Category: Investments
Income for Retirement: Understanding Closed-End Funds
Throughout our working lives, we depend on income to sustain our lifestyles. Why should things be different during retirement? No matter our age, we must pay bills, purchase food, and allocate resources for travel; these things will never fade away. Therefore, we need to create a consistent paycheck to match or exceed our monthly expenses—enter…
Income for Retirement: Understanding Preferred Shares
Retirement comes for all of us; whether we prepare appropriately for it is a different story. But we all have time to ensure our income is sufficient to last our entire lives. The first step to living a great retirement is determining how much income you need. Then, you can choose the instruments that best…
Dividend Investing vs. Options Trading: Let’s Start with $10,000
The world of high finance is a fantastic place to build wealth and live your dreams. However, without financial education, your dreams can become nightmares. If you can save $10,000, you can consider yourself an Elite Saver of America. But now it’s time to make your money generate more money. Dividend investing and options trading…
Investing for Interest 116: Series “I” Bonds vs. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities
We all must position our money to beat inflation. We can do this by investing in dividends, real estate, royalties, and businesses. Once we start earning additional cash, we must invest it into securities that also attempt to beat inflation. Two safe government-sponsored inflation-beating products are Series “I” Bonds and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). Financial…
How to Become an Income Investor
Are you ready to make the leap into earning passive income? Do you want to live the life of your dreams without restraint? There are many ways to earn passive income; however, dividends require the least amount of physical work. On the flip side, dividends require the most cash to generate significant returns for you…
Investing for Interest 115: Tips for Buying T.I.P.S.
Writing this article on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) took me over a year because they are incredibly complex and tough to understand. Over the last year, I have come to understand them more; however, I have yet to become an expert. I will direct you to others who have even more guidance about TIPS. I…
5 Takeaways from “Mean Reversion Trading”
“Mean Reversion Trading” by Nishant Pant is a deep dive into the world of options trading. I am new to the options trading scene, and this book provided a lot of information I needed. Trading options can be quite lucrative; however, you must balance fear and greed daily. You can use a hefty amount of…
CDs versus Bonds: The Battle for Your Hard-Earned Cash
The first step to becoming an investor is earning interest on your money. It may sound trivial, but most people don’t arrive at this achievement. I wrote an entire series on the benefits of earning interest from multiple sources such as high-yield savings accounts, certificates of deposit, Series “I” Savings Bonds, and Treasury Bonds. Today,…
Retirement & Dividends: Enjoy Your Time Off
Today was my first day of retirement, and it was incredible. There is something extraordinary about waking up and not having to go to work. I retired from the Marine Corps after 24 years. My wife and I chose Pensacola, Florida, to lay our heads. The weather in Pensacola is beautiful; however, it is definitely…
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…
