Self-Employment

What I've Learned About Blogging Over the Last Two Years

What I’ve Learned About Blogging Over the Last Two Years

50 Comments / General Thoughts, Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Self-Employment / By /

I started the Route to Retire site in May of 2015 and quickly learned that blogging is an interesting endeavor.  Like most new bloggers, for the first few months, I would just write and publish and wonder “is anyone even out there?” The analytics showed a nibble here and there, but really… nothing. It took a number of months, but eventually, the traffic started to grow.  The comments on my posts began to slowly trickle in – and that was the most exciting part. Now, …

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Cutting Expenses is Great But...

Cutting Expenses is Great, But Here’s the Problem…

22 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Self-Employment / By /

In an effort to help in cutting expenses, I just changed our cell phone provider.  Here in the part of Ohio where I live, Verizon is the logical choice for a phone provider as they are the most prominent and basically lack any dead spots. I’ve been with them since the beginning – from GTE Wireless, to the transition to Alltel, to the transition to Verizon.  It just made sense.  However, although the pricing is Ok, it’s not great. Last week, I just …

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Blogging for Money

Blogging for Money and Fun

14 Comments / Self-Employment, Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / By /

The Route to Retire blog was born in the spring of 2015.  I had a pretty good idea of the game plan for the site, but it’s definitely continued to morph into something more as I continue on the path for financial independence.  There are a number of reasons I first started this site: Sharing my own financial knowledge Accountability Documenting my journey Learning from others Blogging for money   Sharing my own financial knowledge The biggest reason I started …

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With Multiple Income Streams Comes Great Power!!

With Multiple Income Streams Comes Great Power!!

20 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment / By /

I thought today we’d talk about little bit about how having multiple income streams can help to fortify your wealth as you continue your path toward financial independence. From the time I was six years old, my mom raised my brother and I as a single mom and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! 🙂 One of the things I remember as a kid was that we each had our own savings account at an old savings and …

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Protecting Yourself When Buying Rental Property

Protecting Yourself When Buying Rental Property

18 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Self-Employment / By /

When I bought my first house back in 2003, I had plans to live there for a couple of years, fix it up, and then turn it into a rental property.  The idea sounded simple enough, but I ran into a lot of headaches along the way. I knew location was important, but I didn’t know where I should be looking.  I also didn’t know how to properly determine cash flow and ROI (return on investment).  And I didn’t take into consideration …

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If You Need Money, You'll Always Work for Less...

If You Need Money, You’ll Always Work for Less…

28 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate, Self-Employment / By /

I’m a big fan of satellite radio.  I’m also a big Howard Stern fan.  Years ago, when Howard went to satellite radio, I bought the lifetime package for Sirius satellite radio for about $400. I definitely got a number of good years out that deal.  Eventually though, Sirius made my life difficult. Back in 2009, I bought a new Chevy Malibu which had XM radio.  As some of you may know, there was a Sirius XM merger years ago so that should be all good, right? …

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Think About Working for Yourself

Think About Working for Yourself

17 Comments / Self-Employment, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / By /

When I was coming back from vacation last week, our seating got a little screwed up.  Long story short, I ended up sitting next to a lady in her mid-fifties from Alberta, Canada instead of sitting by my wife and daughter.  We got to talking and had some really good conversation throughout the flight.  At one point, I mentioned something about my 9 to 5 job and she chuckled.  It turns out she’s a consultant and speaker on business efficiency.  And she talked about …

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It's All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

It’s All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

16 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment / By /

I was listening to another podcast from the BiggerPockets guys and their guest this time around was Natali Morris.  The podcast was called Limiting Beliefs That Hold You Back From Incredible Wealth.  Although the podcast was interesting, that’s not really the point of this post. It was something that she mentioned in the middle of it that for some reason really jumped out at me and that’s what I wanted to share.  Natali said that when her father was in the midst of his divorce, he was referring …

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Just One Thing...

Just One Thing…

10 Comments / Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / By /

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably someone interested in or already on the way to the world of financial independence.  Regardless of why you’re here, I think we all know some of the basics of reaching that goal: Get out of debt ASAP – This is the #1 step that needs to be done… and this refers to bad debt like credit cards, car payments, etc.  This does not necessarily mean good debt like mortgages on rental property that serve as assets helping to provide you with cash …

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