Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

If Tomorrow Never Comes…

I’ve been thinking a lot about tomorrow lately and any regrets I would have if that day never arrived. There was a touchy-feely show on back in the 80’s called Highway to Heaven. I was only a kid back then, but I used to watch it all the time and I loved it. I’ll wait while you laugh at me. Yeah, well, it gets worse. I was pretty excited to see that it showed up on Netflix at some point so now I’ve been watching the series all over again. Um, yeah, I have problems. For some reason, I decided to look up Michael Landon and find out some of his background. If you aren’t familiar with him, he, unfortunately,

My Wife Trusts Me Too Much – Finances and Marriage

My wife trusts me… too much. Specifically, with regard to our finances, that is. When you mix finances and marriage, it’s important that you and your spouse flow together in perfect harmony. It seems that most of the time when I bring up a financial decision that needs to be made, I hear those special words: Whatever you think… Look, I feel good that she trusts my judgment, but it’s important that she understands and is a part of the decision-making. Every couple’s handling of finances is slightly different. In some relationships, it’s the husband’s “job.” In others, the wife handles it. And in some instances, it’s a joint effort. Regardless of who handles the finances though, both parties should

I Just Spent $35 on a Sleeping Pad and Feel Guilty as Shit

Well, Amazon Prime Day happened. I told my wife to stay away from Amazon for the day and not to get sucked in. I warned her about it. Unfortunately, nobody warned me and somehow I ended up in the vortex and bought a $35 sleeping pad before the day was over. I debated it while it sat in my cart and the 15-minute countdown clock was ticking away. I even deleted it out of my cart and re-added it just to restart the clock. I contemplated this for 29 minutes and 56 seconds before I pulled the trigger and made the purchase. Then I just stared at my screen and felt guilty. In fact, I felt guilty about it for

The HSA Benefits Just Keep Rolling In

I’ve written about Health Savings Accounts (HSA) before and how they are one the best retirement plans you can get your hands on. In fact, it might be THE best account out there. I thought I knew all the HSA benefits I could get out of this account, but in this post, I’ll tell you about a new one I learned about. If you’re not familiar with an HSA, it’s a medical savings account that’s paired with a high-deductible medical plan. Because you’re on a high-deductible plan, you usually pay less of a premium (the amount a lot of us see taken out of each of our paychecks). What usually gets people started in this is that they can then

What I’m Doing With My Money Right Now

I’m pretty excited to see that our net worth has grown over $70,000 in just three months since I wrote the post $1 Million Net Worth… Now What?. It’s great to see my money continuing to grow, but there’s still a downside to it. Most of the money is tied up in the stock market right now and it’s a bull market right now. No one has a crystal ball to tell us if this is only the beginning. The gains could just keep rolling in for years to come. It’s also possible, however, that we’re at the top of the market and a recession is just around the corner. I don’t know what’s going to take place in the

It Doesn’t Matter, So Stop It!

In general, we seem to have a tendency to focus a lot of our time and money on the things that don’t really matter. It’s time to stop it and instead concentrate on what does matter… So far this summer we’ve taken a fantastic trip to Panama and spent a few days at a cottage on Kelleys Island on Lake Erie. We’re starting to pack for a week-long vacation trip to Tennessee we have coming up in the next couple of weeks. I’m also going on a backpacking weekend in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania in September. And, of course, I’m more than excited about my first trip to FinCon in Dallas in October. In the meantime, we’re trying

« Previous