Spending Archives - Route to Retire

Why Not Keep Working and Saving? Are You Stupid?

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 our plans because it gets the conversation going about financial independence. Personally, I don’t feel like everyone needs to retire early from their jobs. If you enjoy what you do, more power to you. But I do feel that financial

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

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. So, like any old man, I almost feel obligated to pass along some of the knowledge I wish I knew back then to help him out. And yeah, 43’s not that old, but I’m not getting any younger! Do you

FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

Scary title, right? Using a word like “cancer” is not something to take lightly and saying that FOMO is the cancer of FIRE is something that should make you raise an eyebrow. But here’s the thing… that’s exactly what it is. And it has the power to destroy your journey to FIRE. Today I’m going to explain why this and how to avoid it. But first, let’s define a couple of words: FOMO (or FoMO) FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out. The idea is just like it sounds – if there’s some type of event or get-together going on and you don’t attend (by choice or not), you feel some sort of social anxiety. Maybe a few weeks

The Importance of Balance – Frugality vs. Overspending

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 for our move to Panama. Wrapping your arms around everything involved and choosing the right curriculum has provided her with some “fun” over the past few months. In today’s post though, you’ll get an idea of her take on some

The Drawdown on Investments – Our Game Plan

After last week’s post on the breakdown of our net worth, I thought it might be a good follow-up to provide more detail on our drawdown plans… a part II, if you will. “Why?”, you might ask.* I realized that there aren’t a lot of folks in the trenches talking about this subject. Many FIRE sites talk about the strategies of getting to the point of early retirement. However, it seems like there aren’t too many that talk about actually drawing down on your investments. So, why not share more of our own plans to help spur some discussion? Maybe this will help you come up with some ideas for your own strategy on drawing down your accounts. Or perhaps you’ll

Being a FIRE Millionaire Doesn’t Mean You’re Rich

There’s an interesting mentality that I notice creeps up periodically. It’s the idea that some people think that being a millionaire makes you filthy rich with plenty of money to throw around. Folks who aren’t as entrenched in the personal finance world tend to think that if you’re a millionaire, you actually have $1 million ready to spend. In other words, if you’ve hit that mark, you must be sitting on bushels of cash just ready to be spent. This is probably a common way of thinking if you don’t fully understand how early retirement works. I know I thought the same thing before we continued to grow our finances. However, that’s really not true, particularly with those who are

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