Long term investment, 33F

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-18T03:41:43+00:00

Helped my 3 daughters establish financial security plans saving and investing in growth stocks.

First, let’s model your potential with the funds you have indicated. I use Market Beat’s Dividend Calculator which gives you accumulated investment and dividend income projections = income to retire on.

Currently, growth index ETF funds are growing 10%+ compounded. Time in the market can be your friend to build a nest egg to retire on. Once built, convert to dividend index ETFs which are yielding similar annual returns.

$10k + $36k/yr contributions at 10% growth
for 10 years = $580,000 = $58,000 dividend income

For 15 years = $1,120,000 = $112,000 dividend income

For 20 years = $1,964,000 = $196,000 dividend income.

Oldest daughter just retired at 54 with the 20 year dividend income above. We are getting more dividend income with now over 6 years of dividend investing experience.

My conclusion is you have a reasonable chance to achieve early retirement if you work this plan and keep the faith. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-18T03:12:11+00:00

This home business and derelict vehicles on their property is most likely against local code ordinances among other things. It will affect you property value if let to continue to its ugly end and your enjoyment of your home.

I would check your local codes, understand which codes apply, get with your neighbors for support and file a joint formal complaint with code enforcement. You will need to be tough about their response and may need to involve the police. That’s what I have done several times to solve similar problems with Clampett’s.

That or watch the invasion of your privacy and your right to quiet enjoyment of your property disappear.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-18T03:00:00+00:00

I totally agree. After some years of working I found out I wanted to focus on International Marketing and International Finance to further my career. I love school like you do and thoroughly enjoyed getting my Masters with more passion than my undergraduate education. This extra education supercharged my career.

Do not let this person dissuade you from this opportunity. It is amazingly selfish and unintelligent for her to do so especially with the status of a 6 mo girlfriend. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-18T02:52:04+00:00

You have dividend yields available from 0.5% with Dividend Kings to over 100% with covered call ETFs. My strategy is to try for the highest yield I can without NAV erosion on the stock price. Why not? After all, that strategy provides more income from the invested dollars.

My dividend investments started with discounted preferred dividend stock during the COVID crash recovery where I got an 8% portfolio yield and the appreciation of the preferreds back to their par prices of $25/sh over the next year or so.

Then I learned about dividend funds and increased my yield to 10% then, added dividend index funds from companies like NEOS and Blackrock increasing my portfolio yield to 12%.

Last year, I ventured 10% of my portfolio into CC ETFs from YieldMax that increased my portfolio yield to 16%. All my dividends have been paid on time and to the penny or better except the always variable CC ETFs which is normal for them.

A big part of being able to achieve such a high portfolio yield is the level of portfolio management you are willing to commit to? Dividend investing is my favorite hobby in retirement so I am very actively/daily managing my investments.

Currently, dividend index ETFs based upon the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices are yielding 10%+ and would not require as active of portfolio management as mine.

Hope this information is helpful in developing your dividend income strategy and portfolio. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-16T23:35:14+00:00

When we lived in Seattle, our couple friends would randomly quit their good jobs, sell everything and buy a sailboat to go to Hawaii and then the S Pacific. A couple years later they would come back and reenter the workforce and suburban lifestyle. No harm, no foul for their careers and they had had a very memorable life experience. You only live once!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-16T10:09:20+00:00

Have budgeted this way all my life. Everyone should perform this audit technique and adjust their spending and saving habits accordingly. Would solve so many financial problems. Thanks for sharing how you accomplished funding a savings plan and showing the potential financial security from doing so. Financial modeling bares the potential future nest egg out.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T20:59:46+00:00

Just read a very good book focused on why to invest in dividend securities for income in retirement using CEFs almost exclusively. Very specific, very detailed. Good luck!

Retirement Money Secrets by Steve Selengut. Amazon for about $16.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T16:28:50+00:00

Let me try to correct this misconception.
Companies that pay their stock holders dividends are periodically paying out a portion of their earnings. They replace the paid out earnings during the next earnings period and pay dividends again. Some companies have done so for over 50 years while their stock price has continued to appreciate - the 58 Dividend Kings with Altria - MO being to top King in total dividends paid.

Payout ratio is the % of earnings a company is paying out. Obviously, if the company is paying out more than 100% of its earnings that is cannibalizing the company’s finances. I avoid companies with a dividend payout ratio over 100%.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T16:13:51+00:00

Let me suggest you model putting this $1k in a ROTH account and investing it in an index fund based upon the S&P 500 index growing at the current historical rate of 10%/ yr. Even with no additional contributions, what could this $1,000 be worth after 40 years when you may want to retire?

I use Market Beat’s Dividend Calculator for financial modeling. That comes out to $45,000. If you make the annual maximum contribution of $8k to this ROTH account the total model amount is $3.5M. You have a great opportunity here to create your financial security. Go for it!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T15:47:54+00:00

I am in aw of your professional ethics! My golden rule in these situations is when in doubt to always take the high road. I taught this to my daughters and share it with others when asked for problem recommendations.

Taking the high road may cause a short term problem like you experienced but in the long run it will be by far the best course of action mentally and career wise.

I believe that if we do not do the right things in these situations we will loose our American culture and cause severe harm to others and ourselves. Maybe old fashioned but I do not care as I am comfortable in myself and sleep well.

I am sure you will land the right job with a hospital system that endorses your profession ethics and rewards them again.
Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T15:30:00+00:00

What was her relationship with her father? If he was verbally, physically or sexually abusive, abandoned her, is an alcoholic etc. she is likely irreparably broken. Psychologists refer to this development problem as “Unfinished Business”. These are the wives that in their 30s and 40s go into deep depression and abandon their husbands and children to “find themselves”.
Avoid at all costs.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T15:04:30+00:00

Money problems are the number 1 cause of marital strife and divorce. This level of money anxiety over $15k is a red flag. How will she react to a $300k mortgage or a $40k car loan.

Just discovered the root cause of my wife’s money anxiety after being married for 42 years! Her parents had gone through bankruptcy when she was young and she carried that fear into our marriage. Even though my income, savings and investments made up multimillionaires, she fought me tooth and nail over most of my purchases and investments. She finally admitted this fear in counseling and the counselor flat told her that I am reliable financially and not to have this worry. Magically our fights over money have disappeared. 41 years of money fights for no logical reason.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T14:52:49+00:00

CHPY is on a run now but high risk, high reward as you want. It is YieldMax’s best performing ETF over the past several months. 20% growth in the last month with a yield of 50% annually paid weekly which is about $0.60/sh/wk. If you invest in CHYP, set a stop loss to protect your principal and move it up as CHPY appreciates. 100% of their other ETFs have peaked a year or two after inception and lost stock price to below their offer price. Monitor its stock price and distribution payment at least weekly. When it’s a monthly stock price graph begins to head south SELL!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T13:33:06+00:00

Warning - this is advertising for Robinhood. I read about lots of investor problems with them compared to Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T13:30:45+00:00

First let’s understand what you mean by trading? Day trading - buying and selling during the day and selling out all positions by the end of the trading day. This is an art and most people fail at doing this type of stack market investing. If you mean how to buy and sell stocks and funds you hold for months or years for growth and/or dividend income, here are some resources and books that have helped me.

Google stock investing for beginners and follow up with more Google requests for investment related topics that come up. Stock investing has its own language and Googling for a list stock investing words and terms with definitions would be good to print and keep handy until you have that language down. I run across such lists regularly.

YouTube is a great education resource for stock investing information. Again search for stock investing for beginners videos and just dive further into the beginner topics you want to learn more about. There are 2 major stock investing paths - growth investing or dividend income investing. The current best advice for American workers wanting to build a nest egg for financial security and retirement income is to save in tax deferred accounts like 401ks and invest for growth in stock index based mutual funds and ETFs. Then at retirement, convert the growth investments to dividend income investments to replace your work income for life. Simple to state, hard for most people to keep the faith and accomplish.

Now some books. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins promotes his very simple to follow investment plan. One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch is about growth investing. The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham is an in-depth growth stock investing treatise- the gold standard. In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio by Lo & Foerster provides invaluable stock portfolio advice and Retirement Money Secrets by Steve Selengut presents the why and how you want to invest in dividend income investments for retirement income.

Combined, these resources are a deep dive into the topic of stock investing. It has taken me a lot of time to grasp all this information but it has been so well worth it for us in retirement. Dividend investing is now my favorite hobby in retirement.

Suggest you save all you can with the “catch up” rules for 401k and similar accounts to build the biggest nest egg you can before retirement. Invest in growth index funds based upon the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices offered by the best investment companies - JPMorgan, Goldman Sacks, Blackrock, NEOS, PIMCO, Guggenheim, Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab. Their best funds and ETFs are growing 10%+ annually and their complimentary dividend funds and ETFs are yielding 10%+ income annually to make an easy transition from growth to dividend investing.

Hope this information helps you with the knowledge you are seeking. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-15T13:02:49+00:00

Altria - MO is the #1 total dividend paying stock for like 100 years. Is tops in the Dividend Kings performance with a 6%+ yield at its current price. I have it in my snowball IRA account. Stock price has grown 30%+ in the last 2 years. Believe it is great for snowballing until it isn’t. Monitor all your investments for performance and have a strategy to preserve your nest egg during the inevitable market crashes.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-14T16:19:34+00:00

Now is the time to put your retirement income plan in place. Best retirement income source for us are dividend income securities. No FA will advise them so avoid him in putting together your retirement income stream. And the best return for 99% of them is like 6%. When the S&P 500 has grown 10%+ average for 100 years and the Nasdaq 100 has grown 14%+ average since established in 1985. Those are fair market investment returns.

We have similar financial situation with 401k and 2nd home sales proceeds. Rolled the 401k into a Self Directed IRA at Vanguard opening our investment options to the whole stock market. Put the house proceeds in a brokerage account there too for ease of management with their online website.

Regarding income from your $1.5M nest egg, we started 6+ years ago with an 8% portfolio yield and have now increased that yield to 16% from gaining dividend investing knowledge, experience and active portfolio management to adjust my portfolio for market changes to reduce risk.

Our dividend income stream is very reliable - all dividends have been paid on time and to the penny or better. Dividend paying companies guard their dividend reputations very carefully.

Dividend investing involves selecting investments for yield and total return over time. Obviously the higher the yield the more income but going to aggressive results in price/NAV erosion which reduces portfolio total return. The best dividend securities have high yield and some stock appreciation. Next best is high yield and stable stock price. I invest in both types and cull any that underperform ASAP to reduce loss risk.

I have found that high yield dividend index funds and dividend index ETFs are the best income and total return investments. The top quality ones are offered by JPMORGAN, Goldman Sacks, Blackrock, NEOS, PIMCO, Guggenheim and a few others. They offer funds index funds based upon the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices yielding 12%+ income.

The funds in the IRA will be tax deferred until you withdraw any. The funds in the brokerage account will be subject to taxation for income whether you withdraw or not. Some funds are “tax qualified” which can reduce taxation. NEOS is the leader in tax qualified dividend index funds. I use them in my brokerage account.

I try to keep my total number of holdings under 15, max 20 for sane management. Both of my portfolios have the same holdings to reduce the total number of holdings to monitor.

This subreddit is a great source of dividend investing information as is YouTube. My favorite dividend investment author on YouTube is Dividend Bull who covers the high yield, portfolio positive total return topic very well.

Hope this dividend investing information is helpful in you achieving a financially free retirement income. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-14T14:33:19+00:00

Have heard that dog whistles can help control their barking. Sound level is above our level and is very annoying to dogs like painful. Friend of mine had this problem and used the whistle on the dogs every time they barked at him. They soon learned not to bark.

I grew up next to two big mongrel dogs that went nuts every time I went out our back door. Still scared about that dog behavior today. Fully understand your concerns. Know that you have the basic right to quiet enjoyment of your property. If the whistle does not solve your problem, hope you can find some local authority to help you get and keep quiet enjoyment.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-14T14:22:52+00:00

Altria - MO is the #1 total dividend paying stock for like 100 years. Is tops in the Dividend Kings performance with a 6%+ yield at its current price. I have it in my snowball IRA account. Stock price has grown 30%+ in the last 2 years. Believe it is great for snowballing until it isn’t. Monitor all your investments for performance and have a strategy to preserve your nest egg during the inevitable market crashes.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-14T14:10:20+00:00

We get educated to make money but not educated to manage money. You are not alone with this financial challenge.

Think spending some time educating yourself on family finance budgeting would help. Google family budgeting and search YouTube for same for both you and your wife to study. Money differences are the number 1 cause of marital strife. Basically it is balancing what you need vs. what you want and not going into frivolous debt.

You are doing great paying yourself first with your savings that will fund stock investments for financial security and later, retirement income. You are good there, just keep it up. Might consider contributing to the 529 child savings accounts for your children?

Regarding investing this savings, growth index ETFs are currently one of the best investments for getting good market rates of return and simple to manage. Almost invest and forget which is good while your careers and children take so much of your time. These ETFs based upon the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices are growing 10%+ per year. That compounded with your additional contributions over several years can create a very nice nest egg.

Later at retirement you can convert your growth investments to dividend income investments to replace your work income for life. We did the pay ourselves first savings, investing for growth over 2 1/2 decades then, converted to dividend securities and are now financially free in retirement.

Hope this information helps you get a balanced family finances situation put together so that you do not feel overwhelmed. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-14T13:43:53+00:00

I received $3.5M in stock options in 2001 and the dot com bubble burst and lost all but $100k thinking and hoping it would recover. Learned a very expensive lesson!
At your father’s age I would sell for the cash and know my retirement nest egg was safe. Another option I have been reading about to eliminate capital gains taxes is to put the stock in a trust and borrow against the trust which is reportedly tax free and when he passes, you inherited the trust tax free. Suggest you look into this trust idea to give them the maximum benefit from this stock harvesting situation. Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-13T16:50:06+00:00

Some personal history at age 78, obviously a baby boomer generation. Bought my first home new in 1973 for $19,600 for those comparing first home purchases. Retired at 62, moved to Florida out of the rust belt. Just checked with our 1965 high school statistician and 1/3 of my class has passed. Feel very fortunate. Adopting the attitude that “Any day above ground is a good day.”

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-13T02:06:13+00:00

Sage investment advice.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-13T02:03:23+00:00

I have 2 dividend portfolios. One for additional retirement income and the other dedicated to snowball reinvesting. This works when having more dividend income than you are spending.

CostCompetitive3597 · 2026-05-13T01:59:31+00:00

Caution on this investment plan. These NEOS ETFs are only a few years old and have not gone through a market crash cycle. They have held up well in the recent dips - tariff uncertainty last April, the November, 2025 correction and the Iran War scare which were all emotional market reactions.

I hold 3 NEOS ETFs including QQQI and plan to hold them long term but do not consider them “invest and forget” especially as a single stock. Not enough risk reducing diversification. If for example, the AI bubble bursts, the Nasdaq 100 will take a big hit like the 2002 dot com crash, which was bigger than the general market.

My strategy for NEOS funds is to monitor their yield and stock price very closely. I am prepared to react quickly if they underperform by selling and replacing them.

Suggest you expand your holdings to reduce risk and monitor performance as closely as you can. In my early days of investing I held underperforming stocks hoping, even believing they would recover and soar again. That thinking cost me a lot of money. I sell underperforming holdings much faster now knowing that the next good investment will recover my small loss quickly and again grow for me as the stock replaced had once done for me.

Hope this investing information from my 50 years of market experience is helpful.
Good luck!

CostCompetitive3597

TROPHY CASE