About Me

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

I am a husband and currently the father of one two children, and here's my story:

As far back as I can remember, my mother always told me from when I was young to buy my own place, and never rent because it's "throwing your money away."  She also told me that investing in real estate is the way to go - to buy rental properties and rent them out to tenants to subsidize your mortgage payments.  And eventually, when those mortgages are paid off, I would have rental income coming in every month (assuming they are not bad tenants).  These two lessons I never forgot.

So after college, I began working and trying to save my money aggressively with the hopes of being able to retire early by living off rental income.  I contributed to my employer's 401(k) plan to get the company match and also contributed to a Roth IRA account.  Eventually I bought my first rental property a few years later.

While renting out my property, I continued to live at home with my parents to save more money.  I proposed to my girlfriend (now my wife) a few years later and bought my second property, the place we live in now.

I was always skeptical about buying individual stocks in the stock market because my parents had lost a decent amount of money to it.  However, the curiosity and interest in investing in stocks never went away.  I eventually came across finance articles and blogs that spoke about dividend growth investing, which simply put, is investing in companies that increase their dividends year after year.  This investment strategy greatly fascinated me since it went hand in hand with my dream of retiring early through receiving passive income.  Now, I could diversify my passive income from 3 sources: interest income, rental income, and now dividend income.  And so I started investing in dividend growth stocks.

You may ask, "Why retire at the age of 56 and not earlier?"  Simple - children.  I love kids and Lord willing, I would like to have more than one child.  Ideally, I would like to pay for my children's undergraduate education or at least help out in whatever way that I can.  For this reason, it's more realistic to aim to retire at the age of 56.  I'm sure if I didn't have or want children, I could retire much earlier than that.  But alas, I love children and being a father thus far has been very rewarding for me.

There are 3 things that I'm very passionate about: God, my family, and investing.  My goal is to be able to retire in 2041 when I turn 56 years old and spend my retirement years in full-time ministry, with my family, and traveling.  To reach early retirement, my ultimate strategy is to have multiple streams of income from interest, dividends, and rental income.

12 comments:

  1. Looks you've gotten a great start with your investments, so I'd imagine that you'd have no problem meeting your goals by 56. The more pillars in your life, either financial or otherwise, the stronger the foundation for you and your family's future.

    Best of luck on this journey!

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    1. Thanks writing2reality! I feel pretty confident if I stick to this plan I should be able to retire by 56.

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  2. That's a great story about living at home and saving while you owned an income property. Time just seems to roll by and one day you'll wake up ten, twenty and thirty years later and be happy with your past self for making your present self that much stronger financially. Welcome to the stock market world and dividend growth family.

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    1. Thanks DivHut! Time definitely flies by, and I love what you said, "Time just seems to roll by and one day you'll wake up ten, twenty and thirty years later and be happy with your past self for making your present self that much stronger financially." I'm hoping I can make the right choices each day.

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  3. Looking at your portfolio and considering that you are are not planning to retire for another 26 years, I have no doubt you are well on your way to your ultimate goal of retirement at 56. I know life has its twist and turns but if you stay diligent in our investing, you should easily succeed!

    Best wishes and continued success on your personal journey! AFFJ

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    1. Hi AFFJ,

      Thanks for the well wishes. I'm hoping that I will be able to retire at the age of 56. The only obstacles I foresee are the costs of college tuition and other expenses to raise children. If I was single or married with no children, I think I could probably aim to retire even earlier, but I love kids so the earliest age I can realistically see myself retiring is at 56. I know you also have a family so I'm sure you can relate.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  4. Love your website name. I too am passionate about your exact three things (in that order as well!) Very cool to see someone with a similar mindset and focus. Glad I found your site and will be following your journey!

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    1. Hi Passive Income Dude,

      Thanks for the compliment. I'm also glad to know another person who also shares the same passion as I do! Great to know another fellow believer who also values family and investing.

      God bless, and thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  5. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to reach your goal soon. Rental properties are definitely a good way to generate passive income. I'm getting started with rental properties too: livingafreelifetoday.com

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    1. Hi Living Free,

      I believe any income producing asset is a great way to reach financial independence. For me, I'm looking to create passive income primarily through rental income and dividend income.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  6. I started a Blog at

    https://othalafehu.wordpress.com/


    check out my portfolio. Any feedback is appreciated

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    1. Hi Anonymous,

      I checked out your portfolio and it looks good. You seem pretty well diversified.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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