Saving

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 / By /

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 …

The Importance of Balance – Frugality vs. Overspending Read More »

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)

40 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Debt, Saving / By /

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 …

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

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 / By /

I’ve been considering providing a breakdown of our net worth for a while now.  I’ve held off for a couple reasons though: For some reason, this isn’t very common for many bloggers to do.  We seem to consider this to be sacred territory and almost taboo. I’ve been making a lot of changes and wanted to let the dust settle a little before talking about this. Well, I love breaking taboo – if you’d ask my friends, they’d tell you …

The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments Read More »

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 / By /

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 …

The 4 Worst Words for Your Financial Future Read More »

Why Less Is More and Bigger Isn’t Better

Why Less Is More and Bigger Isn’t Better

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

I’ll leave the “bigger is better” jokes up to you guys.  But, if you’ve been around the personal finance blogosphere long enough, you’re bound to hear things like that or “less is more” or some other variations of the phrase. To me that just seemed obvious – sure, if you want to cut your costs, eliminate your cable or drive a used car and **poof** you’ve saved a few bucks.  Frugality at its best. However, I’ve learned that spending less …

Why Less Is More and Bigger Isn’t Better Read More »

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

23 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving / By /

One million dollars.  It’s the coveted goal for many. Maybe it’s something you think is way out of reach.  Or maybe you’re on the other side of the spectrum and close to it or even long surpassed that number. Regardless, one million dollars just seems to be a good round number in our heads to strive for reaching.  In fact, it’s a number that many folks have had as their target number for financial independence or retirement for decades. You …

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On? Read More »

For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

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

Last week, I talked about money throughout my life.  I’ve had my ups and downs with it just like most folks.  What I didn’t talk about though is my hate for budgeting. I’m probably one of the most organized people with a good old case of OCD you’d love to know.  I need structure in order to operate.  For me, everything has its place and making a plan is always the smartest way to do something. It’s actually soothing for …

For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting Read More »

Money Throughout My Life

Money Throughout My Life

17 Comments / General Thoughts, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / By /

Money.  We all know its importance or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Whether you like it or not, it’s what the world runs on.  You could opt out of playing the game and become a hobo, but there are very few of us that can live happily ever after in that position. You can’t let money rule your life, but it’s important to understand its role.  Once you can control your capital instead of it controlling you, you’re one …

Money Throughout My Life Read More »

There is a Secret Formula to FI, But It Ain’t No Secret!

18 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Blogging, Debt, Investments, Motivation, Saving, Spending / By /

Everyone likes a secret, but a secret formula?  Even better! Now that we’re only a few months out from me quitting my job, we’re starting to share the news more with friends and family. A lot of them seem to be a little confused, but then we talk about our planned move to Panama and it takes most folks to a level beyond comprehension. Eventually, though, we tend to get past that initial shock.  And then the “bold” ones out there …

There is a Secret Formula to FI, But It Ain’t No Secret! Read More »

Total Wireless… Same Verizon Network, Less $$$

55 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Saving / By /

I debated quite a bit about writing this post.  What makes a post on Total Wireless as a cell phone provider any better than the cable-cutting posts that you see all over the place? The last thing I want to do to you as my readers is provide a disservice by focusing too much on the small side of savings. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is something that you need to be …

Total Wireless… Same Verizon Network, Less $$$ Read More »