Would you stay in the country for an extra $5 million? That was the question posed to me by my mom last week. “If I hit the lottery and gave you $5 million to come back from Panama after one year, would you do it?” Obviously, she’s not thrilled with our plans to leave the country and move to Panama next year. Leaving family and friends is always the toughest part of moving. Her thinking with this hypothetical question was […]
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’ve always hated this saying. It implies that hard work won’t get you as far as knowing someone will. As if you can get further just by knowing people instead of busting your butt! It’s insane… but I think it’s true. From my first job, all I ever did was bust my @#$ doing the best I could. While others played around at the companies I was at, I always focused
When you’re deciding to leave an employer, it’s customary to give 2 weeks notice as part of your resignation. The idea is that it gives the company enough time to transition the loose ends over to another employee. Really though, in many places, that’s not a lot of time. If you’re in a very complex position or a company that’s project-oriented for instance, 2 weeks notice is barely enough to get the ball rolling. And it’s likely to leave a
2 Weeks Notice? Here’s Why I Gave My Boss 6 Months! Read More »
So things just got interesting here in the R2R household. We’ve decided to move our early retirement date up to be 12/31/18. Yeah, that’s right – just over six months from now. Crazy, right? Then to top it off, we decided to push up our move to Panama as well. We’ll now be starting that adventure about a year from now in the summer of 2019. Making the decision to move up our early retirement date isn’t a decision we’re taking
Shit Just Got Real… Moving Early Retirement Up to 2018! Read More »
Much of what I’ve read lately seems to revolve around the idea that if you’re not happy today, you won’t be happy once you reach FIRE (financial independence / retire early). After all, happiness is more than just whether or not you’re stuck in the rat race. If you’re not content with your life now, how will quitting your job make any difference? Hmm, yeah, I’m sorry… I’m not buying it. Now before you jump to lashing out at me in
If You’re Not Happy Now, FIRE Can’t Fix That… Baloney! Read More »
I’ve realized over the past year or so that I really suck at giving to charity. Sure, I do a nice job of donating clothes to Goodwill throughout the year. However, Goodwill tends to have a bad rap when it comes to pay and where donated clothes actually go. Because of the question marks we tend to have on the organization, we’ve shifted more toward donating clothes to Volunteers of America most of the time. I also consistently donate a
3 years. That’s what this blog post marks… three years of blogging on Route to Retire. For new bloggers, this might sound like a long time. However, I look at some of the others out there who have been doing this for over a decade – like J.D. Roth at Get Rich Slowly or J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy. It’s then that I realize I’m still somewhat of a rookie in the blogosphere. I’ve consistently posted a minimum of once a
The Three-Year Blog Post… Finance Lessons Learned Read More »
Everyone has opinions on how kids should be raised. And there really are no perfect answers. However, I never thought there’d be a day when my own parents would tell me to stop talking to my kid about money. But that’s exactly what happened. If you’re not familiar with my daughter, she’s a stellar writer on the Route to Retire blog. Her post Like Father, Like Daughter… got some pretty good attention – including making it onto Rockstar Finance. She’s seven and
Um, I Was Told to Stop Talking to My Kid About Money… Read More »
I’m struggling. I’ve been very careful to keep politics and other sensitive issues out of my blog. We all have our opinions, of course, but I just don’t think this particular blog is the right place for that kind of discussion. So I’m going to try to keep this high-level on that front, but there’s something that’s affecting me deeply right now. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know about the shootings that have been happening in our school
For a guy that’s beat the odds and made it to that fancy millionaire status, you’d think I’d know most – if not everything – when it comes to personal finance. But here’s something that’s probably not much of a shocker… I don’t. Not even close. When I first started this blog in May of 2015, I thought I was so smart when it came to finances. Maybe not exactly a financial genius per se, but perhaps one smart cookie
When It Comes to Personal Finance… I Don’t Know It All Read More »
