Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

That Day I Sold My Coin Collection to J. Money…

Another day where the personal finance community helps each other out. This time it was with my very own coin collection. As we’re continuing to prepare for our big move to Panama later this summer, we’re cleaning house as much as we can. Between selling, giving away/donating, and trashing all our stuff, we’ve been plenty busy. Eliminating the big stuff like furniture has been nice. It’s been pretty quick to go on OfferUp and frees up tons of space. We feel like we’re making good progress when that stuff goes out the door. But then, there’s the smaller stuff that’s a real pain in the @#$. One of those examples is all my collectibles. I have comic books, Garbage Pail

8 Financial Tips I Wish I Knew When I Was in My 20’s

My nephew recently started reading this blog and it got me thinking. What would be valuable information for him as a reader? What do I wish I knew when I was younger? He’s almost 20 years old and he just started a career in construction probably close to a couple of years ago. At his age, I know I wasn’t very smart financially. Don’t get me wrong – I thought I was, but looking back, I made some stupid decisions. So, like any old man, I almost feel obligated to pass along some of the knowledge I wish I knew back then to help him out. And yeah, 43’s not that old, but I’m not getting any younger! Do you

FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

Scary title, right? Using a word like “cancer” is not something to take lightly and saying that FOMO is the cancer of FIRE is something that should make you raise an eyebrow. But here’s the thing… that’s exactly what it is. And it has the power to destroy your journey to FIRE. Today I’m going to explain why this and how to avoid it. But first, let’s define a couple of words: FOMO (or FoMO) FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out. The idea is just like it sounds – if there’s some type of event or get-together going on and you don’t attend (by choice or not), you feel some sort of social anxiety. Maybe a few weeks

We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

When we first sought out our new adventure, we thought we could basically just pack up and go. I mean, you just sell everything and move to Panama, right? Ha! Wishful thinking! There’s a tremendous amount of planning involved to make this a smooth transition. I’ve talked about some of the minutiae we’ve encountered in our planning, but now it’s time for more scoop. And considering we’re about to embark on a huge adventure, I thought it would make sense to try to update everyone a little more frequently on how things are coming along. Sometimes I get caught up in trying to stick solely to money topics that I forget our readers also want to know what’s actually going

Guest Appearance on the What’s Up Next Podcast

The “What’s Up Next?” podcast is a little newer to the scene. In fact, the first episode just came out in November of 2018. However, I’ve known Doc G from DiverseFI for a while and we finally had that opportunity at FinCon in Dallas last year. It’s great to meet other bloggers in real life and Doc is no exception. He’s a great guy and we had some good conversation… and a few beers, of course! Anyway, a few months ago he asked if I wanted to be a part of the podcast he hosts with Paul Thompson. Their podcast, What’s Up Next? is different than most of the other podcasts out there in that it’s panel-based. Doc G and

Estimated Self-Employment Tax Used to Scare Me!

I’m just going to say it – I have three very small businesses that I’ve been running for years and I’ve never paid estimated self-employment tax payments. Ouch, for shame, for shame! That’s right, I’m a complete failure in that avenue. And that could have cost me, too. If you owe $1,000 or more come tax day in April, you might be hit with a penalty by the IRS. In essence, it’s an interest penalty on the difference of what you should have paid and what you actually paid. And guess who gets to decide what that interest rate is? That’s right, the IRS does. For the second quarter of 2019, they’ve decided that the rate for underpayments will be

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