Tag: retirement
Retirement Planning for the Average Person 7: Yes, You Can Retire
Retirement planning is still the same as it has always been; it just seems more complex. To have an amazing retirement, you must generate income passively. Most of us have never considered the idea of making money while we sleep, but the basic gist of the story is that the person with the most passive…
Overcoming Your Limiting Beliefs #2: Options Trading
There is nothing quite as feared as options trading. Whenever people think of options traders, they think of stressed-out bankers on the brink of disaster. However, options trading is really quite logical. There are only two directions that the stock market can move: up and down. From there, you set up your desired options strategies…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 70s: Taking Care of Everyone Else
Let me be 100% honest; we should have money pouring out of our eyeballs in our 70s. By leveraging the power of compounding early in life, we ensure our 70s are plentiful. For example, let’s say my $340,000 portfolio compounded at 10% annually while I added $1,000 per month. In 27 years (I’m 43), I…
Overcoming Your Limiting Beliefs #1: Dividend Investing
Fear can motivate you to do extraordinary things. For me, the fear of being broke motivated me to invest in the stock market. Many times, our fears come from limiting beliefs—thoughts that form through a series of experiences, concepts, and feelings. For example, if everyone around you is poor, you may form a limiting belief…
How to Save Money: My Journey from -$77,000 to +$340,000
Can people save money today? I understand that times are tough and there are not enough resources. However, times are always tough. In 2019, I earned $100,000+ a year, and my wife earned $35,000; we lived in Florida. For all intents and purposes, we should have been doing very well. However, we were in $77,000…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 60s: Ensuring a Great Retirement
Our 60s should be a time of joy and celebration. In fact, the only stress we should have is from babysitting our grandkids. But these magical times don’t just happen; we must create them. We must build a level of financial sophistication that ensures we can weather any economic storm. This foundation starts by understanding…
Selling Covered Calls vs. Trading Long Strangles 2: Combine Them For More Passive Income
Options trading isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean most people should overlook this incredible opportunity to make passive income. Americans put far too much emphasis on their W-2 jobs while passing over other opportunities to make money. Many times, we exclude other opportunities because of fear of the unknown or the possibility of risk.…
Dividends & Options Trading: A Beginner’s Guide to Passive Income
Why does everyone seem to be obsessed with the stock market? What is all this talk about treasury yields, dividends, and stock prices? The truth is that many people turn to the stock market to generate passive income for today and tomorrow. If you are not in the markets, you and your family could have…
Selling Covered Calls vs. Trading Long Strangles: What Are Your Passive Income Goals?
Why do people decide to trade options? It can be a very dangerous and risky proposition for most traders, so why all of the love? Options trading can be a lucrative wealth generator if you take the time to learn the ropes and create a system that works for you. “The Options Playbook” discusses over…
Build Your Own Target Date Fund: We Can Do Better
Target date funds are all the rage nowadays, especially inside company-sponsored 401k (k) programs. However, I don’t trust them and don’t like them for a few reasons. Let’s review our retirement goals before I get into the target date funds. We want to preserve capital, facilitate growth, and generate income during retirement. That’s why many…
My 2024 Passive Income Streams: How My Finances Look Today
Every year, I write my passive income resolutions. I put them out on New Year’s (2022, 2023, 2024) so that they can set the pace for my financial ambitions. This year, I want to supplement my resolutions with some hard data on how my finances look at mid-year. This update will serve as a guiding…
Can You Retire on Dividends? The True Crown Jewel of Your Career
I spent 20 years in the workforce, not knowing what to do with my money. I thought that my 401 (k) was my emergency fund, and I believed that putting money in a standard savings account was enough. I was wrong on all accounts, and my family suffered because of my ignorance. Our household dealt…
King of the Long Strangles: Inside My Favorite Options Trading Strategy
I never imagined becoming a part-time options trader; however, things changed after reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” When I turned 18, I became a government employee, signing up for the United States Marine Corps (Ooh Rah!). I did what the government asked of me inside the Corps, paying little attention to my finances. I had…
Renting Rooms to Financial Independence: How to Build a Mighty Passive Income Stream
How do you become rich? To become rich, you must ensure your income far exceeds your expenses. Then, you invest the additional cash flow into income-producing assets like dividend stocks. Most people need help figuring out how to increase their income enough to save and invest. They are stuck in the endless loop of living…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 50s: Extracting What We Need From Capital Markets
It’s time to take the world by storm. In our 50s, we clearly see how we want the back halves of our lives to look. We know how much we want to travel, spend, and give. Now, it is all about creating and executing a plan with extreme passion. For obvious reasons, money will play…
Preparing for a Recession #4: Making More Money
A recession is not the time to start adding income to your bottom line; you should start that process well before the balloon goes up. We must all prepare for the reality that we will lose our jobs during a recession. Similarly, we should learn how to generate income outside a W-2 job to control…
30 Monthly-Paying Stocks, One Account: Can I Get Paid Every Day?
I created a Frankenstein brokerage account because nothing is more exciting than receiving dividends. I loved getting my dividends so much that I wanted to feel that love every day. So, I opened a brand new brokerage account under the SoFi (SOFI) platform in June 2023. SoFi stands for Social Finance Technologies. This account is…
The Dividend Snowball Effect: How to Harness Compound Interest
Dividends, Dividends, Dividends. Why all the talk about dividends? Some people live and die by dividend investing, while others pay them no mind. Why such a stark contrast? The simple answer is that some people want to become rich, and others want to be wealthy. Rich people have a plethora of assets that are worth…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 40s: Determine Your Reality
Welcome to your 40s, when you start to see the light at the end of the financial tunnel. Now is a great time for you to make some big bets while also playing it safe. Does that sound strange? Again, welcome to your 40s. The essential part of getting your money right in your 40s…
The Options Wheel vs. Certificates of Deposit: Create Your Own Yield
Why would I compare a safe account at a credit union to a “risky” account on the options market? Because we all need to earn yield while our money sits still. Although certificates of deposit and the options wheel offer two different spectrums on the risk scale, they both serve the same goal: to earn…
