My journey to six-figure passive income and financial freedom.
A coworker asked how long his money takes to double and I could not answer without a spreadsheet. The Rule of 72 does it in three seconds, it is accurate to within a month between 6 and 9 percent, and it exposes the uncomfortable part: 54 percent of a 40-year outcome arrives in the final decade.
Korea’s Value-Up index beat the KOSPI by 8.8 points this spring — then the index gave nearly all of it back in seven weeks. Here’s the math behind that swing, and why my dividend ETFs still hold zero Korean stocks despite the rally.
Gold just pushed back above $4,400 an ounce. My dividend-focused portfolio still owns none of it — and the reason isn’t the price, it’s the yield. Here’s the arithmetic, plus how Korea and the US tax gold very differently.
My National Pension adjusts for inflation every year. My personal pension accounts don’t. I ran the math on what a fixed $1,000 payment is actually worth after 20 years — and it explains exactly why I never stop buying the index.
A 30-year government bond fund has sat in my pension account for two years and I never asked what actually moves it. The Fed held rates steady on July 29 — and long-term bonds moved anyway. Duration is the one number that explains why.
A coworker sent me an 11% dividend yield. The funds I actually own pay 2-3%. Here is why the smaller number is the one I keep buying — and the year-13 crossover that explains it.
In July the Korean market had its third-worst month on record and, eleven days later, its best single day ever. Leveraged ETF holders lost in both directions. So did a $45 billion AI hedge fund holding the same stock — and the mechanism was identical.
My balance fell in July while nothing I own fell. Tracing why led me through three things I had wrong: that rates move stocks in one direction, that the Fed sets “the” interest rate, and that textbook theory explains currencies. It does not.
The Fed held rates at 3.5-3.75% on July 29, 2026 – but three of the twelve voters wanted a hike. Here is what the FOMC actually is, how its vote works, and how the decision reaches a pension account in South Korea.
July 2026 was a down month: savings fell about 3 percent to $106,514 while dividends held near $153 a month. Here are the frozen charts, what actually moved the number, how I calculate this every month, and why I did nothing about it.