As I noted in How to Measure and Track Your Wealth, I track my net worth monthly using Quicken. I update all my asset accounts and record all my expenses, then run a net worth report. I review it and compare it to my goal for the month (I have an annual goal I break into months) as well as consider steps I need to take the next month to make progress. I've been doing this … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2016
Dividend Stock Investing as a Source of Passive Income
Last week I gave my initial thoughts on dividend investing. I thought it would be fun to follow that post with the story of someone actually doing it. This is a guest post from ESI reader (and a friend of mine) Mike Hunt. I asked Mike to share a bit of his personal financial situation and then share his strategy and results in dividend investing. Enjoy! ESI Meet Mike Hunt At … [Read more...]
Why I Panicked When the Stock Market Dropped
I have seen numerous articles on the recent stock market decline. The news media is in a frenzy claiming the end of the world is near, and that we're all going to lose everything by the time it's over. It's what much of the media does best: take an issue and sensationalize it to the point of terror. Or at least that's what they like to do. As you have probably guessed, … [Read more...]
Dividend Investing Basics
As I noted in My Plan for Total Financial Freedom, I'd like to have dividend investing as part of my retirement plan. But I don't know much about it. Today I'll share what I've learned so far on my journey into dividend investing. The Concept From what I understand, proponents of dividend investing tout it as working as follows: Buy stocks of good quality companies … [Read more...]
My Plan for Total Financial Freedom (AKA My Retirement Plan)
In The Goal: Financial Freedom I noted that my personal financial goal is to invest my assets so they generate enough income to more than pay my living expenses. This way I will never have to spend a penny of the assets themselves -- just live on the income they produce. At that point I'll have total financial freedom, be able to retire, or do whatever I want to do. I'm … [Read more...]
The Goal: Financial Freedom
We've been through the basics of this site -- what it's about as well as the details behind earn, save, and invest. We've also covered the key topics of net worth and cash flow. We've also noted that if you put all these together in the right way, you will become wealthy. But what we haven't covered is the underlying question: why do we want to become wealthy? One … [Read more...]
2016 Financial Resolutions
I'm a big believer in New Year's resolutions. Each year I set a host of resolutions in a variety of categories. I then track them throughout the year to make sure I'm accomplishing what I want to with my life. I've been doing this for over 20 years and have had pretty good success throughout the years. I thought it might be fun to share my 2016 financial resolutions with … [Read more...]
Invest Overview: Fueling Your Net Worth
Let's discuss the third step to wealth, the "I" in "ESI Money." As noted in the explanation of the site's meaning , the "I" stands for "Invest." (Just to keep everyone up to speed, earn and save are the other two.) Investing is the step that super-charges your net worth and opens the door to high levels of wealth. It does this by taking the cash flow generated by the … [Read more...]
