Tag: retirement
The Dividend Debit Card 3: Dividends in Daily Life
Every day with dividends is a gift, and it’s even better when they arrive directly in your checking account. I have been dividend investing for over four years; it becomes more interesting and fun each year. The key to successful dividend investing is enjoying the fruits of your labor. Dividends are best when you can…
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…
Pursue Your Creative Career with Dividends as a Backdrop
Our hearts crave creativity and expressing ourselves in the public eye. As kids, we loved to paint, color, and write; we loved to dream. As we grew older, the world became about earning money and finding a career we could use to support ourselves. I spent 24 years in the military, a great profession indeed.…
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…
How to Determine Your Bare Bones Budget: The First Step to Living on Passive Income
The single most essential part of retiring early comfortably is determining your Bare Bones Budget (BBB). Without a BBB, you’ll always feel you must work to pay all of your bills. What is a Bare Bones Budget? A Bear Bones Budget is the minimum amount of money your household needs to thrive every month. Notice…
Who is a Better Steward of Your Time? You are Your Boss?
When did we become a society of followers? I understand that every community needs leaders and followers, but each household in America has a certain level of freedom. I have been fully retired for a month, and people cannot understand how I spend my time. Even worse, they say they need their job to keep…
Your Wealth is Your Choice: You Have More Control Than You Think
We are moving towards scary times. Student loan payments are returning, rents are increasing, home insurance is sky-high, and food costs are outrageous. The world is applying pressure to the average American household, and things may look bleak. What’s the typical American supposed to do to beat the odds? When all else fails, return to…
Writing: I Retired to Start My Dream Job
Now that I am fully retired, I have time to reflect on the journey that got me here. It’s been a long road (24 years in the Marine Corps), but well worth the wait. Besides my wife, perhaps the most essential part of my path has been writing. Writing forced me into uncomfortable situations and…
To Change Your Life: You Must Change Your Life
“It’s about the journey, not the destination.” Have you ever heard that quote before? What does it mean to you?’ I only understood what it meant once I began my passive income adventure. My wife and I have come so far over the last 4.5 years. How did we start our journey? In January 2019,…
How to Make $100 a Month in Passive Income
Passive income is very elusive in that it does not start very passively. You must contribute a certain amount of work to build a passive income stream. However, once you get the hang of it, you can create as many income streams as you can maintain. Passive income is a mindset more than an amount…
Every Day is Saturday: Living a Happy Cash Flow Retirement
I’ve been dreaming about my Happy Cash Flow Retirement (HCFR) for over four years. Now, I am three weeks into my new life as a retired Marine. Retirement is about doing the things you love with the people you adore. However, the foundation of your HCFR is your budget. If you can live comfortably and…
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…
Life Begins at the Edge of Your Comfort Zone: Time to Take Control of Your Destiny
Every day in retirement is a gift—an amazing blessing from the heavens. However, these wonderful moments weren’t just given to my wife and I; we created them. You have to create the life of your dreams. At the intersection of knowledge and effort comes luck. To find your life, you must put yourself out there.…
My First Day of Retirement: It’s Time to Live
Can life truly be this good? I finally retired from the Marine Corps after 24 years, and yesterday was my first complete day away. It was a fantastic day. I accomplished so many things that I’ll just list them instead of discussing them. I did all this at my own pace without any rushing or…
The Road to Homeownership #2: Reducing Emotions
Purchasing a home is one of the most emotional experiences of your life. The process will send you to the highs of the mountains and the lows of the valleys. I would never suggest removing emotions entirely from the process; however, reducing your feelings to make sound decisions throughout the journey is a great idea.…
Love, Passion, & Freedom: Welcome to Passive Income
How do some people get to live the life of their dreams while they are stuck working a 9-5 job? Is it because they were born into wealth? Are they risk-takers, entrepreneurs, or gamblers? They may be lucky. Sure, some of these things may be true, but the truth is they discovered that money is…
Don’t Gamble with Retirement 11
There couldn’t be a better time to release Don’t Gamble with Retirement 11. I will retire from the Marine Corps in 10 days after 24 years of service. I will not work another job, instead relying on the principles of passive income to increase my revenue every year. But, I didn’t always understand passive income…
Happy Cash Flow Retirement 10
Another day, another dollar; better yet, another passive income dollar. In two weeks, I am retiring from the Marine Corps after 24 years of service. I have never been more excited in my life because this is the result of hard work and planning. I have wanted this outcome since I began writing about passive…
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…
Can the Military Elevate You to the Middle Class?
The middle class is under attack, and soon no remnants will be left. There are a few reasons why this is happening, mainly increased college costs, the price of housing, out-of-control healthcare expenses, and lack of financial education. America had a good run for its middle class—when workers had pensions for staying with a company…
