Exchange VOYAGER (Join Voyager)
- Kindle Unlimited: Why I Finally Subscribed Kindle Unlimited (learn more)
- Book Reviews: 505 Takeaways from 101 Books (pdf)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer?
- My Favorite Chromebook: The Ultimate Chromebook (direct)
- Follow us: On our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group
- Monthly Dividend Tracker (XLSX): Check it out on Etsy
- For more detailed analysis, join my Youtube: MFI YouTube Channel
Monthly Dividend Tracker Template: Buy on Etsy
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. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
Leave a Reply