Category: Investments
The Magic of Options Trading: Learn to Manage Risk
My school years didn’t teach me how to manage or control risk; in fact, they taught us to avoid risk. The general philosophy was to go to school, get good grades, and get a high-paying job. In 1999, I decided to forgo college despite having a 4.4 grade point average. I joined the United States…
High-Yield Savings Accounts vs. Standard Savings Accounts: We Should All Love Yield
I’m embarrassed that I even have to write this particular article. I mean, come on, we should all want our money to earn as much interest as possible. However, I understand many people have reservations about switching to a high-yield savings account, typically from an online-only bank. But it’s time to overcome our fears and…
Index Funds vs. Income Investing: The Best Way to Retire Early
Do you want to retire in your early 50s? That is an excellent time to call it quits and focus on family and friends. But how can you retire this early without a solid financial plan and a massive bank account? One way is to follow the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early). The FIRE…
Get Off The Fence. Get Into Dividends!
What are you waiting for? How many years must you spend in the workforce before you realize it’s all a game? Even worse, it’s a game you cannot win. Even if you work 40 years to accumulate $1 million, can you live on $40,000 annually from investments? Most people will get nowhere close to $1…
Paying All of Your Bills with Income Investing: The Magic of Passive Income
Paying bills sucks, but it is a necessary part of our lives. How can we create less friction when dealing with our expenses? The best solution, I found, is to pay bills with passive income. Why is passive income important to your overall financial health? Passive income is money you receive without exchanging time for…
Paying Your Cable Bill with Dividend ETFs: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
Do you still have a cable bill? I have a Direct TV bill plus three or four streaming services. All of these bills can be expensive and annoying. Part of me wants to cancel these services, but I don’t because I have the resources to pay for them. Instead, I concentrated on building my passive…
Rental Income vs. Social Security: What’s Best for Your Retirement?
Social security is heading toward insolvency; can it be saved? We do not know what the future holds; however, there are things in our purview we can control. I used to be a full-on government-retirement-plan lover. My goal was to serve 30 years in the Marine Corps, do another 20 years in the federal civilian…
Paying Your Car Note with Mortgage REITs: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
I hate having a car note; I hate it with a passion. However, the Marine Corps placed me in a bind, and I had to purchase a used car on the fly (in 2022). Luckily, I have my trusty dividend portfolio to assist me in making this payment. The magic of income investing is you…
Paying Your Cell Phone Bill with Dividend Stocks: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
I love having the latest Samsung flagship phones but hate paying for them. Luckily, I can use high-yield dividend stocks to cover this expense. The best part of dividend investing is using it to pay your expenses. Eventually, you can use dividends to pay all your bills, making you financially free. But let’s not get…
Paying Your Auto Insurance with Business Development Companies: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
During my 24-year military career, I never struggled to pay bills, and I never had to use credit cards to survive or pay utilities. However, that doesn’t mean everything was golden. We used our credit cards for emergencies, which ended up biting us in the rear end later. Although we always had food on the…
Every Day I Wake Up to More Income! Income Investing for the Win
I started working at age 16 during the summer of my sophomore year in 1996. I continued exchanging time for money until the summer of 2019. In June 2019, I began exchanging time for assets. These assets then paid me money that I could use to purchase more assets. I retired from the military in…
Paying Your Water Bill with Preferred Shares: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
You become financially free when you can pay all of your bills with passive income. Once you reach this point, you become work-optional. My wife and I achieved financial freedom in October 2023, when I retired from the US Marine Corps. At that moment, I had passive income from a pension, dividends, royalties, and rents.…
Paying Your Electricity Bill with Closed-End Funds: It’s Time to Pay Your Bills with Dividends
It’s time to pay your bills. The standard practice is to receive your paycheck and pay your highest-ranking, most urgent bills first. What if we could change the process entirely? What if we could pay all of our bills with dividends? Once we can pay your expenses with dividends, we are incredibly close to becoming…
Selling Covered Calls for Vacation Money: How to Expedite Your Savings Rate
Do you hate saving for your annual vacation? I used to loathe putting my hard-earned money into a slow-moving savings account that earned 0.01% interest. I traded that saving strategy for a dividend-focused plan. Now, I use my $2,200 per month passive dividend income stream to quickly save for any vacation I choose. Even better,…
Health Savings Accounts vs. Series “I” Bonds: The Best Value for Your Children
We all want to protect our children from financial ruin. We would love to lay the financial foundation for them to follow throughout their lives. However, we must understand these complex products to assist them. Nobody can substitute for us learning the financial information we need to help others. One of the best ways to…
Dividend ETFs vs. Dividend Stocks: Can You Perform Better Than the Pros?
We all love to be in control, right? We want what we want when we want it. And the stock market gives us an unlimited amount of choices—almost too many. I just finished my Stock Market Investing at Any Age Series (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s), where I discussed the importance of dividend growth…
Selling Cash-Secured Puts for Passive Income 2: Overcome the Lost Decade with Yield
The 2020s may be a lost decade for the stock market. Some people call this a bubble that may not pop—but may flatline. However, our net worth must still grow over 10% every year. If the gains don’t originate from the stock market, where do they come from? We can obtain yield from dividends, but…
The Magic of Compound Interest: How to Harness the Magic in Your Life
How do you explain to someone that they can become rich? That they have the power to set themselves free from workplace stress and financial anxiety? I didn’t grow up with many resources, so I joined the US Marine Corps at age 18 in 1999. I served for 20 years, struggling to get my finances…
Stock Market Investing in Your 70s: Passing Income to Future Generations
An asset is something we can pass on to future generations. Focusing on their futures ensures we make the best decisions for our and their well-being and longevity. Honestly, we should be financially savvy and independent in our 70s; there is no reason not to be. Therefore, we can begin mapping out our future endowments…
Stock Market Investing in Your 60s: Let the 401K Conversions Begin
We all love the idea of recycling—turning something old into something new. In our 60s, we can turn our pile of money (401K) into a massive passive income stream. That’s right. We will forget the 4% rule and earn 9-10% yields on our invested capital. Do you need a financial advisor to manage your money…
