Did the start of a new decade get you thinking about what financial goals to set this year? According to a motivational flyer in my office, 71% of Americans make resolutions, but only 8% succeed. Put me in that 8%. This year, I’d like to lose about 15 pounds. I also ate a lot of […]
As New Year’s resolutions are fresh on your mind, there’s no better time than now to initiate and strengthen wealth-building strategies. To help inspire you, I’ve created a list of best investments for 2020. This article is about where you can direct your money and time this year so that ten and twenty years from […]
Utilizing a home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC) is surprisingly less popular these days despite record levels of homeowner equity (see chart). Mortgage interest rates are still hovering near all-time low levels after a few rate decreases from the Federal Reserve. The big banks are eager to lend money, but they’ve raised their […]
I’m excited to present a guest post this week from a prolific YouTuber named Ryan Scribner. Ryan talks about investing and personal finance on his YouTube channel, where he’s amassed a following of nearly 500,000 subscribers. He also runs the blog Investing Simple where he shares reviews and investing tips for beginner investors. When he […]
Have you heard advertisements about creating lifetime income for a secure retirement? I’m always skeptical about annuities because they are so confusing, even for those of us that pay attention. Turns out, the term “lifetime income” is a marketing phrase meant to demystify annuities by highlighting their main benefit. Unfortunately, a new marketing campaign doesn’t […]
This M1 Finance review was last updated on 01/02/2020. We recently witnessed significant disruption in the online brokerage industry — a waterfall of competitive positioning and change. It all started with Interactive Brokers, one of the smaller players in the space. They created a commission-free trading platform, virtually eliminating trading fees. Soon after, Charles Schwab […]
A retirement goal is meaningless without a plan to get there. As I get closer to my retirement age goal, I’m as interested in detailed projections as I am saving and investing strategies. All to ensure I can retire at 55. Spreadsheets are fantastic tools to model financials and make pretty charts. I use custom […]
Read on to learn more why M1 Finance is my favorite online broker for getting started with dividend investing. I started learning how to invest in dividend stocks in 1995 when my uncle gifted me one share of Chevron stock for my 20th birthday. Since then, I’ve built a portfolio of 50+ stocks in my […]
This Masterworks review was updated on 01/02/2020. Part of what I love about being a money blogger is learning about innovative startups and investment platforms. Last year, I came across one that was particularly interesting and mentioned it in a post about alternative investment ideas. Today I’m digging deeper into Masterworks, an investment platform that […]
This RealtyMogul review was updated 01/02/2020. RealtyMogul is a Los Angeles-based real estate crowdfunding platform that connects individual investors to professionally managed commercial real estate deals on a modern investment platform. The company offers non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), private investment offerings, and 1031 exchanges all under one roof. It’s suitable for both accredited […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
