Ahh, the retired life is the life for me. I am currently heading back to Japan after two glorious months back in Florida with my family. I am actually in the air flying from Dallas to Seattle. That’s one of the reasons that I love writing; you can do it anywhere.
Back to retirement, wow, I never knew how great life could be as a retired person with resources. Of course, I still had the income from my job constantly refreshing my accounts. However, I did have income from dividends, rents, and royalties, also supplementing my lifestyle.
I learned a lot during my pre-retirement days, so I want to review some of the lessons I can take away for my future full-time retirement in 5-8 years.
The Woman’s Guide to Investing
1) Family is important. If you didn’t know, family is the most crucial aspect of retirement. Your job will no longer be there to occupy your time. Your friends may or may not be there as well, but I wouldn’t count on them being present. After all, they will still be working.
2) Income is important. If you are new to my writing, you may not have heard me say this before⏤income is vital to your life, both before and during retirement. If you are not preparing your income now, do not expect to have it later.
3) Debt-Freedom. So you are debt-free? Well, stay that way. Having no debt during retirement can lift your income by compounding the effect in the markets. Debt is the power of compounding working against us.
4) Stay busy. If you are going to do anything, you may as well create an income stream. I was able to stay busy writing articles, creating and publishing books, reviewing my dividends, and looking at properties.
5) Start your income stream early. You don’t want to retire with a fresh income stream. I have an income stream that is about one year old, and I put a significant amount of time into it during my pre-retirement days. It takes about 10,000 hours for your income stream to mature, so start building now.
Over-Budgeting: You Can Only Cut So Much Before…
6) Relationships are more than talking. Many people think that relationships are just phone calls and the occasional visit. Nope. Relationships require work, time, and sacrifice. Understand what is essential to the other person and make an effort to meet them halfway. You will have the time; you just need to expend the energy.
How am I preparing for my actual retirement? Coming off of my pre-retirement, I am even more laser-focused on my final retirement from the Marine Corps and the workforce. I am currently over 22 years in the Corps and will push towards 25-30 years.
My military pension will be a great addition to my passive income portfolio, but I will continue growing other revenue streams. Here are some things I plan to focus on during my working years.
1) Start a family business. I am past the days of needing more tenants and homes. I may get a few more, but I really want my sons to continue down this path. They can better position themselves to collect passive income from rents. My wife and I like the option to move overseas and live on dividends (and other passive income).
Welcome to Stress Freedom
2) Build a $1 million dividend portfolio. This could prove difficult because I believe the market will trade sideways for years to come. However, we can still reach the goal of $40,000/year on dividend income. We may just need to continue to invest in high-yielding products.
3) Start an automated business. Right now, I am dedicating most of my time to writing and publishing. After I reach 1,000 books (currently at 220), I may slow down a bit and build out an automated business. This could be something like an ATM business or a business-related to nature. The key is that it is automated so that someone else can run it while we are overseas.
4) Make major purchases. Even though we will have the cash to buy most things, bank loans allow us to keep our capital available for market turmoil. Therefore, it is a great idea to buy some (newer) used cars, maybe another rental property, take out a renovation loan, etc., while we still have “employment.” Sometimes you have to play the game that works.
Reflecting on my pre-retirement will also be a great way to prepare for my next chapter. My wife and I had such a great time together. I am so glad we built a fantastic relationship over the last 15.5 years.
I don’t think many people understand the void not going to work every day COULD leave. For me, there is no void. I no longer need someone to tell me what to do all day. I’ve grown out of this mentality.
Write a Book in One Week
Working for yourself produces the best results⎼for the time you spend. Being completely in control of the way I structure my day was eye-opening. My goal each day was to write a 1000+ word article, create article artwork, and create a book or pdf.
From start to finish, it took me roughly five hours a day. However, since I performed most of my work during the magic hours, it was invisible time. My only other requirement was to do an hour of physical exercise.
That left me with almost an unlimited amount of time to spend with family. I even was able to play video games for about an hour a day. With this schedule, I was also able to get ahead in my articles and books. At one point, I was six days ahead of schedule, which gave me the flexibility to take a day off to travel or relax.
I Have Everything I want in Life…And Then Some
Conclusion. Retirement comes for all of us. Hopefully, you are setting things in motion now that will pay off in the future. I feel many people think that life is a joke or retirement is a game⎼it’s not. The last thing you want to worry about in retirement is money and time.
To prevent a lackluster retirement, we need to focus on creating passive income, planning for the unknown (and worst-case scenarios), and performing stress tests on our income streams.
Just because you focus on retirement doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice living today. In fact, it is the opposite. Once my wife and I started to travel down this path, our life became more adventurous.
Passive Income for Christmas
We have a lot more money in the bank, we only do things that add value (which is a great feeling), and everything is intentional. We balance all moves with the long-term effects, and we understand that sometimes we just need to blow some cash (that’s what dividends are for).
I wish you the best in this long journey to a successful retirement. Don’t forget that a robust cash flow retirement will also lead to meaningful estate and succession planning. Everything you build can be left to your heirs if they are deserving. Just another reason to take the road less traveled.
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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
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