We admit it, we are fixated on, and highly motivated by, our real return on investment. If the money we have invested in the stock market returns between 8-10% per year as anticipated, we are well on track for retirement. If we can find ways to boost our real return on investment along the way, we will retire MUCH sooner than the average American. We will be frugal and free at a very early age.

We are not willing to do "risky" things along the way to boost our potential return on investment so when we find ways of dramatically improving it without risk, we get very excited.

Our real return on investment in year 1 from our purchase of I-bonds was 30% due to the power of leverage. Here is why:

In order to have $30,000 invested in Government I-bonds for 12 full months, we needed to use only a total of $6,458 (about $538 per month) of our own money.
This covered the minimum monthly payments on our credit cards.

The $30,000 produced total interest of $1,950 over that 12 month period ($30,000 x 6.5%).

To figure our real return, we then divide our total interest return by the total amount of our investment (the 12 month total of our minimum payments):

$1,950 Divided by $6,458 = 30.2%

Now THAT is a fantastic return on investment!