Saturday, July 30, 2016

Must Read Series: The Four Pillars of Investing

Hello all! This is the first of my "Must Read" category, and I am excited to share this content with you. What I would like to do with the "Must Read" page is two things:

1) Provide you a list of investing books that I personally have read and think are very valuable for you to read as well.  I want this list only to be on books that are definitely worth your time reading.

2) Give you an overview of key takeaways so that if you don't have time to read it, you will be much smarter after reading this post.

To start this series, there is almost no better book than William Bernstein's The Four Pillars of Investing.  I have read this book from cover to cover twice and think it is a must read if you want to get serious about understanding finance. 

Difficulty score: 7/10

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

$17,500 Richer? The Power of Leverage...

Ah, the power of leverage.

Without it, I would argue you are in the SLOW lane of wealth creation. With it, you've got the power to literally move financial mountains! But if you aren't using leverage yet, that's OK. Read on!

Leverage is an incredible concept when you think about it, isn't it?

Webster and Investopedia define leverage differently, but I want you to notice the similarity:

Webster: the mechanical advantage or power gained by using a lever.

Investopedia: the use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital, to increase the potential return of an investment.

Notice the two action words that unite these definitions together: gain and increase.  More on this later, but remember gain and increase for now.

I wanted the picture of this article to clearly explain exactly how leverage works in an easily understandable and memorable image, and I think this one works best. So what do we see?  We see that with a little ball, when using leverage, it equates to a very large ball.  The two balls become in balance, and as a result, the little ball's mass essentially equals the big ball's mass.

Do not miss the power in this concept:  If I only have a little ball, with leverage, I can achieve the outcome EQUAL to having a very large ball. 

So let us tie that back to what we care about: investing, investment returns, growing wealth, big bucks, LARGE SUMS OF MONEY, etc!  So - how did I use leverage to earn a 100% return in one year and become $17,500 richer? Let me tell you:

Monday, July 25, 2016

Bad News – You Will ABSOLUTELY Need To Save More To Retire Comfortably

This article was also guest-posted on Passive-Income-Pursuit and Modest Money.  Big Kudos to them for sharing!

Hello everyone,

I hate to bring bad news, but there is something going on around you, something you may have missed until now, but it is something we absolutely can no longer overlook as responsible individuals and investors.  If you have a family you are accountable for, or you are planning on ‘big’ retirement dreams for yourself, this article should help you wake up, unfortunately.

I am talking about an environment of VERY, very low investment returns, for quite some time.

Consider these headlines I’ve been seeing recently:

Friday, July 22, 2016

Considering Wells Fargo (WFC)...

Does anyone else have Wells Fargo (WFC) on their radar as a potential buy?

For those of you who saw one of my recent "Time to Sell" articles, I just sold American Electric Power (AEP)  at a (thankfully) 17.9% annualized return; thinking it was pretty overvalued around $69 a share.

With that sell, I have some capital available to deploy, and am strongly considering Wells Fargo.

I've never really owned a bank stock in my dividend portfolio, and I tend to stay away from the Financial sector, almost always, but I think WFC deserves a look.  In fact, I should have bought WFC a long time ago back at like $28 (or something like that) a share when Warren Buffet made it one of his big holdings in Berkshire Hathaway.

Well, guess what - I just found out that Buffet bought even more a few months ago and now owns 10% of the company, making him their largest shareholder.

At around $48 a share, it has the following characteristics that make me strongly consider it:

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

How I Just Earned a Free Vacation With A Few Clicks

Is this not an AWESOME picture?

It's pretty obvious, but to remove any doubt, it's a picture of a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska.  

I've never been to Alaska, and I've only been on one cruise in my life, but THIS IS WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO BE RIGHT NOW! :)

Wouldn't that be great? In this post I will detail a small way how I just earned a free cruise, albeit in a roundabout way, with a few simple clicks on Vanguard, the infamous investment company, and where I personally keep my mutual funds.  It's an interesting read:

Monday, July 18, 2016

Recent Sell: American Electric Power (AEP)

This is somewhat of an infrequent occurrence for me, but at some point you have to put your "money where your mouth is" I suppose and act.  I've been saying a lot recently that many dividend-paying stocks are becoming overvalued, and if I truly believe that, then I should make decisions based on that premise and ACT.

As such, this post will detail my recent sell of American Electric Power (AEP). Though I rarely ever sell the stocks I purchase anymore, when I achieve a very nice return and then also believe that that particular stock is overvalued, I will in fact sell and look for better opportunity elsewhere.  Again, this is a rare occurrence, but it does happen.  Thanks fully I achieved an annualized return of 17.99% from this investment.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Realty Income (O): Is It Overvalued?

I recently published this article as a guest post on two other great bloggers'
websites: InvestmentHunting and DivHut.  Big kudos to them for sharing it!  The rest of the original article is below:


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Income/Expenses: June 2016

Wow, this is exciting - my first Income/Expenses post!

It takes a little bit of guts to share your income and expenses openly with the world.  That said, I think there is value for both of us in reading this post.  I will do a similar post every month.


Listed below is a detailed display of all income and expenses for the month of June 2016.  This month was crazy and not normal in many ways.  See what you think!

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Negative Yields? Yikes. A Quick Explanation Of What They Are and What To Do

What an interesting statement! Of course I will relate it to the negative-yield environment we currently find ourselves in as investors, but still, I think this statement is powerful and has broad application to our lives in general.

This statement from a Bloomberg article seems to make the most sense for a quick snapshot of understanding:

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Mid-Year Review!


It's crazy to think how much writing I have completed in the past two weeks.  This site is only 13 days old, and since then I have published all of my Passive Income Reports for the year bringing me current for 2016, I've added 13 different pages to the site, which are mostly complete (though a few are still under construction!), and without a blink it is already time for a mid-year review.  

In this post I will do two things:

1) Review all passive income received 
2) Review how on track I am with my 2016 Goals.

From January to June of 2016, I have received $3,516.45 in passive income.  Wow.  $3.5k of income that I did nothing to receive but make the initial investment.   Make the initial investment. That's as simple as it gets. And that's also as hard as it gets.  As the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and the hard part in the above statement is in what "making the initial investment" actually entails. 

To get to where I am today means: I delayed gratification, I lived frugally, made wise choices, saved, lived well below my means, and then, THEN during that long, long slog, I made initial investments along the way.

Now, years later, I can sit back, and watch these investments grow larger and larger. And also, I can continue to make new initial investments.

Read more to see the details and some of the bigger insights for my semi-annual review,

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Pop-Up Gone! Problem Fixed

I want to take two seconds and apologize to anyone who visited the site over the past few days and experienced a pop-up.  I don't want my site to be about that at all, and so I wanted to write a quick post and let everyone know that it is removed and won't be happening anymore.

Thanks!

Passive Income Dude

Monday, July 11, 2016

Recession Coming??


Hello all,

I will start this post by saying that it is extremely hard, perhaps impossible, to claim when a recession is going to occur exactly.

That said, there are many indicators that would suggest we (as in, we the United States) are perhaps approaching a recession.

Let me lay out a few reasons below why I think we perhaps have a recession coming our way in the near future (and to add some 'umph' to this post...let's say within the next six months).  Readers, hold me to it.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Passive Income Report: JUN 2016

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.

In each progress review I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers June 2016.  

I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

Read More to see how I earned $436.61 this month in passive income,

Friday, July 8, 2016

Passive Income Report: MAY 2016

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.

In each progress review I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.


This monthly report covers May 2016.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 


Read More to see how I earned $634.30 this month in passive income,



Thursday, July 7, 2016

Passive Income Report: APR 2016

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.

In each progress review I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.


This monthly report covers April 2016.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

Read More to see how I earned $653.63 this month in passive income,

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Updates to Pages



Hello all,

I wanted to let you know that I've created a lot of new pages and will be developing them over the next few weeks based on how much time I have.

Some of the pages (or tabs) include:

Mission/Vision: Every good company has a mission and vision that drive their decisions, helps set priorities, allocate resources, and ultimately make decisions.  I think individuals, and in this case, blogs or passive income portfolios, should have a mission or vision as well.  I've got some ideas up now, but expect it to be expanded over the remainder of the year.

Portfolio: In this tab I will list a table of my portfolio and its percentage weight for all of my readers to see and evaluate.  I'd love any comments or ideas!

Passive Income Goals: Here I will lay out my passive income goals for the year and try to detail the reasoning for the goal.

Progress: In this tab I will summarize my monthly passive income reports over time.  Should be fun watching it grow!

Rental Properties: I also intend to detail my rental properties with tabs dedicated to each property.  Here I will list data on the home, cash flow and expense figures and several pictures.  Hopefully this is helpful with your own rental property investments!

Podcasts: There are some great podcasts out there and I intend to summarize and list the ones I enjoy most.  They mostly cover real estate investing, creating wealth, and wealth wisdom.

Must Read Books: Similar to podcasts, there are some incredible books that supercharge your learning and can help you reach your goals much faster.  I will list and review these books that I recommend here.

About: I want this blog to be very transparent. I hope that you will see with diligence, hard work, and patience a growing passive income stream, that you can model and achieve for yourself as well!

Contact: I would love to dialogue with you and meet you.  Feel free to email me with any questions or comments at any time and I WILL get back to you!

Well I think that's it.  More content to come! I look forward to talking with you and improving the site!

Thanks for reading,

Passive Income Dude

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Passive Income Report: MAR 2016


It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.

In each progress review I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.


This monthly report covers March 2016.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

Read More to see how I earned $848.01 this month in passive income,


Monday, July 4, 2016

Passive Income Report: FEB 2016

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.

In each progress review I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers February 2016.  

I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

Read More to see how I earned $609.33 this month in passive income!

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Passive Income Report: JAN 2016

Welcome! This is my first of many Monthly Progress Reviews.

I intend to publish these reports every month in the first week of the following month.  In each passive income post I will list a  summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, the online income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers January 2016.  

I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

Read More to see how I earned $334.57 this month in passive income!

Friday, July 1, 2016

Welcome! New Blog


Hello readers,

I hope you all are as passionate about financial freedom as I am!  If so, you've come to the right place.

The above picture describes the end goal, the oh so elusive end goal - the dogged pursuit that so many Americans fight fort but so few achieve.  Financial Freedom.  Freedom from financial worry. Freedom to do what you what and not be concerned with the financial cost.

The picture above also describes how Financial Freedom, or FI, is achieved.  Isn't it incredible? The simplicity of this equation highlights its brilliance.  Financial freedom is achieved when your passive income is greater than your expenses.  More on this later, but ponder for a second how powerful that statement really is. Ponder its implications for your own life. Your own situation.

This site was created on 01JULY16, so bear with me while it is under construction and I am adding new content.  Soon it will be up and running with much more content, but for now feel free to look around and leave any comments.

Currently I will be working on the first submissions for the Portfolio, Investing Goals, Mission and Vision, and About Me Tabs.  More content and posts will follow.

Take care!  And for now, remember Financial Freedom is only achieved when your passive income exceeds your expenses.  It's as incredibly simply, and challenging, as that.

Passive Income Dude