My early retirement dream is now realty. Take the tips given here and see if you can apply them to your life for stepping out of the workplace early. Look at what life has taught you. Exercise your brain by doing research and taking advantage of free learning opportunities. I trust my investment advisor because that is me. Create a great advisor within yourself.
Pay Attention in Life
Those who pay attention in life can learn from real life experiences. Over the years I invested in real estate and listened to multi-level marketing presentations. I discovered that tenants do not always pay the rent. The get rich quick schemes fizzle out quickly. Mutual funds can do well but do not give you control as well as individual stocks.
My financial planner launched me on to an investment plan that works. Buy dividend paying stocks and mix this with quality mutual funds. Watch your investments then learn how to handle the stocks yourself. I was scared to death the day I called my advisor and had everything transferred to a self-directed account where I would make all decisions.
Give Yourself an Investment Education
I discovered that my fear of investing turned into a passion I love. There are several choices of companies that allow you to trade stocks. The one I chose gives seminars, webinars, and online reading to help you learn about stock investing. The process of buying and selling stocks online was frightening at first but is easy to do.
So many trading tools are available to help make investment decisions. Since dividend stocks are my choice I can tell what percent is paid on any stock. A report of which stocks the experts recommend can be printed. What sectors are doing well can be obtained. The free research can take up your whole day, and I spent many long hours on this.
Relax and Enjoy
Success comes from doing what you like, so do not try this at home if financial stuff does not interest you. At first doing a self directed account is very time consuming with all the research and balancing out the portfolio. I created a mix of five different investment types. One section consists of safer investments like bond mutual funds and the others are stocks going up in risk, but all pay dividends.
Each morning I spend a little time reviewing the market and trends and may fine tune my portfolio buying or selling a stock or two. I have a stop loss on stocks that I consider more risky so they will automatically be sold at 20% below what I paid. I live off the dividends and invested in quality companies. I am enjoying the up and down ride and do not worry about the account value too much. My mouse can also click quickly in a panic.
