After finishing my business degree at WGU, my mind was opened to a whole new world of possibility. Not in a “I just ate a bag of shrooms” type of way, but more in a way of enhanced awareness of what exists outside my little rural bubble. There is business and financial investments and other great things that absolutely kick ass and could eventually lead me to a point where I work not because I have to work, but because I want to work.
Strangely enough, this is completely possible! Kinda like Time Travel isn’t. Disagree with that in the comments below.
As a disclaimer, I need you guys to know that what I am writing about today is by no means financial advice. I’m still some awkward ginger in a town where there are more cows in the area than people. I work every day in a field that I enjoy, and I definitely continue to do that. But the goals are relatively simple:
1.) I want to go to work because I like doing it.
2.) If a say, 20,000 dollar emergency occurred, I want to be able to say, “No bigs, guys I got this shit. Electric bill? Fuck you Electric Bill. College Tuition for my son? Fuck you College Tuition, I run this shit. Chemo? Haha! Eat my Ass, Cancer, because yours is going DOWN.”
3.) I want to have my own shop where I can do my research and woodwork on a nice piece of property near my house, preferably in my tiny baby city of 700 people.
4.) I want to pay off my family’s house. This is where I live and will be my son’s home. My surrogate hometown will be his life’s hometown and he will have a sense of identity and belonging from now until EVER.
5.) I want to ensure the future of my son, while giving him the tools to realize the power of money, as well as the wisdom to avoid the love of money.
That last one hits home for me because it has to do with my grandfather. I called him Poppy, and he called me his “Diggy”. I have NO clue why that was my nickname, but all of my family on that side called me that. I think it had something to do with my complete name change when I was two years old. Yeah, that’s right. My name was changed to TOTALLY something different when I was two. Why? I have no idea, and my mother never told me. Explains a lot of my weird identity issues I suppose, but I digress.
Every time I saw my grandfather, he would have me recite the same thing: Knowledge is Power, Money is Power, but the Love of Money is the Root of All Evil.
Now, you gotta understand who my grandfather was. He was in the Army Air Force during World War II. He was an inventor that held several patents. He was a big shot in the Federal Aviation Administration at the headquarters in D.C. He was a wise man that lived one hell of a life.
When a man of that magnitude tells you something, you listen. Even in my ignorant youth, I respected his words. I wish I could talk to him today. He died when I was a freshman in college (the first time around, before I dropped out).
Again, I digress. Enough foreplay. What the hell am I trying to do here?
I’m investing money into financial instruments from Cryptocurrency to Stocks to Exchange Traded Funds and more. This is how I break it down:
FIRST GOAL: Engage in a Reasonable Portfolio.
In order to do this, I am going to Invest approximately 90 percent of my earnings into the traditional markets, with emphasis on the following:
1.) Blue Chip Dividend Yielding Stocks. These are stocks that have been in the market for some time, have a very high likelihood of being capable of withstanding economic highs and lows over a period of 20 years. On top of that, they will pay me to be a small baby owner in their company every year.
Examples of these types of stocks include the leaders of their Industry such as Intel, Nvidia, Coke, Pepsi, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Apple, McDonalds, Home Depot, Lowes, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil and several others.
Each of these companies have their own dividend yield, and my goal is to have an average dividend yield from all the companies somewhere in the realm of say, 3% to 6%.
Some of you might ask, “Why not invest in Tesla, AMC, Gamestop, Etc.?”
Because I’m not in the game for some short term, near-meme internet sensationalized bubble. Tesla for example, might be hurting a LOT once Elon Musk loses his lawsuit for the Solar City Acquisition. As I keep track of the case, that seems to be the most likely outcome. That’s 2 Billion dollars, guys. Not fun. If that’s your schtick, go for it. All I’m saying is that I’m neither ready nor able to speculate on this type of risk. You do it. Make your millions and laugh at me later.
2.) Exchange Traded Funds and Index Funds. A lot of these types of financial instruments tend to take a whole bundle of different stocks in an industry (or the whole stock market) and make it as easy as a simple purchase to diversify the SHIT out of your income. Some of these include the Vanguards (which are traded on Webull) like VOO, which is essentially a tracker of the S&P 500 in its entirety. They have lower dividend yields and a tiny fraction of an expense ratio (which is somewhere between 0% and 0.09% which means for every 10,000 dollars invested, you pay between 0 to 9 dollars a year) which is offset by that, but they are great for diversification. This will be a smaller portion of the portfolio, but an important one.
3.) Real Estate Investment Trusts or REITS. Wanna invest in real estate without buying a big ass house for lots of money and dealing dumb tenants? You can do that with REITs. Now REITS are different in that they tend to clump around different types of real estate such as commercial, medical, residential, etc. They also tend to have a higher dividend yield than other investment instruments, but the difference is that they are taxed as regular income instead of capital gains. BUT, with the right CPA. You can mange that pretty well.
That’s the investment in the traditional market in a nutshell. The remaining ten percent of the portfolio will be in cryptocurrencies, which serves as a nice little bit of volatility risk that could or could not pay off over time. I might tie it up in something like NEXO or BlockFi in order to receive gains from it as well. Let your money make money.
There is the issue of Taxes, however. It is SUPER IMPORTANT that if you’re a US person and you’re doing any kind of investing like this, you need to ensure that you can pay your taxes properly. Understand words like Qualified and Unqualified dividends, which are taxed differently. Understand the types of forms you receive from the broker and know what you need to do in order to ensure that the government doesn’t bone you at the end of the day. In order to get this done properly, you need a GOOD CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to make sure you are square. If you work a 9-5 on top of investing, make sure you understand how your W-2 will affect your income and tax obligation as well. GO SEE A CERTIFIED TAX PROFESSIONAL. THERE’S NO TAX ADVICE HERE. That’s what I’m going to end up having to do myself.
WHAT IS THE GOAL HERE?
I wanna be an income investor. This is Specifically an investment strategy that focuses on building a portfolio that provides a regular income. This is in the form of Bond Yields, Dividends, interest, etc. There are many ways to do it and I may tweak my strategy over time, but the main idea is generate a yearly income. So, how will that work?
Okay, so get this: Let’s say my portfolio yields an average of say… 4 percent. I want to maximize the percentage gained in payouts without having an incredible amount of retarded risk. Just some risk, as all things are risky. Let’s also say that I wanted to generate an income of 60,000 dollars per year from my investments. For the sake of simplicity, say I’m only doing this with my traditional investments.
Let’s also say I make, oh… 40,000.00 from my job. Because my ass ain’t quitting.. yet. Never quit your steady unless you are ABOSLUTELY SURE you can do it.
So, we are looking at 100,000 dollars in income. If we took the absolute shittiest tax path imaginable, this would be all taxed at a regular income. That’s the highest. I don’t intend to sell anything for capital gains or anything like that.
So $100,000.00 means I have a tax obligation before deductions of $13,293.00 PLUS 24% of $13,650.00 (which is $3,276). Altogether, my ass raping without deducations would be $16,569.00. My remaining income would THEN be 83,431. So, accounting for the shittiest scenario imaginable, I can then consider deductions based on that estimate and make it all come out in the wash. I’d have to file “long form” in order to either zero out or get a refund from the government.
BUT, how do I get to that 60,000 dollars a year mark? In order to do this with the traditional investments, this means I need to invest approximately 1.5 Million Dollars. Sounds like a big goal, I know. But guys, this isn’t a sprint, this is a MARATHON. This will take me a few years to get down pat, unless I am able to accelerate the process. BUT I could go with a smaller goal amount of say 40,000 (essentially matching my work income and doubling my yearly) and this would come out to a cool 1 million dollars. Still high of course, but even more doable.
Here's the kicker though: If I were to subtract my investment income from the taxes I am required to pay from it (based on estimations) I can simply reinvest the remaining BACK into the portfolio and let that shit grow over time. That would make it easier.
HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION
How am I going to get there. Well, I’m making myself a challenge: I SHALL NOT USE MY REGULAR INCOME UNLESS I KNOW FOR SURE I CAN. Instead, I will use my auxiliary income to make it happen. What is my auxiliary income? I have broken it down into several pieces:
CRYPTO BLOGGING: While the tax implications here are a little bit difficult, with my CERTIFIED TAX PROFESSIONAL, I can ensure that it is taken care of to the satisfaction of the IRS, and then pour the remainder into my Webull Account. I will expand my reach as much as I can on here, Read.cash, and HIVE which has proved to be very profitable for me. My account is worth nearly $2500.00 as of this writing. I still want to expand to LBRY and Youtube eventually. In other words, When I grow up I wanna be like my Canadian Boi Scott Cunningham.
MY RESALE AND WOODWORK SIDE HUSTLES: Ah, side hustle is such a buzzwordy term nowadays. I’m a big fan of yard sales. I like to go out with mom on the weekends with about 40 to 50 dollars and but shit I know I can resell. For example, I bought a Bug-A-Salt rifle from a yard sale for 3 bucks. I turned around and sold it for 20. That’s a $17.00 profit, or a growth in my money of 666%. Fuck yeah. I need to do that several more time.
In addition, I’m building myself a “wood shop” in my garage. Here, I will buy wood items and flip them after some work, or make stuff from scratch. I hope to get a wood lathe and a laser cutter/engraver as part of this work in order to make things that SELL.
RESIDENTIAL DESIGN: I get about 1 job a month with an average invoicing price of approximately 600 – 1000 dollars. That’s INSANE! And it’s easy to do. All I have to do is sit my ass in a chair at night and make it happen. This is fun work, and it feels therapeutic to do it.
LEVERAGING MY SOCIAL GROWTH AND DOING SOME… OTHER STUFF RELATED TO THAT. I’m gonna elaborate on this, but not now. THAT is for another post when the results pan out completely. You’re gonna love it. Promise.
THE FINAL WORD
This is gonna take a minute or two to REALLY get going, but I’m ready to do it. I refuse to be downtrodden in mind or body or wealth, and with that mindset I move forward with confidence. I want to make my grandfather proud and someday be as great as he is. One day at a time, spit and polish until it shines. That’s what has gotten me to where I am now, and I recommend everyone do the same.
If you found this inspiring or got the creative juices flowing, consider joining me on Webull if you already haven’t by USING THIS LINK to set up your account and getting two free stocks to start you off. Start with a hundred bucks, see where that gets you. That’s what I did.
Until next time, keep your eye on the markets and GROW THAT MONEY (not financial advice)