We’re Saving Over $800 on Our Trip to Mexico… Here’s the Plan

We’re Saving Over $800 on Our Trip to Mexico… Here’s the Plan

10 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Saving, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By / September 9, 2021

Moving back to the U.S. from Boquete, Panama next spring is going to be bittersweet. But we’re excited about our new adventures to come… starting with a trip to Mexico on the way back! It’s still hard for us to grasp that we’re not locked into doing the “normal” type of vacations anymore. Since we’re early-retired and Faith’s homeschooling, we have the ability to slow travel or just make up new paths in life on the fly. In this case, …

We’re Saving Over $800 on Our Trip to Mexico… Here’s the Plan Read More »

Wow, Big Changes for Tourists Visiting Panama!

Wow, Big Changes for Tourists Visiting Panama!

19 Comments / Panama, Travel and Vacation / By / September 7, 2021

Well, things have just gotten interesting in Panama. A few really big changes have just dropped that will affect anyone wanting to visit the country. There’s no doubt that we’ve been on a roller coaster of fun with the pandemic over the past year and a half. It’s made international travel a little stressful, to say the least. Everything’s been a moving target and it takes some effort to stay on top of all the new rules and decrees that …

Wow, Big Changes for Tourists Visiting Panama! Read More »

Estate Planning 101 – Getting Your Affairs in Order

Estate Planning 101 – Getting Your Affairs in Order

3 Comments / Estate Planning, Insurance, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Real Estate / By / September 11, 2021

I just finished reading a book called Estate Planning 101 by Vicki Cook and Amy Blacklock. If you haven’t gotten your affairs in order yet, this book can really help get you on track. You can check out the book here. Let’s be honest – estate planning isn’t the most exciting topic. That said, it might be one of the most important subject matters you ever focus on. I dug into this quite a bit in 2013, a few years …

Estate Planning 101 – Getting Your Affairs in Order Read More »

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments, Motivation / By / August 31, 2021

If you sit on the sidelines and continue to fold instead of playing the hand you’re dealt, you’re never going to get ahead. This is true in poker, but it’s also true in life. It’s time to stop just going through the motions and work on making your dreams come true. I reflect on how much we’ve progressed the last decade or two and I’m amazed and proud of us. Seriously. I retired a couple of years ago at the …

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream Read More »

We Don’t Need More Money... But I Want It!

We Don’t Need More Money… But I Want It!

40 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By / August 24, 2021

The guiding principle of the Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) movement is to get to the point in life where you have enough and don’t need more money to cover your expenses. Once you pull that off, you’re golden. You’re now financially independent and never have to work another day in life again… if you don’t want to. It sounds great, right? And for someone that pulled it off at the age of 43 a couple of years ago, …

We Don’t Need More Money… But I Want It! Read More »

Tigo Just Made International Travel Easier

Tigo Just Made International Travel Easier

4 Comments / Panama, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By / August 14, 2021

Tigo made a new change recently and it’s something that can make life easier for those on some of their cell phone plans. If you do a lot of travel back and forth between different countries like we do, you might be familiar with the SIM card juggling you need to do (unless you have a dual-SIM phone). In the U.S., you can use a service such as Google FI or T-Mobile to give you free roaming in other countries. …

Tigo Just Made International Travel Easier Read More »

Switching to Ezoic Increased My Ad Income by 628%!

Switching to Ezoic Increased My Ad Income by 628%!

12 Comments / Blogging, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Product and Service Reviews, Self-Employment / By / July 30, 2021

I switched the ads on my website from Google AdSense to Ezoic a few months ago and I have to say that I’m astounded by the results! Seeing an increase in ad revenue of over 7x what I was making before is pretty crazy. Let’s start with this though – I’m not a big-time blogger. If you think this site was the catalyst for us to reach early retirement… yeah, not so much. The money we’re talking about is still …

Switching to Ezoic Increased My Ad Income by 628%! Read More »

A Travel Trick for Last-Minute Delayed or Canceled Flights

A Travel Trick for Last-Minute Delayed or Canceled Flights

16 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By / July 19, 2021

Delayed or canceled flights are in no way a fun part of travel. These events can be a real headache in your plans that might already be stressful to you before this curveball. And, although they can usually be dealt with without too much of a problem when there’s a fair amount of notice, that’s not always going to be the case. Sometimes a delayed flight can ruin your connecting flight completely. And last-minute canceled flights can throw your plans …

A Travel Trick for Last-Minute Delayed or Canceled Flights Read More »

Our Travel Perks Are Drying Up and That’s Big $$$!

Our Travel Perks Are Drying Up and That’s Big $$$!

11 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By / July 11, 2021

Between free flights and hotels, zipping through security and customs, or relaxing in airline lounges, travel perks can be such a wonderful asset. And without a doubt, I love every bit of ’em! Over the years, we built up a nice stash of these things just by being strategic in our credit card spending. They’ve not only helped to make our travel more comfortable but also a lot cheaper or completely free. Well, it’s been a few years, but our …

Our Travel Perks Are Drying Up and That’s Big $$$! Read More »

An Example of the Cost of Healthcare in Panama

An Example of the Cost of Healthcare in Panama

27 Comments / Health and Fitness, Insurance, Panama / By / September 14, 2021

The cost of healthcare in the United States is insane. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the whole U.S. system is essentially broken. As a country, we pride ourselves on trying to be the best in the world. But healthcare is one of those areas where the U.S. has not only fallen short but it’s gone off a giant cliff that seems impossible to climb back up from. If you look at the rest of …

An Example of the Cost of Healthcare in Panama Read More »