Category: Personal Finance

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! 

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! 

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.

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We are back home in Raleigh after spending most of the month on a cruise through the Panama Canal. As a result this monthly update is almost a month late. Better late than never, I suppose. 

After being very busy traveling throughout 2025, we are finally home for a long period of time. So far, we have nothing planned for more than two months. The plan is to stick around Raleigh during Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate with our extended families. I’m also hoping to work on a few deferred maintenance projects around the house. Never fear, I also have a list of fun “deferred hobbies” that I have neglected for much of the past year.

Our older two kids are busy with their full time jobs while our son is almost half way through his last year of middle school. Since we are home for two months straight, we’ll have a lot more time to spend with the kids as well. 

On to our financial progress. October was another great month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $23,000 to end the month at $3,850,000. Our October income of $3,943 was way more than enough to cover our spending of $2,003 for the month.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! After a two week cruise exploring the Baltic Capitals in Europe, we’ll have almost a whole month in Raleigh before our next big trip. 

During September, we spent the first couple of weeks prepping for our cruise. It took a lot of time to research the eight different cities we visited around the Baltic sea. We visited Oslo in Norway, Aarhus and Copenhagen in Denmark, Stockholm in Sweden, Kiel and Rostock in Germany, Tallinn in Estonia, and Helsinki in Finland. 

As always, the visit to each port was way too short but what a fascinating trip it was! We visited five new-to-us countries. Each day, we were able to maximize our limited time to explore as much as possible. The fact that our floating hotel followed us from country to country made the rapid-fire journey much smoother. 

On to our financial progress. September was another great month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $67,000 to end the month at $3,827,000. Our September income of $12,046 was way more than enough to cover our spending of $2,694 for the month.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been back at home in Raleigh for a couple of weeks after spending most of August on two different cruises. We’ve had plenty of time to rest and recuperate before our next big adventure that commences in a few more days. Soon we cross the pond for another two week cruise around Europe. 

A bit of family news – after graduating college, our middle child accepted a full time job offer last month. She is scheduled to start next week. Another worker to keep the economy booming and another taxpayer to keep the government revenues flowing! 

On to our financial progress. August was an incredible month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $122,000 to end the month at $3,760,000. Our August income of $1,862 was almost enough to cover our spending of $2,452 for the month.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.