Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

How to Double Your Social Security Check

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Financially independent for 3 decades!  

The average monthly 2024 Social Security check is $1,907, which is $63.00 per day, or just about $22,884 per year.

Stories abound about how people are not able to live - or only struggle to get by - on their Social Security income in the United States. Even if they can manage to walk the budget tightrope, it’s not much of a retirement to look forward to and usually it's one that is supplemented with work.

You can do better

Now is the time for you to take control of your finances so that you are financially fit for your retirement.

First you need to learn what your benefit will be upon your retirement age. You can do this by contacting social security.gov, opening an account and seeing your work history and future earnings. This can also be done via phone and snail mail but why? It's much more convenient to do it online. You can also take a look at this social security guide.

Once you know your estimated payout you can get to work doubling it by building a portfolio of dividend paying growth stocks. Or you can use an ETF such as DVY ( iShares Select Dividend ) which yields about 3.38% at its current price or SCHD Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF paying 3.36%. A better than a 3% percent yield with up side potential is an attractive investment in this financial environment. Mix that with VTI ( Vanguard Total Stock Market ) and SPY ( S&P 500 Index ), both paying out about 1.26% and you have a solid dividend growth portfolio. We own all four of these issues and have held them for years greatly contributing to our financial security.

While you wait for your retirement date

You can reinvest the dividends while you are in your accumulation phase thus compounding them for faster results. Over time you will see your quarterly dividend payments grow and grow as well as your portfolio value.

Why a dividend fund

Sure you can buy individual stocks so that you receive a dividend check each month, but for me that’s a hassle and I do not like the added risk of a single stock ownership, even if you own a handful of them. For us, DVY and SCHD, which each have about 100 issues in the portfolio and with 10-year records of paying quarterly dividends, is the better choice.

The fact that dividends tend to rise over time and rising dividend stocks tend to outperform other equities historically is a winning combination that has worked well for our finances.

Depending on how much you can invest and the time you have before taking social security, you can easily double the amount of income you will receive for your retirement years.

What's Your Number? - How much money do you need to retire?

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