Category: Investments
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…
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…
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…
Dating with Dividends: Find Your True Love through Budgeting
Budgeting together is my definition of true love. Yes, it doesn’t sound sexy or romantic, but it’s practical and successful. My wife and I met in a far-off foreign land in 2004; I was 23, and she was 20. It was love at first sight. I told her I loved her in three days. Now,…
Bond Investing in Your 60s
What happens when you turn 60 (59.5)? That’s right; you gain access to your taxable 401Ks and non-taxable Roth IRAs. I’m not a big fan of the 401K system because it is basically a high-yield savings account. We have people turning 60 with a large pot of money and no skills to handle it. Welcome…
The $5 per Week Dividend Investor: Time to Get Started
No more excuses. Let’s try something different today. I want to start you off as a dividend investor at the lowest level. Most people believe you need a ton of money to become a dividend investor. This theory is partially true. If you want to retire on dividends alone, you will need millions of dollars—true.…
I Heart Income Investing: The Joys of Portable Income
I will retire this year after 24 years of faithful service in the US Marine Corps. I will walk away with a good-sized retirement check, but I will have something else. I will still have $1,600 per month in dividends flowing into my accounts. I can do whatever I want with this money because it’s…
Investing for Interest 111: CD Ladders vs. Treasury Ladders
Do you prefer saving over investing? Do you want to maximize the rates on your high-yield emergency fund? The Federal Reserve has said that interest rates will be “higher for longer,” meaning that savers can earn a respectable amount of interest income. But which route will you take for your savings allocations? There are many…
Treasury Bonds vs Municipal Bonds: Federal vs State Tax Advantages
A true marker of a wealthy mindset is the passion for reducing taxes. Often rich people receive grief because they want to lower or eliminate their tax bills. They usually receive this hate from the lower or middle class, who pay a large percentage of their income to the government. However, rich people pay the…
Series “I” Bonds vs Index Funds: Making the Leap From Saver to Investor
The most challenging aspect of becoming financially independent is making the leap from a saver to an investor. It’s nearly impossible to save your way to financial freedom. As much as we love the comfort of having our money in savings, earning 3-4% on your cash won’t net you enough to retire. How do we…
Annuities vs. Income Investing
Do you like betting against yourself? Do you believe someone can handle your money better than you? Although there are times to let the professionals handle the situation, we can still learn the information to give us additional options. Every American should have an income investing portfolio to assist them through life. Even passively earning…
Series “I” Bonds 4 Life: It’s Always a Good Time to Buy Savings Bonds
As inflation slowly recedes, so does the hype for one of my favorite investment tools—Series “I” Bonds. The hype turned into mania when they paid 9.62% interest last year. The goal of an “I” bond is to protect your cash from inflation while giving you a modest return. When they hit 9.62%, it was probably…
Achieve F.I.R.E. via Income Investing
We all want to escape the workforce. I have been working since 1997, when I started at McDonald’s, and I’ve never seen an employment market like this. Everyone is overworked, underpaid, and struggling to survive. Leadership is even more chaotic and unorganized than the employees. If you do not have your finances in order, you…
Dividend ETFs vs. Index Funds
A few improvements to investing have changed the game for the average middle-class investor. These are fractional shares, zero commission fees, and automated investing. Today, we can invest $5/week into our favorite index funds and dividend ETFs to slowly grow our portfolio. Plus, we can still go all in with $5,000 when we get our…
My High-Yield Savings Account: Year in Review 2022
Today we celebrate. 2022 was an incredible financial year; therefore, we can ring in 2023 with a bang. My high-yield savings account is one of my favorite investment vehicles of 2022, so I want to explore it more in-depth. Discover did me a solid by sending me an email summary of my HYSA. This also…
Pay Your Bills with Dividends
Dividend investing will undoubtedly change your life, but it won’t happen overnight. In fact, it will probably take a substantial amount of time before you see tangible results. So how do you stay motivated as you work your way up from a “dividend drip” to a “dividend stream?” You simply work on increasing your dividends,…
