Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) Archives

The FIRE Planner – A Solid Start in the Quest for FI

2 Comments / Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Real Estate, Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 11, 2021 May 8, 2021

I just finished reading a really good book. It’s called The FIRE Planner and it might be a great asset for those ready to get on the path to financial independence or those who are already on it. The FIRE Planner was written by a friend of mine named Michael Quan. I met Michael at one of the FinCon money conferences a few years ago (I believe it was the 2017 expo in Dallas). It seems like FinCon events are …

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I’m Now a 401(k) Millionaire – Can You Be One, Too?

34 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 20, 2021 April 17, 2021

So here’s something unexpected… I just became a 401(k) millionaire last week. As an early retiree, I had rolled over my 401(k) into a traditional IRA in March 2019. So on a technicality, I’m really a rollover IRA millionaire, but it’s still my 401(k) account sitting there with nothing new added to it since January 2019. I had even pulled a little over $60,000 out of the account in December 2019. That was part of the Roth IRA conversion ladder …

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Investment Portfolio Changes I’m Making!

43 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Taxes and Financial Planning / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 13, 2021 April 14, 2021

It’s time to make some changes to my investment portfolio! I wrote a post last month called We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much! that discussed how too much of our portfolio is sitting in cash. Apparently, that’s not uncommon right now as I received a lot of feedback in the comments and replies back from my mailing list (which I recommend you sign up for on the sidebar!). So I decided to write a post …

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How and Why To Open a Custodial Roth IRA at Vanguard

19 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 6, 2021 May 3, 2021

I recently wrote a post called Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled. As I was in the process of writing it, I got motivated to open a custodial Roth IRA for my daughter, Faith. If you’re new to this blog, Faith is 10 years old (11 in a few months). When you hear that, you might be thinking, “What the @#$% does a 10-year-old need with a retirement account?” or “Um, Jim, don’t you need to have earned …

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Stacking Benjamins Show Appearance – Retiring Abroad

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Podcasts and Other Appearances / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 2, 2021 April 2, 2021

I was very excited to be asked to appear on a special episode of the Stacking Benjamins Show recently. There aren’t many podcasts that I still listen to anymore, but I love listening to Joe, Paula, and Len on this show. It just seems like they’re having a lot of fun but with some good info presented along the way. In case you’re wondering, the other podcasts I still regularly listen to are: Afford Anything with Paula Pant ChooseFI with …

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Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled

14 Comments / Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 30, 2021 March 31, 2021

Relying on schools to educate your kids about personal finance is generally not going to be a smart move… most schools don’t even have a curriculum to teach them the basics. When it comes to teaching kids about money, the onus falls on you. That’s good news because you have an opportunity to ensure that your children are learning the right information. Just as many parents haven’t been educated about personal finance, many teachers themselves haven’t been either. If you …

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We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much!

37 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 16, 2021 April 13, 2021

Having cash in hand is a good thing. Whether it’s for an emergency fund or money you’re saving up for something short-term like a car, having money at your disposal is a good thing. But there’s a limit to that goodness and having too much cash in hand can absolutely be a problem. When you have money sitting in the bank, it’s earning a little bit of interest (a real little bit in this day and age!). However, that interest …

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Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?

26 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 2, 2021 February 27, 2021

Ah, the allure of tons of money… who hasn’t had the dream of being rich?! The things you could afford, the places you could go, the luxurious good times you could have. It’s fun to imagine all the cool things you could do with boatloads of money. Wait a minute, Jim – aren’t you already rich? You retired a couple of years ago at 43 for Pete’s sake! We’re definitely in a position that I’m more than elated for – …

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4 Lessons Learned After Two Years of Early Retirement

34 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 5, 2021 January 5, 2021

It’s crazy to realize that I retired at the age of 43 two years ago. December 31, 2018, was my last day of “working for the man” hopefully forever! Now it’s time to present some lessons learned during that time. In the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community, you tend to read info from a lot of folks who are on the path to financial freedom but aren’t there yet. While that’s great and can present a lot of great …

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The FI Show Podcast Appearance – Geoarbitrage

Leave a Comment / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Podcasts and Other Appearances, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 24, 2020 December 29, 2020

I first met Justin and Cody from The FI Show at a FinCon conference a couple of years ago. These might be two of the nicest guys I’ve ever meet. I believe that they were just starting their podcast at the time and they had asked me to be a guest at some point. I was game to do it but our paths didn’t really cross much for a while after that. Well, a few months ago, Justin and I …

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