Saving

Do Low and Negative Interest Rates Scare You?

12 Comments / Saving, Investments / /

A couple of weeks ago, I brought up the idea of negative interest rates with my nine-year-old daughter, Faith. Yes, this might be something a little weird to talk about with your kid, but it piggy-backed off of our personal finance class during homeschooling.  And of course, I kept it pretty high-level. I had kept it simple talking about how banks pay interest to people who store their money there.  The banks then take that money and loan it out […]

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Did These Flip-Flops Lead Us to Financial Freedom?

Did These Flip-Flops Lead Us to Financial Freedom?

18 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving / /

People hear that my flip-flops are now over 12 years old and love to say, “No wonder you were able to retire!”  But are my old shoes the reason we were able to reach financial freedom? You might decisively be thinking that’s silly, but let’s talk about this a little more before you jump to a conclusion. I think we all know that my shoes aren’t going to be the reason we were able to retire early. But, I can

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Guest Appearance on the ChooseFI Podcast

Guest Appearance on the ChooseFI Podcast

4 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Saving / /

I’ve been wanting to be a part of the ChooseFI podcast shortly after it began.  Jonathan and Brad launched the show at the end of 2016 and quickly took the FIRE community by storm! It’s a fantastic podcast helping to discuss the path to financial independence.  They bring on various guests to examine different aspects and strategies of reaching FI. What’s really great though is that they also focus quite a bit on enjoying the journey along the way.  I

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How to Get a Million Dollars for Your Nest Egg

How to Get a Million Dollars for Your Nest Egg

14 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Real Estate / /

By early 2017, we had finally built our net worth up to over a million dollars.  It was a great feeling to reach that milestone, but it didn’t really change things for us – we just continued to follow our plan. When I left my job at the end of 2018, we had a net worth of about $1.1 million and, thanks to the bull market still pushing ahead, it’s roughly $1.2 million right now. I’ve written a few posts

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Why Not Keep Working and Saving? Are You Stupid?

42 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / /

I’m only 43 years old right now (Ok, fine – I’m pushing 44!).  But this is still prime time to continue on with my career.  If I were to keep working, I could build up an even bigger and more secure nest egg. So why don’t you do that?  Why did you leave your job and retire early?  Are you stupid or just lazy? Haha, talk about cutting to the chase! I actually love when others ask me questions about

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8 Financial Tips I Wish I Knew When I Was in My 20’s

16 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / /

My nephew recently started reading this blog and it got me thinking.  What would be valuable information for him as a reader?  What do I wish I knew when I was younger? He’s almost 20 years old and he just started a career in construction probably close to a couple of years ago.  At his age, I know I wasn’t very smart financially.  Don’t get me wrong – I thought I was, but looking back, I made some stupid decisions.

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The Importance of Balance - Frugality vs. Overspending

The Importance of Balance – Frugality vs. Overspending

10 Comments / Guest Posts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / /

Saving every penny and pushing frugality to its limit or spending every penny to live for today.  How does the Route to Retire family handle their spending? Good news!  After a lot of prodding, I think I might have been able to convince Mrs. R2R to do some occasional guest posting. Hopefully, you’ll see some more of these in the mix.  She told me she’s hoping to write a post on the process she’s gone through in figuring out homeschooling

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After 20 Years on Quicken, I'm All-In on Personal Capital

After 20 Years on Quicken, I’m All-In on Empower (formerly Personal Capital)

42 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Debt, Saving / /

I’ve been using the Empower (formerly Personal Capital) financial software now for the past few years.  However, I’ve only been dipping my toes in with it… until now. Quicken’s been my go-to software for just over 20 years.  I stumbled on it back in 1999 when I first started at the career I just retired from.  I was hired in as an engineer to fight the scary Y2K bug and Intuit was giving away their Quicken 98 software for free as

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The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments

The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments

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

I’ve been considering providing a breakdown of our net worth for a while now.  I’ve held off for a couple of reasons though: Well, I love breaking taboo – if you’d ask my friends, they’d tell you how I tend to say things that seem inappropriate, but are usually what everyone is thinking.  It might be some stirring the pot but it gets some good conversation going! When our net worth hit the $1 million mark back in 2017, a

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The 4 Worst Words for Your Financial Future

The 4 Worst Words for Your Financial Future

12 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

I’m about to share something important with you.  Four words that might be the worst in the English language and can crush your financial future. We’re all at different points in our financial lives and we all have different goals.  However, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all here for the same reason – we want to be sure that our future is financially stable. In my own life, I started to recognize a common theme that has

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