My Financial Independence Journey » Archive
How Wage, Ordinary, and Qualified Income Are Taxed
Writing up my previous post on federal income and investment taxes was so enjoyable that I thought it would be fun to delve even further into the hellacious nightmare that is the US Federal tax system. Specifically, we’re going to learn all about the standard deduction, about how being married affects your take home pay, and most importantly - the difference between marginal and effective tax rates. And just for good measure, we’re going to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
A Brief Primer on Business Development Companies (BDC) Part 1: What are BDCs and why should you invest in them?
Business development companies (BDCs) are companies that specialize in investing in private companies – similar to how private equity or venture capital investors operate. BDCs make loans and often take ownership stakes in their client companies and supply managerial assistance. When the client company makes money, the BDC makes money. Investing in BDCs can be a great way to dip into the exciting venture capital world without having to become an accredited investor and pony … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
13 Ways to Maximize Your Employee Benefits
Career development and management can rapidly accelerate your path to financial independence, by both increasing your income and decreasing your expenditures. Today, I’d like to cover some of the more and less obvious ways that I (and others) leverage my employer to get far more than just my base salary and bonus. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career
Dividend Disaster Prevention and Recovery
Last week, I discussed several dividend disaster scenarios. Now that we’ve considered the worst, its time to prepare our defenses. Risk is inherent in every investment. Now that we understand some of those risks, we can explore various ways to prepare our portfolios against them. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
Dividend Disasters (Cuts, Recessions, Deflation, Brokerage Failure)
Today, I want to channel my inner pessimist and wax apocalyptic. It’s time to imagine some financial scenarios ranging from bad to abysmal. Today is all about losing money, and lots of it. Why? Because risk is inherent in every investment. Unless we understand those risks, anticipate them, and prepare for them we are positioning ourselves for disaster. Go get yourself a stiff drink and box of tissues, because financial sadness awaits us. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
7 Ways to Increase Your Savings
The key to achieving financial independence is to save and invest money. That is obvious. What is often not so obvious is where those increased savings are going to come from. Below, I’ve outlined seven great ways that you can boost your savings rate … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections, Retirement
Placing a value on time
Time is a big concept in the early retirement and financial independence community. I think almost every blogger out there has written about it at least once, if not nauseatingly more. Since I’m blogging in that space, I suppose that I should lend my voice to the chorus. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
7 Reasons Everyone Should Reach Financial Independence
Why exactly would any sane person want to save 50% of their income and try to pursue financial independence? It’s a good question. I’ve written a bit about why I’m pursuing financial independence on my about page and on other posts throughout the blog, but I wanted to expand on those thoughts and discuss seven reasons why everyone should consider pursuing financial independence. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
A Brief Primer on Master Limited Partnerships (MLP) Part 1: What are MLPs, how do they work, and why should you consider investing in them.
Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) are unique investments that offer high yields and diversification into commodities. Simply put, MLPs are publicly traded partnerships. Just like stocks, they are completely liquid investments that are bought and sold on the major exchanges. Many MLPs also have a solid history of consistently raising dividends, making them great additions to a dividend growth portfolio. Unfortunately, MLPs come with some interesting tax filing regulations, that you need to be aware of – but never intimidated by. Read on, and we’ll begin to explore the world of MLPs together. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
Five Common Frugal Styles (pros and cons)
Frugality is just a tool for saving additional money. Almost all of us can find ways to save a bit more more money. And judging by the savings rates of people in the US, we need to be far more focused on saving money than we currently are. Below, I have briefly summarized the pros and cons of five different commonly encountered varieties of frugality. Which one are you? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
