Jim @ Route To Retire

73 Questions to Use When Interviewing Property Managers

2 Comments / Guest Posts, Real Estate / /

Hey everyone – I’ve been wanting to find someone to do a guest post for a while now and recently I’ve been talking with Caleb Malik from Active Renter.  He’s put together an article that’s an excellent complement to my post Is a Property Manager Worth the Money? so I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring him in to share with you. So please enjoy!! — Jim   About the Author: Caleb Malik is a digital marketing coordinator for a property […]

73 Questions to Use When Interviewing Property Managers Read More »

Top 10 Financial Goals for 2016

Our 8 Financial Goals for 2016

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

This past year was an exciting one for us, albeit a little bit of a roller coaster ride.  However, we were able to pick up a new rental property, max out my 401(k) and contribute up to the match in my wife’s account.  We also added to our Roth IRAs and a little bit in my HSA, and continued to save a good deal in our online savings account. No time to rest on our laurels though – last year’s financial goals are in the

Our 8 Financial Goals for 2016 Read More »

What Are You Reading?

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

I read… a lot. I’m usually a non-fiction kind of guy because I enjoy learning (I’m an odd-bird!). However, I do slip in some fiction every now and again just to change things up.  With a five-year old daughter, I don’t get as much reading done as I would like, but I cram in the reading whenever I can. I also think that the Kindle E-reader is one of the greatest products on the planet. I have a ton of books on there,

What Are You Reading? Read More »

Do I Cut Back on My Roth to Reach FI Sooner?

Early Retirement vs Financial Freedom

5 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

When I first started this site, I went in with the intention of this being all about my journey toward quitting my job – hence the “Route to Retire” site name.  I was all about having enough money to never having to work again… my quest for financial freedom. But is early retirement the same as financial freedom?  Spoiler alert… it’s not. Financial freedom can definitely be the catalyst that gives you the power to retire early, but it doesn’t need to be the sit-on-the-beach

Early Retirement vs Financial Freedom Read More »

I Enjoy My Job... But Not Working

I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working

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

It seems to be inevitable… any time I’m in a discussion with someone and they hear me utter that I plan to quit working at an early age, they ask “Why?  You don’t like your job?” That’s a tricky question and one I sometimes struggle to answer to make people understand.  The gist of it is that… I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working. They’re actually two different things. My job right now is managing the engineers at an IT company.  And

I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working Read More »

Savings Account - Saving for Kids - Thoughts to Consider

Showing Kids the Path to Financial Freedom

4 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

Most of us could probably say that if we knew then what we know now, we’d be in a much better place financially.  So why is it that kids don’t learn the right things from their elders, generation after generation? I think that part of the answer is that a lot of parents never really had that drive to get out the rat race and just consider the day-to-day work-until-you-die part of the circle of life.  Most of the children of these parents will probably

Showing Kids the Path to Financial Freedom Read More »

Year End Review

It’s Not Always About the Money…

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

Well, it’s that time of the year again… time to spend all kinds of money for Christmahannukwanzadan whether in stores or through online shopping in an effort to buy short-lived happiness of friends and family. Ok, maybe it’s not that cold, but the stores and media sure want you to think that way.  They would love to guilt you into spending every last penny you own. I think most of us tend to loosen the purse strings a little bit over the holiday season every year.  But to help

It’s Not Always About the Money… Read More »

How Do You Keep Track of Your Finances?

10 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / /

I’ve said before that Quicken was a lifesaver for me and my finances all the way back in 1999.  That’s when I stumbled across the product and it helped me realize just how much of a mess of debt I was in.  I was then able to rely on the software to really come up with a game plan and eliminate all of it over the next handful of years. Obviously software can’t get you out of debt (you need to do that yourself),

How Do You Keep Track of Your Finances? Read More »

Control Your Spending

Are You a Casualty of Lifestyle Inflation?

6 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I think a lot of us have done the years of living off Ramen Noodles just trying to get by, maybe while just trying to make it though college. While in school, I ended up getting a good part-time job at Walmart, which soon became a full-time job.  This was followed by a couple of department manager positions and then an assistant manager role at a few different stores. This all happened within the frame of a couple of years and I

Are You a Casualty of Lifestyle Inflation? Read More »

Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 2]

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

Well that was fast.  Really fast.  One of the things that Robert Kiyosaki talks a lot about in his books is that you should look at 100 properties, make offers on 10, and buy 1.  Well, I was intent on looking at a number of them (maybe not 100) until a great deal pretty much unfolded right in front of me. If you remember where we left off at in Part 1, I had a potential rental property that my financial

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 2] Read More »