I love reading. I’ve always been a bookworm and, although I don’t have the time I used to, I still read quite a bit. I actually find myself reading more nonfiction than fiction, but I love a good fiction book as well. Recently though, I read a financial book that’s stuck in my head… and I’m not sure whether that’s a good or bad thing, but it made me question my retirement funds. The book I finished reading is The 3 Simple Rules of …
Hey everyone – I’ve been wanting to find someone to do a guest post for a while now and recently I’ve been talking with Caleb Malik from Active Renter. He’s put together an article that’s an excellent complement to my post Is a Property Manager Worth the Money? so I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring him in to share with you. So please enjoy!! — Jim About the Author: Caleb Malik is a digital marketing coordinator for a property …
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This past year was an exciting one for us, albeit a little bit of a roller coaster ride. However, we were able to pick up a new rental property, max out my 401(k) and contribute up to the match in my wife’s account. We also added to our Roth IRAs and a little bit in my HSA, and continued to save a good deal in our online savings account. No time to rest on our laurels though – last year’s financial goals are in the …
I read… a lot. I’m usually a non-fiction kind of guy because I enjoy learning (I’m an odd-bird!). However, I do slip in some fiction every now and again just to change things up. With a five-year old daughter, I don’t get as much reading done as I would like, but I cram in the reading whenever I can. I also think that the Kindle E-reader is one of the greatest products on the planet. I have a ton of books on there, …
When I first started this site, I went in with the intention of this being all about my journey toward quitting my job – hence the “Route to Retire” site name. I was all about having enough money to never having to work again… my quest for financial freedom. But is early retirement the same as financial freedom? Spoiler alert… it’s not. Financial freedom can definitely be the catalyst that gives you the power to retire early, but it doesn’t need to be the sit-on-the-beach …
It seems to be inevitable… any time I’m in a discussion with someone and they hear me utter that I plan to quit working at an early age, they ask “Why? You don’t like your job?” That’s a tricky question and one I sometimes struggle to answer to make people understand. The gist of it is that… I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working. They’re actually two different things. My job right now is managing the engineers at an IT company. And …
Most of us could probably say that if we knew then what we know now, we’d be in a much better place financially. So why is it that kids don’t learn the right things from their elders, generation after generation? I think that part of the answer is that a lot of parents never really had that drive to get out the rat race and just consider the day-to-day work-until-you-die part of the circle of life. Most of the children of these parents will probably …
Well, it’s that time of the year again… time to spend all kinds of money for Christmahannukwanzadan whether in stores or through online shopping in an effort to buy short-lived happiness of friends and family. Ok, maybe it’s not that cold, but the stores and media sure want you to think that way. They would love to guilt you into spending every last penny you own. I think most of us tend to loosen the purse strings a little bit over the holiday season every year. But to help …
I’ve said before that Quicken was a lifesaver for me and my finances all the way back in 1999. That’s when I stumbled across the product and it helped me realize just how much of a mess of debt I was in. I was then able to rely on the software to really come up with a game plan and eliminate all of it over the next handful of years. Obviously software can’t get you out of debt (you need to do that yourself), …
I think a lot of us have done the years of living off Ramen Noodles just trying to get by, maybe while just trying to make it though college. While in school, I ended up getting a good part-time job at Walmart, which soon became a full-time job. This was followed by a couple of department manager positions and then an assistant manager role at a few different stores. This all happened within the frame of a couple of years and I …
