We Paid $3,200 for an Incredible $25K Europe Trip… Here’s How We Did It

We Paid $3,200 for an Incredible $25K Europe Trip… Here’s How We Did It

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending / /

I’ve been excited to tell you the details of our planned Europe trip for a while now. But I wanted to wait until we had the framework all planned out. We now have 38 nights of fun booked for this fall. This includes flights, lodging, cruises, and a first-class train ride. Now that everything’s in place, I did the math on what this would have cost if we had just booked everything through normal channels (Priceline, Booking.com, airline and cruise […]

We Paid $3,200 for an Incredible $25K Europe Trip… Here’s How We Did It Read More »

Cruise Ship Internet Sharing: How I Bypassed the Hotspot Restriction

Cruise Ship Internet Sharing: How I Bypassed the Hotspot Restriction

18 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement / /

Another day, another cruise. 🙂 Our year of travel continues! We just got back from another Caribbean cruise. This was a 7-night vacation on MSC Cruises and we were fortunate to be joined by some friends this time. We also had two “free” cabins through the casino from our quest to gain free cruises last year, so we hooked up our Panama friends with one of them. See, I can be nice sometimes! It was a great cruise and we

Cruise Ship Internet Sharing: How I Bypassed the Hotspot Restriction Read More »

Hunting for the Great Deal vs Just Working a Little More

Hunting for the Great Deal vs Just Working a Little More

10 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

I love a great deal. I imagine most people are like that regardless of how much or how little money they have. There’s something satisfying about the whole idea of getting a bargain – almost as if you somehow won “the game” (whatever that game is). But in most cases, scoring a great deal (particularly online) involves some effort on your part. And sometimes getting that great deal can involve a lot of time and effort. Unfortunately, at times, putting

Hunting for the Great Deal vs Just Working a Little More Read More »

My 10-Day Detox Cleanse… Was It Worthwhile?

My 10-Day Detox Cleanse… Was It Worthwhile?

14 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement / /

A detox cleanse?? What is this, some sort of health blog now?! Nah, that’s only a small portion of what I like to talk about. However, one of the things I continue to strive for is to better myself. And with that comes improving my health, which really isn’t much fun, to be honest. Who are these people who enjoy working out and eating all the right foods?! Nonetheless, my goal is to live a long and healthy life, and

My 10-Day Detox Cleanse… Was It Worthwhile? Read More »

The Secret to Scoring the Cheapest Southwest Flights

The Secret to Scoring the Cheapest Southwest Flights

6 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Saving, Spending / /

Do you believe that decades ago, I used to hate Southwest Airlines? I thought it was just a mess of an airline and way too chaotic. Fast forward to the past decade and it’s my preferred airline to fly. I love how easy it is to cancel or change your flight. I love that they’re still not charging for checked bags (even though we only do carry-on bags nowadays). I love how the flight attendants generally try to put on

The Secret to Scoring the Cheapest Southwest Flights Read More »

2 Helpful Books That Are Great in Completely Different Ways

2 Helpful Books That Are Great in Completely Different Ways

Leave a Comment / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Product and Service Reviews / /

I’ve always loved reading ever since I was a kid. I actually had a relatively big toy box that I kept in my bedroom closet. It was obviously meant for storing lots of toys, but I filled it completely with nothing books instead. I read so many books all the time and loved it. Yeah, I’m a nerd, but who cares? Over time though, life got in the way. Once I got to high school and college, reading what I

2 Helpful Books That Are Great in Completely Different Ways Read More »

3 Powerful Keys to Living a Healthier, Wealthier, Happier Life

3 Powerful Keys to Living a Healthier, Wealthier, Happier Life

8 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Taxes and Financial Planning, Travel and Vacation / /

In 2018, we finally told our family and friends that we were moving to Boquete, Panama in 2019. That was a mixed bag of support and in some cases a big old dumpster fire. Obviously, there was some sadness that we were moving away to another country. But what was more interesting was that a lot of the feedback we got was about how dangerous it would be with drug cartels, human trafficking, and excessive violence. Here’s a little secret…

3 Powerful Keys to Living a Healthier, Wealthier, Happier Life Read More »

6 Years of Early Retirement: What I've Learned About Life, Money, and Happiness

6 Years of Early Retirement: What I’ve Learned About Life, Money, and Happiness

16 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Motivation, Panama, Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

Today is the anniversary of my last day of work six years ago. At the end of the workday on December 31, 2018, I became free in a sense. That was the day my early retirement began. If you’ve dreamed about early retirement for a while like I did leading up to this, there’s a little surprise in store that you might not know… It’s not going to be exactly the way you envisioned. That’s because when we daydream or

6 Years of Early Retirement: What I’ve Learned About Life, Money, and Happiness Read More »

Traveling the World: 121 Days, 9 Big Adventures, and 6 Cruises Throughout the Globe

Traveling the World: 121 Days, 9 Big Adventures, and 6 Cruises Throughout the Globe

19 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Spending / /

Things certainly have escalated quickly at the Route to Retire household! We started with the plan to take a couple of vacations over the next year and suddenly we’re traveling the world for 121 days! We seem to have this problem – almost a sickness – where we get an idea and tend to go overboard with it. Instead of visiting the country of Panama for a month or two, we lived there for three years (so worth it!)! The

Traveling the World: 121 Days, 9 Big Adventures, and 6 Cruises Throughout the Globe Read More »

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life

10 Comments / Consumer Protection, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Motivation / /

I spent the last 13+ years of my career in IT as a manager, but I’m still a techie at heart. Even now, almost 7 years into early retirement, I still enjoy keeping up with technology and tinkering with various parts of it. Over the past few years though, I continue to get increasingly concerned about how we don’t protect our data and identities in the digital world we live in. Privacy and security tend to get put on the

Privacy and Security: The Essential Guide to Reclaiming Your Digital Life Read More »