June 2020

This Is a Horrible Idea… We’re Doing It Anyway!

This Is a Horrible Idea… We’re Doing It Anyway!

44 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Everything about this plan is a bad idea. We’re just asking for trouble in every way possible. But… we’re doing it anyway! If you read my post “Our Planned Trip Back to the U.S. from Panama…” from a few weeks ago, you might remember that we were heading back to the U.S. in the second week of July. Well, not too surprisingly, that whole agenda fell apart quickly. The President of Panama, Nito Cortizo, decided to extend the suspension of […]

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How I Got Over $181,000 of Free Money for Retirement

How I Got Over $181,000 of Free Money for Retirement

24 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving / /

I had a thought recently that made me wonder how much free money for retirement was given to me during my last job. My former employer was always generous in taking care of employees through the 401(k) plan offered. So just how much of our net worth could be attributed to that facet of saving? I dug up my old 401(k) statements and expected the need to spend a lot of time breaking things down and then adding up all

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Life Insurance in Early Retirement… Cancel or Keep It?

26 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I just paid the $335 annual premium again for the term life insurance policy we have in place on Lisa… same as I do every June. Then every January we pay the $673 annual premium on the term life insurance policy on my head. We’ve paid $1,008 out of our pockets every year since 2010. That’s over $10,000 spent on something we haven’t gotten anything out of at all. Our 20-year policies expire in the year 2030 so that’s another

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Here's Why I'm Liking... The Fitbod App

Here’s Why I’m Liking… The Fitbod App

5 Comments / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / /

Hey, everyone – I thought it would be fun to start a new series called “Here’s Why I’m Liking…” I’m guessing that the title of this one should be a pretty good giveaway that I’m talking about the Fitbod app today. I keep running into awesome products, services, apps, and just other fun stuff that I think you would enjoy as well. This series will showcase those cool things. Sometimes there are just some great products and services out there

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Racism and Privilege - My Naivety is Astounding!

Racism and Privilege – My Naivety is Astounding!

29 Comments / General Thoughts / /

This post is truly a break from the norm for me. My knowledge of racism and privilege is both limited and skewed. I’ve never thought of myself as a racist or even privileged before. However, my eyes have been opening slowly to a world I wasn’t seeing – one that’s slanted in favor of white people like myself. I’ll be honest – this is a subject that I don’t feel comfortable addressing. As a white male, I’m hesitant that I’ll

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My Homeschooling Review After One Interesting Year

11 Comments / Kids, Education, Guest Posts, Life in Early Retirement / /

After a year of teaching Faith ourselves (mostly Lisa), she was nice enough to give us a homeschooling review. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lisa and I were both blessed enough to retire from our jobs. I left my job at the end of 2018 after 20 years in IT. Then in 2019, we sold everything and moved to Panama with just two suitcases each. We decided not to get residency here yet until we’ve had a chance

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Our Planned Trip Back to the U.S. from Panama…

22 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Oh, don’t you worry, this planned trip is just a visit to the States – we’re not ready to move back from Panama just yet! Crazy times we’re living in aren’t they? This pandemic has probably affected every one of us in one way or another… it’s kind of insane when you think about it. At the end of March, we had decided we would take our chances here in Panama rather than head back to the U.S. It was

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