Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) Archives - Page 7 of 30

One of My Favorite Ways To Learn How To Save Money

8 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Consumer Protection, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / Jim @ Route To Retire / May 25, 2021

Those of you on the path to financial independence know there are only two ways to fatten your wallet: make more money or spend less. Today, I want to focus on telling you about an invaluable tool to learn how to save money. Most folks tend to start with cutting out the excess spending in their lives simply because it can be much easier than chasing after making more money. Regardless, both areas can be largely worthwhile and beneficial for […]

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Designing Our New Life – The Power of Early Retirement

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / May 18, 2021

Change. I thrive on it. It’s the only way to continue to learn, grow, and become better. On the flip side, I think that complacency is just the path to a slow death. That’s why, as much as I know I’m going to miss Boquete, I’m excited to map out our new life for next year. We’ll be moving back to the U.S. in May of 2022. Although a year seems like a long way off, it’s time to start

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

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

36 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / Jim @ Route To Retire / April 20, 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 / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Taxes and Financial Planning / Jim @ Route To Retire / April 13, 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

74 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / Jim @ Route To Retire / April 6, 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 / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / Jim @ Route To Retire / 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 / Kids, Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / Jim @ Route To Retire / March 30, 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 / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / Jim @ Route To Retire / March 16, 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 / Jim @ Route To Retire / March 2, 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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