Motivation

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life

I spent the last 13+ years of my career in IT as a manager, but I’m still a techie at heart. Even now, almost 7 years into early retirement, I still enjoy keeping up with technology and tinkering with various parts of it. Over the past few years though, I continue to get increasingly concerned about how we don’t protect our data and identities in the digital world we live in. Privacy and security tend to get put on the […]

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life Read More »

Time Is Precious: Rekindling Relationships Is Now a #1 Priority

Time Is Precious: Rekindling Relationships Is Now a #1 Priority

Around 14 years ago, one of my closest friends told me he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. I was shocked by the news but he didn’t seem any different and I knew he’d be just fine. After all, he was in his mid-thirties like I was and it was just a hurdle to overcome and life would be fine again. But then it wasn’t. As the months progressed, he got worse and worse and the chemotherapy and radiation didn’t

Time Is Precious: Rekindling Relationships Is Now a #1 Priority Read More »

Why a Part-Time Job Might Be the Next Chapter in My Early Retirement

Why a Part-Time Job Might Be the Next Chapter in My Early Retirement

Life is interesting. And that’s a good thing. How boring would it be if every day on this planet was the same? For about a decade now, we’ve made some choices that have swung our days into some crazy adventures. There’s no doubt this took us out of the realm of monotony. Between retiring at the age of 43 at the end of 2018 and then moving to Panama for a few years starting in 2019, we got a lot

Why a Part-Time Job Might Be the Next Chapter in My Early Retirement Read More »

The Art of Aging Well: Navigating Friendship and Mortality

The Art of Aging Well: Navigating Friendship and Mortality

Who woulda thunk it? I’m a little over a year from turning 50 and I couldn’t have imagined that I would be posting about aging well! I guess time flies when you’re having fun, right? And indeed, I have been having fun. Life truly is what you make of it and most of you know that we’ve done some unusual things that have opened up a new world that we never knew existed before… These things might not be the

The Art of Aging Well: Navigating Friendship and Mortality Read More »

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

In the blink of an eye, 2023 has come and gone. Whether you had a great year or not, it’s time to decide if you’re going to make 2024 a better one! Our 2023 was something truly different and not anything I would have imagined. Our wanderlust took over and we ended up buying an RV, letting the lease lapse on our apartment, putting our stuff in storage, and set off to travel the country. We’ve been learning the RV

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024 Read More »

It’s Amazing What Being Alone With Your Thoughts on a Walk Can Do for You

It’s Amazing What Being Alone With Your Thoughts on a Walk Can Do for You

I had no plans to go for a walk today. Lisa and Faith were gone and that’s usually when I focus on getting things done. Sometimes I’ll work on projects around home (which is the RV right now!) and other times I’ll work on a blog post for Route to Retire. For whatever reason, the idea of being alone usually means I’m going to work on something and get it checked off the list. But today was different. Today I

It’s Amazing What Being Alone With Your Thoughts on a Walk Can Do for You Read More »

Risk and Reward: Overcoming the Doubt Can Transform Your Life

Risk and Reward: Overcoming the Doubt Can Transform Your Life

When I was younger, weighing the risk and reward in a decision was a lot easier. In your youth, you’ve got time on your side and most of the chances you take aren’t going to make or break you. If you’re in your younger years, remember that. Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks that can change your life for the better. As time marches on though, the choice between risk and reward can sometimes be a lot tougher. When

Risk and Reward: Overcoming the Doubt Can Transform Your Life Read More »

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Personal finance is such an interesting facet of life. It’s a part of every one of our lives whether we like it or not and most of us think we know what’s best for ourselves… and everyone else. But the reality is that while we can learn as much as we want about the subject, we really should only focus on what’s best for ourselves. Why is that? It’s because, funny enough, personal finance truly is personal. You might have

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal Read More »

The Surprisingly Boring Career Path That Brought Us to Financial Independence

The Surprisingly Boring Career Path That Brought Us to Financial Independence

There tends to be a stigma in society that you need to own a company, become some big real estate mogul, be a celebrity, or just come from money in order to find your way to financial independence. So then we like to come up with excuses reasons as to why we can’t do that ourselves… “If I was in that position, it would be easy! No way I can do that because of xxxxxxx [insert whatever rationalization you want

The Surprisingly Boring Career Path That Brought Us to Financial Independence Read More »

Evolving from Sense of Purpose to Presence: Savoring the "Now" More

Evolving from Sense of Purpose to Presence: Savoring the “Now” More

I’ve always thought that an essential part of life included finding a sense of purpose. After all, if you didn’t add anything worthwhile to the world, was your life just a waste of time? So that’s always been something I’ve had in the back of my mind and it certainly became a little more in the forefront of my thoughts once I retired early at the end of 2018. Like most things though, I got wrapped up in our daily

Evolving from Sense of Purpose to Presence: Savoring the “Now” More Read More »