Root of Good

November 2024 Early Retirement Update – Home for the Holidays Edition

December 10, 2024 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle

After a busy travel season from April to November, where we spent five months on vacation, it’s time for a break. A vacation from vacationing (ha ha ha!).

I have a growing to-do list of deferred maintenance tasks around the house to keep me busy over the holidays. On top of that, I need to tackle the ordinary end of year financial and administrative chores such as tax optimizing, financial recordkeeping, and enrolling in an ACA health insurance plan.

December and January won’t be all work and no play, however. I expect to have lots of lazy days around the house enjoying the quiet of winter as well.

On to our financial progress. November was a mixed month for our finances. Our net worth increased by $102,000 to end the month at $3,376,000. Our income of $3,675 was substantially lower than our spending of $11,184 for the month of November.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

October 2024 Early Retirement Update – On the Water Edition

November 7, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We are at home in Raleigh for a brief stay before we head back out for another two week cruise for most of the rest of November.

This is the busiest stretch of travel we’ve ever had. The last time we were at home for the entire month was nine months ago in February. It’s almost like our home in Raleigh is our vacation home and we just stop in for a couple weeks here and there before heading out the door again.

We’re enjoying the cooler weather in Raleigh during the fall. I am glad we have the chance to take all these fun trips but I do miss being at home during the nicest parts of the year. Fortunately, we will have almost two months in Raleigh between late November and early January, so there should still be some beautiful days ahead.

On to our financial progress. October was a mixed month for our finances. Our net worth declined by $92,000 to end the month at $3,274,000. Our income of $6,239 was substantially higher than our modest spending of $1,570 for the month of October.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

September 2024 Early Retirement Update – Alaska Cruise Edition

October 9, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We just got back to Raleigh after a two week cruise to Alaska during the last half of September. Alaska really exceeded expectations with its natural beauty and landscapes.

After a busy summer, we have an equally busy fall travel season as well. We have a couple more days in Raleigh and then we head to the Caribbean for another roughly two week cruise. Weather permitting, of course.

Right now I’m playing the travel agent trying to keep up with rebooking flights, hotels, and possibly cruises as we get hurricane-related cancellations and notifications this week. This is our first real cruise travel hiccup related to a hurricane. I think we’ll end up doing okay without missing out on much of our travel.

On to our financial progress. September was another great month for our finances. Our net worth shot up by $54,000 to end the month at $3,366,000. Our income of $10,109 was substantially more than our spending of $1,768 for the month of September.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

Where We Stayed During Our Two Month Vacation in Poland

September 18, 2024 JustinRoG Personal Finance, Travel

Here’s a special mid-month update from Root of Good! A reader asked for more detail about the lodging we usually book on our multi-month vacations.

Phillip wrote:

“I am constantly amazed at how frugal you are able to travel, especially on big ticket items like lodging. It would be great to see lodging pictures, like the apartment and hotel you stayed at. That would greatly help me understand what value for the buck you are getting in different places.”

To summarize our overarching philosophy on lodging choices, we’re looking for a good value for nice, comfortable places to stay.

High priorities to us:

Cleanliness
Convenience
Quiet
Simple
Affordable

Our usual search filter when four of us travel as a family is “highly rated, two bedrooms, and three beds”. This filter gets us apartments where the kids have their own bedroom to share and each kid has their own bed. And no one has to sleep on a sleeper sofa in the living room.

I set the price filter to max out somewhere at or just below the median rental price for the area and start looking at the less expensive properties first. If nothing acceptable appears in the search results, we go up in price in $10/nt increments until something nice shows up.

August 2024 Early Retirement Update – Saying Goodbye To Poland

September 10, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! After spending over two months exploring Poland this summer, we have enjoyed the past month of relaxation at our home in Raleigh now that we are back. As this post goes live, we are mere days away from setting off for a two week cruise to Alaska to finish out the month of September.

October and November will be similarly busy with a lengthy cruise scheduled for each of those months. Then we have the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays back at home in Raleigh. The rest of 2024 looks quite busy!

On to our financial progress. August was another great month for our finances. Our net worth shot up by $63,000 to end the month at $3,312,000. Our income of $2,604 was a bit less than our spending of $3,348 for the month of August.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

July 2024 Early Retirement Update – Second Month in Poland Edition

August 19, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to Root of Good, folks! After a very busy nine weeks of summer vacation in Poland, we are finally back home in Raleigh. We capped off our trip in Poland with nine days in Gdansk near the Baltic Sea before flying back to the United States.

After a summer of exploring castles and cathedrals, narrow alleys in old villages, and tree-lined valley trails leading to waterfalls on the mountainside, it’s great to finally be home where we can relax in comfort. We have a full month before we hit the road again for a two week Alaskan cruise in September.

Right now, we’re busy with the kids’ back to school activities. Two kids start college the day this post goes live, and the youngest kid will start seventh grade in about a week.

On to our financial progress. July was a stupendous month for our finances. Our net worth shot up by $129,000 to end the month at $3,249,000. Our income of $10,092 exceeded our spending of $3,735 for the month of July by a wide margin.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

June 2024 Early Retirement Update – Summer in Poland Edition

July 8, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to Root of Good, folks! We landed in Poland a month ago and we have been enjoying this new-to-us country quite a bit. We started our trip in Krakow and made our way south to the Tatra mountains and Zakopane near the border of Slovakia.

As I write this, we are in the southwestern part of Poland in the Klodzko Valley very close to the Czech Republic. Over the next few weeks we’ll head north toward Gdansk with several stops along the way.

On to our financial progress. June was a good month overall for our finances. Our net worth dipped slightly by $16,000 to end the month at $3,120,000. Our income of $13,376 exceeded our spending of $5,889 for the month of June by a wide margin.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

May 2024 Early Retirement Update – Summer is Here

June 6, 2024 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to Root of Good, folks! We are back in Raleigh after our latest Caribbean cruise. In a few days we hit the road again. We’ll spend two months visiting Krakow, Zakopane, Wroclaw, Gdansk and half a dozen other places scattered across Poland.

During May, we spent 10 nights aboard the MSC Magnifica cruise ship sailing around the Caribbean. Our favorite port of call this time around was Key West, Florida. It was our first time visiting the shady, tree-lined streets of the southernmost town in the continental United States.

In other exciting news, we had another kid graduate college in May. She finished her Associates degree at the community college and will be attending NC State University in the fall in order to complete her Bachelors degree.

On to our financial progress. May was a great month for our finances. Our net worth shot up by $121,000 to end the month at $3,136,000. Our income of $2,266 exceeded our spending of $1,875 for the month of May.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

April 2024 Early Retirement Update – Cruising the Caribbean Edition

May 8, 2024 JustinRoG Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance, Travel

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We are back at home in Raleigh after a fun 11 night cruise to the Caribbean during April. In a few days we return to the Caribbean for another week and a half sailing around the deep blue sea. Then we’ll have a couple more weeks at home in Raleigh before leaving for our two month trip in Poland. I think I need a vacation from all these vacations!

Although our travel schedule for 2024 keeps us pretty busy, we still have a lot of relaxing days at home in between our trips. This early retired life is pretty sweet!

On to our financial progress. April was a mixed month for our finances. On the one hand, our net worth crashed by $114,000 to end the month at $3,015,000. Our income of $4,266 significantly exceeded our spending of $1,719 for the month of April.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

March 2024 Early Retirement Update – Busy Springtime Edition

April 4, 2024 JustinRoG Awesome!, Financial Independence, Lifestyle, Personal Finance

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! I’m releasing this update just a few days into the new month because we’re rushing out the door for a cruise in a couple of days. Our spring and summer travel schedule will keep us pretty busy with three cruises and a two month trip to Poland between now and September.

Spring is here in North Carolina. Just look at the thick layer of green pollen coating everything and you’ll know! Hopefully the air will be pollen-free when we’re sailing around the Caribbean next week on our cruise. We’ll visit Aruba, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and a couple other places during our 11 night cruise. It’s a similar itinerary to the one we took over this past Christmas with the kids. But this time we are going without the kids since they have school.

On to our financial progress. March was an incredible month for our finances in all regards. Our net worth shot up by $127,000 (!!), to end the month at $3,129,000. Our income of $10,736 far exceeded our spending of $3,525 for the month of March.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.