Nick Ward has been a longtime author on Seeking Alpha with the primary focus on income strategies, portfolio management, and dividend growth stocks. He does not have a formal education in finance or economics but beating the S&P 500 is one of his goals every year. His main objective is to generate a reliably increasing passive income stream. Second goal is to be conservative with regard to capital preservation and not taking unnecessary, speculative risks. Ward still views himself as an artist and spend a lot of time working on paintings and manuscripts.