Dear DTA,
I want to survive retirement. I have no investment knowledge. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
-Anita R.
Hi, Anita.
Thanks a lot for writing in!
I’ll commend you on one thing right out of the gate.
You’ve admitted that you don’t know anything about investing.
A lot of people would rather pretend they have the answers when they really don’t. This gets people in trouble.
Knowing what you don’t know is a big advantage.
That said, you can build on that advantage by actually building out your knowledge base.
Knowledge is power.
I’m going to do my best to provide you with some great resources to help you become more knowledgeable. The more knowledgeable you are, the more empowered you’ll be.
First, I want to let you know where I’m at. I want you to understand who I am and where I’m coming from.
When you’re talking about “surviving retirement”, I’m one of the best people around you could possibly talk to.
That’s because I’m not just surviving retirement, I’m thriving in retirement.
Not only that, I’m doing so decades before most people.
I went from below broke at 27 years old to financially free at 33.
And I lay out exactly how that happened in my Early Retirement Blueprint.
There were two major components to this, Anita.
I first had to live below my means and save as much money as possible.
It’ll be very difficult to retire, let alone retire early, if you don’t save money.
While this is an investment site, and we’ll certainly talk about some investing concepts soon, you can’t invest money you don’t have.
You have to have money to invest money. The money will naturally come from your savings.
So make sure you’re aligning your lifestyle and spending with your long-term retirement plans.
That fancy new thing might look shiny and nice. But is it as shiny and nice as a blissful retirement?
Once you get your spending under control, it’s time to invest that capital.
There are many ways to go about investing.
I’ve personally used dividend growth investing to secure my early retirement.
I fully believe this is the best investment strategy out there for retirees of any age.
After all, you can’t retire if you don’t have income coming in.
Well, just imagine income streaming in, passively, from dozens of some of the best businesses in the world.
Imagine collecting a “paycheck” from a company without actually working for it!
That’s the situation I’m in.
I built my FIRE Fund by investing my savings into more than 100 of the greatest companies in the world. That’s my real-life and real-money early retirement stock portfolio.
I now collect five-figure passive dividend income without lifting a finger.
It’s a phenomenal situation.
You could one day be in this situation, too, Anita.
But you first have to educate and empower yourself.
I have you covered.
Make sure to read through Dave Van Knapp’s Dividend Growth Investing Lessons.
It’s a fantastic series of articles that reveals the A-Z of DGI.
Dividend growth investing essentially involves buying shares in companies that reliably pay rising cash dividend payments to shareholders.
Find almost 900 US-listed dividend growth stocks by checking out the Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers list.
These growing dividends are funded by the growing profit the companies are producing.
Since you wouldn’t want to invest in crummy companies, it only makes sense to partner up with wonderful businesses.
Growing dividends serve as sort of a “litmus test” for business quality and profit.
Don’t tell me you’re making money; show me.
Simultaneously, growing dividends serve as a great source of totally passive income that can pay bills and foster a stress-free retirement.
There’s obviously a bit more to it, which is why you’ll want to look at my response to you as a quick primer to put you on the right track.
To further that, I personally highlight a compelling long-term dividend growth stock idea every Sunday.
If a dividend growth stock passes certain quality and valuation thresholds, I freely share it with the investment community at large.
These ideas can be found via the Undervalued Dividend Growth Stock of the Week series.
The series is there for when you’re ready to put your savings to work.
I’m confident you can survive your retirement. In fact, I’m confident you can thrive.
But you must first build up your knowledge base.
Then it’s up to you to take action.
Today is the best possible day to get started.
I wish you luck and success.
Jason Fieber
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Disclaimer: Jason Fieber is not a licensed financial advisor, tax professional, or stock broker. Please consult with a licensed investment professional before investing any of your money. If your money is not FDIC insured, it may decline in value. To protect the privacy of our readers, any names published in this article are under aliases. In addition, text may be edited, omitted or paraphrased for grammar or length.