Spending

Retirement Problems: My 2 Biggest Fears Since Retiring

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

Having retirement problems when you’re early retired can sometimes sound petty.  It’s like winning the lottery and then complaining about the amount you have to pay in taxes. So, don’t get me wrong – I’m having the time of my life since I left my job in 2018.  Gaining freedom and more time are two facets of life that only a small percentage of people can fully realize and I’m loving every minute of it. We’ve been enjoying time together …

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Why Not Keep Working and Saving? Are You Stupid?

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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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FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 …

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The Importance of Balance - Frugality vs. Overspending

The Importance of Balance – Frugality vs. Overspending

10 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Guest Posts, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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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The Drawdown on Investments - Our Game Plan

The Drawdown on Investments – Our Game Plan

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 …

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

18 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 …

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The 4 Worst Words for Your Financial Future

The 4 Worst Words for Your Financial Future

12 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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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For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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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