Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

Some Honest Thoughts about Running a Blog

I’ve been running a blog now for almost 4 years and I have a few thoughts on the subject that have been rattling around in my head lately. I probably should be saving this post for my “blogiversary” in a couple of months. But since this was on my mind, I figured I’d be a rule-breaker… yeah, I’m a rebel like that! Running a blog is a unique endeavor. Some folks do it as a hobby and some as a business. Some writers post routinely while others just go with it when they feel like it, which might only be once a month, for instance. What really makes it different though is that it’s generally a long-term game of growth.

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

My Gamble with $691k in Retirement Money

Retirement money is definitely something you shouldn’t be gambling with. But hey, it’s only your future on the line… what could go wrong? I admit it – I love gambling. That’s not something you’d expect to hear from a blogger in the personal finance community, but it’s true. I’m not an avid gambler – I just enjoy some table games or video poker at a casino every now and again. Sometimes I’ll even throw a little bit at a periodic game of Keno at the bar (worst odds ever!). Of course, I like it more when I’m winning, but I only play with money I’m prepared to lose. And please don’t take this as me being a casino regular with

Holy Schnikes! Another Change of Plans for Us!

Another day, another change of plans! This slight change is going to add to our already exciting adventure! As most of you already know, we’re moving to Panama this summer. I retired from my job at the end of 2018 and we’re getting closer to making this happen. In the meantime, we have two reasons we’re waiting so long to leave: We need to wait for our daughter to finish out her school year. We have a vacation planned with Mrs. R2R’s side of the family at the end of July. When we head from Cleveland to South Carolina for the vacation, that’s about it. Our lease will be done at the apartment and we’ll have our two suitcases each

After 20 Years on Quicken, I’m All-In on Personal Capital

I’ve been using the 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 a fix to anyone running older versions. I decided to install the software just to toy with it. I entered in all my accounts and ended up being appalled at what I saw. I owed about $30k in credit card debt and just

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