Category: Investments
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
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
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
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
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
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
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…
The Pros and Cons of Closed-End Funds: How Do You Like Your Income?
Learning to invest for income changed my life; I figured out how to build my own paycheck. Most people do not invest for income; they want to get rich quickly. I dividend income investing into six different types, which you can read about here. One of my favorite types of income investing is closed-end funds.…
The Six Types of Income Investing: Sorted by Risk
Income investing is my favorite type of passive income by far. However, it’s not for most people, and it takes an above-average knowledge of financial systems. If you are up for the challenge, I can briefly tour this wonderful “hobby.” Income investing can help you free yourself from the chains of employment much earlier than…
Stock & Bond Investing in Your 40s
There are a few paths you can take in your 40s. You can get into more debt, get divorced, have a mid-life crisis, or become rich. Luckily I choose to become wealthy by making more income than I spend. Remember, wealth is having excess income versus expenses. But I didn’t choose to have a job…
Dividend ETFs vs. Bonds 2: The Tax Edition
After writing “Dividend ETFs vs. Bonds,” I got to thinking about taxes. As we head into retirement, taxes will play a significant role in our decision-making. Let’s rerun the $500,000-401K scenario, but this time with a perspective focusing on taxes. Let’s assume we are 66 years old and drawing social security. What are qualified dividends?…
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…
