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This Passive Income Opportunity Saved My Retirement

When the global financial crisis of 2008 hit, I was working on Wall Street. Like millions of other people, my finances took a big hit. I survived it, but my financial security and retirement plans were severely impacted. I was getting older—in my mid-50s at that point—and nearing the end of my banking career, so […]

The 5 Golden Rules for Finding Online Gigs

When I started freelancing about 15 years ago, the farthest thing from my mind was adventure and freedom. I just wanted off the corporate treadmill. When I decided to make the break, I printed up business cards, went to Chamber of Commerce meetings hoping to find clients that would need my services, and started pestering […]

The Truth About Making Money Online From Stock Photography

Online stock agencies seem like the perfect solution for photographers seeking to find buyers for their images. They allow you to get your photos in front of magazine editors, bloggers, and advertisers from across the world…all without having to pay a fee or leave the house. But to be successful (i.e. make real money), you […]

Prepare to Prosper—The Golden Age of Freelancing Has Arrived

I was chatting with a Russian friend online last week about pandemic life in Kazan, Russia. She’s been working from home for more than a month now for a multinational U.S. company, and she told me “the company has saved so much money with us working from home that they’re closing the office and letting […]

How to Reset Your Priorities for the New Normal

Last week, I agreed to write a freelance story about climate change research warning that as sea levels and temperatures rise, migration patterns in the U.S. will change. (Spoiler: Buffalo and Duluth could become “climate refuge cities” over the next few decades.) Now, here at The Savvy Retiree, changing weather and migration patterns aren’t really […]

Earning as an Online Coach From a Beach-Lover’s Paradise

When it comes to battling through tough times, life coach Mike Sassorossi has more experience than most. The former gym owner lost a home and job and endured divorce and cancer. But he’s emerged from those experiences stronger, and today shares the lessons he’s learned with clients, including front-line U.S. healthcare workers, from his home […]

The Best Tropical Destination to Start Your Dream Business

“A lot of people come to Belize for retirement, even if just for the winter, but I’ve been coming here all my life,” says Dan Bingham originally from Ontario, Canada but now a full-time resident of Spanish Lookout in Belize’s Cayo District. Dan is descended from Mennonites on his father’s side, some of whom relocated […]

This Financial Tool Can Help Protect You Against the Coming Crisis

A few years ago when my grandmother died, I had the task of going through her effects and selling off everything in the house. I was struck by a piece of paper. I still remember the day she signed it. It was a carbon copy receipt for a certificate of deposit she and my grandfather […]

7 Simple Hacks to Add Value to Your Home While Sheltering in Place

COVID-19 is going to significantly alter how we live our lives. Some of these changes are relatively obvious and widely reported upon, such as increases in online shopping and working from home. But one change is being less widely discussed: how this situation is reshaping the way in which we perceive and use our living […]

The 6-Step Guide to Building an Online Freelancing Career

Cruise through some of the profiles you find on freelancing websites such as Upwork or Fiverr and you will likely be amazed—maybe even a bit envious—of what you see. Freelancers living all over the world who are earning substantial incomes doing what they love. And by substantial, I mean high five figures and well into […]

A Roadmap for Escaping the 9-to-5 Grind

If I see another email that starts “We’re living in strange times…” I’ll scream. But, really, who would have guessed as we entered a brand-new decade that the good citizens of the world would be in lockdown mode, unable to leave their homes to contain a global pandemic. For those of us nearing retirement age, […]

3 Simple Ways You Can Earn Passive Income From Your Blog

If you’re looking to build a new, at-home income stream during these days of social distancing and sheltering in place, a blog is an exciting, enjoyable, and accessible option. A blog is a great way to connect with people all around the world and share whatever it is you’re most passionate about. And while it […]

Escape the “Groundhog Day” Cycle and Reclaim Control of Your Time

Many years ago, when I was writing the Love & Money column for The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed a longtime friend, Melissa, about paying people to do household chores. She told me she hires people for lawn maintenance or housecleaning because she’d calculated that she earns far more money on an hourly basis than […]

A Stable Retirement Business in a Tropical Paradise

Tim Dwyer was born and raised on a farm just outside the town of Stratford in Ontario, Canada. In some ways, he had a typical agricultural upbringing, learning to milk cows and birth pigs. But he was also shaped by the outsized cultural resources in his local community. Though a small town with a modest […]

The Next “Black Swan” Event…and How to Prepare for It

Talk about bad timing… You and I approach retirement, or are already in retirement, having suffered three major financial crises in the last two decades. Retirement wealth we should have had…poof. Frankly, it’s getting more than a bit annoying. You live your life frugally—or relatively so. You save for tomorrow so that you’re not a […]

The Savvy Strategy for Beating the COVID-19 Market Downturn

Anyone in a highly pressured situation can crack and make bad decisions. In 2008, when the stock market crashed and the S&P 500 dropped some 37%, I had a friend at Morgan Stanley who sold all his stocks after almost all of them had hit new lows. “I’ll never invest in the stock market again,” […]

Use This Time in Quarantine to Make Some Tax Savings

All Americans, including those who live overseas, are required to file U.S. taxes, reporting their worldwide income. This is because U.S. taxes are based on citizenship rather than on residence. Filing U.S. taxes from abroad is more complicated than doing it back home, as it typically involves more forms to file, currencies to convert, and […]

Why You Can Still “Retire” Early…Despite the Current Crisis

Interesting story from my backlog of reading… We all clearly realize at this point that the coronavirus has not been kind to stock markets around the world, the global economy, jobs, various industries…not to mention health. As part of this mayhem, a story on CNBC.com notes that the pandemic “could wipe out what’s become known […]

5 Savvy Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Finances During Lockdown

Time. These days, we all have a lot more of it than we are accustomed to. The issue is how to use it effectively. One excellent way to take advantage of this abundant at-home time is to take a good look over your finances and see how you can improve them. That could mean building […]

Don’t Let This Temporary Crisis Go to Waste

Never let a good crisis go to waste. I’m sure you’ve heard something along those lines at some point. Writers and commentators routinely trot it out in moments such as the one we’re currently living through. Apparently, the original dates to a 1976 headline atop a story in the journal Medical Economics:“Don’t Waste a Crisis—Your Patient’s […]

The Beginner’s Guide to Selling Your Photos Online

How many photos are sitting on your computer right now? Hundreds? Thousands, even? If you’re like most people, you take photos on every vacation…at family events…whenever something beautiful happens…and maybe at every meal. Some of those photos could potentially be making you a nice side-income in online stock agencies. Have you ever heard of iStock? […]

Put Pen to Paper on Your New Side-Hustle Today

“This book has been in the making since the mid-1970s, when I was a 10-year-old traveling through Germany with my mom.” That’s the first sentence of my new e-book I just published this past week on Amazon’s Kindle service. It’s called Replay: Your Second Chance to Invest in the American Dream. I spent a couple of […]

Lockdown or Not…This Passive Income Keeps Rolling In

On a sleepy tropical island paradise in the Andaman Sea of southern Thailand, I’m sitting on the open-sided verandah of my little wooden house. Cool breezes fan the sunny, sultry air as I listen to waves lapping the shore at high tide. I’m lucky to have a passive income that allows me to travel when […]

The Sovereign Pension: The Key to Funding the Modern Retirement

There is a certain sense of sovereignty I’m feeling today. Last week, I was texting with a childhood friend in South Louisiana, where I grew up, and he told me that amid the corona crisis, his 50-year-old sister lost her restaurant job when a ban on gathering in public spaces forced the eatery to shutter. […]