Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

Why Early Retirement Isn’t Just About Escaping a Sh*tty Job

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 11, 2022 January 7, 2022

It seems that more and more folks in the FIRE (financial independence / retire early) community are jumping on the bandwagon of bashing the idea of early retirement… because early retirement now somehow conveys a negative connotation. I even heard some of my favorite hosts talking about this recently on a very popular podcast. The message was basically that early retirement is bad and if you don’t like your job, early retirement isn’t the answer – find a job you …

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Psst… Can You Do Me a Quick Favor?

8 Comments / Blogging / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 6, 2022 January 6, 2022

Hello, Route to Retire reader! I hope you’ve been enjoying the content on this blog that I’ve been sharing for almost 7 years now. I want to ask you for a small favor though… As some of you know, I’ve been working with Ezoic on my site and I love the partnership that we have. They’ve helped to speed up this website and make it more efficient. They’ve also helped me increase the amount of ad income the site generates. …

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Going to the Movies in Panama: 5 Interesting Lessons Learned

6 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 4, 2022 December 30, 2021

I’ve always been a little curious about going to the movies in Panama. How much different would it be from going to the movies in the U.S.? Are there subtitles in English or Spanish? Are the movies dubbed over in Spanish? Is it cheaper than what we’re used to seeing? What is the experience like in the theater – are the Panamanians talkers during the movie? We’ve lived in Boquete, Panama since 2019 and only finally went to see our …

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The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2021… That Aren’t Fritz’s

6 Comments / Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids, Panama, Real Estate / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 28, 2021 December 28, 2021

I was trying to decide what to write for this week’s post. Then I ran across my friend Fritz’s recent post, The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2021. That seemed like the perfect way to end the year… so I stole his idea! Ok, I didn’t really steal it. I reached out to Fritz to see if he’d be ok with me writing a post of my own like his… and he was just fine with the idea. See? We …

Time Marches on… Getting You Up to Speed

6 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Health and Fitness, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 21, 2021 December 21, 2021

That’s right, folks – time marches on. Time always marches on. And it’s been a while since I’ve updated you on where we’re at and what we’ve been doing. Things are changing quickly for us and it’s tough to stay on top of all our upcoming plans. We have so much going on and time seems to be flying by incredibly fast. It’s crazy to think that we just went to the States for a month-long visit and came back …

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Doing Your Own Taxes and Planning… or Die Trying!

10 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Self-Employment / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 14, 2021 January 17, 2022

I’ve bounced back and forth over the years in preparing my own taxes or having a CPA handle the job. If you’re using TurboTax, H&R Block’s software, TaxSlayer, TaxAct, or some other software when doing your own taxes, you’re already familiar with how they’re relatively easy to use (except when they’re not). But if you’re trying to do financial planning along the way that might affect your taxes, running solo can be a struggle if you don’t know the ins …

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Selling Everything We Owned Has Been Truly Liberating

24 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Motivation, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 7, 2021 January 11, 2022

Selling everything and just taking off and leaving is a dream a lot of folks have… even if it’s just a fleeting thought. To actually do it though sounds crazy. Who would do something like that?! Yeah, we were those people. We got rid of just about everything we owned and headed to Panama in the summer of 2019. At the time, we were just going through the checklist of moving preparation to make it happen. One of the biggest …

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Looking Back From Your Deathbed… Be Alive Now!

13 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / November 30, 2021 November 23, 2021

Picture yourself on your deathbed looking back on your life… A few fun vacations, some great nights out with friends, or maybe some great memories with a loved one or kids. Whatever comes to mind, I’m sure there will be some great memories that’ll make you smile. But now dig a little and try to think about what you’ve regretted not trying or doing more of in life. Maybe it’s the simpler things like sitting back and watching a couple …

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Using Your HSA for Retirement – How to Track It Easily and Efficiently

32 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Taxes and Financial Planning / By Jim @ Route To Retire / November 23, 2021 November 23, 2021

Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) have been around in the U.S. since the end of 2003. However, using your HSA for retirement has only been gaining popularity over the last handful of years. There’s no doubt that this is one very special account. Although designed as a medical savings account to be paired with a high-deductible health plan (HDHP), there’s a crafty way to make it even more valuable. In doing so, your money goes in with pre-tax dollars, grows tax-free, …

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The 2 Most Useful Spanish Phrases I Love to Use

18 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Education, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / By Jim @ Route To Retire / November 16, 2021 November 13, 2021

For those of you who are regular followers of this site, you know that I’ve continued to improve my Spanish-speaking skills since moving to Panama in 2019. That said, some Spanish phrases are more useful than others. Sure, it’s great to know common expressions such as: Buenos días (Good morning) ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) ¿Hablas inglés? (Do you speak English?) Disculpe/Permiso (Excuse me – disculpe to ask a question and permiso to pass by someone) Terminology like these examples …

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