Root of Good

Should Our Family Drop From Two Cars To One?

August 17, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

As Mrs. Root of Good’s retirement date comes closer, we have to revisit the question of whether we should get rid of one of our cars and become a single vehicle family.

First, let’s ponder the significance of the auto. Cars are an oxymoron. They are an incredibly convenient way to travel from point A to point B very quickly. However, owning and maintaining a car isn’t convenient at all. I’m approaching the question of whether we should drop to one car from this vantage point: convenience versus inconvenience and cost.

Why Dropping Out Of School Was A Great Choice For Me

August 10, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Hey look, I tried. I earned A’s. I showed up for class. But it just didn’t work out for me. It was too much work and not enough reward.

No, I didn’t drop out of high school or abandon my undergraduate studies. I didn’t even drop out of law school after discovering I didn’t want to practice law.
But I did drop out of the Master’s program in Civil Engineering after finishing half of the coursework. Only five more classes and I would have earned the Masters degree. But I quit.

July 2015 Financial Update

August 3, 2015 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance

Adios, July! You were great. We just returned home from our seven week vacation in Mexico where we ate tons of crazy delicious food, visited amazing places, and had lots of fun. We thought about whether we could retire abroad and patted ourselves on the back for packing very light for our trip.

July left our finances in great shape. Our net worth continued its climb to $1,544,000. Income for the month was ridiculously large at $9,751 (read on to find out why). Expenses were ridiculously tiny at just $498. A wondrous month of travel and adventure, income 20 times our expenses and a big bump in net worth means we had a superb month in financial and non-financial terms.

The Gear Post: What We Packed For A Seven Week Trip With Kids

July 27, 2015 JustinRoG Personal Finance, Travel

First a bit of philosophy. While we were on our trip, we wanted to be nimble and not encumbered by heavy bags. Large luggage with wheels means checked bags on airlines and the need to flag a taxi if you’re going more than a few blocks. We chose to pack light and take smaller bags so we could walk a mile or so if necessary without needing to take a taxi. Light bags mean we can stop at a store and grab something quickly without fumbling with huge luggage. Packing light also let us hop on and off local buses and subways instead of calling a taxi. This meant spending $1.30 USD to get to and from the airport in Mexico City, for example, instead of $20+ for a taxi. It also means we can exit the plane with all our luggage in hand and proceed directly to our destination and not wait 30+ minutes at baggage claim (if the bags ever show up at all!).

Our light packing made us look a little silly at times. We sometimes get the question “where is your luggage?” because we’re only carrying bookbags for a two month trip.

Eating Our Way Across Mexico

July 20, 2015 JustinRoG Personal Finance, Travel

Our seven week trip through Mexico is slowly coming to an end. As we work our way across the country, we are doing our best to sample every menu item possible. Since we only have seven weeks, we are setting ourselves up for failure given the regional and national diversity of food in Mexico.

The food was a key motivator in our decision to come to Mexico. It’s good. Really good. So good that I eat it all the time at home (mostly cooked in my own kitchen). In fact, while we were on our summer vacation in Canada last year, I suffered from Mexican food withdrawal in Quebec City. Here in Mexico we are (obviously) surrounded by Mexican food every day. And I love it.

My Semi-Retired Summer

July 13, 2015 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Parenting, Personal Finance

Guest post from John at Action Economics: One of the major advantages to my line of work is that I tend to have the entire summer off. I work as a contractor at nuclear power plants during refueling outages, which normally take place during the spring and fall months, since the plants want to be producing power during the peak usage summer and winter months. Having summers off helps our family save a decent amount of money and headache by reducing our childcare expenses, but it also gives me a sneak peak of what early retirement may be like. Currently I am planning to hit Financial Independence by age 45, which is “only” 16 short years away. Having the summers off has shown me that regardless of whether I have to go back to work in September, I certainly won’t be bored with a surplus of free time.

June 2015 Financial Update

July 6, 2015 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

June is over which means we are half way through the year already. After climbing for most of the year, our net worth reversed course and dropped to $1,519,000 due to fluctuations in the stock market. Our income outpaced our expenses by a few thousand dollars and spending for the year remains within our budget. I’d say we are doing pretty well in spite of the drop in net worth.

Right now we are at the midpoint of our seven week vacation in Mexico, so our spending is very different than it normally is while at home in Raleigh.

Retiring Abroad – Could We Do It?

June 29, 2015 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Parenting, Personal Finance, Travel

We are in the middle of our seven week adventure in Mexico right now. Although we traveled to Mexico just for fun, I’m also viewing the trip as an opportunity to explore a few places where we might spend prolonged periods of time in the future. That might mean spending a year or more living abroad or spending summers or winters chasing nice weather.

Mexico tends to top the lists of places to retire abroad. I think I know why: inexpensive living, good weather, and close proximity to the US. But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns south of the border.

Exploring Guanajuato, Mexico

June 22, 2015 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Travel

As week two of our seven week adventure in Mexico came to an end, we took a day trip to Guanajuato, Mexico. It’s only an hour and a half from San Miguel de Allende (where we are staying for two weeks) so it makes for a perfect destination for the day.

To summarize: the city was beautiful. Founded in the 1500’s by the wealth extracted from the town’s silver mines, the town still retains it’s charm today even though silver production has tapered off.

The Start Of Our Adventures in Mexico

June 15, 2015 JustinRoG Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

As I’m writing this at our house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the house maid laboriously scrubs all horizontal and vertical surfaces in the kitchen and just finished washing the dishes. It’s taking some time to get used to having a maid deep clean the house every other day while we lie around the house, stuff our faces and head out for a day of adventuring.

When I say “house”, I should really say “compound”. There is a main house and a separate apartment above us where the kids sleep. Each house has its own kitchen, living room, bathroom(s), and patio.