Interested in what Retired Individuals have to say about what their experience has been with the Stock Market and Returns or lack thereof; and what's going on with their CDs and IRAs and 401(K)s that makes them unhappy!?!  

I have about 350K in cash and about 900K in retirement funds that I could access, I think tax and penalty free by setting up a ROBs (a method I am investigating that via the tax code apparently lets one use retirement savings by setting up a C corp and funding a company by buying stock in it with retirement funds).  

I would recommend, for you and all those starting down the road of personal finance, to first take serious stock of your KSA's and then focus on your strengths. 

My husband was an investment banker and they had no special licenses for selling businesses but they did have securities licenses if the company involved stock and different investors.  

Your example is basically like living off capital gains by selling stocks until you have no stock.I'm looking for something that pays me dividends but increases in value over time, adjusted for inflation.... 

There is a lot of good information here on BP in the forums.The basic concept is that you can diversify your tax-sheltered retirement savings from stocks, funds, CD's and other conventional financial products and include investment options such as real estate, notes. etc.  

Hi,Has anyone compared the returns of a stock/bond portfolio against investing remotely in real estate?

I trade stocks &  options and sometimes the options don't pan out and expire worthless.  

If you are into trading or investing in stocks, then Norbert's Gambit is a method used to avoid currency exchange fees.  

Those will give you real estate experience and good returns, without the volatility of the stock market - assuming proper due diligence.