Financial Independence Archives - Page 12 of 22

January 2018 Financial Update

February 5, 2018 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Wow, January flew by! I can’t believe it’s already February. Here in North Carolina it was a rather frigid January. We experienced not one, but TWO (!!) snowstorms during the month which is a rare occurrence. If you’ve never experienced snow in the South, it’s a treat. Everything shuts down and the kids get a few days off school. We busted out the sleds, bundled up, and made the most of it. Ironically we ended up at our neighborhood elementary school where we hit the slopes hard.

January was a fun month for our finances, too. The market continued its upward trajectory throughout the month and left us much wealthier. Our net worth climbed $77,000 to $2,114,000. Income remained strong at $4,055 which more than covered our spending of $1,281 for the month.

Is Hygge, or “Social Coziness”, Denmark’s Best Export?

January 24, 2018 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle

Visiting us this week is Bob Lai, the blogger behind Canadian Financial Independence and Early Retirement blog “Tawcan” with an important message on living the good life with a Danish influence.

Unless you have been living under a rock the last few years, you probably have come across the word “hygge.” Hygge is a concept that comes from Denmark. Directly translated, it means cozy. For some reason, hygge has been the hottest craze lately. Everywhere you look you can find hygge related items, being it a flood of books, countless top 10 lists or how-to website articles, department store displays, and even Japanese bakeries.

What exactly is hygge? Does it simply mean cozy? Or purchases of things to create a cozy environment?

I will explain to you what hygge is to me and my family.

December 2017 Financial Update

January 8, 2018 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Happy New Year! Another great year in the books for us. Our youngest started kindergarten. We took an amazing nine week trip to Europe. And with all the kids in school we were finally able to take advantage of a nice last minute travel deal when Mrs. Root of Good and I jumped on a cruise to the Caribbean for a week. Our early retirement lifestyle is going well.

Here’s how our finances finished 2017. Year end dividends rolled into the investment accounts in December pushing our total income to just over $14,000. Our spending was rather high at almost $8,000 (which needs some explaining). Another freakishly good month in the stock market pushed our net worth up another $26,000 to leave us with $2,037,000 at year end. Needless to say, our 2017 went remarkably well from a financial perspective.

Castles, Skyscrapers, and Prosciutto in Milan, Italy

December 18, 2017 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Travel

Welcome to stop number five on our nine week trip across Europe! This post covers the four days we spent in Milan, Italy at the end of June. We flew to Milan from Seville, Spain on a super cheap two hour Ryanair flight. Earlier in our trip, we visited Lisbon, Portugal, then flew to Malaga in southern Spain before taking a bus to Granada.

This was our first time in Italy and I didn’t have a clue where to visit. I considered Rome but I figured it would be too ambitious to tackle in just four days so we decided to save Rome for later. Milan, though still a sizable city, proved a good choice to fit in a four day slot in our schedule before we headed onward to Venice.

Milan offers a great mix of the new and the historic. In a single day of sightseeing, one can take a hundred year old trolley line to go from centuries old castles and cathedrals to cutting edge ultramodern skyscrapers. Both the old and new proved interesting to me!

Cruising through Fall – October 2017 Financial Update

November 7, 2017 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

October was another great month for us! We had a blast, blew some money on a quick jaunt on the high seas, and enjoyed the outdoors. And grew $42,000 wealthier while having all that fun. No complaints here.

In financial terms, our net worth climbed to $1,978,000. Income remained steady at $4,573 while total spending for the month of October remained modest at $1,748. Given that we don’t even spend our current income, I’m starting to unravel the mystery of why our cash balance continues to grow month after month. Spending less than we make – an old habit we can’t kick.

Exploring La Alhambra and the Narrow Alleyways of Granada, Spain

October 10, 2017 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Travel

This week we’re visiting the third stop on our nine week family vacation in Europe. After spending two nights in Malaga, Spain, the five of us set out on a two hour bus ride to Granada, Spain.

Upon arriving in Granada, we immediately noticed it was very hot but very dry. We caught a city bus to the center of town, hopped off, and walked the last five minutes to our Airbnb. This Airbnb was small and spartanly furnished but clean and modern – Ikea Chic style. The apartment had all the basics – air conditioning, clothes washer, dishwasher, sleek bathroom, and full size refrigerator. I was concerned the air conditioning wouldn’t be able to keep up with the 95-100 degree heat, but fortunately for us it had a setting that probably translates to “super jet fan turbo blast” in English. Not a bad place to stay for three nights.

September 2017 Financial Update

October 5, 2017 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance

Life is going well for the Root of Good family. The kids are all back in school and we are settling into our new school-time routine. Most weekday mornings start with the walk to school to drop off our kindergartner. Then we play tennis, take a walk, go hiking, or go swimming. As the days grow cooler we’ll adjust our routine to take advantage of warmer afternoons on days that we plan on being outside for a while. I always look forward to fall and this year is no different. For us it means more time outside, campfires, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and time with family.

We just closed the books on September and along with it, marked the end of the third quarter of 2017. Our income spiked up to $7,433 for the month while our expenses remained low at $1,824. Net worth grew by a massive $46,000, thereby boosting our net worth to $1,936,000 by the end of September.

Our Early Retirement Didn’t Go As Planned… Our Net Worth Went UP Half a Million Dollars!

May 17, 2017 JustinRoG Blog Updates, Financial Independence, Personal Finance, Travel

In contrast to early retirement modeling that looks for all the worst cases and failure modes, our actual life the past almost four years illustrates that good things can offset the bad events in life.

Financial planning for early retirement is pretty straightforward. Figure out how much you plan on spending in early retirement then save up till you have between 25 and 33 times your annual expenses in your investment portfolio. We initially planned on spending $32,000 per year plus a large lump sum for the three kids’ college tuition. Using the 33x multiplier (which represents a 3% withdrawal rate), that means we needed $1,056,000 plus another $100,000 to cover tuition, or roughly $1,150,000 in total investments. That’s about what we started with four years ago but now we have a lot more.

April 2017 Financial Update

May 8, 2017 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance

This year is flying by so far! Now that we are one third of the way through 2017, our financial picture for the year is becoming clearer. And it’s a good picture so far. Our spending for April remained below budget at $2,981 while our income of $3,321 slightly exceeded our expenses. Our portfolio and other assets continue their upward trajectory with a $34,000 gain bringing our total net worth to $1,805,000.

This time of year is one of the prettiest in North Carolina, with moderate temperatures perfect for exploring the outdoors. Or lounging in the hammock on the back porch. The past month has been incredibly busy for us with school events, time with family and friends, tackling some issues around the house, and entering the final stages of planning and preparation for our nine week summer vacation in Europe (we leave in about a month).

When is Enough Enough?

April 27, 2017 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle

Guest post from Early Retirement Dude:

It’s May of 2005 and I’m officially quitting my job this morning—or, technically, I’m being laid off because I’ve turned down a directed transfer—and part of the process is an exit interview with our divisional president.

I’ve just turned thirty-six.

Cliff is a good guy, and for a couple more hours I’m two tiers down from him on the org chart. I report directly to a woman who reports directly to him, so he and I have gotten to know one another and become friends. He’s also helped me out career-wise; involved me in higher-level meetings, invited me to the right cocktail parties, and been solicitous of my opinion.