Entitled Kid Syndrome… Our 4-Part Preventative Strategy Entitled Kid Syndrome…

Entitled Kid Syndrome… Our 4-Part Preventative Strategy

16 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By / November 20, 2022

“Wow, that’s one entitled kid for sure!” Words you don’t ever want to hear about your child. We’re blessed to have saved enough money to be able to enjoy early retirement. As a millionaire family that doesn’t live extravagantly, a lot of the money stress tends to subside (though not completely). It’s been wonderful to be able to spend my days with my wife and daughter. In fact, being able to be a bigger part of my daughter’s life while …

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10 Secret Library Resources That Can Save You a Ton of Dough!

10 Secret Library Resources That Can Save You a Ton of Dough!

23 Comments / Saving, Education, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Spending / By / November 14, 2022

You might have noticed that I didn’t write anything last week. Last year, I “gave myself permission” to take time off from blogging periodically. That’s not an easy thing for me. In the year and a half since I wrote that post, I’ve only skipped a few weeks of writing… it’s hard to let go! I enjoy writing for the blog but I sometimes struggle by making it more of an obligation than a fun hobby. Nevertheless, it was nice …

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Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

14 Comments / Motivation, Education, Health and Fitness, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / By / October 31, 2022

When I reached early retirement at the end of 2018, I gained the one big gift I was looking for in life… more time and freedom. That’s a true blessing, my friends, and I try not to squander it. I strive to use some of that “super power” to push myself to become a better person – both physically and mentally. Change is hard, but I like it. It’s easy just to continue rolling forward while doing the same old …

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My 3 Rules and My 3 Favorite Indulgences Cruise Vacations

Cruise Vacations – My 3 Rules and My 3 Favorite Indulgences

14 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / October 21, 2022

Ah, the world of cruise vacations… some people love ’em and some people hate ’em. Without a doubt, I’m in the former camp. Cruising is my absolute favorite type of vacation and I’ve even dug into what it would take to live on a cruise ship! I guess I’m not the only one either. My friend John over at ESI Money wrote a deep-dive post into the subject a few years ago titled, Is Retiring on a Cruise Ship an …

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3 Ways a Financial Aggregator Can Help Save You Money

3 Ways a Financial Aggregator Can Help Save You Money

12 Comments / Spending, Consumer Protection, Debt, Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / By / October 14, 2022

A financial aggregator is sort of a broad term that generally refers to software or services that can pull all your financial data into one place. We’re talking about balances and transactions for your bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, loans, and more. You might already be familiar with some of the older players in the game like Quicken, which is still a huge competitor. I used Quicken from 1999 until 2019 (20 years!) until I switched to both Personal …

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7 Cool Resources for Your Mind, Body, and Wallet

7 Cool Resources for Your Mind, Body, and Wallet

14 Comments / Motivation, General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments, Travel and Vacation / By / November 10, 2022

I love reading articles that have something tangible to present. It doesn’t matter if it’s books, documentaries, software, or some kind of hack to improve your life that’s good for your mind, body, or wallet. Make me a better person! Sometimes folks ask me questions about how I accomplished something or why I do things in a particular way. The questions usually revolve around anything from finances to technology to health or anything else that might be on someone’s mind. …

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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

10 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 / November 10, 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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