Root of Good

August-September 2026 Early Retirement Update – California Redwoods Edition

September 15, 2026 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We are at home in Raleigh for a two month stretch right now. I forgot how nice it is to relax at home!

During August, we spent a week in northern California visiting the Redwoods National Park and state parks. The last few days of the trip we spent driving south along the Pacific Coast Highway and enjoyed other scenic drives in the area.

In other breaking news, our son, the youngest member of the family, just started high school! He’s already a few weeks into school at this point and adjusting well to the new school and new expectations.

Let’s jump into the recap of last month or two!

July 2026 Early Retirement Update – Iceland Edition

August 4, 2026 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We have been at home in Raleigh for the month of July enjoying a relaxing break from globetrotting.

We spent the last half of June in England, Norway, and Iceland on board the Majestic Princess cruise ship. I heard some fellow passengers describe this as a “trip of a lifetime”. Given all the amazing sights we experienced, I have to agree.

As this post goes live in early August, we are setting off for our next trip. This time, we’re headed to the west coast of the USA for some outdoor adventures in Northern California with the whole family. It’ll be a short trip as far as our usual vacations go. We only have a week since our oldest two kids are working full time now, and vacation days from work are a scarce commodity.

Let’s jump into the recap of last month!

June 2026 Early Retirement Update – Norway Fjords Edition

July 14, 2026 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! Happy belated Independence Day to all the American readers! We made it back from our last vacation just in time to celebrate the Fourth of July in Raleigh with family.

After chilling (literally) in Norway and Iceland for a couple of weeks in June, it was a shock to come back to 100F+ temperatures at home. It’s cooled off a bit, but I was rudely reminded why I like to vacation somewhere else during the summertime months.

Now that we are back home, we’re relaxing and enjoying some down time in between trips. We aren’t going anywhere at all in July.

In August, we’re headed to the west coast for some outdoor adventures in Northern California with the whole family. It’ll be a short trip as far as our usual vacations go. Although the itinerary will be pretty packed while we’re out there.

Let’s jump into the recap of last month!

May 2026 Early Retirement Update – Cruising Around the British Isles Edition

June 8, 2026 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We spent half the month of May in the British Isles cruising around Scotland, Ireland, and England. After a pit stop in Raleigh for a few weeks, we’re back on the road again in June for another European cruise.

While in Raleigh, we enjoyed the warm springtime weather and beauty of the outdoors. Our two adult kids are busy with their first post-college jobs. Our son is wrapping up his middle school career, with graduation in another couple of days.

School is almost out which means summertime is right around the corner! We’ll be gone for most of the remainder of June but we plan to spend the entire month of July at home. After that, we have a short family trip to California planned in August before the back to school events start in mid-August for our son.

Let’s jump into the recap of last month!

The Children of FIRE – a 2026 Update

May 4, 2026 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Parenting, Personal Finance

It’s been a while since I wrote much about our children. So here’s a big update on what they are up to as the kids of early retired parents.

For those new to the blog, we have three kids: two adult daughters plus a teenage son. Our daughters are 19 and 21 years old while our son is 13.

When I first retired almost 13 years ago, our son was only one year old, still getting pushed around in a stroller. Our daughters were 7 and 8 years old and in their early years of elementary school at the time.

Fast forward to today and we have two college graduates and an almost-high schooler!

March-April 2026 Early Retirement Update – Mediterranean Cruise Edition

April 17, 2026 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been at home in Raleigh for a bit over a week after a busy few weeks exploring the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Sun Princess cruise ship. We set sail from Barcelona and visited a dozen ports of call spread across half a dozen different countries.

We’ll have another week at home before we hop back on a jet to Europe for our next cruise which takes us to the British Isles and France.

While at home, I’ve been enjoying the mostly good weather. After a busy trip, I always look forward to relaxing at home so I can catch up on my stack of unread books and unwatched Netflix queue. I’m happy on the road, but also happy at home.

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I’m switching up the format of these monthly updates a bit compared to the past several years. I am de-emphasizing the detailed monthly income, spending, and net worth reports but will touch on those financial aspects to some extent.

January/February 2026 Early Retirement Update – Hawaii Cruise and a Snow Storm!

March 5, 2026 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! This post will cover what we were up to during January and February of this year. It was a busy two months, with a 16 night cruise to Hawaii straddling the end of January and beginning of February. We have been home in Raleigh for about two weeks now, and will head out on our next big adventure in Europe in another two weeks.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’m switching up the format of these monthly updates a bit. I am de-emphasizing the detailed monthly income, spending, and net worth reports but will touch on those financial aspects to some extent.

Big Changes at Root of Good for 2026!

February 24, 2026 JustinRoG Blog Updates

I wanted to provide an update on upcoming changes at Root of Good. Don’t worry – a lot will stay the same, but there will be a few changes. I’ll elaborate more below, but in a nutshell, I plan to take a one year hiatus from posting highly detailed income, spending, and net worth reports.

What stays the same? I hope to continue posting monthly updates of some sort. We go on a lot of trips which produce a constant stream of interesting pics from around the world. This blog is a good home for sharing those photos with the world at large. I don’t think I will pivot to a full time travel blogger but we’ll see where this year takes us!

Another goal is to publish several more posts on some topics I’ve been wanting to write about for a while that involve my reflections on FIRE finances, higher education, and future plans.

December 2025 Early Retirement Update – Year End Edition

January 15, 2026 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! Happy belated New Years to all of you! We had a great 2025 and we’re looking forward to another great year in 2026. During December, we stayed at home the whole month to spend time with family over the holidays.

After a family-filled Thanksgiving at our house in November, we enjoyed having someone else in the family host our family gathering for Christmas. And we got together again on New Year’s Day for more holiday festivities.

Our adult children enjoyed having time off from work for the holidays even though they are trying to conserve their vacation time. The reality of the workforce is hitting them hard! Our son, still in middle school, enjoyed the two week holiday break too. Lots of fun family time together all around.

I’m still enjoying the laid back early retired lifestyle. It’s nice to be at home for an extended period after a couple of years of being on the road on a monthly basis for various trips around the world.

On to our financial progress. December was another great month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $44,000 to end the month at $3,958,000. Our December income of $40,619 was way more than enough to cover our spending of $10,792 for the month.

If you’re thinking over $10,000 is a lot of spending, then you are right! Keep on reading to find out how we spent so much last month.

November 2025 Early Retirement Update – Panama Canal Edition

December 19, 2025 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been at home for about a month since wrapping up our Panama Canal cruise in November. We intentionally blocked off Thanksgiving and Christmas from our travel calendar so we could be at home during the holidays.

We will be at home for roughly two full months, with no more travel planned until the end of January when we depart on our next cruise adventure. Over the last month, I’ve been catching up on a lot of year-end tasks, checking things off my to-do list, and enjoying time just being at home. A vacation from vacations.

We capped off November with a big Thanksgiving family gathering at our house. Lots of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and eggrolls for everyone!

On to our financial progress. November was another great month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $64,000 to end the month at $3,914,000. Our November income of $2,534 was more than enough to cover our spending of $1,927 for the month.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.