Tag: retirement
Balanced Books: Living By a Harcore Budget is Empowering
When you level up your budgeting game, you will instantly see the results in your confidence and bank accounts. Most people do not live on a budget at all. They simply funnel their money into their direct deposit account and try to have one dollar left at the end of the month. If you take…
Struggle-Mania 2: Is Your Mindset Keeping You Down?
I’ve met thousands of hardworking people in the military over my last 24 years. However, a select few will ever truly get ahead in life. To clarify, “getting ahead” means they will not worry about money. Our ability to handle cashflow keeps a constant stress on most of us. Yes, we will always need to…
The Most Challenging Part of Passive Income: Enjoying it
They teach you to work. They teach you to struggle. However, they don’t teach you to enjoy life. Once you get your relationships and finances on track, your worldview changes. The average person believes that you go to work and spend your paycheck. Because work makes you sad, you spend even more than you need—shopping…
The 30-Day $1,000 Emergency Fund Challenge
I remember not having a $1,000 emergency fund to my name. Those were not fun times, especially as a person with a family. However, over the years, I started to get my act together. I began to budget my money and consume less; now, I have $300,000 in liquid assets. Start with $1,000 first. The…
Living in 1,000 Square Feet as a Family of Four
When did we become so selfish here in America? We want our small families to live in a 3,000-square-foot home on three acres. Unfortunately, we need to be alone, and this is destroying our finances. Living in these monstrous homes as a single family simply costs too much money. The need to be individuals. Families…
The 401K Lie: Saving 10% is a Fool’s Errand
Have you ever been flush with cash? Have you ever received random amounts of money that you truly do not need (or want) to spend? Well, this is my life every day as an income investor. I invest for dividends that help me fund my lifestyle today (in my 40s) and tomorrow (in my 70s).…
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…
Renting Rooms to Family Members
Do you own a big single-family home with only a single family living inside? Well, congratulations, that’s a fantastic feat. The follow-up question is, how is your financial situation looking? Chances are, it is not looking too good. The bait and switch. Who told Americans we all deserve to live in 2,000-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom homes?…
How to Create, Buy, And Build Assets: Start the Journey to Set Yourself Free
My favorite author Robert Kiyosaki says it best, “An asset puts money in your pocket, and a liability takes money from you.” Understanding this simple truth has allowed me to become debt free and financially independent over the last four years. I simply focus my efforts on obtaining assets and not accumulating liabilities. Collecting assets…
Why Rents Will Continue to Rise: And How You Can Get Ahead of the Rental Curve
Are you waiting for a housing crash before jumping into the market? Well, you may be waiting for a very long time. The rental market will continue to rise for the foreseeable future for one main reason—investors. There are simply too many individual and foreign investors, institutions, syndications, and real estate investment trusts (REITs) for…
Turn a Reverse Mortgage into an Income-Investing Portfolio
At some point, our parents may need to use their primary residence as a retirement plan. We, as their kids, need to remove the emotion from these decisions. Each generation’s retirement years are getting longer, so it could be tough to generate income for 30 to 40 years. This is especially true if they liquid…
Being Mediocre is Not Okay
The world wants you to be mediocre. The best way to sell products, enforce taxes, and inflate prices is to have a society of losers. We should all strive to be our best selves; this prevents us from being average. The new world order uses new catchphrases to keep us at the bottom. Some of…
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…
Are You Drowning in Debt? Try Building a Relationship with Money
Our parents and teachers train us to be good employees. Unfortunately, this mindset leads to terrible interactions with money. The first step to getting out of debt is understanding the language of money and then learning how we should spend it. The root cause of debt. We live in a consumption-based, spend-first society. However, that…
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?…
Getting Rich is a Team Sport: The Individual American Dream is Dead
They really did a number on us. They will have us believe that in one lifetime, we can get a college education, climb the corporate ladder, get married, stay married, have children, raise children, fund our children’s education, and save for retirement. Yeah right. The American Dream is much more than $5 million today. With…
Don’t Gamble with Retirement 10
A lot has changed since I started blogging about personal finance in July 2020. At the time, retirement planning was something you could do on the side. Why spend all of your time planning for something 30 to 40 years away, right? Wrong! After a crazy turn of events, the only way to retire is…
Retirement Planning for the Average Person 5
Sometimes we must admit when we are wrong. I find myself in this position today—humbled. There was one core truth I believed, but it has changed recently. I believed you could stay in the workforce long enough to create a truly passive income retirement. For example, you could work until you earned $5,000/month in dividends.…
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,…
Retiring to a Small City and Living on Passive Income
Are you living in a big city attempting to fulfill the American Dream? How’s that working out for you? Even in small remote towns, the American Dream can cost upwards of $5 million. Actually, it’s more than that, just from last year’s inflation. If you are seriously considering retiring before 50, you must be extreme…
