How We Started
Joel retired in 2008 and while enjoying retirement by pursuing various hobbies, came to the realization that the changes in the financial world following the 2009 recession made absentee ownership of retirement funds impractical. Joel made the decision to become more involved in his retirement investing. After numerous discussions with his older brother, an option trader with decades of experience, Joel opened an account to experiment with options trading. Over the next few years, as his experience and confidence grew in a well-defined, conservative investing approach, Joel moved more and more funds under his management and currently manages 100% of his investments.

Mike had already enjoyed following the market and was invested in biotech due to his involvement in the industry. Even though he had numerous successes, he soon learned one loss could wipe out all the previous gains and realized he needed to change his approach. Mike was introduced to Joel at a dinner party and was intrigued by Joel's approach. Within months, Mike was following Joel's strategy and, on a path, to generating consistent income well above market yields.

Over the past few years Joel and Mike have enjoyed sharing their experience with various friends and acquaintances and would now like to share their strategy with you.

In chess, the perfect move is aggressive, defensive and leaves flexibility. We want the same approach in our investment strategy. In addition to being a method to generate income during a rising market, we believe our strategy to be equally effective during flat or moderately declining markets. Let us assume there is a significant recession and stock prices crater far below our original basis. Our strategy is to collect a 3-4% dividend (or higher) from a blue-chip stock augmented by additional yields via selling covered calls while the economy stabilizes, and the stock market subsequently recovers. By utilizing our strategy, you are aggressively earning good returns regardless of the stock's short-term performance. You take advantage of a market that is relatively flat, or slowly grinding up, and are positioned well for a downturn with the reliability of blue-chip stock dividends. Equally, if not more important, since options are so liquid and there are so many defensive strategies, we believe options are far more flexible than stock ownership in any market.

We hope you find our strategy and technique useful in allowing you to become a more informed investor and take control of your financial destiny. It has helped to change our lives for the better.
About the Author: Joel Pope retired from the position of Senior Vice President, SVO Customer Experience & Resort Operations at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. where he was responsible for customer facing initiatives, communications, and resort operations. Prior to that Joel held a similar position with Interstate Hotels Corporation where he was a key member of the founding team for the Crossroads Hospitality Company division which grew from a start up to over 150 properties prior to his departure.Michael Merrill is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Valuation Analyst and has his master's in business administration. Mike is currently a financial consultant and has worked for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, M2 Financial Services Inc. (a CPA firm he founded), CNL Financial Advisors, Walt Disney World and Pepsi-Cola. He was also a part-time professor at DeVry University teaching accounting in their Master's Program.