In the past I’ve talked before about how a 72t is a key part of my early retirement strategy. In case you’re not aware of what that is, a 72t is a special exception in the IRS rules that allows you to take money out from your 401k or IRA before age 59-1/2 and without facing that stiff 10% penalty (we’ve got a whole post about it here). For anyone looking to retire early, that’s a massive win! While that’s all fine and good, one of the things I like to make sure of when it comes to my money strategy is to always be searching for something better. Maybe an option with less rules or something that’s easier on your taxes? Lately as I was poking around the Early Retirement forum, I came across one such strategy that I felt is … [Read more...] about How a Backdoor Roth IRA Conversion Could Help Your Early Retirement Strategy
Niche Website Income Report 29 – $1,121 for April 2015
Welcome to the April 2015 edition of my niche website update and income report. Every month I like to share with my readers what’s been going on with one of my biggest passive income building activities – being the owner of several niche sites that I created and maintained. Each of these websites has their own particular monetization strategy that I’m constantly trying to foster and develop. The goal of course is cultivate them into streams of regular income that I can use to supplement my savings efforts each month. To be honest a lot of my time in April was spent on a different passive income effort - the release of my first eBook. (More to come on that topic in a later post.) Even though that project did suck up a lot of my … [Read more...] about Niche Website Income Report 29 – $1,121 for April 2015
14 Week Cancer Update and My Thoughts on Dying
I just wanted to give everyone another quick update on my fight with cancer. Things have been going fairly well so far, although I’m starting to feel more of the cumulative effects of chemo. This past week was somewhat of a milestone for me – I’m officially halfway through my treatments! Within the next few weeks I’m scheduled for a PET scan where they will be able to tell just how much my tumor has shrunk. Our fingers are crossed for some good news! Aside from the actual treatments themselves, I can tell you this – in the days of post-recovery after chemo, you get a lot of time to think and reflect on what’s going on. I’ve determined that having cancer is like being a part of a club or group you were never asked to join and … [Read more...] about 14 Week Cancer Update and My Thoughts on Dying
Get Ready to SAVE BETTER! With My First eBook
Did you know that if you had started out your career maximizing your 401k every year, there’s a very distinct possibility that you would retire by age 62 with over $7 million dollars? Did you know that by saving your money in an IRA or 401k you’re actually saving as much as $509,774 over 30 years in compounded returns from NOT letting $4,500 slip away to taxes each year? Or, how about that a Roth-style 401k or IRA might NOT be your friend (contrary to popular belief). In fact, a Roth may end up costing you over $1 million dollars of lost fortune depending on how you plan to retire. You Can Save BETTER! It’s these kinds of things and more that were the kinds of concepts I wanted to pack inside my first eBook: “Save … [Read more...] about Get Ready to SAVE BETTER! With My First eBook
How a Good Asset Allocation Model Can Impact Your Financial Future
Assets allocation is just not one of those topics that most people find particularly sexy. Usually it’s the sort of thing that gets about as much attention as the instruction manual to your Blu-ray player. But as you’ll see below, it’s one of those parts of investing that you simply can’t ignore – largely because it can have a MAJOR effect on your finances and how long they ultimately last. The reason I wanted to bring this up is because of the roller-coaster of market activity lately. In case you haven’t checked your stocks or 401k balance in a while, there have been some pretty big up’s and down’s to the stock market. Sometimes the Dow index has been down as much as 300 points – that’s almost a 2% down in one day! How does … [Read more...] about How a Good Asset Allocation Model Can Impact Your Financial Future
Niche Website Income Report 28 – $975 for March 2015
Thanks and welcome to the monthly progress and income report for my niche website business! Every month I like to share with you how things are going with website developments, challenges I’ve ran into, and cool new tricks I’ve discovered. It’s all part of being an online entrepreneur and seeing if we can create something from nothing into a constant sustainable business. Right off the bat I’ll apologize and confess that I have not spent as much time working on my niche sites as I probably should be. That’s all because I’ve been pre-occupied with the finalization of my first eBook. I’m very proud to report that I’m rounding third base on the whole eBook project. The front cover is finished. My editor and I have finalized the … [Read more...] about Niche Website Income Report 28 – $975 for March 2015
What Habits Are On Your Morning Routine Checklist?
Usually I don’t tend to buy into headlines like “how to be more productive” or “how to improve your efficiency”, but recently I was pleasantly surprised by something I heard. One of the latest Pat Flynn Smart Passive Income podcast episodes was a whole thing about his daily habits and morning routine. Normally I tend to gravitate more towards his bits about blogging and entrepreneurism. But with the big recent changes in my health, I’ve been more open to trying just about anything. And I’ve got to say – I was glad I did! I’m not sure I’ve ever really realized how much time I waste in the morning … or the rest of the day for that matter. What if I tried a little harder to “design” better habits? Habits that could help improve my … [Read more...] about What Habits Are On Your Morning Routine Checklist?
Where to Park Your Rainy Day Savings for Growth Without Much Risk
We all know that part of a good, healthy financial well-being is to have a decent sized chunk of money set aside in your emergency fund or rainy day savings fund as some people call it. Some advisers tell us it can start off with as little as $1,000 (I believe that one is a Dave Ramsey thing). More commonly I see suggestions to have as much as 3 months, 6 months, even 12 months worth of living expenses set aside in easily accessible bank account. Fortunately for my wife and I we have done a pretty good job of building up our rainy day fund over the years to as much as $20,000! That’s a pretty admirable amount and it would easily cover around 4-5 months of our living expenses should anything awful ever happen to us. Back when we … [Read more...] about Where to Park Your Rainy Day Savings for Growth Without Much Risk
