Retirement Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More

August 19, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 17 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you looking for passive income ideas so that you can start making more money? Learning how to make passive income streams can significantly change your life by helping you earn more money and diversifying your income.

Looking for passive income ideas so that you can start making more money? Learning how to make passive income streams can significantly change your life. #passiveincomeideas #makeextramoney #passiveincomestreams

Building passive income is something that I’ve been working on for the past several years. See, I want to continue to bring in an income while being able to focus on other goals of mine, like doing more hiking or biking (which will most likely never generate income). I also want to diversify my income so that I’m not too reliant on one source.

For me, finding passive income ideas is great because I can focus more on life instead of business, and I can do it while continuing to earn a great income.

Unfortunately, many people think that passive income simply isn’t real, that it must be luck and not work, that you’re a trust fund kid, or something else.

But, that’s not true at all! All of the passive income ideas in this article are real ways to make money.

Now, that doesn't mean that earning passive income takes literally no effort (it's not a get rich quick scheme) – there's probably going to be some effort to get the passive income stream started, and perhaps some effort to maintain it for years to come. [Read more…]

Five Things I Never Want To Run Out Of

July 24, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The following post is sponsored by TIAA. All opinions are my own.

There are five things that I never want to run out of. These include:

Travel and adventure – I always want to be able to RV, sail, hike, and ride bikes. I love being able to explore, do new things, and see what this amazing planet has.
Delicious food – Who doesn't love food?
Dogs to pet – This one is another no-brainer.
Time with family and friends – This sparks joy, of course!
Retirement income

And, today, I want to talk more about retirement. This is a personal finance blog after all!

Retirement is so important. [Read more…]

How To Become Rich – It’s More Than Millions In The Bank

July 8, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 17 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you want to learn how to become rich? Now, this post isn’t about having millions and millions of dollars. When I say “rich” I mean having some kind of financial freedom or success.

So, learning how to become rich could mean being debt free, retiring early, paying off your house, not living paycheck to paycheck, or just having a positive net worth. What you want might be completely different than what someone else wants, and that’s okay.

When I was younger I thought that I wanted a huge house, a really fancy car, and to be able to buy whatever trendy clothes I wanted.

To me, that was being rich.

Now, I realize that, to me, being wealthy means being comfortable – no debt, money in the bank, having a wonderful family, and spending time doing what I love. [Read more…]

How My 401k Loan Cost Me $1 Million Dollars

December 21, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 29 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How My 401k Loan Cost Me $1 Million Dollars #401kloan #retirement

Today, I have a great guest post from a reader, Ashley Patrick. She asked if she could share her story with my audience, and I, of course, had to say yes! This is her personal story about how her 401k loan cost her a ton of money and why you shouldn't take be borrowing from your 401k.

You've been thinking about getting a 401k loan.

Everyone says it's a great loan because you are paying yourself back!

It sounds like a great low risk loan at a great interest rate for an unsecured loan.

But you know the saying “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

So you're thinking, what's the catch?

I take out a loan without having to do a withdrawal and I pay myself back. I'm paying myself back at a low interest rate right, so what's wrong with that?

Well, I'm about to tell you how our 401k loan cost us $1,000,000 dollars.

You see, there are a lot of reasons to not take out a 401k loan and they all happened to ME! [Read more…]

Wondering Why You Need Life Insurance? Here Are 4 Reasons Why

December 17, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Time and time again, I'll come across an unfortunate story and/or a GoFundMe for a person who didn’t have life insurance and has left their family with debt, no savings, and very little to continue to live off of.

Note: Before you exit out of this page because you think it's not worth it, many people can easily find life insurance plans for around $25 a month– so there are extremely affordable plans that exist.

Every time I see one of these stories, I think about how much I wish these families knew about life insurance, from how affordable it could be to much they need it.

Before I go on, I realize that this can be a hard subject to talk about as it’s talking about what happens when you or a loved one dies. But, learning why you need life insurance is a very important thing, and it can help your family out when they need it the most.

According to Life Insurance Awareness Month (from September 2017), around half of the people in the U.S. do not have life insurance. And, those who do have life insurance typically have much less coverage than they need, at an average of just $168,000. [Read more…]

How Is Early Retirement Even Possible?

December 5, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 21 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How Is Early Retirement Even Possible? #earlyretirement #retirement Early retirement has been extremely popular lately, and I'm sure you've been hearing about it a ton.

Between “Why I Hate the FIRE Movement,” says Suze Orman (from Afford Anything), Mr. Money Mustache, and any of the other amazing FIRE blogs, early retirement has been in the news a lot lately.

And, I love it!

But, I know there are a lot of people who are confused or even skeptical of what early retirement is and whether or not it is a real thing.

First, if this is the first time you have heard of FIRE, it stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early, and it can mean a lot of things to different people. But, the basic idea is that you work towards financial independence– either having enough saved and/or enough passive income to cover your expenses. You can then choose whether or not you want to work. [Read more…]

How I Repaid $65,000 In Student Loans and Invested at the Same Time

November 30, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have a great guest post to share. Here is how this person paid off $65,000 in student loans all while investing at the same time.

Student loans… everyone’s got ‘em everyone wants to get rid of them. This is a story of my battle with student loans and how I found success in the middle of a vicious cycle of urgency to invest, save for a house and pay off debt.

My background on student loans

I went to a fairly large out of state school, which resulted in a huuuuge annual tuition payment along with room and board, food, annual travel expenses, etc. I had to pay for it somehow. Just like everyone else I had to revert to student loans… For all four years. Yikes.

But, that wasn’t all of it. Student loans only covered tuition expenses. I had to work part-time while going through college because I had to pay for food, rent, living expenses and more. Solely on my own. This ended up being a blessing in disguise as I graduated without any credit card debt. [Read more…]

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