Category: Investments
Stock Market vs. Bond Market vs. Options Market
Investing in paper markets can be intimidating if you don’t have a guide or mentor. I would guess that the overwhelming majority of people will never invest directly in financial markets (also called risk markets). It is a shame because you can grow your wealth much quicker with paper assets than by working your 9-5…
Investing for Interest 114: Individual Treasury Bonds vs. Treasury Bond Funds
Investing in bonds was nearly impossible for 15 years (2008-2022). The Federal Reserve kept interest rates low to spur the economy meaning bond yields were abysmal (1-2%). However, the Federal Funds Rate is above 5% currently, and bonds are back to being a good source of safe yields. Now we must decide the best ways…
Selling Cash-Secured Puts for Passive Income
After spending some time on the stock market, you’ll understand the epp and flow of the world’s greatest wealth creator. You will undoubtedly be a buy-and-hold investor if you are a dividend investor. Receiving dividends is my favorite moment of my day, outside of seeing my family. Luckily, we can extract even more passive income…
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.…
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…
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…
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
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?
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%…
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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”
“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…
