Author: kingmarine
This is Why I Became a Writer and Changed My Life Forever
My wife and I traveled to Turkey in 2019 and immediately fell in love with this fantastic country. We decided we wanted to move to Turkey one day in retirement. We knew we would have a military pension to support us; however, I wanted also to earn more income and stay productive. Working locally wouldn’t…
Inside Our $240,000 Dividend Portfolio: Which Pays Us $1,300 Per Month
I remember working at McDonald’s for $4.25/hour in California back in 1997. I used to work hard for money, thinking it would set me free one day. Unfortunately, that’s not how financial freedom works. You’ll need to have your money work for you to escape the rat race. There are many ways to earn passive…
Closed-End Funds vs. Dividend ETFs: It’s All About Life Stages
When do you plan on retiring? Are you already retired? These questions will be vital in determining what financial instruments you’ll need to leverage. Investing is all about your time horizon, goals, philosophy, and risk tolerance. The good part is you don’t need to have all of the answers the first day you start investing.…
Financial Security vs. Financial Freedom 2: The Difference Between Saving and Investing
Financial education given in school is a disgrace to the American public. We all have different viewpoints on why this is, but finding a solution is a better use of our time. The main thing hurting Americans is not knowing the difference between saving and investing. I have met many people who can balance a…
Passive Income: How Do You Spend Your Free Time?
The main difference between the rich and the poor is how they spend their time. How do you spend your free time? Feel free to answer honestly to yourself. Once I learned this golden rule, my income, and net worth doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in a couple of years. If you want to create…
Turn Your Articles into eBooks: Create Even More Passive Income
I started my writing career as a blogger in June 2020. I thought my content would draw the masses within six months of starting my online presence. If you ever started anything online, you’ll know this was wishful thinking. It takes a good while to carve out a nice piece of real estate on the…
Create an eBook Series for Passive Income 2
There has never been a better time to become a writer. You can write, edit, publish, and market your words all by yourself. But what is the best way to reach your target audience? Today, I want to explore a few ways you can build a loyal audience while creating passive income for your future.…
Investing for Interest 113: Baby Bonds vs. Treasury Bonds
If you are making the switch from saver to investor, one of the best places to start is with bonds. Bonds provide safe, consistent income with the chance for some capital appreciation. Treasury bonds are a safe haven for investors because they pose no credit risk (meaning they are considered risk-free). However, if you crave…
5 Takeaways from “Gen F’d”
“Gen F’d: How Young Australians Can Reclaim Their Futures” by Alison Pennington looks at how Generation Z and younger Millennials can regain control of their lives. I’ll admit that the author and I share different economic views; I consider myself a capitalist. However, I did work for the government for 24 years and had a…
Dividend Investing 106: Building a 60/40 Portfolio
Receiving dividends is one of the best joys in life, but you can make it even better. As much as I love the stock market, it does have its ups and downs. One of the best ways to counteract (or hedge) the unpredictability of the stock market is to invest in something more solid and…
Debt is Your Birthright: How to Overcome It
You shouldn’t feel bad about being in debt; however, you shouldn’t be comfortable living in debt either. Debt is a very complex topic with a straightforward premise—debt is about control. I’m fresh off the book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years,” which changed how I view debt. There is nothing new under the sun, and our…
Dividend Investing 105: Add a Safe Options-Trading Strategy
Trading options get a bad reputation from horror stories of people losing it all in a casino-like fashion. But options trading can actually be quite safe. As you amass a huge portfolio of dividend stocks, you may get the urge to generate some more income. Likewise, you may look to buy dividend stocks at rock-bottom…
My Secret Formula to Determine Housing Affordability
The housing market is out of reach for most American households. However, there are still small pockets of affordable places to live—you just need to find them. I have been using an affordability technique over the last ten years that has served me well. It uses a combination of Zillow and Military housing calculators to…
Dividend Investing 104: Building a Dividend Payment Schedule
Few things in life are more satisfying than receiving dividends. Although we invest our money to earn dividends, they are still gifts from heaven. As we continue our dividend investing journey, we begin to fine-tune when we receive our dividends. I have been dividend investing for four years and am still tweaking my dividend schedule.…
Is Homeownership Still The American Dream?
I detest paying rent to someone else. Currently, I am renting a room as I finish the last month of my military career. I am paying $800 monthly in San Diego as my family awaits my return to Florida. I feel many negative emotions every time I pay rent on the first. I am a…
5 Takeaways from “Debt: The First 5,000 Years”
“Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber is a generational must-read book for anyone serious about learning the truth about money. This book has changed my view on debt, relationships, money, monetary policy, wars, and capitalism. It is a massive book, clocking in at over 700 pages. However, it is worth the read. It…
Happy Financial Independence Day 3
The American Dream is still alive and kicking, just not in the same way we envisioned. We thought it would be easy (and straightforward) to free ourselves from our jobs. NOT. In 2023, we will have rampant inflation, crazy housing costs, high utility bills, and low marriage rates. So we are getting squeezed and are…
Cursed Retirement? What is Sequence of Returns Risk?
Most of us spend our working years dreaming (and planning) for retirement daily. We know that to free ourselves from bondage, we must have a solid retirement plan in place. Conventional wisdom has us invest 10% into our 401Ks and Roth IRAs over 35-45 years. Hopefully, we retire with $1-2 million, but that is rare.…
Dividend Investing 103: Picking Your Platforms
Your investing platform will determine how much you invest. You’ll have a blast if it gives you many options and tools. You’ll avoid it like the plague if it is old and clunky. I use five different brokerage platforms because they all offer different experiences. These experiences include depositing money, automated investing, instant investing, fractional…
The Magic of High-Yield Index Fund Reinvestment
Index funds pay an embarrassingly low amount of dividends. However, they are a great product to dollar-cost average over a long time because it’s hard to beat their gains. The problem arises when you need to generate income from your index funds in your working or retirement years. Most people cannot live on a 1.5%…
