Jim @ Route To Retire

You’re Doing It Wrong! Your Personal Savings Rate

17 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Spending / /

Here’s the problem with calculating your personal savings rate… you’re doing it wrong! Ok, maybe you’re not, but I sure was! First off, let’s talk about what your personal savings rate is.  In essence, it’s a metric to be able to determine what percentage you’re putting away in relation to your income. In other words, it provides a good way to tell at a glance how well you’re saving. Someone might make a ton of money at his or her […]

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The 10 Best Financial Podcasts

The 10 Best Financial Podcasts

24 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Saving / /

The 10 Best Financial Podcasts???  Aren’t podcasts for nerds?  Who in the heck would listen to people droning on and on for an hour talk show?! A couple years ago, that’s what I was thinking.  Then about a year ago, I canceled my Sirius XM radio subscription and learned something… local radio sucks.  Maybe that’s not the case for all areas, but where I live in Ohio, it’s horrendous. So I was stuck. Fine, I decided, I’ll give these “podcasts”

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Business Opportunities are Everywhere!

Business Opportunities are Everywhere!

6 Comments / Self-Employment, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation, Real Estate / /

When I was younger, I used to think that a lot of the business opportunities out there weren’t for me.  Maybe they weren’t worth the effort or they would take too much money to start. As I’ve gotten older (and a little smarter), I’ve realized that’s not the case.  It’s simply a matter of just opening your eyes and then plucking out those opportunities. A number of years ago, I started playing FreeCell on my phone when I get a

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If Tomorrow Never Comes...

If Tomorrow Never Comes…

23 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Geoarbitrage, Motivation / /

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

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My Wife Trusts Me Too Much - Finances and Marriage

My Wife Trusts Me Too Much – Finances and Marriage

10 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

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

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

15 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness / /

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

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The HSA Benefits Just Keep Rolling In

8 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Saving / /

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

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What I’m Doing With My Money Right Now

6 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Real Estate / /

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

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It Doesn't Matter, So Stop It!

It Doesn’t Matter, So Stop It!

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation, Saving, Spending / /

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

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Panama Vacation – Part 2 – Boquete

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Panama / /

In my post, Panama Vacation – Part 1, I talked about the first half of our trip to Panama.  If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you check it out… a lot of good information on Nueva Gorgona and Anton Valley.  But now it’s time for some Boquete talk and that’s what I’m excited about! After initially getting everyone on board for the idea of this trip, I started researching.  I dug into a lot of areas in the country

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