Saving Archives - Route to Retire

Lisa’s Now a Secret Shopper… Is This Legit or Even Worthwhile?

14 Comments / Self-Employment, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 31, 2022 May 28, 2022

Have you ever heard of those mythical jobs where you’re hired to go into a store or restaurant as a customer and then report back and get paid? Generally, that person is known as a secret shopper or a mystery shopper. Yeah, well, here’s a little treat – they’re real. I had forwarded over a link to Lisa for a company called Market Force Information that acts as a liaison for this exact purpose. Sure enough, after Lisa dug into …

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Why I Now Consider Visible To Be the Best Cell Phone Provider

27 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 10, 2022 July 27, 2022

The good news is that when you’re trying to find the best cell phone provider, you have several good options to choose from. The bad news is that the most well-known carriers are generally stupidly over-priced and they tend to nickel and dime you for everything. What many people don’t realize, however, is that you have other options. You can move to a provider where you can get the same exact coverage for a fraction of the cost. This is …

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The Rent vs Buy Dilemma… Does It Matter?

28 Comments / Real Estate, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 5, 2022 April 5, 2022

One of the most debated topics in the personal finance space revolves around the question of rent vs buy. On one side of the fence, you have the folks marching to the beat of, “You’re throwing money away when you rent… when you buy, you have something to show for it down the line.” And on the other side of the fence are those that say, “Yeah, but renting can cost a lot less money with excess to be invested… …

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Should I Get a Job Now as a Hedge for Tomorrow?

26 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Self-Employment / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 8, 2022 March 6, 2022

Get a job???? Isn’t this a site focusing on financial independence and the option to retire early? Easy, tiger – no need to come out fighting right off the rip. Don’t get out your pitchforks to tell me that we didn’t retire with enough money. This is more of a hypothetical than anything. I’m confident that we have enough money to last us the rest of our lives. Our net worth has actually grown dramatically since I retired at the …

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Stop Counting Pennies and Focus on the Dollars

33 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / February 8, 2022 February 3, 2022

I have this problem where I’m always counting pennies in my head. Not literally, but rather that I’m always conscientious of all our spending… to a fault. Don’t get me wrong, being mindful of what you’re spending is a good thing. If you don’t know what you’re spending, it can become very difficult to get ahead. The problem, however, is that counting pennies isn’t as important as focusing on the bigger money. In other words, saving a few extra dollars …

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Getting a 7.12% Return With Series I Savings Bonds

20 Comments / Investments, Saving / By Jim @ Route To Retire / November 9, 2021 November 9, 2021

Yeah, you read that right… a 7.12% return with Series I Savings Bonds. Sounds pretty good, right? Right now, it’s a real struggle to figure out what to do with the cash you’re just sitting on. I talked about that in a post earlier this year, “We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much!“ The problem is that interest rates are so low. While that’s great if you’re buying a house, it’s not so good on the …

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One of the Best Money Books I’ve Ever Read

14 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Debt, Education, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / October 19, 2021 October 25, 2021

I just finished one of the best money books I’ve ever read. It’s vastly different than other books I’ve read over the years… and that’s a good thing. Alternating between reading fiction, non-fiction money-related books, and non-fiction books unrelated to finance works well for me. I love learning new takes on money but I don’t want to become completely absorbed in it. I also want some time for fiction to take me away periodically and allow my imagination to take …

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We’re Saving Over $800 on Our Trip to Mexico… Here’s the Plan

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 14, 2021 July 17, 2022

Moving back to the U.S. from Boquete, Panama next spring is going to be bittersweet. But we’re excited about our new adventures to come… starting with a trip to Mexico on the way back! It’s still hard for us to grasp that we’re not locked into doing the “normal” type of vacations anymore. Since we’re early-retired and Faith’s homeschooling, we have the ability to slow travel or just make up new paths in life on the fly. In this case, …

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We Don’t Need More Money… But I Want It!

40 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / August 24, 2021 August 24, 2021

The guiding principle of the Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) movement is to get to the point in life where you have enough and don’t need more money to cover your expenses. Once you pull that off, you’re golden. You’re now financially independent and never have to work another day in life again… if you don’t want to. It sounds great, right? And for someone that pulled it off at the age of 43 a couple of years ago, …

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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 / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 25, 2021 May 27, 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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