Tag: Stocks
Saving & Investing with $500 per Month
If you can save and invest $500 per month, you are in the elite class of America. Sadly, I am being completely serious. Most Americans cannot save $500 over the course of a year or even a decade. America is a tough place to save because everything costs. If you own a home or have…
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…
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…
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.…
Welcome to The T.I.C.E.S. Society: Tycoon, Investor, Creator, Entrepreneur, Scholar
It’s hard to express how fragile our lives become without knowledge. When we depend on a job, a person, or a government to save us, they usually come up short. Americans have become more educated over the years—meaning more people have college degrees than ever. However, most people need more financial education to grow a…
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,…
Time is Money #3: Invest by Creating Infinite Returns for the Future
Most of us understand that we should be investing in our futures. The general media teaches us that putting money into a 401K is investing; however, it is more akin to saving. Yes, the money goes into the stock market, but you still “think” like a saver. Today, let’s discuss how to “create” money like…
The $5 per Week Dividend Investor: Time to Get Started
No more excuses. Let’s try something different today. I want to start you off as a dividend investor at the lowest level. Most people believe you need a ton of money to become a dividend investor. This theory is partially true. If you want to retire on dividends alone, you will need millions of dollars—true.…
Achieve F.I.R.E. via Income Investing
We all want to escape the workforce. I have been working since 1997, when I started at McDonald’s, and I’ve never seen an employment market like this. Everyone is overworked, underpaid, and struggling to survive. Leadership is even more chaotic and unorganized than the employees. If you do not have your finances in order, you…
Position Yourself for the Next Bull Market
We are near the bottom of the bear market. Pessimism in the markets peaked, and we can begin to see optimism show its lovely face. But we still have time to make some life-changing moves while prices are excellent and everyone focuses on surviving. To invest wisely during a bear market and recession, we must…
Dividend ETFs vs. Index Funds
A few improvements to investing have changed the game for the average middle-class investor. These are fractional shares, zero commission fees, and automated investing. Today, we can invest $5/week into our favorite index funds and dividend ETFs to slowly grow our portfolio. Plus, we can still go all in with $5,000 when we get our…
Pay Your Bills with Dividends
Dividend investing will undoubtedly change your life, but it won’t happen overnight. In fact, it will probably take a substantial amount of time before you see tangible results. So how do you stay motivated as you work your way up from a “dividend drip” to a “dividend stream?” You simply work on increasing your dividends,…
Middle-Class Investing 109: Create a Paycheck with Income Investing
We have finally made it to my favorite type of passive income—income investing. Although we took the long way, it is necessary to understand how we got here. Income investing is not for the faint of heart. That’s why starting with interest from high-yield savings accounts is good, and slowly work your way forward. Welcome…
Compound Interest: You Can Pay It or You Can Earn It
If you ever seek motivation in life, look no further than the power of compounding—everything we do in life compounds, either positively or negatively. “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy explores how we can exploit compounding to improve anything we want in our lives. The more things we put into motion, the more chances we…
Feel Special with Special Dividends
Every day as an income investor, makes my life more enjoyable. It’s incredible to receive money from thin air. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money and worked hard to provide for my family. I have worked for the US Government (as a Marine) for over 23 years. I fully appreciate the hard…
Preferred Shares vs. Common Stocks
There are tons of securities you can buy on a given day. So knowing what you are buying and why you are buying it is vital to long-term success. Most investors will purchase common stocks inside their various portfolios. However, many other options exist, including treasury bonds, Series “I” Bonds, closed-end funds, and mortgage REITs.…
