My Journey to Becoming a Tax-Free Dividend Queen

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What advice would you give your younger self?

I would definitely go back and tell myself this: stop worrying about filling your closet with the latest fashions and start building a stock portfolio that’s bigger than your shoe collection.

I was a true shopaholic.

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And it only got worse when money started raining down from the corporate heavens and I became madly in love with the glitz and glam of pageantry.

Don’t get me wrong. Pageantry is great and a game-changer that can transform your life. But there’s a financially responsible way to compete without spending thousands of dollars on dresses in order to impress judges.

Oh yeah, if you’re interested in learning how to profit from your hobbies, check out the Career Goddess Academy here and send me an email at profitfrompageantry@gmail.com to be notified about the next Profit from Pageantry session. It’s going to be amazing!

Back to My Obsessions

Every chance I got, I would head to the mall or downtown with my best friend on a search for name brand clothes and accessories that would go out of style the following season.

It was horrible. But you live and you learn.

As I entered my 30s, I’ve turned my obsession with finding deals at the shopping mall to finding high-quality, undervalued assets at the stock market.

And my favorite way to build my stock portfolio is within my Roth IRA! If you don’t know about this sexy retirement vehicle, give me a second and I’ll spill all the beans.

You can start your investing journey by checking out these resources:

• Dividends Are a Queen’s Best Friend (Available on Amazon!)
• Tax-Free Dividend Queen
• May 2020 Dividend Queen Income Update

I’m on a mission to build a six-figure Roth IRA portfolio while in my 30s. Now this will take some fierce work and strategy because you can only contribute $6,000 a year to the Roth IRA at this time.

What the Heck is a Roth IRA?

A Roth IRA is a tax-advantaged individual retirement account. It doesn’t matter if you have a 401(k) or thrift savings plan at your job, you can still open a Roth IRA.

Why is the Roth IRA so attractive?

The Roth IRA gives you access to tax-free money when you retire. That is a HUGE plus! Let’s say you have a $1MIL 401(k). When you receive a distribution during retirement, you will pay taxes on that money. You could be potentially left with $600,000. YIKES! Taxes are a big unknown because you don’t know what the tax rate will be when you retire.

If you have a $1 MIL Roth IRA, you will get $1 MIL during retirement. You won’t have to pay taxes on the money! Woohoo!

How do you build a $1 Mil Roth IRA?

You have to save as much as you can in the Roth IRA every year and invest in assets that will give you a healthy return. This is the strategy I am working on to build my six-figure Roth IRA.

If I Could Go Back in Time

I would have started contributing the max amount to my Roth IRA when I was 21 and invested my money in a mixture of growth and dividend stocks.

I’ll never forget being in my high school Economics class trying to master the book concepts while my teacher, Mr. Grant, was sharing all kinds of words of wisdom that we needed to know in the game of life.

“If you understand economics and money, you’ll be able to work as a comptroller and make all kinds of good money. So make sure you open your Roth IRA account while you are younger and in a lower tax bracket so you can grow your retirement savings.”

I honestly don’t remember much from high school but I’ll never forget those words from my high school teacher.

It was the first time I had ever heard of a Roth IRA and no one else seemed to know about it. It seemed like a magical account with beautiful benefits that could really pay dividends for my future.

So I opened a Roth IRA account while in college. I was so excited to get the account up and running.

Every year I would contribute pieces of my income to my Roth IRA. I honestly didn’t understand the ins and out of everything and how I would grow my portfolio. All I knew is that I would get tax-free money during retirement and that sounded good to me!

The Missing Piece of the Equation

I contributed money to my Roth IRA account but I didn’t invest the money.

I had no idea I was supposed to.

So when I checked my Roth IRA balance 7 years later, I had accumulated less than $5 in interest! Oh my!

Lesson Learned: Your money needs to work for you and not sit there and sleep all day!

The Making of a Tax-Free Dividend Queen

How could I miss the fact that you can invest in your Roth IRA?

Why didn’t I know that it’s a smart contribute the max amount every year to my Roth IRA?

How did I get stuck with a Roth IRA with a financial institution that severely limited what I could invest in?

I was hurt.

I was heartbroken.

But I was determined to never let this happen to anyone again.

It’s great to have access to information but not knowing how to use the information can cost you thousands of dollars.

The money I spent on my shopping desires could have been allocated to building my Roth IRA.

If I would have had access to one book about the Roth IRA that spoke in my language, my net worth would be pretty juicy right now. Just one $100 educational resource could have changed my life. It would have allowed me to have thousands floating around in my Roth IRA. The more money you have in your IRA, the more assets you can invest in.

But the experience has made me smarter and given me the opportunity to write another book that will help more people. Woohoo!

Tax-Free Dividend Queen is Available here! If you want to learn how to earn an extra stream of income and live a life you love by investing in assets that permanently lower your taxes, this is a great way to get started.

This is the book I wish I had. I would have thought about my money differently and I probably would have enjoyed talking about taxes (LOL!).

This is what you should be thinking about on your journey. It will help put things into perspective. You may have pieces to the puzzle and that’s a great start. But this eBook will help you to connect some important dots that can increase your net worth drastically within the next year.

It’s also my game plan for becoming a tax-free dividend queen! Check it out here.

What are you investing in? Do you invest for dividends? Do you want to learn more about investing your money to reach financial freedom and your retirement savings goals?

Let us know by leaving a comment below!

BIO: Charlene is currently the Chair of the Illinois CPA Society Taxation Individual Committee. With over a decade of experience in the financial services industry, Charlene is one of the few leaders who design insights specifically for the woman investor. Charlene’s work has been featured in a variety of publications including the Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. In 2019, Charlene released her book “Dividends Are a Queen’s Best Friend”, on Amazon.

Disclaimer: Wealthy Women Daily is solely educational and informational, and is not intended to give investment or trading advice of any kind. Not all asset classes are suitable for all investors. Wealthy Women Daily is a research academy that provides you with the data and analysis you need to make an informed investment decision. It is your responsibility to talk to an expert to understand how specific investments will impact you during tax time.  Affiliate links are included in this article.