Spending Archives - Route to Retire

We Got Turned Down for a Credit Card… Ok, Four!

Yeah, getting turned down for a credit card isn’t a good feeling. It doesn’t matter that Lisa and I each have credit scores of over 800. It doesn’t matter that we have plenty of credit cards already and don’t really need another. We also have more of an unused credit line spanned across all our cards than we’ll never need. And then, of course, there’s that little piece of info that we’ve saved up enough money that we never have to work again – we’d be very low-risk to default. But it doesn’t matter. It still sucks when you get turned down for a credit card. When the online application screen changes and tells you’ve been declined, it’s a small

Uh-Oh… Our Retirement Expenses Are Higher than Expected

Retirement expenses are a tough one to plan for in life. You can budget for what you think your expenses will be, but you really don’t know if they’ll be more or less. The biggest reason is that your life will likely be dramatically different at the time. This is probably even more on par the younger you are when you leave the workforce because you’re likely not going to be resting on your laurels. Not only would you be trying your hand at all sorts of projects (some that cost money or transportation), but there’s a lot more time for changes to occur. And by changes, I mean that you have a longer amount of time for your likes

This Bad-@#$ Expenses Spreadsheet is My Gift to You

I’m super excited about a new expenses spreadsheet I’ve been working on that I think you’re gonna love. And this ain’t just any old expenses spreadsheet – it’s focused on your recurring expenses. If you’re like me, you’re familiar with those times when you make a big purchase and have buyer’s remorse shortly after. It happens. But those are the easy cases – it’s a one-time purchase and it’s staring you right in the face. The tougher problems to solve are those random costs that occur on a periodic basis (every few weeks, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.) that are much harder to keep an eye on. We all have expenses or subscriptions that we signed up for and – meh,

Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence

I don’t normally write book reviews on this blog, but I’m making an exception for the new Choose FI book. I was expecting my opinion to sway one way with the book but my impression after reading it went in a completely different direction. Chris Mamula is the author of Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence (along with coauthors Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa). If you’re not familiar with Chris, he retired in 2017 at the young age of 41 (beat me by two years!). He also spends a lot of time writing at the Can I Retire Yet? site. I met Chris at the FinCon conference in 2017 – such a nice guy! We didn’t get a chance

Solving the World’s Problems… Starting with Mine!

When it comes to solving the world’s problems, I’m the man. I’ve got it all handled. Call me “Mr. Fix-It”! Ok, maybe that’s far from true. I’m not solving the world’s problems at all. In fact, I sometimes struggle to handle my own problems. But, I’m good at adapting and actually enjoy change. I have an engineer’s/programmer’s mindset and like to logically find an optimal solution to problems. And now that we’re living in Panama, I get to push my problem-solving to a different level. We live in a small town in the mountains called Boquete. There’s no Walmart, Target, or Home Depot here. The closest counterpart I’ve got is a small discount store called Novedades La Reyna and a

What the Hell Is Going On with Our Living Expenses?!

Boy, this has been one helluva rollercoaster lately. Our living expenses have been all over the map this year. We’ve had a ton of abnormal spending (both more and less) throughout the year. The biggest factors for this were: Preparing for our big move Enjoying our July adventure Living in Texas with family for most of August Now living in Panama For a guy with control issues, this is throwing me off a little. The roller coaster ride we’ve been on this summer is just about wrapping up, but we’re still not running a normal budget right now. It’s been so crazy with so many unknowns that I’m struggling to project what our living expenses are finally going to settle

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