LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME

If you’ve ever switched jobs and contributed to a 401k plan, chances are you just the old plan at the old company. Unless of course it was under $5,000 and they told to take it with you!

I have 2 such 401k’s that are currently orphaned. If both the companies went bankrupt, I’d have to jump to a lot of hoops to get my money back. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be an unnecessary  hassle and waste of time. Better to liquidate the positions and transfer the cash in to what’s known as a roll-over IRA. Or if you’re not planning to work in the year of the transfer, you might opt to convert it into a ROTH IRA because you’d be in a lower tax bracket and wouldn’t much taxes on the conversion.  Read more... (273 words, 8 images, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Tomorrow is the last day at my job. I gave my notice 2 weeks ago.

No, I don’t have another job lined up.

No, I didn’t win the lottery.

No, I don’t have a back-up plan or any idea what I’m going to do next.

So why am I quitting? 

Because I don’t feel 100% committed. Not being fully committed isn’t fair to the company and it isn’t fair to me. Life is too short to be working at a job that you don’t love and aren’t willing to commit 110% too.

Besides, working for someone else will rarely make you rich. One of the reasons is that you get paid for the number of hours you put in. Having a finite number of hours is your limiting factor here. As an employee, you also pay the highest amount of tax since you have almost no tax deductions unlike business owners and the self-employed.  Read more... (346 words, 8 images, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

I have a 401k from a previous employer. With only a dozen mutual funds to choose from, it doesn’t have very many investment choices. I’ve done the best I can from these choices and have selected 8 of them, with 75% of my 401k invested in just 3 funds. And I’ve managed to eke out a very respectable 17.4% for the first 3 quarters of the year.

On the flip side, my 401k with my current employer has about 3 dozen options. However, there’s less diversification amongst them than with the previous employer! It lacks a REIT fund (not that I’d invest in it, since I’m heavily invested in Real estate on my own), a health care fund, and a technology fund.

Instead, some moron set it up with 4 bond funds, 2 small-cap broad market funds, 2 small-mid cap value funds, 2 small-mid cap blend funds, 4 mid-large cap equity funds, 4 mid-large cap value funds, 3 international funds, and so on.  Read more... (280 words, 9 images, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

I’ve been wanting to send in the paperwork for the Everbank Marketsafe Japanese REIT CD for nearly a month. Since I used my Coporation’s 401k and Profit Sharing Plan (PSP) to invest, I had to open a business account and fill out extra Trustee paperwork, in addition to supplying a copy of the original 200 page 401k & PSP documentation.

Anyway, I got it all filled out and signed by the co-Trustee (my wife) and fedexed it to Everbank. April 17th is the last date to get in on this investment.

If you think the Yen is going to appreciate against the dollar and Japanese Real Estate is going to appreciate, its worth a gamble. This CD is FDIC insured and has no downside risk! You can read more
about it at Wealth Building Lessons.  Read more... (232 words, 8 images, estimated 56 secs reading time)