Financial Security for Everyone
A few months back, I had a conversation with a woman from a well-known advocacy organization for retirees and the elderly. One part of the organization’s mission is to promote financial security among its membership base. However, the organization seemed to be targeting a younger audience, where I met the representative. So I asked her […]
Major Milestone: $12,000 Forward Passive Income
I’ve tracked how much forward passive income I earn from investments since I started investing in dividend stocks. I prefer this metric over performance against the market indexes because I’m not trying to beat the market with these funds. Dividend income is reliable and predictable. Based on the holdings in a dividend stock portfolio, you […]
FIRE with Real Estate: Using Rentals & Leverage to Build Income Faster
The following is a guest post from Brian Davis at Spark Rental. Brian is a landlord, personal finance writer, and the co-founder of Spark Rental. Swing by his site for all kinds of free stuff to help landlords including a rental property calculator, and video courses on building passive income from rentals. There’s also a […]
10 Reasons Why I’m Selling My Condo Rental Property
A few months back, my tenants informed me they found a new rental to accommodate their growing family. After the news, I immediately started preparing to sell my condo rental property. I bought the unit as my first home in 2006. It’s a one-bedroom condo, not far outside of Washington D.C in northern Virginia. As […]
My Retirement Asset Allocations and Improved Portfolio Page
To be more transparent about my overall investment strategy, I’ve redesigned my Portfolio page and will be explaining the changes in today’s blog post. It now includes the details of our retirement asset allocations, my dividend growth stock portfolio, the forward 12-month investment income (F12MII) chart, and a new financial independence progress chart. I did […]
How to Retire at Age 55 – An Interview with Fritz Gilbert of The Retirement Manifesto
Not long ago, a fellow retirement blogger retired at the age of 55. I have the same retirement goal! So when I read about his triumphant exit from corporate America, I thought, who better to interview about how to retire at age 55 than Fritz Gilbert of The Retirement Manifesto? Fritz spent 30+ years at […]
Is Retirement Age the Wrong Goal?
I named this blog based on a goal I set back in 2002, to retire at age 55, one year before the age my Dad retired. The objective drives many of my financial decisions. It has all the markings of a SMART goal – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. But now that I’m older […]
Transferring Retirement Assets from Vanguard to Fidelity
I recently completed a six-figure transfer of retirement assets from Vanguard to Fidelity. The transfer is part of an account consolidation effort I put in motion last year to simplify our finances. The need to consolidate accounts became apparent when we started working on our family estate plan. We’re coming close to finally completing our […]
Minimalism and Dividend Investing – Two Recent RBD Features Around the Web
A blog is a home base on the internet. My website gives me the freedom to share whatever’s on my mind, at any time, to most of the people on this planet. But even though the internet enables bloggers to reach billions of people, most of us write to very small audiences. That’s OK. We […]
6 Powerful (and Low-Risk) Financial Maneuvers that Put Extreme Frugality to Shame
Powerful financial maneuvers are meaningful decisions you make with your money and lifestyle that have a significant long-term impact on building wealth. Too often, we focus on the little ways to save money. We used to be a coupon clipping couple before having kids. We had more time back then. Coupons influenced our shopping choices […]
Never Depend on a Single Income
Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source. – Warren Buffett Buffett quotes are usually more eloquent. My grammar checker hated this one. But it’s one of my favorites because he sounds like a caveman. And it’s one way I like to think about investing, as a secondary source of income. […]
The Path of Least Resistance May Not be the Optimal Route
On the day I started my first real job in back 1998, I had little ambition for building a successful career. My primary goal was to earn enough money to quit my job and travel, so I did what was necessary to receive decent raises without taking on much more responsibility. Close coworker friends held […]
32 Questions, Five Years in the Making
More than five years ago, I started reading an anonymous money blog called 1500 Days. The writer had a similar idea to mine, to escape the rat race early and stop working on his terms instead of what’s traditionally considered normal retirement age. Since the beginning, the 1500 Days blog has hosted an almost weekly […]
Two Early Retirement Concerns that Should Scare You
The concept of early retirement has gained in popularity and legitimacy over the past decade fueled by knowledge sharing over the internet and healthy market returns. Though I’m 12 years away from my retirement goal and have plenty of time to prepare, I still harbor early retirement concerns for the future retired me. Most people […]