Investments

2017 Personal and Financial Goals

2017 Personal and Financial Goals

14 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Travel and Vacation / /

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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Saving for Kids - Thoughts to Consider

Saving for Kids – Thoughts to Consider

10 Comments / Kids, Investments, Saving / /

When it comes to saving for kids, there are a ton of different options out there.  Should you start a separate account for them somewhere and if so where? Mrs. R2R and I have a 6-year-old daughter and we’re starting to think through this whole problem right now. Here’s what we’ve figured out so far…   First things first Before you do anything for your kids, you need to make sure to get your own finances in order.  If you have

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Year End Review

Year-End Review

14 Comments / General Thoughts, Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Spending / /

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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Company Match

Why Your Company Match is So Important

19 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

For many employees, a 401(k) plan or similar defined contribution plan is the biggest retirement asset they have.  The goal is obviously to grow that investment as much as possible and a company match can help accelerate that process. I’m in a fairly lucky situation at work.  My company has a pretty unusual match.  In a nutshell, they throw in a company match of 35 cents on the dollar. Did you notice I didn’t say “… up to 6%” or anything like

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Wringing Out the DRIPs in My Dividend Stocks

Wringing Out the DRIPs in My Dividend Stocks

17 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

When I started to get a little more serious about reaching financial independence a few years ago, I started dipping my toes into different ideas as I learned more about them. One of those ideas was to start investing in dividend stocks. Dividend stocks are great because you don’t usually focus as much on appreciation as you do on the regular payoffs you get from the stock.  That means passive income, which is something we all know and I love.  I

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With Multiple Income Streams Comes Great Power!!

With Multiple Income Streams Comes Great Power!!

20 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment / /

I thought today we’d talk about little bit about how having multiple income streams can help to fortify your wealth as you continue your path toward financial independence. From the time I was six years old, my mom raised my brother and I as a single mom and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! 🙂 One of the things I remember as a kid was that we each had our own savings account at an old savings and

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Timing the Market

Timing the Market – A Smart Move?

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

There’s been something that’s been eating at me for a couple of months now.  The stock market seems too bloated right now and I’m thinking about moving my money out of it. No, no – I’m not trying to be the guy timing the market.  I just think I should move the money in my 401(k) to cash for a little bit and when the market crashes, I’ll be able to buy again at much lower prices.  My 401(k) would

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My Experience with a Certified Financial Planner

My Experience with a Certified Financial Planner

20 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Recently, I decided that I wanted a second opinion on my game plan.  Although I’m pretty confident on how to make things work, I decided that this is important enough to warrant bringing in someone else to look everything over and give some unbiased input.  So I recently hired a certified financial planner. I thought this would be a great opportunity to take you through the process from start to finish to give you a better idea if this is something that you

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

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

23 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Real Estate, Saving / /

As some of you know, I’ve been a little bummed lately with my countdown to financial independence (FI) and early retirement being a ways out.  Although I have a plan to retire before my 50th birthday, I just feel like this is too far out. Every day that I spend at work is one less day that I get to spend with my daughter.  Granted, this is the summer when she’s not in school, but it’s tough regardless (which I’m sure it

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It's Time to Step-Up Your Game for Retirement!

It’s Time to Step-Up Your Game!

16 Comments / Saving, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation / /

Hey everyone, it’s time to talk about something that most of us out there know, but not enough of us are talking about.  And with that, I’m referring to retirement savings.  Although this is a site focused on financial freedom and early retirement, the fact is that most of us out there have a slim shot at either one of these. I almost threw up when I learned on The Motley Fool that the average American’s 401(k) balance is $72,383.  And even worse,

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