One of the things we enjoy most is taking our dog with us on road trips. He is our four-legged family member who brings joy to our lives and makes our home complete. He also loves the camping glamping lifestyle as much as we do, as you can see.
Continue reading “RV Essentials Dog Edition”
As we continue to prepare for our road trip, it is becoming apparent that we are in a tug-o-war between our desire to keep expenses low for this trip and the necessities required to have a great adventure.
We are less than two weeks from our scheduled departure date and our spending has begun to pick up. We have purchased several items off of our needed items list including an infrared temperature gun to measure tire temperatures, a replacement water pressure regulator for the RV and now a new bike rack. The first two items are necessary for safety and preventive measures. The bike rack however was something we debated over and over and ultimately decided to get it. Continue reading “Vacation Spending And FIRE”
As we move closer to the departure date for our Summer road trip, we have begun making preparations and getting everything in order.
This isn’t our first go around, but it seems like we almost always forget something. Last time we made the journey to Yellowstone National Park, I forgot my camera of all things. Nothing like going to the most scenic place in the country and not having a camera. I used my phone, but it was no substitute for a professional grade camera. Continue reading “Summer Trip Preparations”
I have seen a lot of questions in different forums from new RV owners asking what items are important or must haves before heading out on their first trip. The first trip is always going to have its ups and downs. If you’re lucky, you spend most of your time getting to know your new coach and putting things away how you like them.
However, more often than not, people end up discovering small issues and end up doing some sort of DIY repairs. The experience can range from euphoric to down right frustrating.
Before you go out, it’s good to be prepared to avoid some self-inflicted frustrations. I have compiled a list of some essential and basic items that we use. Some might seem obvious. But we have experienced, seen and heard stories from people that have left home for a trip and in their excitement, forgot basic necessities. Hmmm, I thought I put the new sewer hose in the wet bay! Continue reading “Essentials For Your New RV”
As someone who works with numbers for a living, I tend to enjoy using and creating spreadsheets. Years ago I created several spreadsheets to track and project our portfolio. At that time the FIRE movement didn’t exist, at least to us, and we didn’t have a firm number in place as a goal to work towards. All we knew was we were saving for a retirement that was based more on age than anything else. Remember our so called “advisor” had us pegged for a late 60’s or early 70’s for retirement.
I have kept track of our year end tally for every year since 2001. When I look back, I am amazed at how far we have come in 17 years. Especially because while we have always been pretty good at saving, it has never really been a high priority for us until now. The fact that we are close to passing into 7 figure territory on our portfolio goes to show that time is just important of a factor as the amount you save. Continue reading “Portfolio History & Projection”
The old adage in the investing world is “sell in May and go away”.
In the beginning of the month I posted a blog titled “The Stock Market Ride“. In this blog, I noted that I felt we were entering a period where people are looking for a reason to sell. I also noted that this feeling was based on the markets entering what is historically the worst time of the year as well as the knee jerk reactions the markets were having anytime tariffs were mentioned one way or the other. This observation proved to be true as the markets racked up losses in what was a roller coaster of a month.
Was this a stroke of genius on my part? Um….No! Just knowing historical trends and watching daily reactions to news is all it took to know where the markets were heading in the short term. Although I did choose a roller coaster as my image for that blog as well. So maybe there is more to this genius thing? Continue reading “May 2019 Financial Update”
When I decided to start this blog, it was really on a whim. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and probably still don’t for the most part. All I really knew at the time was that we wanted to work towards living and traveling full time in our RV. We also knew that we needed to achieve FIRE in order to do it so we were not relying on 9-5 jobs to fund our lifestyle.
Now that we are just over a month into our journey it is obvious that FIRE and our dream of life on the road are like a yummy PB&J sandwich. Each part has its own delicious flavor, but when you put the two together, there is just another tasty level that comes out of the combination. Continue reading “RV & FIRE = PB&J”
RV-on-FIRE 