Do I Cut Back on My Roth to Reach FI Sooner?

Early Retirement vs Financial Freedom

5 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

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 […]

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I Enjoy My Job... But Not Working

I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working

8 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

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

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Savings Account - Saving for Kids - Thoughts to Consider

Showing Kids the Path to Financial Freedom

4 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

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

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Year End Review

It’s Not Always About the Money…

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

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

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How Do You Keep Track of Your Finances?

10 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / /

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),

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Control Your Spending

Are You a Casualty of Lifestyle Inflation?

6 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

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

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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 2]

4 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

Well that was fast.  Really fast.  One of the things that Robert Kiyosaki talks a lot about in his books is that you should look at 100 properties, make offers on 10, and buy 1.  Well, I was intent on looking at a number of them (maybe not 100) until a great deal pretty much unfolded right in front of me. If you remember where we left off at in Part 1, I had a potential rental property that my financial

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Emergency Savings

The All-Important Emergency Savings

3 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

If you take in any financial advice, you’re bound to hear about it.  Some disagree on when to fund it and they all seem to disagree on how much you should put into it. Either way, everyone agrees on one thing and we’ve all heard it a million times… Make sure you have an emergency savings fund! Dave Ramsey wants you to put aside three to six months for your emergency savings.  Suze Orman wants you to put aside an eight months

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Why the Education System is Broke

Why the Education System is Broke

8 Comments / Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / /

So yesterday one of my friends that I currently work with came into my office to talk business (as well as to chit-chat a little bit).  In the midst of our conversation, he mentioned how his young twin boys are starting to understand the general concept of working. As a side note, he’s the only one at my office who really knows about this site (and he reads it)… so he’s probably going to throw a rock at me for bringing him into a

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Am I Focusing TOO Much on Retirement??

10 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I’ll admit it… I am passionate about becoming financially free and quitting my day job.  I think about it 24×7.  It’s constantly on my mind and I’m always trying to figure out ways to make it happen more quickly.  I consider that to be a very good thing to help make my goals come to fruition. However, it can also be a bad thing.  And by that I mean that if I’m focusing entirely on early retirement, I’m not focusing all my

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