General Thoughts

What I’m Doing With My Money Right Now

I’m pretty excited to see that our net worth has grown over $70,000 in just three months since I wrote the post $1 Million Net Worth… Now What?.  It’s great to see my money continuing to grow, but there’s still a downside to it. Most of the money is tied up in the stock market right now and it’s a bull market right now. No one has a crystal ball to tell us if this is only the beginning.  The […]

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Financial Regrets That Slowed My Path to FIRE

Financial Regrets That Slowed My Path to FIRE

Financial regrets, I’ve had a few… As I guy in my early forties, I sometimes take a moment here and there to reflect on how my path in life has gone.  I don’t dwell – I just try to look back at my mistakes and learn from them to make for a better future. And maybe the “regrets” part of “financial regrets” is a little excessive.  If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you know that we’ve recently surpassed the million-dollar net worth mark. We’re

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My Fantasy Week When I’m Financially Free

Most of us who are working to become financially free, spend a lot of our days daydreaming what it would actually be like to be financially free. I think the initial dream for a lot of us is to just sit on the beach all day sipping piña coladas – mmm, that does sound good! But, once the dream starts to become more real, it’s pretty likely that the piña coladas are only going to be a small part of the plan. In all actuality,

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What I've Learned About Blogging Over the Last Two Years

What I’ve Learned About Blogging Over the Last Two Years

I started the Route to Retire site in May of 2015 and quickly learned that blogging is an interesting endeavor.  Like most new bloggers, for the first few months, I would just write and publish and wonder “is anyone even out there?” The analytics showed a nibble here and there, but really… nothing. It took a number of months, but eventually, the traffic started to grow.  The comments on my posts began to slowly trickle in – and that was the most exciting part. Now,

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$1 Million Net Worth... Now What?

$1 Million Net Worth… Now What?

Yup, you read that correctly… we now have a net worth of just over $1 million. I logged into Quicken today, updated all my accounts, and was excited to see this: Holy schnikes, a million dollar net worth!  It seems so surreal to think that we’ve reached such a big milestone. I’m really proud of how far we’ve come in our journey to financial independence. By keeping our expenses low, saving and investing as much as we can, and creating additional

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I Had to Fire an Employee Today

I Had to Fire an Employee Today

I had to fire an employee today. I’ve let a number of people go over the years and it’s never something anyone enjoys… not me as the manager and certainly not the employee. But, it had to be done.  His performance was definitely sub-par and it was affecting relationships with customers and hurting morale with good employees. Here’s the thing, though – it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that it went as good as it could go.  It doesn’t matter that he knew

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Long-Term Food Storage Needs to be Part of Your Plan

Long-Term Food Storage Needs to be Part of Your Plan

Why in the world are you finding a post on long-term food storage on a blog that focuses on finances?  Isn’t this a topic you would only find on the survival sites out there? Possibly, but I want to shake things up a bit. And here’s why: planning for your financial future should take into consideration the pitfalls of life that can hit you at any time… and that includes the possibility of running into a situation where food and water become a

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2017 Personal and Financial Goals

2017 Personal and Financial Goals

Well, it’s 2017, which means it’s time to take stock of how your previous year went, but more importantly, you should set your sights to the future and get your personal and financial goals put in place for the year. Here are my plans for the year… My 2017 Financial Goals   Buy another rental property Buying rental property is an important stream of passive income that I’m working on building.  Currently, we own a couple of rental properties – a single-family house and

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Year End Review

Year-End Review

Well, this is it – the last post of the year.  I hope all of you had a great holiday and are looking forward to the new year!  I thought this would be a good time to do a year-end review and look back at what I got accomplished throughout the year (and what I didn’t!). Let’s start with the 8 Financial Goals we had set at the beginning of the year for ourselves… 1) Build back up our online savings

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Bringing the Fun Back to the Workplace

This post is a lot different from the regular ones you’re used to with me.  I recently had a moment of reflection and wanted to share it with you… I continue to read everything I can get my hands on to help expand my knowledge and better both my life and that of my family.  I’m currently reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People.  Yes, it’s a classic and I should have read it years ago, but I’m only

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