I'm 45 and my almost 20-year marriage is ending. I'm devastated, honestly. I'm trying to make good decisions anyway, because what I do in the next year or so is going to follow me for the rest of my life.

I sold my business in 2020 so we could make some lifestyle changes and pay off all our debt. I wasn't expecting to be starting over on my own when we were doing better than ever (literally accomplishing every dream we had). I haven't had any employment or business income since then (I spent 5 years restoring the home that's now for sale), and there's no spousal support in the settlement. I do get temporary property settlement payments of $5k a month from my spouse, but those end in January 2028. I also get great health insurance for five years as part of the settlement, and it works worldwide. There are no children.

This group seems a lot friendlier than some of the others I've asked, so I'm hoping for some honest input and ideas about how to invest what I have coming.

What I have now (rounded):

- Taxable brokerage: $296k, all in SGOV

- Roth IRA: $72k. About $24k is in QQQM as of last week

- Cash: about $90k

- Checking - $37k

What's coming:

- About $44k in a brokerage account transferring to me next week

- About $808k net from the house sale, closing in a few weeks

- Another $74k Roth shortly after the decree, probably late December

- About $310k from a 401(k) through a QDRO sometime in 2027, going straight into a traditional IRA

So the brokerage, the transfer and the house money come to about $1.15M, not counting the cash or the retirement accounts. My total wealth, including two vehicles, will be around $1.9M to $2M.

I'm making Florida my legal residence in mid-November and staying with a friend while I set that up. Then I'm going to Thailand while I look for a house in Florida. I'm not going to buy something just to have a house. If the right one comes up in a few months, great. If it takes a year or more, I'll keep traveling cheaply.

My plan right now is to pay cash for the house, somewhere between $500k and $700k. That would leave roughly $450k to $650k invested, plus the cash and the monthly property settlement payments, to live on and grow. A few people have told me cash is the smartest move, but I'm not sure. Would it make more sense to keep more of it invested and take a mortgage? With no paycheck it would have to be an asset-based loan, and I'm fine with that.

I want a place I can live in, run my business from and renovate myself. I've always done this. I buy something that needs work, fix it up, sell in a few years using the $250k exclusion, and move up. If the numbers don't work out that way, I'll stay and use it to produce income.

Once I'm settled I'm launching a product I've been developing for six years, sold through Amazon fulfillment, which is what I've done for decades prior to selling my business. I'll also do side jobs for homeowners because I actually like it. I love fixing things and solving problems, and I'm good at it. I'm not trying to never work again. I'm not satisfied unless I'm working and building something. I just need the money to carry me until that's paying. I don't know what my monthly costs to live will be yet, because I don't know what tomorrow will bring right now.

For retirement, the 401(k) goes into a traditional IRA once it's transferred to me through the QDRO. Then I want to convert it to Roth a piece at a time over several years and keep each year's income in the lower brackets. Once the business is profitable I want to open a solo 401(k). I also just opened my first HSA and will fund it soon. I'm fine being aggressive in the Roth. That's long-term money.

The brokerage is different. It has to pay me now. I want the most income I can get out of it, but nothing so risky that I'd be stuck holding it for a long time, because part of it may have to buy a house in cash and the rest has to support me after. When I compare funds I look at total return (dividends plus price change), because some of the high-yield funds I've looked at paid out a lot while the price kept sliding.

The market seems all over the place right now, which is why so much is sitting in SGOV. But the dips could also be a chance to get in if I spread things out right. There are a lot of paths, and I want to research and learn enough to make an informed decision before I pick one.

My questions:

1. How would you keep the house money separate from the income money (if at all) when I don't know if the house is 3 months away or 12?

2. Cash or mortgage on the house? With no paycheck and this much invested, which would you do and why?

3. For what's left after the house (if I buy with cash), what would you hold that pays income now and still has a chance to grow? What monthly income is realistic, not best case?

4. What goes in taxable vs. the Roth so I keep more of that income after taxes, especially with Roth conversions happening at the same time?

5. If you were in my exact spot with these numbers, what would you actually do?

I know how this reads from the outside, and I know I'm lucky to have options. I'm not trying to get my old life back. I just don't want to go backwards, and I don't want to look back in ten years and wish I'd done this differently. I had no idea this was going to happen to me, but I am dedicated to finding a way to move on and be happy, and failure going forward is not an option.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time.

It gets better and better. Now, they’ve invented a new strategy where you have more cash/bonds than stocks;
30% Cash
30% Stocks
40% Bonds

You do not want dividends because of taxes on ordinary dividends. What you want is 70% exposed to interest/ordinary income.

“It’s very defensive” 😂 . You don’t say! 70% is cash and bonds 🤦‍♂️

I apologize in advance if I word this poorly. What are the potential downsides/advantages of investing in funds that are primarily dividend income funds with DRIP on 15-20 years ahead of retirement and buying that at today’s price versus investing in dividend growth funds and transitioning to dividend income funds either by selling or reinvesting the cash from them when at the actual time of retirement

I think a point of inquiry is what if somewhere in the middle let’s say 50-55 you want to use some invested income for bills etc wouldn’t it have been better to have bought/built out more of a dividend focused portfolio along the way?

Just to give a broad example let’s say you mimic’d something like Armchair Incomes profile long before retirement what may be the results?

My own personal profile is SCHD DGRO DIVO IDVO QDVO SPMO but I’m sort of paralyzed about what to do I feel like I’m at some sort of transition point and don’t know which way to focus things. Certainly if I didn’t have to work as much due to having more supplemental income in 10 years that would be great

When transitioning to a pure cash-flow strategy, having strict selection criteria prevents emotion and yield-chasing from ruining your portfolio. Over the years, I've stuck to a simple 5-rule filter before adding any position to my direct equity basket:

​Proven Track Record: Minimum 10 consecutive years of dividend growth. (Filters out short-term payout spikes and temporary yield traps).

​Payout Reliability: Strong free cash flow coverage to ensure the dividend is safe through market downturns.

​Liquidity Floor: Minimum $2B market capitalization to ensure adequate institutional liquidity and stability.

​Valuation Discipline: Only buying when historical metrics suggest the stock is fairly priced or undervalued.

​Fixed Tranche Execution: Adding in disciplined $1,000 tranches to keep allocations equal-weighted across the basket, minimizing transaction friction.

​Running screeners against this framework removes 95% of the noise and leaves only high-quality compounders.

​For those who build direct-stock income baskets: what is the one non-negotiable rule or filter you never compromise on?

I thought the "math" checked out 🤡🤡 ???

Stonks stop going up and comedy started

🤡🤡

The one thing we hear from the cult of growth is “dividends reduce stock value when they are paid out”.

Yes, a dividend reduces cash and retained equity.

But stock value has very little to do with that.

My example today: RGLD paid a 48 cent per share dividend today. At the moment as I type this it’s up by over $6/share today.

Anyone else feel like this?

Work is stressful? Not forever, baby. Once dividends cover my living expenses and allow me to unplug, I'll stop giving a f* about work and just do it for the fun.

Used to be worried abt inflation. Every month you go w/o pay raise, you effectively lose money. And so you have constantly be thinking abt getting a new raise or changing jobs. And when you do get a pay bump, it's all downhill from there as inflation eats your earnings MoM.

Now - not worried so much. Bit by bit, div-investing allows you to outpace inflation.

Instead of effectively earning LESS every month, you earn MORE as the dividend checks keep increasing.

Instead of wasting my money on [insert unnecessary item category here], I save up, knowing that every additional buck I save brings me one step closer to financial independence. All spending is intentional and meaningful now. I don't have to spiral into hopelessness and doomspend.

Dividend income is one thing I can track that gets better each month. I'm progressing towards smth, OBJECTIVELY. And no one can take that away from me. They can fire me, lock me up, or cut my freaking legs off, but that dividend check? IT'S GONNA KEEP COMING, BABY.

How is y'all's mental health and outlook on life influenced by div-investing? Is this a common theme, or am I just talking out of my silly behind?

There is a fundamental psychological and operational flaw in modern mainstream retirement planning (the traditional "4% rule"): it forces investors to turn into continuous capital sellers, consuming their underlying machine to fund basic living expenses.

​When you rely on liquidating 3% to 4% of a market-cap weighted portfolio every year, you become entirely dependent on market sentiment and valuation multiples remaining high at the exact moment you need liquidity. Selling shares during down years permanently destroys your future compounding power.

​By contrast, a Fortress Architecture focuses purely on generating raw organic cash flow from direct equity ownership. When your dividend yield covers your expenses with a margin of safety, portfolio volatility becomes background noise. You never have to surrender a single share back to the market.

​For those here who have fully transitioned to a pure cash-flow strategy: did you start out with the traditional lump-sum / capital consumption mindset before realizing its flaws, or did you target dividend income from day one?

This is the kind of loser so emotionally invested in how you are investing your money on mainstream investing subs, they have no skin in the game but they will tell you to invest in garbage.

🤡

Just wondering. I own 581 shares of SCHD. I’m 39.

Diversification my ass 🤡

I found this one particularly amusing.
Someone asked which bonds or bond funds to buy.
The response:

Look at total returns..pick the one where the majority is coming from dividends/interest

🤣

Look for “dividends” and chase returns, interesting

🤡🤡

Too much comedy guys, make sure you screenshot everything !

🤡🤡🤡

Go growth, ouch !!! 4% retards now go into timing-the-market mode.

🤡🤡

🤡, gonna be more pain to come.

We dividend investors grab popcorn and still get paid while others too busy deleting accounts and apply jobs at McDonald's.

Last correction, around 40% of the Boogertards brigading this sub deleted their accounts, rest hid all the comments and posts and set to privacy mode. Let's see your prediction how many will be this time.

Literally every other subreddit that is about stocks or investing or trading on this website is completely intolerable and unfriendly and gives bad advice. This is the only investing related section that I even still enjoy going on on Reddit that is friendly and welcoming and has good information. Just wanted to say thanks for that, thanks for keeping this community good!

🤡🤡