Category: Finance

The Life Insurance Dilemma

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Aside from trying to cut back on everyday expenditures like dining out and our expensive Starbucks habit, we also started combing through our fixed expenses to try and find ways to save money. We have already dropped our all-inclusive, and ridiculously expensive, cable television service in favor of a low cost streaming service and an HD antenna. This move saves us about $150 a month, and just as important, it saves use from having to see 200 worthless channels on our guide. Continue reading “The Life Insurance Dilemma” →

June 2019 Financial Update

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Now that we are home from our summer road trip I was able to take some time and put together our long past due financial update for June 2019.

You have to love watching the stock market. In my May update, you can it read here, I discussed the old adage of “sell in May and go away” which appeared to have been holding true and even compounded by all of the uncertainty regarding trade wars and tariffs in addition to historical trends. If there is one thing the market hates is uncertainty and it can lead to strong down moves very quickly. Continue reading “June 2019 Financial Update” →

Checking In From The Road – Part 2

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Hello again!

Sadly, we are winding down our road trip and will be heading home soon. At the end of a vacation many people say it’s good to be home. We are not those people. While this is a vacation and not exactly what life will be like once we are able to travel full time, it does offer a small glimpse into the future for us.

We have had many great experiences over the last couple of weeks. We have seen an amazing amount of wildlife. We have fished several lakes, streams and rivers. We have hiked on trails and driven our Jeep on others. We have also spent valuable time with family, most importantly with our son. Continue reading “Checking In From The Road – Part 2” →

It’s Time!!

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Hello everyone! After almost 9 months of planning we are finally hitting the road for our Summer road trip.

We will be posting photos on Instagram throughout our journey. Please follow us as we share our experience.

https://www.instagram.com/rvonfire/

Summer Road Trip Final Preparations

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We are now just a couple of days away from departing on our Summer road trip. The hard work, for the most part, is done. We spent this past weekend stocking up on food and shopping for the last remaining items on our need-to-buy list. Additionally, we spent a day at our RV going over our pre-trip checklist to make sure everything is in good working order and ready to roll. Continue reading “Summer Road Trip Final Preparations” →

Vacation Spending And FIRE

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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” →

Portfolio History & Projection

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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” →