Author: kingmarine
Stock & Bond Investing in Your 40s
There are a few paths you can take in your 40s. You can get into more debt, get divorced, have a mid-life crisis, or become rich. Luckily I choose to become wealthy by making more income than I spend. Remember, wealth is having excess income versus expenses. But I didn’t choose to have a job…
Saving & Investing with $500 per Month
If you can save and invest $500 per month, you are in the elite class of America. Sadly, I am being completely serious. Most Americans cannot save $500 over the course of a year or even a decade. America is a tough place to save because everything costs. If you own a home or have…
Are You Drowning in Debt? Try Building a Relationship with Money
Our parents and teachers train us to be good employees. Unfortunately, this mindset leads to terrible interactions with money. The first step to getting out of debt is understanding the language of money and then learning how we should spend it. The root cause of debt. We live in a consumption-based, spend-first society. However, that…
The Magic of Waking Up Early: The Early Bird Gets The Dollar
The world is programming you to become unsuccessful. Almost every news bite I hear from celebrities and entrepreneurs tells you to work less or focus on finding happiness. Beware of false prophets. Over the last three years, they told you to quit your job, be happy earning minimum wage, and not buy a home. Then…
Learn to Barter and Trade Today: How to Prepare for the New World
We should all be fearful of the future. No, this does not mean living in fear, but having a healthy respect for the fact things will change. Money is becoming much harder to obtain through a W-2 job. If you have a job, it’s like having five jobs because you are doing the work of…
Dividend ETFs vs. Bonds 2: The Tax Edition
After writing “Dividend ETFs vs. Bonds,” I got to thinking about taxes. As we head into retirement, taxes will play a significant role in our decision-making. Let’s rerun the $500,000-401K scenario, but this time with a perspective focusing on taxes. Let’s assume we are 66 years old and drawing social security. What are qualified dividends?…
Stock & Bond Investing in Your 30s
Have you ever heard anyone talk about the “terrible twos” as they raise their children? It’s a time when kids often don’t sleep, can walk and talk, and get into all kinds of mischief. My wife went through this phase twice with our two kids—with me out on assignment most of the time. It’s a…
Dividend ETFs vs. Bonds: The Best Investment for Retirees
Retiring from the workforce can be stressful. We spend our entire lives earning a paycheck and living on a salary. Now they expect us to live on our investments and a small amount of social security. Most of us don’t spend much time learning how to invest. When we retire with a nice nest egg,…
Stock & Bond Investing in Your 20s
Your 20s can be magical if you have the time, patience, and attentiveness to learn about finances. However, most of the time, we are fighting off our hormones. For this series, I assume that you want to start a family and build generational wealth throughout your life. If you want to stay single, you can…
Getting Rich is a Team Sport: The Individual American Dream is Dead
They really did a number on us. They will have us believe that in one lifetime, we can get a college education, climb the corporate ladder, get married, stay married, have children, raise children, fund our children’s education, and save for retirement. Yeah right. The American Dream is much more than $5 million today. With…
Dividend Investing During Turbulent Times
Don’t worry; it will all be okay. This is not the first crisis; it won’t be the last. The best way to handle this situation is to push through it confidently. We can use their philosophy with anything and life, and we should. In today’s case, we are talking about dividend investing during the coming…
Becoming an Entrepreneur #6: Creating Your Sales Funnel
Attempting to sell something to another person seems simple but is quite complex. Very rarely do people just buy things without establishing some form of relationship—either with the product or the brand. Your mission as an entrepreneur is to turn people “off the street” (leads) into people who purchase items from you (customers). Ideally, we…
Don’t Gamble with Retirement 10
A lot has changed since I started blogging about personal finance in July 2020. At the time, retirement planning was something you could do on the side. Why spend all of your time planning for something 30 to 40 years away, right? Wrong! After a crazy turn of events, the only way to retire is…
Becoming an Entrepreneur #5: Building an Audience
Now it’s time to put all our reading, training, and education into action. I firmly believe in the content-first approach to business that the book “Content Inc.” discussed. Welcome back to the Becoming an Entrepreneur Series (Part #1, Part #2, Part #3, Part #4), where we take you from employee to entrepreneur. Why is building…
Investing for Interest 112: Series “I” Bonds vs Series “EE” Bonds
The Investing for Interest Series (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111) is one of my favorite series. I love this series because there is always something new to review or compare in the world of fixed income. Bonds don’t receive as much love as stocks, but our fondness for bonds…
Make a 5-Year Commitment: Treasury Notes vs Certificates of Deposit
Certificates of deposits used to be one of the safest investments in town. However, we had a troubling turn of events in March 2023. Three large banks failed in about a week: Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVC), and Signature Bank. Silicon Valley was the 16th largest bank in America (by deposits). These bank failures…
Bond Investing in Your 70s
We should all plan on enjoying our 70s while preserving capital. Even better, we can help our family build generational wealth while we travel the world. There is much to accomplish in the later chapters of life, but it requires financial sophistication to achieve our goals. Welcome back to the Bond Investing at Any Age…
Are We Living in Fast Forward? Things Have Changed Since 2020
The other day, I was listening to my favorite YouTuber as I worked on my books. He said he felt like life has been moving in fast forward since the pandemic. This statement got me thinking. I always tell my Marines that this new world will give them ADHD. Everyone and everything is trying to…
Start a Review & Content Business toward Passive Income
Do you love to learn and try new things? If so, perhaps it is time to start a business around your ability to keep learning and self-educating yourself. Most people do not pursue self-education but will follow people who keep learning. This puts you in a great position to do what you love while earning…
So Your Kid Wants to be a Doctor? Here’s How You Can Help
Parents, you will not like this article. I have been tough on parents over the last three years, and today the tradition continues. Don’t worry; I am a parent of two kids, 16 and 12. We all want the best for our children, but most people forget to do the most crucial thing—learn. Fixed versus…
