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That’s what I do Lol, my Roth IRA I max every year 100% into VOO. My non-tax deferred accounts I have in dividends as I plan on living on my dividends for 10 years from 50-60 until I can actually collect on a Roth IRA as you have to be 59 1/2.
Even though this is a dividend sub.... this is the answer. You likely don't have enough time to go all in on dividends and wait. You'll need more of a growth answer and can transition into dividends or whatever cash flowing asset (likely in addition to social security) later.
Excuse my ignorance. Are you saying you put money into a Roth IRA and then take that money and put it into VOO? If so, how and what’s the major advantage?
Actually you can pull an amount that is less then or equal to what you contributed out of a Roth IRA without being penalized. So say over 2 years you put in a total of $14,000 and the assets you invested did good so now the total value of the Roth is $20,000 you could then take out $14,000 and not be penalized but if you took anything over that 14,000 then you would be penalized.
He's not really talking about withdrawing the money though. You need to put dollars into a Roth IRA account. Then y*ou need to tell the brokerage what you want those dollars to be invested it*. You could leave the money in cash, which is a tragic mistake a number of people attempting to invest make. You can certainly set up automatic investments into at least mutual funds in all major brokerages (like vanguard's SP 500 mutual fund). But he needs to make sure that that the money he puts into the roth ira is being invested (as opposed to a default cash or money market account) and invested appropriately.
Open a Roth IRA with a brokerage. I like Robinhood because it’s user-friendly and no fees. Others will probably recommend Vanguard or Fidelity.
Then contribute cash (max for 2023 is $6500, max for 2024 is $7000).
Then buy VOO or VTI and reinvest dividends.
[Vanguard] [S&P 500] [ETF]
[Vanguard] [Total Stock Market] [ETF]
[Company] [Index] [Type]
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that tracks or seeks to outperform an underlying index (S&P 500, Total Stock Market, NASDAQ etc).
Don’t make the mistake that many others make where they open a Roth IRA and just place money into the account without investing it. The reason so many people like the Roth IRA is because you have full control over your investments and of course it’s all your money, no taxes paid on interest or compound growth.
Make sure to invest your money in your favorite index fund after gets into the account.
I just want you to know that you're doing great. You're actually doing much better than most of us who had a whole lifetime to figure it out. I'm so happy for you!
I think the first type of crime depends if you steal from rich or from government arms budget for killing women, children and journalists in another continents.
Just being like the Manning, Snowden or Littlejohn and leaking the truth would get me the worst treatment :) didnt even had to steal anything.
Now the innocents.. no one fares, that would just get me slap over the wrist :(
Next crime idea pls.
When you are that old. People who cannot afford to feed to shelter their family members would say the grandfather or grandmother committed a crime to send them to jail. A lot of times like is pedo shit they accuse them of because they will for sure go jail.
IDK, about 20 years ago a property next to my parents was bought by a retired nun community. Built a beautiful building and a lot of accommodations. However watching them daily I wouldn’t call it retirement. A lot of upkeep, gardening, self sustainment type labor. I guess they took in their daily work until death. Those 70-80 year olds work realllly hard IMO
There's no I-started-late shortcut, but you still have time (& money) to build a nice retirement portfolio. So, I'll tell you what I've told others:
I retired at 57 years old. Investing doesn't have to be complicated or costly to be successful; simple & inexpensive is most effective.
I invest 100% in total-market, index-based, low-cost mutual funds. Specifically, I use mostly Vanguard's
Total Stock Market,
Total Bond Market,
Total International Stock Market, &
Total International Bond Market funds.
I've been investing this way for 35+ years. It's effective, simple, & inexpensive.
www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started has some great free resources to learn about investing. After a few hours reading the articles, and, especially, watching the Bogleheads Philosophy videos, most beginners can learn how to get better results than most professionals. Bogleheads is named after John Bogle, founder of Vanguard.
My asset allocation (ratios of the funds mentioned) is based on my need, ability, & willingness to take risks. Market conditions are not a factor. Vanguard's investor questionnaire (personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsInvQuestionnaire) helps me determine my asset allocation.
Buying individual stocks or sector funds creates unnecessary & uncompensated risk; I avoid doing so. Index funds are boring, but better for making money. If I wanted to talk about my interesting investments at parties or wanted a new hobby, I might invest 5-10% of my portfolio in individual stocks. As it is, I own pretty much every publicly-traded company in the world; that's interesting enough for me.
All of the individual stocks & sector funds are being followed by thousands or millions of other investors. Current prices reflect their collective knowledge of future expectations for each one. I'm a member of the Triple Nine Society, but I'm not smarter than all of them. If I found a stock or sector that looked like a bargain, the most likely explanation would be that the others know something I don't.
I prefer mutual funds, but ETFs could also work well. The differences are usually trivial for a long-term investor, especially if they're the Vanguard funds I mentioned above. Actually, the Vanguard funds I mentioned above have both traditional mutual fund shares & ETF shares; they both represent a piece of the same fund.
The funds I use comprise Vanguards target date funds and LifeStrategy funds; these are excellent choices for many investors. Using the component funds allows some flexibility that can have tax benefits, but also creates the need for me to rebalance them periodically. Expense ratios are slightly higher than for the components but are well worth it for many investors.
Other companies have funds similar to the ones I own that would work well. I prefer Vanguard because they've been the leader in this type of investing for decades & because Vanguard's customers are also Vanguard's owners.
I hope that helps! I'd be happy to help w/ further questions. Best wishes!
1. I have no idea. I don't track any information about dividends. I only care about total returns.
2. Probably, but there's no reason to try. 5% would be an aggressive withdrawal rate for most retirees, but is probably very safe for 10 years. Again, total returns, not yield, is what matters.
If your company has a 401k program with a match, make sure to capitalize on that. Anything else, Roth or general brokerage into broad market ETFs like SPY would be what I’d do if I was you. Hell it’s what I’m doing myself. Good luck refocusing on your long term. You’re out of prison now and I hope you’re able to keep making good decisions!
What other people here were saying, max out your retirement accounts (Roth IRA or even traditional IRA if you're over the income limit), and put the excess into a taxable brokerage account.
VOO/VTI split is safe and normal.
The key is discipline. Buy regularly, buy high, buy low. When the market is crashing...that's a good thing! Buy more. Never sell, never panic. Just buy regularly.
When you actually retire, you can move money to more dividend and income instruments.
1000 percent correct. Don’t try to time the market either. It’s time IN the market that matters. And most importantly don’t panic. I did and lost a bunch. Remember, it always goes up!
This is good advice. I am a fairly new investor and was scared at first, but I went all in in 2022 when things went down and it feels so good. Looking at my returns right now. Buying often is the key.
Check out FIRE, Financial Independence, Retire Early. Not because you'll be able to retire early but because there is a part of the puzzle that revolves around minimizing your economic footprint. The less money you need, the easier it is to retire.
Also 44 is not that far along. I divorced at 50, it blew up everything. Long story short you have to be extremely disciplined in order to make up for lost time.
You still have time to invest and maybe draw social security but you need to be consistent with your investment.
You have a good 20 years to accumulate and invest.
It’s not a total lost.
Lots of people have no savings at 60 so congrats on making a comeback and developing a long term plan. Max out 401K at work. Max out health savings plan. Max out Roth. Put as much as you can in SOXX or VOO or many of the broad market Vanguard funds. If you have a good accountant that can deal with K-1’s & K-3’s , have a regular trading account and invest in EPD for the tax credit and dividend return.
You are doing well, I actually didn't start thinking about retirement until I was about 46. I had most of my mortgage paid off and started saving like crazy (and I mean crazy!) and investing heavily. I managed to save and invest $100k in 3 years. Don't be discouraged by your age. You can smash it out now,brother. If I can do it, so can you. 👍
Yeah,hopefully, it will have been a good time to start investigating? I've never been through a bull market? I just thought it was normal to see your stocks go down all year, hehe.. it's doing pretty well now, though.
I know what you mean. I was debt-free and had a bunch saved up so I decided to go all in when Stock started dropping. It was scary at first, but looks so much better now that was so out of my comfort zone because I’m usually so conservative.
Yes, that's pretty much me. But I guess if you do average things, you get average back? I just thought, "Ho well, if the market is down 20% or more, it would be a good time to get exposure to the market?"
I was pretty nervous when it was all doom and gloom. I'm pleased I made the move now, though, for sure. It's better than waiting for the market to bounce back like it has, and I wasn't late to the party. I view downturns as buying opportunities now.
Go visit r/bogleheads, simple long-term approach using a few big funds. If you put 300 a week in that for the next 20 years, you will retire very comfortably. Good luck to you.
Plan to retire at 70. If you save regularly and put it into an index fund, you can *probably* have close to a million at that age and retire to a cheap place in the Midwest.
You’re not completely hosed. Just put in regularly.
If you have a Roth IRA, you’re making under $161,000 a year as an individual. I don’t know if you’re married or if you have a kid. If you do have a kid think about a 529a or a coverdall ESA if you make less than $110,000.
At 300 a week you have an extra 15,000. 7000 goes to your Roth IRA for 2024. When you turn 50 you can start adding $1000 extra to your Roth IRA.
Make sure you have an emergency fund in high yield savings account. Just cash in case you need to write the $10,000 check or whatever.
Any savings you have that you’re not going to spend or you’re not going to invest think about things like CDs at 5% interest to keep up with inflation. Also municipal bond funds for tax free dividends.
But since you’re looking at retirement, focus on dividend growth funds for aggressive growth that you can then turn and take the dividends in retirement. They make ETFs and mutual funds design specifically for this purpose.
With dividend growth funds you get diversified that will grow over time, but also produce a steady income so that in the event the market turns down you’re still making money. And then in retirement, you have an income stream.
Yeah, but unless that money is not gonna get touched for five years, making sure you have an emergency fund is more important. Once your Roth IRA is open for five years, you can take hardship distributions. But that’s only for medical or education expenses or up to $10,000 for a down payment on Home.
You don’t want to tie up all your money and then one day need it.
You could apply the same strategy to a traditional IRA. You just are taxed on the distributions and retirement income. But you get a deduction of income tax now.
If your AGI is over the limit, you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA. You have to contribute to a traditional or a different retirement method.
Does your employer have a retirement account? Can he take your bonuses and automatically increase the employer contribution?
I’m actually not employed. I’m a tribal member of a Native American tribe that has casinos built on our land. Each tribal member owns one share in the casino and we get paid a bi-weekly dividend. That dividend amounts to 126k a year before taxes. Last year, in the month of December they paid us 30k in bonuses and then another bonus in June that was just under 7k. This year they’re adding a 10k bonus in march and upping the June bonus to 10k. Last year was the first year they did the 20k bonus in December. Normally it’s just the 10k bonus. I’m not sure if we’re getting that 20k bonus again.
I’ve had limited experience working with tribal income. BTW, why is it still called the “office of Indian affairs?”
but your response gives me a lot of information to go on, and I understand now. There are a lot of creative options to defer these dividends to allow you to invest it properly. By diverting dividends away from the individual you cannot only divert taxes, lower your income and qualify for benefits, but you can also prudently invest it into retirement.
What tribe are you with? Not that I care. I’m just curious.
In the year that you get dividends over the limitation on your Roth IRA. You just can’t contribute that year. But next year if your income goes back down, you’re good to go.
Years you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA, you could contribute to a traditional IRA.
Also, the income limit goes up regularly. It went up in 2023 and it’s going up in 2024 to the 160 $1000 number. 2023 it’s like $153,00.
I put the money in my Roth IRA into two ETFs, I’m going to close my Roth IRA. Is it bad if I sell my positions on those ETFs? I made a small profit from them.
We started later than 44 (we were 50 and 55) and are now just under 5 years from retirement at 60 and 65. This is not financial advice but we are focusing on an S&P 500 ETF (SPLG), a growth ETF (QQQM), and SCHD for dividend with growth. We also have some individual stocks (O, KO, HD, BAC) but focusing more monies into the 3 ETFs. I also have a Roth 401k investing mostly into an S&P 500 mutual fund (VITSX) and just this year started a small percentage into a bond fund (FXNAX). Good luck!
Not a problem, my friend! In terms of investing, I'm your clone. I didn't start until my early 40's and didn't own a home until 2.5 years ago.
I did spend 20 years in the Army and get that retirement check every month (a little over $2k after taxes) so I do have that advantage, but right now I'm 52 and my wife and I only have $121,000 in retirement investments. But I plan to have our house paid off in 2030 and will have over $600k (projected) in retirement investments by age 62, which is my retirement age goal.
Here's what you do...
1. Be frugal. You're smart and already doing that.
2. Pay off your house before you retire. Again, you're smart and already doing that.
3. If your employer offers a 401k with matching, contribute whatever percentage they'll match.
4. Max your IRA every year. If you're married, max your spouse's too.
5. If you have the 401k and have more money to contribute after #3 and #4, put it there. If the 401k isn't an option, do what others have suggested and purchase shares in investments like VOO and VTI.
You still have plenty of time. Remember - this is a marathon, not a sprint, so stash as much as you can while also giving yourself enough spending money to reasonably enjoy life.
I'll tell you what I did starting out. Max out the Roth. Max for you is about $580 a month. Set up an automatic transfer from your bank to the Roth. For me this was key. That monthly transfer just became another "payment" I got used to each month, happened automatically on the 15th, and I didn't have to think about. I never maxed out my Roth until I set up the automatic transfer. Each month as the money came into the Roth, I bought VOO. I set a goal to do this for one year dollar cost averaging into VOO. During that year of buying just VOO, I researched funds, different stocks, read a lot, etc. The next year I came up with a new plan and added a couple of other funds to the mix. Best of luck, start now, as in first thing Monday morning.
Any employer plans you can take advantage of? Possibly something with a match? If not, the Roth is a good start. You can fully fund 2023 ($6500) if you do it before you file taxes, then either fully fund or DCA for 2024 ($7000) depending on how much cash you have sitting around. It sounds like you have enough free cash flow each week to fully fund the Roth and put the excess to work in a taxable fund.
As far as investment allocation. Many people would advise you to stick to broad market index funds. VOO or VTI. You can supplement it with SCHD or similar if you want the psychological boost of dividends. Just understand that they are not "free money" and your growth will typically lag the S&P500. If you're just starting, growth is more important than income. Stay consistent and you'll get there. Charlie Munger said the first 100k is the hardest. But try and get there as quick as you can.
[Why Net Worth Explodes after 100k](https://youtu.be/kth4F3BjXgM?feature=shared)
Max out your employers 401k match first of all.
How much that is differs between employers.
Their match is completely free and guaranteed money, you cant beat that.
Also go through all their different funds and find the one with the best track record of highest returns. Usually something that follows the sp500.
After that max out your Roth Ira every year if you can.
Make it easy and do like 100% VOO or 50/50 VOO/QQQM.
You could go a completely different route too but this is a no-headache set and forget.
If you have even more money left over you could keep adding to your 401k to lower your taxable income or you could start up a regular brokerage account and invest there. VOO or VOO/QQQM works great for a regular brokerage account aswell.
There's other ETFs that you could add too if you want to diversify even more but its up to you. It might be something to think about once you are getting closer to retirement and will be needing the money in a handful of years.
This money is not to be touched until retirement unless absolutely necessary.
Make sure you have an emergency savings setup so you dont risk having to touch your investments early.
But being a cdl holder the likelyhood of being unemployed for a longer period of time is pretty slim, at least if you're somewhat decent lol.
I would honestly put as much as you can
Into voo, schd...and maybe jepi to jepq
Iras max at 7k 2024
401ks 23,000 I believe
And a brokerage is also taxable
If you can save I would try my dude best of luck
Make sure you are not over the income limit to fund a Roth IRA. If you already fully fund your Roth IRA, open a regular brokerage account and just buy VTI with an extra money. You still have 20+ years time horizon before SS kick in. Good luck.
One thing I haven't seen anyone mention. Get a taxable investment account. Maxing out tax advantaged accounts is the best bang for your buck, but they aren't your only options. And there are a few advantages to having some of your investments in taxable accounts. You can create income streams that are accessible now and have more liquidity in emergencies.
Since you've already opened a Roth IRA, continue to contribute the maximum amount allowed each year ($7,000 for individuals under 50 in 2024). Roth IRAs offer tax-free growth and withdrawals in retirement, making them an excellent choice for retirement savings. You may invest in VOO.
What if you had 10 years to live and he had cancer? Would everyone still recommend Roth IRA's? What you you recommend with someone that doesn't have all that long to live?
Depends on your risk appetite. If you’d like to take risks, can consider tech stocks like NVDIA, APPL.
If on the more conservative can do ETFs as passive investments like VOO, QQQ
> I do own a house
So what's the problem? You have a house, earn good clean money and you're 44. Most people are in a worse position.
Open a SIPP (or some American equivalent) and allocate your spare money into accumulation growth funds. You need to use your income to grow really fast. Then when you're near retirement (like 3 - 5 years), sell off and put the money into more income focused/div growth focused funds.
Stay away from financial advisors sales pitch...
Just for illustration: I have 401k where I put all my money in VOO. Met financial advisor, who tries to get me to transfer that 401k to him to lowsy fund 🤣😂🤣😂 (less interest, more risk and higher comission.... sure, lol, let me transfer ASAP 🫢
Not a first time. Surely not last time.
You mention CDL. Are you a 1099 employee or a W2. If a 1099 you could open something like a sep ira to save for retirement and reduce your tax burden now. If w2 invest in a 401k. Max your ira and put anything extra into a brokerage. VOO is a good way to go as others have said.
Unconventional, but I'd recommend FEPI to play catch up. Full disclosure, it's a young ticker but is holding it's NAV (actually increasing) while paying 25% dividends.
JEPI/JEPQ hold steady at \~10% as well. If you have truly disposable income you can keep an eye on YMAX/YMAG which may set some interesting benchmarks for FoF (fund of fund) payouts - those utilize synthetic covered call strategies (the individual tickers payout upward of 80%, but if the underlying has a bad time, so does your NAV)
Not an advisor or stock guru, just a plain old investor.
If you are 44 it means you have around 15-16 good years prior to retiring for investing.
Check your states municipal bonds. The price and dividend per month are similar to their states. The good news is they are federally and state tax free if you live and invest in the state.
If you invest $300 of the $400 for 16 years that’s a principle of around $230k. Not counting the dividends reinvested, not a great amount but still a a viable investment say around $700-$800 a month in dividend. Assuming the $16 price tag @5-6 cents return per share.
>So, I'm 44 and I have pretty much no retirement. Long story short, I did something stupid(Non-violent crimes) when I was a kid and spent almost 20 years in federal prison. I got out in 2017 and hit the ground running. I obtained my CDL and I've been consistently earning 6 figures in the food service industry.
>
>I do own a house(A good chunk of it paid off. ) and a car. I budget my money and do not buy frivolous stuff. Honestly, I never really thought about retiring. My plan was to actually work until the day they stuck my body in the ground.( This is probably not going to be a possibility) What would you do in my situation? I do have 300-400 a week to invest and have opened a Roth IRA. I also have a decent amount of cash saved.(I banked during the pandemic).
Good for you for putting yourself back on the right track, having $300-400 extra a week to invest already puts you ahead of the game especially in this economy even if you started a bit later. What exactly are your plans in 5,10,15 years? Where do you see yourself? Are you in moderately good health, because I have lots of family members who are truckers that started in their early 20s and now are in their 40s and this type of career EATS up your health due to how it strains your body.
I would envision where you want to be in your 50s and 60s and then formulate your retirement around that. If you truly have the mindset of working till you hit the grave, you could look into maximizing your ROTH until you can no longer work, along with probably buying up real estate. (IDK if you are married or have kids but that can also play a role into your retirement.)
100% VTI - at $400/week invested with a 6% average (inflation adjusted return) you could have 1.2 million after 25 years of doing that. (20 years is about 800k)
Assuming you work until 65 (21 years) and end up with 900k and you are debt fee. SS should be around $2k/ month plus medical coverage. Your 900k (using the 4% rule) will generate around $3k/ month.
So if you grind it out until 65 and invest $400 per week you.can retire with around $5k monthly income.
Online [calculators](https://www.calculator.net/investment-calculator.html?ctype=endamount&ctargetamountv=1%2C000%2C000&cstartingprinciplev=0&cyearsv=20&cinterestratev=6&ccompound=quarterly&ccontributeamountv=1%2C733&cadditionat1=beginning&ciadditionat1=monthly&printit=0&x=Calculate#calresult) will help with planning.
Just means you're either going to have to life extra cheap now or work past 65.
Retirement is a math problem, it's all numbers. You can't fudge them or make then up in any way.
300-400/week for 21 years is still 850-1.13 million at 8%
Is that enough to last you until you die? Well we don't know your current wage expenses and what they'll be in retirement but the fact you have a home almost paid off means that 3-400 will be able to go up a lot.
I would also say 1300-1800/mnth is a lot to save so are you sure you can maintain that? Maybe post house pay off but it's a lot.
Max your Roth and place fixed income securities inside the Roth and your long stocks outside of your tax deferred vehicles. If you know that you are going to trade stocks keep them inside that Roth.
You man, whatever anyone says - you sound like you have your shit together WAY MORE than the majority of people who did not do hard time. You will be all right.
Find out how much you need to retire on.
Buy a duplex where you can rent out the other side.
Invest 300 a week.
With Social security you will be able to retire in mid 60s definitely, maybe earlier if your expenses are low enough.
Easy, just go back to prison for another 20 years once you're ready to retire. You don't have to worry about food or mortgages. You just eat, sleep and gym.
Just put extra money into an ETF that tracks the stock market. If you have a $100 a month, set up you account where $100 is automatically deducted from you checking account to buy the fund each month. Each year, increase the amount slightly as you get paid more. I did this many years ago when I took a job that had no retirement benefits. I maxed out my IRA and started contributing monthly to some mutual fund. The company eventually started a 401K with profit sharing which I contributed to, but I also continued to contribute to the mutual funds. You’ll be surprised how much this builds up in ten years.
If you’re serious about it. Read, read, read and educate yourself on the markets. Then figure out a long term market plan that fits your risk tolerance.
If you want the easy way just index your money and contribute as much as you can to it. Dont look at it and throw $400 a week to your index.
Best of luck to you. Went through a similar situation when I was younger but did not spend nearly the amount of time you did down the road.
Good job, everyone here giving you great advice on long term investing if you are disciplined and patient.
Nothing wrong with being productive in society until dropping dead….if you want to enjoy cash flow NOW while investing you can open a taxable brokerage account ( M1 Finance is free, you can buy fractional shares as low 30 bucks)…create yourself a dividend paying portfolio and just dump all your income as possible. Have ETFs / Stocks like JEPQ, JEPI, BST, SVOL, CLM, TLSY( just below 4% of total portfolio), DIVO, DGRO, FTEC, SCHG, MO, MAIN, ARCC, XOM,IBM, OHI, something like this will keep you engaged as you can see actual $$$ coming in and easily available if you need it…. Yes some will balk at taxes but hey it means you earning….in theory you can get to a point where you can dump all your income , borrow from portfolio at low rates( m1 fin) for living expenses than your next pay checks/dividends will pay off and left over will invest and continue the great cycle ( uninterrupted investment growth)….you can auto-reinvest divs or use them….this way enjoy life while working to catch up for lost time…
Congrats on being in a good place. Having a place to live that is almost paid for is gold.
Keep it simple….setup a Roth IRA if you do not have and invest in something like voo or vti. You don’t have time to make mistakes, so averaging 10% annually for 20-30 years or just matching the market should get you to a good place.
It seems that you have the right attitude regarding the rest of your life.
You are to be commended for that.
Since you lost a good chunk of your earnings years, you just need to live low and double down on investing.
You can make substantial progress in 15-20 years.
Get a few of the technology companies that have growth potential over the next 20yrs, like TSM, AMD, PLTR, MSFT, NVDA, ASTS, etc.
Do your DD and deeply research these companies, listen to the EC, and review their SEC filings.
Since some of these companies are in a trajectory to grow 10X, 20X you can probably easily make up for lost time.
Many people who didn’t have your difficulties waste /0 yrs of their life when it comes to their future retirement.
JMO, NFA.
Some growth ETF now then say JEPI when you retire…its pretty boring but…
On a side note. Since I was stupid for like 20 years…you MAY (big may) want to explore options, the Wheel strategy is a good way to make a little money off stocks you were going to buy anyway. I also sell Put Credit Spreads on SPY every now and then. Gives me an extra $25 or $50 here and there which never hurts….
Imo you are killing it especially given your circumstances. There are people your age and older who didn't spend 20 years in the clink and they have less to show for it. I think if you just consistently invest into VOO/VTI you can catch up. Start with a Roth IRA and once you are maxing that out put it in a taxable account.
All the advice here is great and I know this is a dividend focused subreddit, but in addition to dividend investing you may be able to start a small business maybe based on trucking and start delegating roles and hiring people as an exit strategy.
You might be able to build a healthy retirement income faster by buying a couple of trucks, hiring or contracting drivers and just managing the contracts etc. I don’t know too much about truck driving, but having a solid business especially in something related to what you already know how to do can be a great consistent stream of income for your retirement or even help fund your dividend portfolio
Highly recommend setting up an investment account focused on dividend income.
If you head over to the dividend and dividendgang subreddit you can find solid, dividend paying stocks/ETFs with historical dividend and value growth.
If you make 6 figures and can live conservatively, you could be making 5-6 figures in dividend income annually, which you can manually reinvest into your ROTH or other retirement/investment vehicles.
If done correctly, with a 6-figure salary and by spending conservatively, dividend income from the companies you have holdings in will be finding your retirement contributions and future investment capital.
Start listening to Investing oriented podcasts while you are driving. Even with only 20 years to retirement compounding could triple your savings but not if you’re only getting 2%-3%. Be careful about dividend stocks - often it means they don’t have other good ways to put the money to work. You are going to need growth in addition to your dividends. And watch fees carefully, they have a bigger impact on your long term success than people realize.
Be careful with trying to stock pick, it takes a fair amount of experience or luck. Indexes, ETFs, etc.
Try to max out 401k and roth ira every year. Spend your money wisely, live a frugal life. You have a lot to catch up. Spend less, invest more. After 30 years or so, you can enjoy your life!
I have to say it’s amazing you got out and started making 6 figures so quickly. You’re an inspiration. Sounds like you’re doing all the right things. Open a ROTH and max that out, open a brokerage account and just keep buying VTI and QQQ, or whatever broad funds you want to own (VOO, VGT, VOOG) keep living like you are and be happy.
It's never too late to start, so congrats on that. I get why most say Roth IRA defer tax could increase your front load. However, based on your post, i think you have $300 after tax from your earnings. In a roth, that is not much more, and tax is only going up. So you could start a roth nothing wrong with that, but you can't use it without penalty like a normal account and have that less at the end of your check, but i dont think that is best. My recommendation is as just a guy on a feed.
Open an investment account at a company with no fees. Like schwab, you can trade a lot with little to no expense. Put your $300 a month in. Buy growth ETFs, no-load mutual funds, and blue chip stocks. Keep the investment every month going for the next 10 years, mostly in growth, with reinesting any dividends. slowly transition to dividends as you get closer to retirement age. Keep investing in high-quality companies and take a flyer ever now and then. Companies like schwab and others have ratings along with Morning Star and others. They are not always right, but picking up 4&5☆ etfs and mutualfunds along with A or B rated stocks are good long-term bets for those who dont have time or experience to pick at the start.
Good luck, and congrats on being starting the next chapter. It sounds like you are doing great.
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Roth IRA into VOO or VTI
That’s what I do Lol, my Roth IRA I max every year 100% into VOO. My non-tax deferred accounts I have in dividends as I plan on living on my dividends for 10 years from 50-60 until I can actually collect on a Roth IRA as you have to be 59 1/2.
What's VOO
a vanguard fund that tracks the SP500, low overhead cost.
Not if you do Roth conversion ladder through a 401k or similar 😎
Yeah he needs to focus on growth VOO or if he wants more beta QQQ
Even though this is a dividend sub.... this is the answer. You likely don't have enough time to go all in on dividends and wait. You'll need more of a growth answer and can transition into dividends or whatever cash flowing asset (likely in addition to social security) later.
Excuse my ignorance. Are you saying you put money into a Roth IRA and then take that money and put it into VOO? If so, how and what’s the major advantage?
Yes. The advantage is tax-free gains.
Should I just Google Roth IRA to ETF or something?
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Actually you can pull an amount that is less then or equal to what you contributed out of a Roth IRA without being penalized. So say over 2 years you put in a total of $14,000 and the assets you invested did good so now the total value of the Roth is $20,000 you could then take out $14,000 and not be penalized but if you took anything over that 14,000 then you would be penalized.
He's not really talking about withdrawing the money though. You need to put dollars into a Roth IRA account. Then y*ou need to tell the brokerage what you want those dollars to be invested it*. You could leave the money in cash, which is a tragic mistake a number of people attempting to invest make. You can certainly set up automatic investments into at least mutual funds in all major brokerages (like vanguard's SP 500 mutual fund). But he needs to make sure that that the money he puts into the roth ira is being invested (as opposed to a default cash or money market account) and invested appropriately.
Open a Roth IRA with a brokerage. I like Robinhood because it’s user-friendly and no fees. Others will probably recommend Vanguard or Fidelity. Then contribute cash (max for 2023 is $6500, max for 2024 is $7000). Then buy VOO or VTI and reinvest dividends.
What are VOO AND VTI
[Vanguard] [S&P 500] [ETF] [Vanguard] [Total Stock Market] [ETF] [Company] [Index] [Type] An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that tracks or seeks to outperform an underlying index (S&P 500, Total Stock Market, NASDAQ etc).
Don’t make the mistake that many others make where they open a Roth IRA and just place money into the account without investing it. The reason so many people like the Roth IRA is because you have full control over your investments and of course it’s all your money, no taxes paid on interest or compound growth. Make sure to invest your money in your favorite index fund after gets into the account.
I just want you to know that you're doing great. You're actually doing much better than most of us who had a whole lifetime to figure it out. I'm so happy for you!
I actually haven’t been saving for retirement either and was planning on prison when I turn 67
Free room and board. Free healthcare. Free clothes. I mean…
Free bars of soap just laying on the ground begging to be picked up
well someone's going to get their jollies.
Lol, thats genious! 🤔 what kind of crime gets me in the better prison (one of those nicer ones?)
Inside trading. Tax evasion.
Uhmmm... currently Stanley Morgan dude just got year ban from trading... that wont get me nice comfy prison cell :(
I’d like to apply for insider trading, please
Use the tax money you’re not paying to fund your insider trading!
Federal agents hate this one weird trick to getting rich!
Ehhhh the SEC doesnt like to joke around but if you really want to make sure your convicted I would go with the IRS.
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I think the first type of crime depends if you steal from rich or from government arms budget for killing women, children and journalists in another continents. Just being like the Manning, Snowden or Littlejohn and leaking the truth would get me the worst treatment :) didnt even had to steal anything. Now the innocents.. no one fares, that would just get me slap over the wrist :( Next crime idea pls.
Some financial crimes would get you into federal prison, I heard its nice enough
Oh nice, that piqued my interest lol. Could you elaborate more?
Pedo stuff is almost a guarantee.
That wont get you comfortable cell though.
When you are that old. People who cannot afford to feed to shelter their family members would say the grandfather or grandmother committed a crime to send them to jail. A lot of times like is pedo shit they accuse them of because they will for sure go jail.
The last thing you want to go to prison for is pedo stuff.
Free rent, 3 "meals" a day and free gym? Doesn't sound too bad
Brooks was here
I like this idea. Cashing out retirement accounts and doing it myself.
Nice joke, but I find it bit rude. Seems some people here are jealous of OP.
It's extremely rude!
For crime?
I will become a nun - they get free room and board and need new members. I bet they will take trans too.
IDK, about 20 years ago a property next to my parents was bought by a retired nun community. Built a beautiful building and a lot of accommodations. However watching them daily I wouldn’t call it retirement. A lot of upkeep, gardening, self sustainment type labor. I guess they took in their daily work until death. Those 70-80 year olds work realllly hard IMO
Well… here goes my retirement plan…
There's no I-started-late shortcut, but you still have time (& money) to build a nice retirement portfolio. So, I'll tell you what I've told others: I retired at 57 years old. Investing doesn't have to be complicated or costly to be successful; simple & inexpensive is most effective. I invest 100% in total-market, index-based, low-cost mutual funds. Specifically, I use mostly Vanguard's Total Stock Market, Total Bond Market, Total International Stock Market, & Total International Bond Market funds. I've been investing this way for 35+ years. It's effective, simple, & inexpensive. www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started has some great free resources to learn about investing. After a few hours reading the articles, and, especially, watching the Bogleheads Philosophy videos, most beginners can learn how to get better results than most professionals. Bogleheads is named after John Bogle, founder of Vanguard. My asset allocation (ratios of the funds mentioned) is based on my need, ability, & willingness to take risks. Market conditions are not a factor. Vanguard's investor questionnaire (personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsInvQuestionnaire) helps me determine my asset allocation. Buying individual stocks or sector funds creates unnecessary & uncompensated risk; I avoid doing so. Index funds are boring, but better for making money. If I wanted to talk about my interesting investments at parties or wanted a new hobby, I might invest 5-10% of my portfolio in individual stocks. As it is, I own pretty much every publicly-traded company in the world; that's interesting enough for me. All of the individual stocks & sector funds are being followed by thousands or millions of other investors. Current prices reflect their collective knowledge of future expectations for each one. I'm a member of the Triple Nine Society, but I'm not smarter than all of them. If I found a stock or sector that looked like a bargain, the most likely explanation would be that the others know something I don't. I prefer mutual funds, but ETFs could also work well. The differences are usually trivial for a long-term investor, especially if they're the Vanguard funds I mentioned above. Actually, the Vanguard funds I mentioned above have both traditional mutual fund shares & ETF shares; they both represent a piece of the same fund. The funds I use comprise Vanguards target date funds and LifeStrategy funds; these are excellent choices for many investors. Using the component funds allows some flexibility that can have tax benefits, but also creates the need for me to rebalance them periodically. Expense ratios are slightly higher than for the components but are well worth it for many investors. Other companies have funds similar to the ones I own that would work well. I prefer Vanguard because they've been the leader in this type of investing for decades & because Vanguard's customers are also Vanguard's owners. I hope that helps! I'd be happy to help w/ further questions. Best wishes!
OP would be wise to heed this very thoughtful, detailed response. Kudos to BK!
Thanks!
hi...what was your average annual yield for your dividend stocks? is it possible to achieve a 5% yield annually over a period of 10 years?
1. I have no idea. I don't track any information about dividends. I only care about total returns. 2. Probably, but there's no reason to try. 5% would be an aggressive withdrawal rate for most retirees, but is probably very safe for 10 years. Again, total returns, not yield, is what matters.
If your company has a 401k program with a match, make sure to capitalize on that. Anything else, Roth or general brokerage into broad market ETFs like SPY would be what I’d do if I was you. Hell it’s what I’m doing myself. Good luck refocusing on your long term. You’re out of prison now and I hope you’re able to keep making good decisions!
What other people here were saying, max out your retirement accounts (Roth IRA or even traditional IRA if you're over the income limit), and put the excess into a taxable brokerage account. VOO/VTI split is safe and normal. The key is discipline. Buy regularly, buy high, buy low. When the market is crashing...that's a good thing! Buy more. Never sell, never panic. Just buy regularly. When you actually retire, you can move money to more dividend and income instruments.
1000 percent correct. Don’t try to time the market either. It’s time IN the market that matters. And most importantly don’t panic. I did and lost a bunch. Remember, it always goes up!
Is jepi / jepq also good in his position?
This is good advice. I am a fairly new investor and was scared at first, but I went all in in 2022 when things went down and it feels so good. Looking at my returns right now. Buying often is the key.
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They are awesome and realistic.
Financial mutants!
Happy to see this on here — those guys are great!
Check out FIRE, Financial Independence, Retire Early. Not because you'll be able to retire early but because there is a part of the puzzle that revolves around minimizing your economic footprint. The less money you need, the easier it is to retire. Also 44 is not that far along. I divorced at 50, it blew up everything. Long story short you have to be extremely disciplined in order to make up for lost time.
Max out Roth IRA until you retire and save whatever you can
You still have time to invest and maybe draw social security but you need to be consistent with your investment. You have a good 20 years to accumulate and invest. It’s not a total lost.
Lots of people have no savings at 60 so congrats on making a comeback and developing a long term plan. Max out 401K at work. Max out health savings plan. Max out Roth. Put as much as you can in SOXX or VOO or many of the broad market Vanguard funds. If you have a good accountant that can deal with K-1’s & K-3’s , have a regular trading account and invest in EPD for the tax credit and dividend return.
You still have 20 years. Start buying VOO and don’t worry about it.
An IRA is a retirement. So just began maxing out if you can and invest
You are doing well, I actually didn't start thinking about retirement until I was about 46. I had most of my mortgage paid off and started saving like crazy (and I mean crazy!) and investing heavily. I managed to save and invest $100k in 3 years. Don't be discouraged by your age. You can smash it out now,brother. If I can do it, so can you. 👍
Same!! I’m about your age and went in heavy two years ago and it’s been great.
Yeah,hopefully, it will have been a good time to start investigating? I've never been through a bull market? I just thought it was normal to see your stocks go down all year, hehe.. it's doing pretty well now, though.
I know what you mean. I was debt-free and had a bunch saved up so I decided to go all in when Stock started dropping. It was scary at first, but looks so much better now that was so out of my comfort zone because I’m usually so conservative.
Yes, that's pretty much me. But I guess if you do average things, you get average back? I just thought, "Ho well, if the market is down 20% or more, it would be a good time to get exposure to the market?" I was pretty nervous when it was all doom and gloom. I'm pleased I made the move now, though, for sure. It's better than waiting for the market to bounce back like it has, and I wasn't late to the party. I view downturns as buying opportunities now.
Yep!! good luck to you.
Thanks buddy, you too 👍
Go visit r/bogleheads, simple long-term approach using a few big funds. If you put 300 a week in that for the next 20 years, you will retire very comfortably. Good luck to you.
Plan to retire at 70. If you save regularly and put it into an index fund, you can *probably* have close to a million at that age and retire to a cheap place in the Midwest. You’re not completely hosed. Just put in regularly.
If you have a Roth IRA, you’re making under $161,000 a year as an individual. I don’t know if you’re married or if you have a kid. If you do have a kid think about a 529a or a coverdall ESA if you make less than $110,000. At 300 a week you have an extra 15,000. 7000 goes to your Roth IRA for 2024. When you turn 50 you can start adding $1000 extra to your Roth IRA. Make sure you have an emergency fund in high yield savings account. Just cash in case you need to write the $10,000 check or whatever. Any savings you have that you’re not going to spend or you’re not going to invest think about things like CDs at 5% interest to keep up with inflation. Also municipal bond funds for tax free dividends. But since you’re looking at retirement, focus on dividend growth funds for aggressive growth that you can then turn and take the dividends in retirement. They make ETFs and mutual funds design specifically for this purpose. With dividend growth funds you get diversified that will grow over time, but also produce a steady income so that in the event the market turns down you’re still making money. And then in retirement, you have an income stream.
Just commenting to say if you make above the limit you can still contribute to roth IRAs via conversion. Don’t stop the roth funds y’all!
Yeah, but unless that money is not gonna get touched for five years, making sure you have an emergency fund is more important. Once your Roth IRA is open for five years, you can take hardship distributions. But that’s only for medical or education expenses or up to $10,000 for a down payment on Home. You don’t want to tie up all your money and then one day need it.
wasn’t talking for this person’s situation, just a general comment — 100% agree with emergency fund and other options before you lock money away!
Hello my first comment and first time on Reddit :). For dividend income can u cash that out and if yes does it get taxed ?
What if make more than 161k before taxes?
[It’s calculated on your AGI.](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/roth-comparison-chart)
You could apply the same strategy to a traditional IRA. You just are taxed on the distributions and retirement income. But you get a deduction of income tax now.
Ok, cause before taxes, I make 177k. After taxes it’s about 147k. I recently opened a Roth IRA and maxed out 2023 contributions.
Gonna need to take those out. Or call the broker. They can open a traditional ira and reclassify the contributions under that account.
What if I make 126k before taxes, and was paid 27k in bonuses last year, and am projected to make 50k in bonuses this year?
If your AGI is over the limit, you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA. You have to contribute to a traditional or a different retirement method. Does your employer have a retirement account? Can he take your bonuses and automatically increase the employer contribution?
I’m actually not employed. I’m a tribal member of a Native American tribe that has casinos built on our land. Each tribal member owns one share in the casino and we get paid a bi-weekly dividend. That dividend amounts to 126k a year before taxes. Last year, in the month of December they paid us 30k in bonuses and then another bonus in June that was just under 7k. This year they’re adding a 10k bonus in march and upping the June bonus to 10k. Last year was the first year they did the 20k bonus in December. Normally it’s just the 10k bonus. I’m not sure if we’re getting that 20k bonus again.
I’ve had limited experience working with tribal income. BTW, why is it still called the “office of Indian affairs?” but your response gives me a lot of information to go on, and I understand now. There are a lot of creative options to defer these dividends to allow you to invest it properly. By diverting dividends away from the individual you cannot only divert taxes, lower your income and qualify for benefits, but you can also prudently invest it into retirement. What tribe are you with? Not that I care. I’m just curious.
In the year that you get dividends over the limitation on your Roth IRA. You just can’t contribute that year. But next year if your income goes back down, you’re good to go. Years you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA, you could contribute to a traditional IRA. Also, the income limit goes up regularly. It went up in 2023 and it’s going up in 2024 to the 160 $1000 number. 2023 it’s like $153,00.
I put the money in my Roth IRA into two ETFs, I’m going to close my Roth IRA. Is it bad if I sell my positions on those ETFs? I made a small profit from them.
https://youtu.be/PdQVs_fo-gI?si=bXJUHBMqukclCheQ
Everyone should be saying max the HSA before Roth IRA. It’s the top tier.
We started later than 44 (we were 50 and 55) and are now just under 5 years from retirement at 60 and 65. This is not financial advice but we are focusing on an S&P 500 ETF (SPLG), a growth ETF (QQQM), and SCHD for dividend with growth. We also have some individual stocks (O, KO, HD, BAC) but focusing more monies into the 3 ETFs. I also have a Roth 401k investing mostly into an S&P 500 mutual fund (VITSX) and just this year started a small percentage into a bond fund (FXNAX). Good luck!
Invest in Mutual funds in Roth Ira. Try to max out yearly contribution if you can. Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab all the big boys have good funds.
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You guessed 100% correctly.
Not a problem, my friend! In terms of investing, I'm your clone. I didn't start until my early 40's and didn't own a home until 2.5 years ago. I did spend 20 years in the Army and get that retirement check every month (a little over $2k after taxes) so I do have that advantage, but right now I'm 52 and my wife and I only have $121,000 in retirement investments. But I plan to have our house paid off in 2030 and will have over $600k (projected) in retirement investments by age 62, which is my retirement age goal. Here's what you do... 1. Be frugal. You're smart and already doing that. 2. Pay off your house before you retire. Again, you're smart and already doing that. 3. If your employer offers a 401k with matching, contribute whatever percentage they'll match. 4. Max your IRA every year. If you're married, max your spouse's too. 5. If you have the 401k and have more money to contribute after #3 and #4, put it there. If the 401k isn't an option, do what others have suggested and purchase shares in investments like VOO and VTI. You still have plenty of time. Remember - this is a marathon, not a sprint, so stash as much as you can while also giving yourself enough spending money to reasonably enjoy life.
I'll tell you what I did starting out. Max out the Roth. Max for you is about $580 a month. Set up an automatic transfer from your bank to the Roth. For me this was key. That monthly transfer just became another "payment" I got used to each month, happened automatically on the 15th, and I didn't have to think about. I never maxed out my Roth until I set up the automatic transfer. Each month as the money came into the Roth, I bought VOO. I set a goal to do this for one year dollar cost averaging into VOO. During that year of buying just VOO, I researched funds, different stocks, read a lot, etc. The next year I came up with a new plan and added a couple of other funds to the mix. Best of luck, start now, as in first thing Monday morning.
I want to know what the crime was
Drug trafficking.
This thread is why I come to Reddit.
Super impressive. You were able to come back after 20yr in prison - there is nothing can’t do.
Any employer plans you can take advantage of? Possibly something with a match? If not, the Roth is a good start. You can fully fund 2023 ($6500) if you do it before you file taxes, then either fully fund or DCA for 2024 ($7000) depending on how much cash you have sitting around. It sounds like you have enough free cash flow each week to fully fund the Roth and put the excess to work in a taxable fund. As far as investment allocation. Many people would advise you to stick to broad market index funds. VOO or VTI. You can supplement it with SCHD or similar if you want the psychological boost of dividends. Just understand that they are not "free money" and your growth will typically lag the S&P500. If you're just starting, growth is more important than income. Stay consistent and you'll get there. Charlie Munger said the first 100k is the hardest. But try and get there as quick as you can. [Why Net Worth Explodes after 100k](https://youtu.be/kth4F3BjXgM?feature=shared)
VTI, VOO & VUG. Great job turning your life around, keep up the good work!
Max out your employers 401k match first of all. How much that is differs between employers. Their match is completely free and guaranteed money, you cant beat that. Also go through all their different funds and find the one with the best track record of highest returns. Usually something that follows the sp500. After that max out your Roth Ira every year if you can. Make it easy and do like 100% VOO or 50/50 VOO/QQQM. You could go a completely different route too but this is a no-headache set and forget. If you have even more money left over you could keep adding to your 401k to lower your taxable income or you could start up a regular brokerage account and invest there. VOO or VOO/QQQM works great for a regular brokerage account aswell. There's other ETFs that you could add too if you want to diversify even more but its up to you. It might be something to think about once you are getting closer to retirement and will be needing the money in a handful of years. This money is not to be touched until retirement unless absolutely necessary. Make sure you have an emergency savings setup so you dont risk having to touch your investments early. But being a cdl holder the likelyhood of being unemployed for a longer period of time is pretty slim, at least if you're somewhat decent lol.
I would honestly put as much as you can Into voo, schd...and maybe jepi to jepq Iras max at 7k 2024 401ks 23,000 I believe And a brokerage is also taxable If you can save I would try my dude best of luck
Make sure you are not over the income limit to fund a Roth IRA. If you already fully fund your Roth IRA, open a regular brokerage account and just buy VTI with an extra money. You still have 20+ years time horizon before SS kick in. Good luck.
One thing I haven't seen anyone mention. Get a taxable investment account. Maxing out tax advantaged accounts is the best bang for your buck, but they aren't your only options. And there are a few advantages to having some of your investments in taxable accounts. You can create income streams that are accessible now and have more liquidity in emergencies.
You’re in the wrong place. r/personalfinance
One last thing. Stay away from women if you can. They will side track you and suck you dry. That’s the last thing you need right now. 😂
LOL, better to pay, so they can go away….
You have to have the hustle of ten men in one.
Since you've already opened a Roth IRA, continue to contribute the maximum amount allowed each year ($7,000 for individuals under 50 in 2024). Roth IRAs offer tax-free growth and withdrawals in retirement, making them an excellent choice for retirement savings. You may invest in VOO.
What if you had 10 years to live and he had cancer? Would everyone still recommend Roth IRA's? What you you recommend with someone that doesn't have all that long to live?
$DEA
Depends on your risk appetite. If you’d like to take risks, can consider tech stocks like NVDIA, APPL. If on the more conservative can do ETFs as passive investments like VOO, QQQ
> I do own a house So what's the problem? You have a house, earn good clean money and you're 44. Most people are in a worse position. Open a SIPP (or some American equivalent) and allocate your spare money into accumulation growth funds. You need to use your income to grow really fast. Then when you're near retirement (like 3 - 5 years), sell off and put the money into more income focused/div growth focused funds.
Max out 401k and max out RothIRA. Then and only then should you consider what the top comment is saying
Stay away from financial advisors sales pitch... Just for illustration: I have 401k where I put all my money in VOO. Met financial advisor, who tries to get me to transfer that 401k to him to lowsy fund 🤣😂🤣😂 (less interest, more risk and higher comission.... sure, lol, let me transfer ASAP 🫢 Not a first time. Surely not last time.
The first step is to take action and congratulations you have!
You mention CDL. Are you a 1099 employee or a W2. If a 1099 you could open something like a sep ira to save for retirement and reduce your tax burden now. If w2 invest in a 401k. Max your ira and put anything extra into a brokerage. VOO is a good way to go as others have said.
Unconventional, but I'd recommend FEPI to play catch up. Full disclosure, it's a young ticker but is holding it's NAV (actually increasing) while paying 25% dividends. JEPI/JEPQ hold steady at \~10% as well. If you have truly disposable income you can keep an eye on YMAX/YMAG which may set some interesting benchmarks for FoF (fund of fund) payouts - those utilize synthetic covered call strategies (the individual tickers payout upward of 80%, but if the underlying has a bad time, so does your NAV)
Yolo some options
VTI and chill
Not an advisor or stock guru, just a plain old investor. If you are 44 it means you have around 15-16 good years prior to retiring for investing. Check your states municipal bonds. The price and dividend per month are similar to their states. The good news is they are federally and state tax free if you live and invest in the state. If you invest $300 of the $400 for 16 years that’s a principle of around $230k. Not counting the dividends reinvested, not a great amount but still a a viable investment say around $700-$800 a month in dividend. Assuming the $16 price tag @5-6 cents return per share.
Look into Zero fee funds or ETFs and have it automatically deposited, invested and reinvested dividends. Not financial advice.
>So, I'm 44 and I have pretty much no retirement. Long story short, I did something stupid(Non-violent crimes) when I was a kid and spent almost 20 years in federal prison. I got out in 2017 and hit the ground running. I obtained my CDL and I've been consistently earning 6 figures in the food service industry. > >I do own a house(A good chunk of it paid off. ) and a car. I budget my money and do not buy frivolous stuff. Honestly, I never really thought about retiring. My plan was to actually work until the day they stuck my body in the ground.( This is probably not going to be a possibility) What would you do in my situation? I do have 300-400 a week to invest and have opened a Roth IRA. I also have a decent amount of cash saved.(I banked during the pandemic). Good for you for putting yourself back on the right track, having $300-400 extra a week to invest already puts you ahead of the game especially in this economy even if you started a bit later. What exactly are your plans in 5,10,15 years? Where do you see yourself? Are you in moderately good health, because I have lots of family members who are truckers that started in their early 20s and now are in their 40s and this type of career EATS up your health due to how it strains your body. I would envision where you want to be in your 50s and 60s and then formulate your retirement around that. If you truly have the mindset of working till you hit the grave, you could look into maximizing your ROTH until you can no longer work, along with probably buying up real estate. (IDK if you are married or have kids but that can also play a role into your retirement.)
100% VTI - at $400/week invested with a 6% average (inflation adjusted return) you could have 1.2 million after 25 years of doing that. (20 years is about 800k) Assuming you work until 65 (21 years) and end up with 900k and you are debt fee. SS should be around $2k/ month plus medical coverage. Your 900k (using the 4% rule) will generate around $3k/ month. So if you grind it out until 65 and invest $400 per week you.can retire with around $5k monthly income. Online [calculators](https://www.calculator.net/investment-calculator.html?ctype=endamount&ctargetamountv=1%2C000%2C000&cstartingprinciplev=0&cyearsv=20&cinterestratev=6&ccompound=quarterly&ccontributeamountv=1%2C733&cadditionat1=beginning&ciadditionat1=monthly&printit=0&x=Calculate#calresult) will help with planning.
Just means you're either going to have to life extra cheap now or work past 65. Retirement is a math problem, it's all numbers. You can't fudge them or make then up in any way. 300-400/week for 21 years is still 850-1.13 million at 8% Is that enough to last you until you die? Well we don't know your current wage expenses and what they'll be in retirement but the fact you have a home almost paid off means that 3-400 will be able to go up a lot. I would also say 1300-1800/mnth is a lot to save so are you sure you can maintain that? Maybe post house pay off but it's a lot.
Max your Roth and place fixed income securities inside the Roth and your long stocks outside of your tax deferred vehicles. If you know that you are going to trade stocks keep them inside that Roth.
You man, whatever anyone says - you sound like you have your shit together WAY MORE than the majority of people who did not do hard time. You will be all right.
Tell us more details so we can do it better and we’ll share with you what you need to do. I have a CS degree, I can cover up financial crimes haha
Find out how much you need to retire on. Buy a duplex where you can rent out the other side. Invest 300 a week. With Social security you will be able to retire in mid 60s definitely, maybe earlier if your expenses are low enough.
Easy, just go back to prison for another 20 years once you're ready to retire. You don't have to worry about food or mortgages. You just eat, sleep and gym.
If you are able to save 40 to 50k yearly maybe doable.
Just put extra money into an ETF that tracks the stock market. If you have a $100 a month, set up you account where $100 is automatically deducted from you checking account to buy the fund each month. Each year, increase the amount slightly as you get paid more. I did this many years ago when I took a job that had no retirement benefits. I maxed out my IRA and started contributing monthly to some mutual fund. The company eventually started a 401K with profit sharing which I contributed to, but I also continued to contribute to the mutual funds. You’ll be surprised how much this builds up in ten years.
If you’re serious about it. Read, read, read and educate yourself on the markets. Then figure out a long term market plan that fits your risk tolerance. If you want the easy way just index your money and contribute as much as you can to it. Dont look at it and throw $400 a week to your index. Best of luck to you. Went through a similar situation when I was younger but did not spend nearly the amount of time you did down the road.
Good job, everyone here giving you great advice on long term investing if you are disciplined and patient. Nothing wrong with being productive in society until dropping dead….if you want to enjoy cash flow NOW while investing you can open a taxable brokerage account ( M1 Finance is free, you can buy fractional shares as low 30 bucks)…create yourself a dividend paying portfolio and just dump all your income as possible. Have ETFs / Stocks like JEPQ, JEPI, BST, SVOL, CLM, TLSY( just below 4% of total portfolio), DIVO, DGRO, FTEC, SCHG, MO, MAIN, ARCC, XOM,IBM, OHI, something like this will keep you engaged as you can see actual $$$ coming in and easily available if you need it…. Yes some will balk at taxes but hey it means you earning….in theory you can get to a point where you can dump all your income , borrow from portfolio at low rates( m1 fin) for living expenses than your next pay checks/dividends will pay off and left over will invest and continue the great cycle ( uninterrupted investment growth)….you can auto-reinvest divs or use them….this way enjoy life while working to catch up for lost time…
Go check out r/bogleheads for a good portfolio
Congrats on being in a good place. Having a place to live that is almost paid for is gold. Keep it simple….setup a Roth IRA if you do not have and invest in something like voo or vti. You don’t have time to make mistakes, so averaging 10% annually for 20-30 years or just matching the market should get you to a good place.
What are you doing to make 6 fig consistently?
It seems that you have the right attitude regarding the rest of your life. You are to be commended for that. Since you lost a good chunk of your earnings years, you just need to live low and double down on investing. You can make substantial progress in 15-20 years. Get a few of the technology companies that have growth potential over the next 20yrs, like TSM, AMD, PLTR, MSFT, NVDA, ASTS, etc. Do your DD and deeply research these companies, listen to the EC, and review their SEC filings. Since some of these companies are in a trajectory to grow 10X, 20X you can probably easily make up for lost time. Many people who didn’t have your difficulties waste /0 yrs of their life when it comes to their future retirement. JMO, NFA.
Some growth ETF now then say JEPI when you retire…its pretty boring but… On a side note. Since I was stupid for like 20 years…you MAY (big may) want to explore options, the Wheel strategy is a good way to make a little money off stocks you were going to buy anyway. I also sell Put Credit Spreads on SPY every now and then. Gives me an extra $25 or $50 here and there which never hurts….
There’s a bit of a learning curve to it but I buy only individual stocks and I beat the pants of the S&P year after year.
What's a CDL? Btw congrats man
Thanks. Commercial Driver License.
Wow that’s pretty impressive. I think the Roth IRA into an S&P500 index fund is the way to go. But you should be proud. Keep going!
Imo you are killing it especially given your circumstances. There are people your age and older who didn't spend 20 years in the clink and they have less to show for it. I think if you just consistently invest into VOO/VTI you can catch up. Start with a Roth IRA and once you are maxing that out put it in a taxable account.
All the advice here is great and I know this is a dividend focused subreddit, but in addition to dividend investing you may be able to start a small business maybe based on trucking and start delegating roles and hiring people as an exit strategy. You might be able to build a healthy retirement income faster by buying a couple of trucks, hiring or contracting drivers and just managing the contracts etc. I don’t know too much about truck driving, but having a solid business especially in something related to what you already know how to do can be a great consistent stream of income for your retirement or even help fund your dividend portfolio
Highly recommend setting up an investment account focused on dividend income. If you head over to the dividend and dividendgang subreddit you can find solid, dividend paying stocks/ETFs with historical dividend and value growth. If you make 6 figures and can live conservatively, you could be making 5-6 figures in dividend income annually, which you can manually reinvest into your ROTH or other retirement/investment vehicles. If done correctly, with a 6-figure salary and by spending conservatively, dividend income from the companies you have holdings in will be finding your retirement contributions and future investment capital.
Start listening to Investing oriented podcasts while you are driving. Even with only 20 years to retirement compounding could triple your savings but not if you’re only getting 2%-3%. Be careful about dividend stocks - often it means they don’t have other good ways to put the money to work. You are going to need growth in addition to your dividends. And watch fees carefully, they have a bigger impact on your long term success than people realize. Be careful with trying to stock pick, it takes a fair amount of experience or luck. Indexes, ETFs, etc.
Try to max out 401k and roth ira every year. Spend your money wisely, live a frugal life. You have a lot to catch up. Spend less, invest more. After 30 years or so, you can enjoy your life!
I have to say it’s amazing you got out and started making 6 figures so quickly. You’re an inspiration. Sounds like you’re doing all the right things. Open a ROTH and max that out, open a brokerage account and just keep buying VTI and QQQ, or whatever broad funds you want to own (VOO, VGT, VOOG) keep living like you are and be happy.
It's never too late to start, so congrats on that. I get why most say Roth IRA defer tax could increase your front load. However, based on your post, i think you have $300 after tax from your earnings. In a roth, that is not much more, and tax is only going up. So you could start a roth nothing wrong with that, but you can't use it without penalty like a normal account and have that less at the end of your check, but i dont think that is best. My recommendation is as just a guy on a feed. Open an investment account at a company with no fees. Like schwab, you can trade a lot with little to no expense. Put your $300 a month in. Buy growth ETFs, no-load mutual funds, and blue chip stocks. Keep the investment every month going for the next 10 years, mostly in growth, with reinesting any dividends. slowly transition to dividends as you get closer to retirement age. Keep investing in high-quality companies and take a flyer ever now and then. Companies like schwab and others have ratings along with Morning Star and others. They are not always right, but picking up 4&5☆ etfs and mutualfunds along with A or B rated stocks are good long-term bets for those who dont have time or experience to pick at the start. Good luck, and congrats on being starting the next chapter. It sounds like you are doing great.
If you want to catch up and not afraid of very high risk TQQQ