Here I am on the road to securing my future, through the world of Dividend Investing and sharing my journey. I’m already in my 40’s, but the sad truth is I have a larger investment portfolio than a lot of people I know. Best of all I am debt free !
At my age I’m starting late, so I don’t have the advantage of time and decades of compounding. But what I do have is humility, knowledge, and the ability to invest in stocks myself. I have already learned that mutual funds are a waste of time, and Dividend Stocks are the way to go. In 2009 I left my second financial advisor, setup a Brokerage Account, and sold most of my mutual funds – I hade made a decent gain on them. I reinvested the proceeds into some carefully chosen dividend stocks. Thanks to The Dividend Girl for inspiration, or I never would have taken the journey. And special mention to Derek Foster for providing a no-nonsense approach to investing for us ordinary folks.
Basically the Financial Industry is geared to locking you into investments that don’t make you a return. Maybe you or others you know have spent decades investing in mutual funds, paying management fees and ridiculous commissions only to find out you have been losing money every year. Only a few people were unscathed from the 2008 Crash, but did you ever make you’re money back ? Probably not… But your financial advisors and mutual fund managers sure did. They made money whether you lost or gained, and they even charged you a management fee, commissions, admin fees, and trailer fees each year for the privilege. I’ve learned the financial industry is geared to making money for itself. Once you step off this treadmill, you are on you’re way to financial freedom. If you really want to know more read Derek Foster, he covers all of this far more in depth. The Books are well priced, easy to understand, and packed with tons of useful insights and information.
I learned that Financial Advisors are in business to make commissions and trailer fees. I learned that Mutual Fund Companies are in business to make money for themselves through management fees and trailer commissions. No wonder I didn’t make any money ! Now instead of mutual funds that don’t make any money, I own part of a mutual fund company – and they pay me a 7% dividend per year for the privilege. As Derek Foster says, don’t buy the bank’s products buy the banks. If you want to be rich you have to do it for yourself, but don’t worry there is a lot of help and resources out there for you, and its not the banks or mutual fund dealers. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and when it comes to money I sure have made some there… My Investment philosophy is based on Dividend Investing with a sprinkle of Value Investing. But I like to take some risk too, so next year I’ll take a percentage for that. But that’s another post 🙂
Welcome and I hope you enjoy my blog.
Thanks for the mention! :0)
Interesting blog. Will keep reading!