Jim @ Route To Retire

Why a $5,000 Tax Return Refund is Actually Good News

Should I Use a HELOC to Pay off My Rental House?

12 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

Last week I was listening to a BiggerPockets podcast and their guest was Clayton Morris from Fox & Friends Weekend.  I’ve never seen the show and didn’t know who Clayton Morris was, but it was actually a very good podcast.  Clayton’s one of those guys you can tell just by listening to that he’s extremely intelligent and the show was very entertaining as well.  After I was done listening, I found his blog online and that led me to an interesting article he […]

Should I Use a HELOC to Pay off My Rental House? Read More »

Tying Up Loose Ends...

Tying Up Loose Ends…

8 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I recently realized that I have a number of loose ends out there from previous posts that my regular readers might be wondering about.  So I thought I would take an opportunity to put out a post following up to hopefully tie up those loose ends a bit… Switching to an Accountant This was the first year I decided not to use TurboTax and go to an accountant.  If you remember, I had three goals with this: Check over my work Get

Tying Up Loose Ends… Read More »

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

For those of you who have been regular readers, you know that I’m starting to get a little more involved in the real estate world with rental properties.  As of this posting, I have a single-family home that I’ve been renting out for several years now and I recently purchased a duplex.  I think that owning rental properties is not only a great way to start an income stream, but it’s also a hedge against having almost all our eggs in

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties Read More »

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 3]

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 3]

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

It’s time for the final segment of this series.  In Part 1, I talked about how I decided that it was time to stop letting life pass me by and get back on track with finding another rental property.  In Part 2, we went over the deal that we had found on a good duplex.  Now, I want to give you an update on where things stand with the duplex. We closed on the property in mid-December (2015) and everything was

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 3] Read More »

To Reveal or Not to Reveal the Numbers...

To Reveal or Not to Reveal My Numbers…

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

We’re coming up on a year of my site’s first post in a couple of months and with that, I’ve been able to really get to know you guys as well as some of the other financial independence sites out there.  As I’ve been investing a lot more of my time reading the other blogs, I’ve noticed that it really makes for an interesting read to see where people are at on their journey.  One of the dilemmas that I’m facing

To Reveal or Not to Reveal My Numbers… Read More »

Mistakes and Lessons of a Real Estate Investing Newbie

3 Mistakes I’ve Made as a Real Estate Investing Newbie

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I’ve learned that real estate rental property can be one of the best methods of passive income.  Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket with the stock market, you can set yourself up with steady rental income that can last a lifetime.  Additionally, you pick up some tax benefits and might even get some appreciation off the properties as some icing on the cake. Because of that, I’m starting to chase this a little more.  However, I’ve also made some mistakes

3 Mistakes I’ve Made as a Real Estate Investing Newbie Read More »

Time to Say Goodbye to TurboTax!!

Why I Dumped TurboTax for an Accountant

20 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I started using TurboTax in the year 2000 and I’ve used it every year since then.  Going to a tax preparer didn’t make sense – it was expensive and TurboTax made it easy enough to do my tax returns myself.  All the TurboTax alternatives (H&R Block, TaxAct, TaxCut, etc.) are all similar in that can guide you through doing your taxes to make life smoother when doing your returns. Sure, sometimes I would stare at the screen for hours and try to figure out

Why I Dumped TurboTax for an Accountant Read More »

Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage?

Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage?

6 Comments / Kids, General Thoughts / /

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

Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage? Read More »

Increase contributions to my HSA - 2017 Personal and Financial Goals

Are HSA Plans the Best Bang for Your Buck?

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

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

Are HSA Plans the Best Bang for Your Buck? Read More »

Another A-Ha Moment

Another Aha Moment for Financial Freedom!!

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

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

Another Aha Moment for Financial Freedom!! Read More »