Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

Shit Just Got Real… Moving Early Retirement Up to 2018!

So things just got interesting here in the R2R household. We’ve decided to move our early retirement date up to be 12/31/18. Yeah, that’s right – just over six months from now. Crazy, right? Then to top it off, we decided to push up our move to Panama as well. We’ll now be starting that adventure about a year from now in the summer of 2019. Making the decision to move up our early retirement date isn’t a decision we’re taking lightly. Although we’re excited to move onto our next adventure, any changes we make on the “when” can have a profound impact on our future. But it’s something we’re ready to do. The opportunity is now here so we’re going

If You’re Not Happy Now, FIRE Can’t Fix That… Baloney!

Much of what I’ve read lately seems to revolve around the idea that if you’re not happy today, you won’t be happy once you reach FIRE (financial independence / retire early). After all, happiness is more than just whether or not you’re stuck in the rat race. If you’re not content with your life now, how will quitting your job make any difference? Hmm, yeah, I’m sorry… I’m not buying it. Now before you jump to lashing out at me in the comments, give me an opportunity to explain. I do think that you need to be somewhat happy with your life to begin with. If you’re just normally a miserable person, chances are you’re always going to be a miserable

Total Wireless… Same Verizon Network, Less $$$

I debated quite a bit about writing this post. What makes a post on Total Wireless as a cell phone provider any better than the cable-cutting posts that you see all over the place? The last thing I want to do to you as my readers is provide a disservice by focusing too much on the small side of savings. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is something that you need to be familiar with. And the reason why is because this small change can save you a ton of dough without a difference in service. Interested? You should be. I switched over a year ago and I’m just speaking from experience. I

Homeschooling… a Great Start to Awkward Conversation

As soon as you mention the idea of homeschooling, people get uncomfortable. Some shut down, go silent, and give you a stare that quietly says, “I’ll keep listening, but you’re now officially crazy in my book.” Others quickly object. They might say, “That’ll cause all kinds of social problems for your kid!” or maybe “That’ll be too much work!” or some other wonderful expression of disapproval. Personally, I don’t have the same feelings. Although it’s still not really mainstream, a lot of folks are starting to realize that homeschooling does have its place. We’re not homeschooling our daughter… yet. However, if I was FIRE (financially independent / retire early) when my daughter was younger, I would have loved to go down the homeschooling

Guest Appearance on the Countdown to FI Podcast

Man, I’ve been on a roll with these podcasts! My latest appearance was on the Countdown to FI podcast and it was truly a lot of fun! Mr. and Mrs. CTF are some great peeps to talk to and talk we did! We stuffed a lot into this show with a lot of discussion that hasn’t been brought up in previous podcasts. Some of the conversation revolved around our countdown to early retirement and what our plans are. We discussed the bucket system along with a couple of the ways that we’re planning to pull money out of our retirement accounts early. If you’re not familiar with the Roth IRA Conversion Ladder or Rule 72(t), we got into those a

Why Do I Suck So Much at Giving to Charity?

I’ve realized over the past year or so that I really suck at giving to charity. Sure, I do a nice job of donating clothes to Goodwill throughout the year. However, Goodwill tends to have a bad rap when it comes to pay and where donated clothes actually go. Because of the question marks we tend to have on the organization, we’ve shifted more toward donating clothes to Volunteers of America most of the time. I also consistently donate a ton of books to the library, but they’re generally books I bought from the library in the first place. I buy books from the library books sales for my daughter… a lot of books! Then after we read them so

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