Hi there!

You ask — who am I, what do I want to do, and why am I doing it?

I’m an ordinary guy on a mission to retire within 10 years, by the time I’m 33. Our time on this beautiful planet is so limited and there’s so much to do; I can’t afford to spend the majority of it toiling away for someone else’s dream. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. I work as a business intelligence engineer and it’s been a very challenging and rewarding experience so far. Each day I’m developing creative data solutions for fantastic companies. Ultimately, though, I’d rather spend my prime years seeing the world, running my own nonprofit, cherishing time with my loved ones, reading, writing, and trying new things like scuba diving and riding in a hot air balloon. You know, the stuff that you fondly remember when you’re a ripe old grandparent looking back on a life well lived.

I want to secure a renewable nest egg for not only my own family, but for any strangers who need help but cannot help themselves. Sure, it’s important not to get too focused on money. At the same time, it’s through money that we feed the poor, build schools and hospitals, encourage selfish people to improve the living standards of their neighbors, and store wealth in order transfer a brighter future to our children.

How am I going to retire by age 33, you ask?

It’s actually very simple. There’s nothing new or innovative about what I’m doing.

First, let’s talk about how most people think the stock market works. Popular culture would have you believe that investing in the stock market is akin to gambling, a place where you try to grab these abstract shares of companies at a low price so that you can later resell them at a high price. If you’ve ever fallen for this mindset, then you’ve probably wasted hours and hours looking for trends in stocks with the hope of timing a lucky purchase. If you ride the wave up for a few hours, days, weeks, or months and get out before the stock crashes or corrects, you can get away with a nice killing – so you think. Do some research and you’ll find that even the most seasoned mutual fund managers fail to do this consistently. This way of thinking is risky, irresponsible, and narrowly focused on the short term. People who do this – daytraders, swingtraders, and other such speculators, are practicing nothing more than a sophisticated form of gambling.

Don’t be a trader. Be a real investor (like me!). When I buy a share of a company, I’m doing so because I believe in its long-term vision and prospects. Only in rare cases will I ever sell my stocks; I plan to hold them forever. By building a robust portfolio of quality companies who persistently raise their dividends, I’m effectively creating an almost-guaranteed income stream that is unaffected by short-term market corrections and even longer-lasting market crashes. I say “almost” because anywhere from 3-5% of persistent dividend raisers will cut their dividends in a given year on average, but that’s hardly a significant concern.

Remember the dot-com bubble? The Great Recession? Black Monday? The resignation of a U.S. president? The assassination of a U.S. president? The Vietnam War? The Cold War? The Afghanistan War? The Iraq War? Dozens of financial crises? Inflation? Deflation? Hyperinflation?

Most of the companies I invest in not only thrived despite these “apocalyptic” events; they consistently RAISED their dividends before, during, and after them. They’ve continued to pay higher and higher dividends since the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and onward.

Buy-and-hold is a beautiful thing. It rewards people who are patient and disciplined. It rewards people who search for value and quality rather than the trendy, “hot stocks” of the day. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s about getting rich slowly with certainty so that you can live a financially free life. Once you’re free, you can make your mark on the world without worrying about bosses, meetings, deadlines, and artificial obligations.

That’s enough for now. I may update this section more in the future, but until then, check out some of my blog posts. I hope I can inspire you to take control of your life and retire while you’re still young!