Root of Good

Going on a Cruise Part 4 – The Food!

October 26, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Travel

I’m all out money saving cruise tips, so here’s a picture post of the different types of food you can enjoy on board.

We thought the food was pretty good, but not everyone agrees. The food varies from cruise line to cruise line, ship to ship, restaurant to restaurant, and even night to night. It’s possible we’ve had a string of good luck with the food on the five cruises we have taken so far.

We really enjoy the variety of dishes because we get to experience things we don’t routinely cook at home.

Going on a Cruise Part 3 – Save on Board and on Transportation

October 19, 2015 JustinRoG Moneyhacks, Personal Finance, Travel

This is part three of my series on cruise vacations. In my first post on cruising I talked about the basics of cruising. In the second post, I showed how to get the best deals when booking a cruise.

In this post I want to cover other ways to save money on cruises while on board and while traveling from your home to the cruise terminal.

Going on a Cruise Part 2 – Getting the Best Deal

October 12, 2015 JustinRoG Moneyhacks, Personal Finance, Travel

This is part two of my series on cruise vacations. In my first post on cruising I talked about the basics of cruising like what the cruise fare covers (and what it doesn’t) and life on board the ship.

In this post I reveal how to get the best deal on cruise fares.

September 2015 Financial Update

October 5, 2015 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

September is over and left us a little poorer but in overall great financial shape. Our net worth dropped by $36,000 in spite of $8,225 in income for the month and a meager $927 in expenses.

The older kids are back in school and we’re settling into the school year routine. I’m back to my normal weekly early retirement schedule. We returned home from our 7 week vacation in Mexico two months ago. Mrs. Root of Good had some excitement this month when she submitted her resignation letter to join me in early retirement. Instead of quitting outright, she’s now working from home four days per week with full time pay. Pretty sweet deal!

Going on a Cruise Part 1 – Overview

September 28, 2015 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Travel

In the past year, the Root of Good family went on two cruises in the Caribbean. I wrote about the first cruise in my September 2014 financial update, and a few people wanted to learn more about cruises.

I think cruising gets unfairly painted with a broad brush. My advice is to discard any preconceived notions you have about cruising such as “it’s for old people”, “it’s boring”, “I don’t want to be stuck on a ship with 3,000 other people”, or “no thanks, not interested in plastic wrapped vacations”.

Just think of a cruise as a floating resort hotel with free food and free transportation to a few sunny and sandy destinations. With free entertainment for kids and adults, 360 degree oceanfront views, and maybe some sea spray if it’s windy.

Mrs. RoG’s First Attempt at Early Retirement

September 21, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle

She did it. She finally did it! On September 1st Mrs. Root of Good formally resigned from her job.

After composing the resignation email at home the previous weekend, she lingered in anguish at her desk on the morning of September 1st with her mouse hovering over the send button. She was very nervous when it came time to email the official resignation letter to her bosses. Was it the right choice? Was it the right time? Will she regret the decision later?

SEND. If not now, when?

It is done.

But there is more to the story of course!

How To Save $375 On Air Conditioner Repair in Two Hours

September 14, 2015 JustinRoG DIY, Personal Finance

Back in May I mentioned that our air conditioner broke and I had to spend a couple of hours researching the issue on the internet and ten minutes installing the messed up part. I estimated the savings at $200-300.

It turns out I was being too generous with my estimate for an AC repairman’s charges. Steve at EscapeVelocity2020 wrote about paying almost $400 to fix his air conditioner. I realized Steve had the exact same issue as I did and the AC tech charged him $398 for the repair instead of the $25 I spent with my DIY repair.

August 2015 Financial Update

September 8, 2015 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance

August showed us how net worth can fluctuate wildly while income and expenses remain fairly stable. August also reminded us that investments in the stock market don’t always go up.

Our net worth reversed course from the previous six months of generally upward momentum and crashed by $74,000 to $1,470,000. That sounds like a scary sum of cash to lose in one month but I’m not worried at all.

Income for the month was lower than normal at $2,016. Expenses of $1,701 were slightly less than our anemic August income. We’re finally settling back down into our lives here in Raleigh after spending June and July out of the country on an incredible seven week journey through Mexico (with three kids!).

The Mini Flash Crash of 2015, or, How I Made $5,000 in 30 Minutes

August 31, 2015 JustinRoG Investing

“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful” says Warren Buffett. At the opening of the stock market last Monday on August 24, 2015, we saw a ton of fear. Following Buffett’s advice, I got greedy.

Out of sheer luck I happened to be sitting in front of the computer at the opening bell. I was looking at my index fund tracker at Yahoo Finance when I saw one of my recent purchases plummet over 30% for no reason at all. Sure, the entire market was down 5-6%, but that didn’t explain the drastic drop I saw. Then I checked a few other ETFs in my portfolio and noticed they were also down by ridiculous amounts of 30% or more.

Celebrating Two Years of Early Retirement

August 24, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle

Wow, two years into early retirement. What have I accomplished? Everything and nothing.

When I entered early retirement by ditching the working world, I was still focused on keeping busy. Productivity, accountability, setting goals. All stuff you have to do when you’re on an annual performance review cycle. I shared my early retirement to do list in my “First Month of Early Retirement” post almost two years ago.