Getting Wealthy By Swimming to Shore.

Yesterday’s post: Defend Your Financial Fortress Against Spending Temptations!, prompted Sandy from First Gen American to ask the following question:  “I’m interested which budget categories you beefed up since your mortgage got paid”?  So in this post, I attempt to explain my position and answer Sandy’s question!

Originally, I wrote: Stop Drowning in Debt, Start Swimming To Shore.  In that post, I compared being deep in debt to being underwater trying to breathe.

When you are underwater, you only focus on one thing, and that is to get our head above water so you can breathe again!  In the financial world, you try to get out of debt so that is your goal and what you primarily focus on!

When you are deep underwater, it’s a battle to get to the surface to breathe air!  When you are in massive debt, your primary goal is to claw yourself back to the financial free air.

I broke the surface of the water, but instead of getting wealthy by swimming to shore, I’ve been treading water, trying to catch my breath, and then determine which direct to swim.

Getting Wealthy

Now that I’ve caught my breath, I’m going to start to swim towards the financially independence island/goal by going after the expenses that are like debt!

So I decided to start swimming by buying stocks with dividends, so someday the dividends could cover my Real Estate taxes and homeowner’s insurance payments.  I think the key is to start swimming and stop just treading water!

I’m going to start to research which stock(s) to purchase, and then in a later post, I’ll identify which one(s) I have chosen.

The Decision

While I haven’t saved a lot of money since paying off my house, I still have a few thousand to play with, and that enough to start to swim towards shore. 

So to answer Sandy’s question above, I’ve been putting the extra money from the payment from my former mortgage into cash, fixing things and a mild lifestyle inflation spending.   I’ll probably purchase the investments partially through a Roth IRA and partially through my regular online brokerage account.

Other than retirement, what ways are you planning on using to getting wealthier?

-MR