Tag: Stocks
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…
Dividends Forever! Inflation-Proof Your Retirement
No matter your retirement plans, dividends can help you get there. More importantly, dividends can help you stay there (retired). Recently, I have read many stories about retirees going back to work because their incomes cannot keep up with inflation and cost-of-living increases. This is sad. Most people have never learned how to invest for…
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…
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…
Know Your Money: High-Yield Savings vs. Series “I” Bonds vs. Certificates of Deposit vs. Treasury Bills vs. Money Market Funds
How many of you feel that you know your money well? If you received $3,000 tomorrow, where would you place it? More importantly, why would you place it there? Most of us spend our 20s and 30s building and ignoring debt. At some point, we get out of debt, and then we are left in…
Become a Digital Nomad with Options Trading: Living the Laptop Life with Options
Do we all dream of traveling the world while making money from our laptops? I know that was my dream for a long time. I am over the long road trips after touring extensively for the US government for 24 years. However, the idea of becoming a digital nomad, even a US-based one, is still…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 30s: Prepare for Financial Compression
I am going to start calling the 30s “the compression years” because you spend the entire decade being compressed financially. In your 30s, you are trying to climb the corporate ladder, get married, have children, and buy a house while living the American dream. It’s no wonder that most people have upside-down bank accounts after…
Selling Covered Calls + Social Security: The Ultimate Retirement Combo?
Going into retirement, the worst thing you can do is put yourself on a fixed budget. Conversely, establishing a budget is the best way to prepare for retirement. What’s the difference? When you live on a fixed income, someone tells you how much you have to spend. When you create a budget, you tell yourself…
Stocks, Bonds, & Options in Your 20s: Mitigate Risk while Building Wealth
People in their 20s have trouble with their finances because they have two objectives: building wealth and funding their future. The financial media always tells the younger generation about compound interest and how vital it is to save and invest early in life. The stark reality is that people in their 20s must contend with…
The Four Principles of Index Fund Investing
Index funds are vital to our wealth-building journey because they provide a safe approach to investing in the stock market. Index funds are as reliable as you can ask for something that trades on the stock market. However, we must remain vigilant as passive index fund investors. The goal of index fund investing is to…
Boost Your High-Yield Savings: Decreasing Rates Call For Increasing Innovation
Robert Kiyosaki famously said that savers are losers; I agree with him wholeheartedly. Most people believe that he wants people to be reckless with their money. However, he means quite the opposite. He is saying that depending on the bank to generate your rate of return will always be a failing proposition. For the last…
Trading Long Strangles vs. Rental Properties: The Best Use of Leverage to Build Wealth
Owning a home has become increasingly difficult. Most people view homeownership as the simplest way to build wealth, but those days may be over. Further, owning multiple properties and becoming landlords allowed people to grow their net worth, increase their passive income, and build generational wealth. However, purchasing a primary residence is challenging enough; how…
Nobody Owes You Anything 2: Build Your Own Financial Success
We have become a “society of entitlement.” We want things for free or that we can receive with little effort. But the true path to financial freedom is treacherous and difficult. To free ourselves, we must not expect anything from anyone. That’s not to say we become independent warriors; we simply take matters into our…
Selling Cash-Secured Puts vs. Book Royalties: The Best Passive Income Strategy for the Average Person
It takes money to make money; this is usually the case. However, there are some things in life that we can create for free. The goal of financial freedom is to collect as many income-producing assets as possible. Most of these assets require capital to obtain. Some income-producing assets are treasury bonds, dividend-paying stocks, rental…
Build Wealth Slowly 2: Make Sound Financial Decisions Over a Long Time
What’s the rush? Why does everyone want to become rich overnight? Americans seem to have a love affair with the dream of becoming a millionaire in their 20s. But the truth is we can do so much better if we build wealth slowly. By creating a wealthy lifestyle from the ground up, we ensure our…
