Classics (6/1/25-12/1/25)

Imagine a swimming pool has 1,000 gallons in it. Each year you take out 40 gallons of water and use for various fun things around the house. (filling water balloons, squirt guns etc.) Normal rainfall replaces the 40 gallons and sometimes exceeds what you took out of it; hence you never run out of water.

The 4% Rule is a guideline for retirees that states withdrawing 4% from your retirement accounts annually will allow your account balance to maintain or possibly grow based on the 7.1% stock market return average since inception.

Examples:

Sam has $450,000 in his retirement account invested into a Vanguard S&P 500 index fund. Sam turns 60 and wants to start withdrawing 4% a year for travel and hunting adventures. $18,000 is withdrawn from Sams account. 7.1% was the return average that year totaling $31,950. Sams account grows by $13,950. ($31,950 return minus $18,000 withdrawn) Sam…

At some point, the grind of swapping hours for dollars wears thin. The real question then becomes: how do you start making your money work for you? The majority of people spend their career working for an hourly wage, they trade time for dollars. You give your company 1 hour of your time and they pay you $50 for your work. 99% of people work their entire adult life this way.

Somewhere along the way, they start realizing that trading time for dollars can be problematic. Examples such as, getting sick, you get fired, you want to retire, you get injured, you need time off to help a family member, you want to travel for a month, or you are simply burnt out and need a break to reassess your life.

When the work stops, so does the dollar earning. When the dollar earning stops, the ability to pay your…

Investing $1 per day from age 18-65 with a compounding interest of 10% gives you more wealth than 70% of Americans. You accumulate approximately $388,000 dollars by age 65 using this simple formula. The crazy thing is only $17,155 was YOUR MONEY, the rest is free money called interest. Most likely you will acquire other wealth along the way, such property equity, additional stocks/bonds, cryptocurrency, business equity etc. Meaning your net worth will be even higher than $388,000, especially if you are part of the Betternance community.

Look into opening an account like Vanguard or similar and get into the habit of investing weekly. (daily if you are hardcore).