Is It Worth It to Open a Credit Card With a Huge Annual Fee?

Is It Worth It to Open a Credit Card With a Huge Annual Fee?

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By / September 25, 2022

Yeah, this was something I was initially against. Why on earth would anyone pay that much money to open a credit card?! After several years of thinking that way, I’ve since changed my mind. And I recently applied for and got a credit card with a $395 annual fee!! It was something that we’d never done before. Premium cards like this are expensive and they never seemed worthwhile to us. Sure you get some good perks with them, but could …

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Protect Your Credit – The 3 Vital Steps You Need To Take

Protect Your Credit – The 3 Vital Steps You Need To Take

8 Comments / Consumer Protection / By / September 19, 2022

I’ve been meaning to write about what you need to do to protect your credit for a while now. It’s such an important topic, but it seems to be something that’s glaringly overlooked by many. I noticed that anytime the subject comes up in conversation (yeah, I’m a blast at parties!), most folks have no idea about it or what to do. That can be a huge oversight since just a few simple steps can aid in preventing financial identity …

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Finding My Place Again in the U.S. – 3 Things I’m Worried About

Finding My Place Again in the U.S. – 3 Things I’m Worried About

27 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By / September 13, 2022

We moved to Boquete, Panama back in 2019, just months after I had retired from work at the end of 2018. We had sold everything we owned and moved to a country that we had only visited one other time – a country where we knew no one and almost everyone speaks Spanish. You would think that this whirlwind would be one of the biggest hurdles in life to adjust to and figure out. Funny enough though, finding my place …

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This Set of Dumbbells Is So Good That My Cheap @#$ Just Spent $300 on Them!

This Set of Dumbbells Is So Good That My Cheap @#$ Just Spent $300 on Them!

20 Comments / Health and Fitness, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By / September 5, 2022

Working out is something I’ve made a priority in my life since reaching early retirement at the end of 2018. I’ve worked out at home, done different gyms, and even bought an over-priced set of dumbbells in the U.S. while we were living in Panama just so I’d have something to use when visiting. Now that we’re back in the U.S. to live, I needed to figure out what I’d use for my workouts here. I initially planned to use …

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The #1 Best Way To Track Credit Card Rewards

The #1 Best Way To Track Credit Card Rewards

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Product and Service Reviews / By / August 29, 2022

We’ve been leveraging credit card travel rewards for several years now. It’s given us the ability to travel the world either for free or very inexpensively. The biggest hurdle though is figuring out a good way to track credit card rewards. I wrote in my post, Travel Rewards, 12 Free Flights Earned in 9 Months!, that I had created a spreadsheet to track credit card rewards for ourselves. I use it all the time and it’s a freebie I share …

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Taking Stock – A Breath of Fresh Air on the Path to Financial Independence

Taking Stock – A Breath of Fresh Air on the Path to Financial Independence

4 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / By / August 26, 2022

Several months ago, Jordan Grumet asked me if I’d like to read an advance copy of his new book, Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life. I met Jordan at the personal finance conference FinCon a number of years ago. He was such a likable guy, interesting to talk to, and very insightful. That could also be why he’s run a successful podcast for years now. It’s called the Earn & …

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Why Not One More? Transform Your Life!

Why Not One More? Transform Your Life!

12 Comments / Motivation, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments / By / August 21, 2022

I realized something while working out recently – something important to understand. There’s one thing that keeps many of us from achieving extraordinary things in life. It’s the difference between average and exceptional – just two simple words… One more. Imagine lifting a set of dumbbells and you plan to do 12 in your set. When you get to 12, what’s stopping you from doing one more? It might not sound like much, but if you consistently raise the reps …

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ACA Subsidies Mean We Only Pay $227.34/Mo for Our Family of 3

ACA Subsidies Mean We Only Pay $227.34/Mo for Our Family of 3

22 Comments / Health and Fitness, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Insurance, Life in Early Retirement / By / August 14, 2022

I talked last year about how we planned to keep our health insurance costs low once we moved back to the U.S. from Panama. Well, that time is now and I wanted to share how ACA subsidies have enabled us to keep our costs even lower than anticipated. One of the toughest areas to plan for in early retirement is health insurance. Finding quality health care coverage at an affordable price to tide you over until Medicare eligibility at 65 …

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Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone Led to an 8-Night Fishing Trip of a Lifetime in Canada

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone Led to an 8-Night Fishing Trip of a Lifetime in Canada

18 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement / By / August 8, 2022

I like to push myself to try new things that are outside of my comfort zone. A good example of this is when I hiked up a volcano in Panama earlier this year. Although it was definitely out of my wheelhouse, these are the sorts of things that help open my mind up to new and possibly great experiences. So when my cousin Dennis told me they had someone back out of their big week-long fishing trip in the bush …

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I Need a Mental Break

I Need a Mental Break

30 Comments / Health and Fitness, Blogging, General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By / July 7, 2022

I’m exhausted and I need a mental break. There’s this weird dynamic in the blogging (and social media) world where the more you’re out doing “stuff”, the more it looks like you’re out living the dream. I’ve never really cared much about all that but I do put my life out there for everyone (both good and bad). And this year, we’ve been insanely busy doing more stuff than I could have ever imagined. Most of you know that we’ve …

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