Saving

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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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 / /

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

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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 / /

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

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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 / /

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

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