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Second Opinion

I Got a Second Opinion Last Week…

2 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

So, I had been talking with one of my mentors a couple of months ago and we got on the subject of taxes… particularly taxes regarding rental property.  If you’re a regular follower of my site, you know that I currently have one rental house and I’m looking for a second so this was an important topic for me. My friend that I was talking with has five rental houses and is extremely savvy when it comes to the financial details […]

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Should I Pay Off My House Early?

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

You’ve been doing well with your finances.  You don’t have any car loans or credit card debt.  You’ve been socking away money in your 401(k), Roth IRA, and other investments.  Now you’re looking for more avenues to help put yourself in a better position with your money. Eventually, you start asking yourself that one question… the one that can really stir up some good debate… Should I pay off my house early if I can? On one hand, you have that huge feel-good aspect

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Dividend Stocks on Sale!!

Leave a Comment / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

My grandfather used to always say “When everyone’s running in one direction, you should be running in the other.”  Well, this past week was a great opportunity to follow that advice and pick up some new dividend stocks. When the stock market started to drop, people started to panic… everyone and their brother was hurrying to sell what they could before “they lost it all.”  The media hyped it up even more and got people even more worried. The good news is

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Dividend Stocks

Make Dividend Stocks a Part of Your Portfolio

2 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

As I continue to build up some passive income to help carry me once I retire, I’m taking a second look at dividend stocks. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I think rental property can be an important part of your portfolio, but I don’t want to solely count on that for passive income. I’m not completely new to dividend stocks, but I’m definitely not the expert. I look at Jason at Dividend Mantra and

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Birthday Cake

Happy 40th Birthday to Me!!!

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

Well, I’m about to hit the big FOUR-OH this month.  Happy birthday to me! 🙂  So with that, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share my goals and plans I have for the next ten years. If you’ve read my “about” page (Time to Make the Donuts), you know that my goal is to retire at (or hopefully before) the age of 50.  To some of you that might seem like a pretty good feat, and to others, it might seem like

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Do You Have a Mentor?

Do You Have a Financial Mentor?

7 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

I’ve learned the importance of having a mentor over the years.  We all make mistakes and hopefully we are able to learn from them.  However, when you have a mentor to help guide you, you can take out some of the mistakes before you make them because you are aware of what the mistakes might be. Many of us have mentors that we don’t get to actually talk to – these are usually famous people who have the same ideals

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What I'm Doing With My Money Right Now - Roth IRA

401(k)s, Roth IRAs, Roth 401(k)s, Oh My!!! [Part 2]

2 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the benefits of 401(k) plans (and some of the cons as well).  These plans are probably the easiest programs to get started with since your employer should be familiar with the process of getting you signed up. If you’re already taking advantage of that plan and any employer matching offered, good for you!  Now it’s time to get familiar with another option you have for your retirement investments… Roth IRA plans A Roth IRA is

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The Dream Isn’t for Everyone…

8 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

I liked money when I was a kid and was a better saver than most kids.  I figured I would save enough so I wouldn’t have to work for the rest of my life (this was before I learned that savers use Other People’s Money the best way that they could.) Regardless, I’ve always been interested in figuring out money… and more importantly, figuring out how to become financially free and retire early. I always thought that was the dream, because

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Get Out of Debt ASAP!!!

2 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

When I was in college, I got my first credit card… and then a second one.  Over time, I started using those credit cards a little too much – grabbing the check when out with a bunch of people for dinner, buying all the stuff I “needed” (which I later realized were just wants), etc.  Boy, was I the life of the party! This, of course, got me into debt… but I’ve always been pretty organized.  So throughout my college years,

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Are You Ready to Retire Early?

8 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation, Real Estate / /

I’ve always been fascinated with money and have always been good with it.  I always did what I thought you’re supposed to do… save it.  Well, over the years, I’ve learned that that’s only a small piece of what you need to do if you want to retire early.  Sure you can save every penny and live like you’re in poverty for your whole life, but who wants to do that?! I’m not here to tell you that you have

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