If most of your savings sits in the stock market, it only pays you when you sell shares. This episode prices the same $5,000 a month from dividend stocks, rental houses and private mortgage notes, and grades each one on what it asks of you and where it falls short. It also looks at what an 18% market drop does to someone whose bills are covered by notes.

• Why a dividend check still moves with the market, using the 2009 cut
• Where a rental fails the paycheck test, even at a 7.4% cap rate
• Why a note fits inside a self-directed IRA and a rental runs into the IRS rules

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1VXyV4lSwQ

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

The 4% rule tells a 56-year-old with $900,000 and $6,000 a month in bills that he needs $1.8 million, which means 8 more years of work. This episode prices those same bills as monthly income using private mortgage notes and shows how the date he can stop working moves years sooner. It also covers what can go wrong with notes, including borrowers who stop paying and payments that never rise with inflation. No Social Security is counted anywhere in the plan.

• Why your retirement number should come from your bills instead of your salary
• What health coverage before 65 costs, with KFF putting the average benchmark plan for a 60-year-old at $15,914 a year with no subsidy
• How to cover your bills in stages while you're still working, and why he keeps working 3 more years

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

This episode prices three retirement balances two ways and shows each one in dollars per month, with no Social Security in any of the numbers. The first way is the 4% rule, where everything stays invested and a little gets sold every month. The second is how Dan would set it up with his own money: private mortgage notes cover the bills with 12 months of cash behind them, and the rest stays in stock index funds that never get sold to buy groceries. It ends on a reader in his early 50s with $2.3 million and $7,000 a month of fixed bills, run both ways.

• What the 4% rule pays at each balance, and what Morningstar found in nearly 70% of the plans that ran out of money
• How each balance splits under the income approach, using the 8% to 12% market range for mortgage notes published by The Entrust Group, and which retirement accounts can hold a note
• What can go wrong with notes, from borrowers who stop paying to a payment that never gets an inflation raise

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.