Retirement & Dividends: Enjoy Your Time Off

Today was my first day of retirement, and it was incredible. There is something extraordinary about waking up and not having to go to work.

I retired from the Marine Corps after 24 years. My wife and I chose Pensacola, Florida, to lay our heads.

The weather in Pensacola is beautiful; however, it is definitely hot and humid in summer. Luckily we have an excellent air conditioner keeping us cool all day.

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Dividends to the rescue. Something that also keeps us comfortable is dividends. My military pension will be enough to sustain our lifestyle, but we choose to thrive (versus survive).

Dividends are the key to leading a successful retired life. We receive roughly $1,500/month in dividends, and this number keeps growing.

Eventually, I want to earn $10,000/month in dividends—that’s the dream. We will get there slowly by adding new capital and reinvesting dividends.

But, the key to earning dividends is spending and enjoying them. The more you use dividends in daily life, the more you want to add new capital to grow your pot of money.

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Getting started with dividends. There are many ways to invest for dividends, some riskier than others.

The first thing you want to do is determine your investing horizon. This means how long you have before you want to use your dividends.

I wanted to start using my dividends immediately; therefore, I became an income investor. Income investing falls on the risker side of the investing spectrum.

I always remember a quote by Robert Kiyosaki, “There are no risky investments, only risky inventors.”

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If you take the time to learn and follow the six types of income investing, you’ll have a pretty good handle on how they operate.

I wouldn’t recommend income investing to first-time dividend investors, but you can begin to feel comfortable around high-yielding products over time.

What if you have more time? If you have a longer time horizon, say anything over ten years, you may want to become a dividend growth investor.

Dividend growth investors (DGI) seek to grow their pot of income along with capital appreciation. You pick blue chip stocks like McDonald’s (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX) and let them do the work for you.

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I love DGI stocks because you can see the dividend increases over time. I track my dividends religiously, and you can see how far your DGI portfolio has come.

If you have the time, this is the way to invest. It doesn’t take too much knowledge, and you don’t have to follow the stock market news daily.

Your retirement, your way. Dividends are the perfect supplement to your retired lifestyle but can also be the main event.

I began dividend investing four years ago and learned so much. My dividend income is a huge reason I walked away from the military before 30 years.

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There is just something amazing about seeing your brokerage accounts grow automatically. I like to use my Dividend Debit Card when I can.

My Dividend Debit Card is my Cash App debit card. When you invest in stocks on Cash App, they deposit dividends directly into your cash balance.

You can spend your dividends as freely as you choose. In fact, I went to Applebee’s today with a military buddy and used my Cash App card to pay for my meal.

Dividends as the main event. If you don’t have a pension, you may consider using dividends as the primary source of income.

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The most important part of retirement planning is deciding how much monthly income you need. Once you have that number, you can determine your investing path.

Let’s say you want $5,000 per month of dividend income. You can invest $600,000 at 10% (income investing) or $1.5 million at 4% (dividend growth).

There are lots of ways to achieve your goal. The best way is to create a wealth generator outside the stock market.

You then use the revenue from the wealth generator to fund your dividend portfolio. My wife and I used renting rooms as our wealth generator.

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This method allowed us to get out of debt and build a $200,000 dividend portfolio. Now, my next wealth generator will be trading options.

Learning how to invest. Most people do not have enough capital to start dividend investing. But we all have access to ways to generate income.

We are living in the sharing and content creation economy. You can create content or share your car or house to earn enough income to build your dividend portfolio.

The thing that holds people back the most is themselves. You must do something different to get different results than everyone else.

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Have a deep look inside yourself and ask how you want to spend your retirement years. What are you willing to do to get to that outcome?

I endured 24 years in the military, 17 of which I was married, and eight years away from family. 

I started writing books in my free time over the last three years of my career. I used my spare time to generate income to have a great retirement.

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Conclusion. My wife and I are 39 and 42, respectively. We keep reinventing ourselves to get to the destination we want.

I am not the same person who was in debt in 2019. I learned how to save, invest, and create income—it changed my life.

What will you do to achieve your retirement dreams? How will dividends help you along your path? 

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Investing for dividends changed my life and made me aware of everything I could achieve when I focused and took massive action.

Now, I am living my dream life and can enjoy my time. I took many steps to reach this point, but it was all worth it.

If you want to retire early, travel the world, or become the parent of your dreams, dividend investing can play a large part in your goals. Good Luck!

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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. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing