Category: Investments

  • Dividend Investing 105: Add a Safe Options-Trading Strategy

    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…

  • Dividend Investing 104: Building a Dividend Payment Schedule

    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.…

  • Cursed Retirement? What is Sequence of Returns Risk?

    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

    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

    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%…

  • Dividend Investing 102: Picking the Right Dividend Stocks

    Dividend Investing 102: Picking the Right Dividend Stocks

    Now that you know some basic terms of dividend investing, it’s time to jump into picking the right stocks for your risk tolerance and investment philosophy. Welcome back to the Dividend Investing 101 series (101), where we get you into the passive income game. The three types of dividend securities. I categorize dividend investing into…

  • Dividend Investing 101: What Are Dividends?

    Dividend Investing 101: What Are Dividends?

    Have you ever wondered how rich people always seem to make money, even when not at work? This magical existence is what we call “passive income.” One of the major types of passive income is dividends, along with rents, royalties, and automated business. But what are dividends, and why should you care about them? You’ll…

  • Saving is Defense: Investing is Offense

    Saving is Defense: Investing is Offense

    Do you know the difference between saving and investing? What is the difference between having $100,000 in a high-yield savings account (HYSA) and $100,000 in an income investing portfolio? Once they get out of credit card debt, most people become savers. Saving comes naturally because you have complete control of your money—there are no risks.…

  • Income Investing vs. Inflation 2

    Income Investing vs. Inflation 2

    Inflation will stick around for 5-10 more years, so we must fight it at all costs. If your income leaves you behind, expect to have a challenging decade. Income investing is my favorite way to combat inflation because of the level of control it gives you. Each dividend you earn gives you a choice between…

  • The Magic of Passive Index Fund Investing 2

    The Magic of Passive Index Fund Investing 2

    I invest for income. Nothing gives me more pleasure than doing the math to generate dividends from my income-investing portfolio. However, income products usually don’t increase in value. To capture the stock market’s growth, I turn to index funds. What are index funds? Index funds are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that track a specific assortment…

  • The Magic of Income Investing 2

    The Magic of Income Investing 2

    I see the world through math; I can understand if something makes sense financially rather quickly. I also invest in generating income. The more income that comes into my accounts, the easier my life becomes. Revenue minus expenses creates cash flow. Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business and every household. To consistently overcome…

  • I’m Living My Dream Life With Dividends

    I’m Living My Dream Life With Dividends

    Life is good. No, I mean truly amazing. I never believed I could live a life with such passion and freedom. But it’s not because of money. Living a good life is about time, specifically, the freedom of your time. If you can choose how to spend your time, you have a much higher chance…

  • 5 Takeaways from “Credit Spread Options for Beginners”

    5 Takeaways from “Credit Spread Options for Beginners”

    “Credit Spread Options for Beginners” by Freeman Publications simplifies the complex world of options trading.  In particular, it covers Net Credit Spread options that are more advanced than selling covered calls and cash-secured puts. Selling covered calls and cash-secured puts requires a level-one options account from your brokerage.  I acquired a level-one account and traded…

  • The Magic of Dividend Growth Investing 2

    The Magic of Dividend Growth Investing 2

    We all want to be able to afford retirement someday. They teach us to invest in our 401Ks; maybe at age 70, we can escape the rat race. But what if we could get away sooner? What if we could retire with a $1 million portfolio that also paid us $40,000 to $50,000 per year—without…

  • Stock & Bond Investing in Your 70s

    Stock & Bond Investing in Your 70s

    Our 70s are all about paying it forward. Hopefully, we did well with our finances and can give to the next generations. We want to ensure our children and grandchildren can navigate life with more resources than we had available.  We must lead by example if we want them to have the millionaire mindset. Welcome…

  • Getting Started with High-Yield Savings Accounts: Overcoming Your Banking Fears

    Getting Started with High-Yield Savings Accounts: Overcoming Your Banking Fears

    To investors, a high-yield savings account (HYSA) is the minimum location where they will store their money. However, the average person needs to be made aware of HYSAs. My goal today is to get middle-class citizens the knowledge and confidence to transfer their first $100 into an HYSA. HYSAs are your first step into collecting…

  • Stock & Bond Investing in Your 60s

    Stock & Bond Investing in Your 60s

    For most people, their 60s is when they begin to feel wealthy. They can cash out their 401Ks and Roth IRAs while receiving social security. If they are fortunate, they also receive a federal, state, or local government pension. However, just because they have cash flow doesn’t mean they should stop investing. Welcome back to…

  • New Car Payments vs. Income Investing

    New Car Payments vs. Income Investing

    Do you own a paid-off car? Congratulations, you are on your way toward financial freedom. Or are you? Chances are you are considering buying a new car because they look so dang sexy right now. You may as well get a brand-new vehicle with safety features and better gas mileage, right? That new car smell.…

  • Think of Preferred Shares as Gift Cards: Buy Your Income at a Discount

    Think of Preferred Shares as Gift Cards: Buy Your Income at a Discount

    What if you could buy $25 gift cards for $20 and still redeem them at $25? Would you take this deal immediately? Why would this deal intrigue you? Because you would essentially be buying money ($5) for free?  This concept is the idea behind buying preferred shares on the stock market. The more you research…

  • Stock & Bond Investing in Your 50s

    Stock & Bond Investing in Your 50s

    If your 40s were all about creating income, then your 50s are about maintaining your portfolio while building generational wealth. Your income should be creating more income in your 50s. This means you should have enough income from dividends to reinvest 30%. If this is not the case, please go back and read the earlier…