February 2016 - Route to Retire

Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage?

50 cents… two quarters. That’s what we pay our daughter every week to gather the trash from all the bedrooms, put new bags in the cans, and bring all the garbage downstairs to stuff in the bag to go out. 50 cents a week for one of her chores. Ah, chores – a subject of great debate. Now, there are a couple different ways to look at this. Maybe you’re thinking… “Jim, you can’t pay your daughter to do chores! Aren’t there child labor laws that prohibit this kind of foolishness??!!!” Or you might be doing the math and thinking… “Hmmm, so if this takes her about 10 minutes to do, she’s actually making around $3 per hour… Jim, you are one

Are HSA Plans the Best Bang for Your Buck?

Increase contributions to my HSA - 2017 Personal and Financial Goals

I used to have a common guy problem (no not that one!) – it’s the one where I wouldn’t go to the doctor because “things will just work themselves out.” Bad idea in general and, as I’ve grown a little older, I at least now do the annual checkup (something I never used to do). Although never going was a bad idea, it did help me get ahead on something. About 6 years ago, my company offered something called a Health Savings Account or, it’s more well-known acronym, the HSA. If your company offers an HSA plan and you want to take advantage of it, the big requirement is that you have to change to a high-deductible health plan. You can then contribute money into

Another Aha Moment for Financial Freedom!!

I had my first aha moment when I figured out that there was a way out of the rat race. I realized that reaching financial freedom and retiring early is not just a long-shot dream – anyone can do it! That was a real eye opener for me, so I’ve been putting my nose to the grind and working on making this happen. I’ve been building up my 401(k) plan, Roth IRA, and savings accounts. I also bought my first rental property a number of years ago. Then, a couple of months ago, I bought another rental property – a duplex. I was unfamiliar with all the nuances of multi-family properties though, so I did what I always do – started learning. And in

Banks vs Credit Unions

I’ve had a bank account for as far back as I can remember. When I was a kid, I had an account at a savings and loan bank (remember those?!!) In those days, I was too young to really grasp how good we had it. Interest rates on savings accounts hit as high as 10% at some points in time. 10%!!!! Granted, that was an account that my mom had opened for me and had just a small amount of money in it which she opened for me to understand how the importance of saving your money to and get interest on it. Yup, those days are no longer and that’s a real shame, but it is what it is. The first bank account I opened myself