So, how does one stop being a "wage slave"?

[Anonymous]

I heard the term mentioned on another thread. We are at a fairly high income (maybe not in comparison to some people here, but at 260k, we're comfortable). We max out 401k, save for college, and have a good emergency fund. How do we start investing in a way that will give us some passive income? We have young children and don't want to invest in real estate until we have a little more time on our hands.

Another question - how do we find a good fee for service (that's the best kind, right?) financial planner? We are in Fairfax, if that makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

You could invent an app.

[Anonymous]

It depends on whether or not you actually want to be investor or if you only want to participate in the market. It seems that many and perhaps most people are uninterested or perhaps afraid to invest in individual stocks. If you fit into that category you should buy shares in the Vanguard 500 Fund, reinvest your dividends and check back in when you're 65. You will certainly be pleased with the return on your investment. However, if you want to learn about the market, grow your wealth and be ready when investment opportunities arise to double or triple your money you will own shares of stock in individual companies.

If you are observant related to the world around us, if you naturally without any great effort follow the news and other economic trends it's not very difficult at all to pick winniners and losers in the market. To be successful you much be able to pick both the winners and the losers.

Get started by buying a basket of dividend paying stocks. Google Dividend Champions and Dividend Achievers. There you'll find lists of companies which have consistently paid dividends for years without any decreases in yield payments. Buy shares in about thirty different companies so you'll be diversified. If one fails you'll still be supported by the other 29. Set up your brokerage account to automatically reinvest your dividends to purchase more shares in thos companies. The ice thing about that method is that there is not brokerage firm cost for reinvesting dividends into shares of the same companies. Over time this method has a compounding effect.

In time because you have money in the game you'll begin to track market slightly more closely. You'll be able to spot trends and opportunities to buy or reasons to sell.

It's really not rocket science. It's just a matter of watching the world around you and acting accordingly. I know you can do this and do this successfully and become very wealthy over a period of decades. However, if you don't have a real interest in this kind of finance or if you doubt your abilities to maintain a broad outlook related to your investments then you should simply buy shares in the Vanguard 500 Fund.

NEVER, pay anyone to manage your money. The 1-2% you will pay them annually will consume most of the compounding accumulation of wealth you would have otherwise gained over decades of investing.

[Anonymous]

Short of owning a business that's successful enough you can hire someone else to run, or real estate rental baron, it's all about assets. Amass wealth as fast as possible. At the $1M mark you've got a nice $50k annuity stream. At 2M, $100k.

[Anonymous]

the above investment advice (which is continually posted here by someone who seems a bit nuts) is bad and should not be followed by most everyone. you have maybe a 10% chance of actually outperforming the stock market by picking your own stocks. the vast majority of people should just buy a low-cost index fund that tracks the market generally.

this statement -- "it's not very difficult at all to pick winniners and losers in the market" -- is laughably wrong. it is very hard to pick "winners" and beat the market over a long period of time. the numbers don't lie. there are stats to back this up.

the only bit of good advice in there is to avoid paying people high fees (eg 1-2%) to manage your money/pick your investments. that is a waste for all of the reasons i stated above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the above investment advice (which is continually posted here by someone who seems a bit nuts) is bad and should not be followed by most everyone. you have maybe a 10% chance of actually outperforming the stock market by picking your own stocks. the vast majority of people should just buy a low-cost index fund that tracks the market generally.

this statement -- "it's not very difficult at all to pick winniners and losers in the market" -- is laughably wrong. it is very hard to pick "winners" and beat the market over a long period of time. the numbers don't lie. there are stats to back this up.

the only bit of good advice in there is to avoid paying people high fees (eg 1-2%) to manage your money/pick your investments. that is a waste for all of the reasons i stated above.

I'm friends with the monster under my bed, I get along withthe voices in my head, and I'm beating the index funds. If you're interested in this type of investing, it's not rocket science. It's not that difficult to spot trends. Today, mom and pop investors receive real time investing news just as fast as stock brokers. There was a time when brokers received information in real time and other investors had to wait until the newspapers were printed the following day. Today Bloomberg, CNBC, and FOX report breaking news as it happens. But, for the most part that is all moot anyway because unless you are very smart, have nerves of steel, and very deep pockets you want to avoid day trading anyway.

Besides investing in Vanguard 500 which has the lowest management fees another passive way to invest is to buy shares in Bershire Hathaway. You'll be buying what is essentially a mutual fund that has no managements fees run by the greatest investor of our time.

[Anonymous]

another passive way to invest is to buy shares in Bershire Hathaway. You'll be buying what is essentially a mutual fund that has no managements fees run by the greatest investor of our time.

- and doesn't pay a dividend. OP is looking for income, which is very hard to find these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the above investment advice (which is continually posted here by someone who seems a bit nuts) is bad and should not be followed by most everyone. you have maybe a 10% chance of actually outperforming the stock market by picking your own stocks. the vast majority of people should just buy a low-cost index fund that tracks the market generally.

this statement -- "it's not very difficult at all to pick winniners and losers in the market" -- is laughably wrong. it is very hard to pick "winners" and beat the market over a long period of time. the numbers don't lie. there are stats to back this up.

the only bit of good advice in there is to avoid paying people high fees (eg 1-2%) to manage your money/pick your investments. that is a waste for all of the reasons i stated above.

I'm friends with the monster under my bed, I get along withthe voices in my head, and I'm beating the index funds. If you're interested in this type of investing, it's not rocket science. It's not that difficult to spot trends. Today, mom and pop investors receive real time investing news just as fast as stock brokers. There was a time when brokers received information in real time and other investors had to wait until the newspapers were printed the following day. Today Bloomberg, CNBC, and FOX report breaking news as it happens. But, for the most part that is all moot anyway because unless you are very smart, have nerves of steel, and very deep pockets you want to avoid day trading anyway.

Besides investing in Vanguard 500 which has the lowest management fees another passive way to invest is to buy shares in Bershire Hathaway. You'll be buying what is essentially a mutual fund that has no managements fees run by the greatest investor of our time.

i just hope most people aren't foolish enough to follow your advice. if you have a 10-20 year track record where, overall, you have beat the market then good for you. just know that you are in the 10% or so of people who can do that. most people should not pick stocks, period.

[Anonymous]

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

[Anonymous]

There is nothing foolish about buying a basket of 30 different dividend yielding stocks reinvesting the dividends and benefiting from compounding over a period of years. People can and do become wealthy via the stock market. However there are a great many variables involved. Far too many to learn by reading a book or taking a weekend seminar.

You start slowly buying shares in well established companies which pay you a dividend to own them. Gradually as time passes your interest and knowledge will expand. As these things occur you'll be able to spot opportunities to increase your wealth by multiples greater than that of index funds.

Index funds themselves are just baskets of stocks. However, by owning stocks yourself you are educating yourself the same way Warren Buffett educated himself about the market and today he is worth more than $40 billion. Buffett started out at Wilson High School delivering newspapers along Wisconsin Avenue and today he is worth $40 billion.

Sure Buffett is smart, but he's not a walking talking algorithm. Over a period of time using his natural instincts and curiosties with trial and error he became a multi-billionaire.

Will you or I be as successful as Buffett - probably not. However, if we invest in a index fund we will never generate the kind of generational wealth where neither we or our descendants will ever have to worry about money ever again.

[Anonymous]

no matter how many times it's pointed out to you, you continue to maintain that any schmoe off the street can buy a "basket of dividend paying stocks" and beat the market.

you are wrong, period. demonstrably wrong. nearly 100% of the time that someone takes your advice, they will wind up with less money in 30 years than they would have had if they simply invested in an s&p index fund (the stocks in which, by the way, do pay dividends to the owner of said index fund shares).

[Anonymous]

and LOL at you or i "probably" not being as successful as warren buffett at picking stocks. this is how delusional you are. yes, you most likely won't be more successful than one of the greatest investors in history. good call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no matter how many times it's pointed out to you, you continue to maintain that any schmoe off the street can buy a "basket of dividend paying stocks" and beat the market.

you are wrong, period. demonstrably wrong. nearly 100% of the time that someone takes your advice, they will wind up with less money in 30 years than they would have had if they simply invested in an s&p index fund (the stocks in which, by the way, do pay dividends to the owner of said index fund shares).

Why?

Why can't "... any schmoe off the street" in the short term replicate the strategies of index funds while gradually developing the sophistication one needs to amplify their profits when opportunities may arise?

Please stop under estimating the abilities of typical Americans to manage their own finances over the long term. I agree you individually may lack to interest or the intellect to grow generational wealth in the stock market, but your lack of interest or abilities does not apply to others.

Successful investing over a period of several decades is not rocket science.

[Anonymous]

not sure why i'm bothering, but....

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/almost-no-one-can-beat-the-market-2013-10-25

in that news item, there is a link to a study concluding that 75% of actively managed funds failed to beat the market, and that far fewer can do so consistently, over a period of years. these are people who do this for a living.

that is why i laugh when you say that anyone who just fell off the turnip truck can magically pick a basket of 30 stocks and beat the market.

when i was in college, i got really "into" investing. you sound like me back then. naive. the tech bubble in 2000 happened to me and i lost most of what i had (which fortunately wasn't much). assuming you are a newbie investor, you have been riding a really nice upward wave. just wait until we have another 2008-2009.

[Anonymous]

Everyone has made mistakes and that includes Templeton, Graham, and Buffett. I'm sorry you lost money in the tech bubble; so did I. It was supposed to be a whole new paradigm

Thankfully, I had a diversified portfolio. The 5% that was highly speculative was lost completely. Another 10% that were inflated to high risk levels like Microsoft and Cisco were crushed and have never returned to their peak bubble levels. Nevertheless, my remaining 80% which suffered did not collapse and eventually recovered doubling and tripling their peak bubble levels. Actually, my portfolio value increased as a result of the past two bubbles because while share prices decreased my dividends remained constant or increased allowing me to purchase even more shares of stock.

Stop telling people what they can't do and start telling people what they can do.

It's not rocket science!!!