Chasing a 6-Figure Dream —
One Honest Step at a Time
I’m Steve, a 40-something engineer documenting my real journey from $96,000 in savings to six-figure passive income. No hype. No shortcuts. Just the honest numbers, shared as they happen.
I’m Steve K., a mechanical engineer in South Korea. I’ve been investing since 2009, badly for most of it. Since 2024 I’ve been buying index funds in my pension accounts and keeping a running record of where things actually stand — what I own, what it paid, what it cost me.
New here? Start with the basics →
Where I Stand Today
My Real Monthly Dividend Income
Actual dividends received, trailing 12 months (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026).
Total ≈ $2,101 · Average ≈ $175 / month · updated monthly
Each month is converted at that month’s average exchange rate.
Where My Money Is Invested
A snapshot of my retirement-account portfolio by asset type — the whole pie is my total. Updated monthly.
Cash here includes un-invested deposits and a short-term Treasury fund I use to hold dollars. Not financial advice.
Follow the Journey
I share what’s actually working, what’s failing, and the real numbers behind building passive income in your 40s. If you’re walking a similar road, I’d love the company.
Read the BlogStart Here
Sixteen of my posts that explain how I invest, what I got wrong, and how the Korean and American systems actually differ. Everything here is arithmetic you can check yourself.
Start here — the basics
- What If You Just Bought the S&P 500 Every Month?
A plain-English guide for absolute beginners. - I Own a Piece of Hundreds of Companies.
The simple tool I quietly buy every month. - How Long Until Your Money Doubles?
The only compound interest math I actually use. - Index Funds vs. Picking Stocks
I picked for fifteen years. Here is what made me stop.
How I actually invest
- Dollar-Cost Averaging
The boring habit that quietly built my portfolio. - Why I Still Buy the S&P 500
What I do when tech stocks crumble. - The 7% Dividend That Loses to the 2% One
Why the bigger number is not the better one. - The 30-Year Bond in My Pension
Duration is the one number that explains it.
Korea and the US, side by side
- The Secret Weapon Behind 401(k) Millionaires
And why it is harder to copy from Korea. - My Pension Does Not Adjust for Inflation
What a fixed payment is worth after 20 years. - The Same Tool, Two Different Markets
What Korea’s leveraged ETF month proved. - Everyone Calls It “Super 301”
It is not. Here is what is actually happening.
Understanding the machine
- What Is the FOMC?
Twelve people, one vote, and why three said no. - Why Do Stocks Fall When Rates Rise?
An engineer’s map of the machine that moves my money. - Gold Hit $4,400. I Own None of It
The reason is not the price, it is the yield. - Korea’s “Value-Up” Program
And why my dividends still come from America.
Latest Posts
Here are the most recent.
- I Sold My House (Part 4): I Had a Four-Year Plan. I’m Already Off It.On October 8th, the last payment from my house sale cleared. I should be careful with the word “windfall.” I sold that house for about 40% less than I paid… Read more: I Sold My House (Part 4): I Had a Four-Year Plan. I’m Already Off It.
- Where I Stand — September 2026: My Monthly Money RecapEvery month, same drill: total assets, dividends received, what changed, no dressing up. The starting line was $96,000 and it never moves. This month’s total: about $119,862. Last month it… Read more: Where I Stand — September 2026: My Monthly Money Recap
- Your Debt Became My Debt. I Just Gave Most of It Back.After two years of holding a 30-year Treasury fund bought on a rate-cut prediction, I sold 3,120 shares at a 13% loss — and felt like I was finally paying off a debt of my own. The full story, with the chart I should have drawn two years earlier.
- Should I Sell It All?Three months of a sideways market, a sliding exchange rate, and the quiet urge to sell everything. I pulled the real data, opened every account, and wrote down the honest answer.
- Korea Just Hiked Rates Twice in a Row for the First Time in Years — Here’s What a 3.0% Base Rate Actually Does to My Monthly BuyWhen the Bank of Korea hiked rates twice in a row for the first time in years, I ran the actual math on what a 25 basis point move does to a savings account, a mortgage, and a monthly S&P 500 contribution.
- I Thought I Was Dollar-Cost Averaging. I Was Averaging Down.I bought two AI theme funds, watched them fall, and bought more on every dip — telling myself it was dollar-cost averaging. It was averaging down, which is close to the opposite. Here is the Gartner Hype Cycle I had never seen, what the 1840s railway boom and the dot-com bust actually cost their shareholders, and why knowing the curve would not have saved me.
- Where I Stand — August 2026: My Monthly Money RecapAugust 2026: savings reached $113,779 and trailing dividends $174 a month — but in won the same accounts fell 2.5 percent. Here is the change broken into its parts, why the two currencies disagree, and the taxable account that just entered these numbers without earning a cent.
- Growth Stocks Have Duration Too: What Friday’s Kosdaq Sidecar Taught Me About Interest RatesA Kosdaq sidecar and a 19-year high in Treasury yields taught me that growth stocks carry hidden interest-rate duration too, so I ran the present-value math to see exactly how much they lose.