2023 - Page 2 of 3 - Route to Retire

A Month-Long Vacation in Boquete, Panama: What I Loved… and What I Didn’t

6 Comments / Panama, Health and Fitness, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 25, 2023

Well, we just wrapped up a month-long vacation in Boquete, Panama. Wow, I missed it here! For those of you who aren’t regular readers, we lived in Boquete for just shy of three years starting in 2019 before returning to the U.S. in the spring of 2022. Moving back to the U.S. was a difficult decision that has both its pros and cons but either way, it was great to be back there again. This trip came about because of […]

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Running Out of Money To Save $52: Is It Worth It?

17 Comments / Spending, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 11, 2023

Here we are cruising along into almost 5 years of early retirement. It’s been a heckuva blessed ride… life’s been good for sure! But now we’re at a pivot point that will likely make running out of money by the end of this month a good possibility. Wait, what? Aren’t you guys millionaires? How is that even possible and what the heck is going on?! It’s not as bad as it sounds but I’m pushing things right to the wire

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The Surprisingly Boring Career Path That Brought Us to Financial Independence

23 Comments / Motivation, Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment / Jim @ Route To Retire / June 27, 2023

There tends to be a stigma in society that you need to own a company, become some big real estate mogul, be a celebrity, or just come from money in order to find your way to financial independence. So then we like to come up with excuses reasons as to why we can’t do that ourselves… “If I was in that position, it would be easy! No way I can do that because of xxxxxxx [insert whatever rationalization you want

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Evolving from Sense of Purpose to Presence: Savoring the “Now” More

26 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / June 13, 2023

I’ve always thought that an essential part of life included finding a sense of purpose. After all, if you didn’t add anything worthwhile to the world, was your life just a waste of time? So that’s always been something I’ve had in the back of my mind and it certainly became a little more in the forefront of my thoughts once I retired early at the end of 2018. Like most things though, I got wrapped up in our daily

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You Gotta Spend Money To Make Money, Right? Our Monster Travel Experiment

49 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip, Spending / Jim @ Route To Retire / May 23, 2023

We all know the saying “You gotta spend money to make money.” I’ve never bought into that but with this major change we’re making, I’ve really got my fingers crossed that it’ll run true. You see, my family and I made a big decision not even a month ago. We’ve decided to wrap up the lease to our apartment here in Ohio later this summer, put our stuff in storage, and travel around the country with an RV travel trailer

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Limited Time, Unlimited Dreams: 3 Steps to an Extraordinary Life

6 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Saving, Spending, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / May 9, 2023

As I find my way closer to 50 (I’ll be 48 in a couple of months), I’m starting to see those small changes creeping up that I thought only happen to old people. Oh crap, am I old?!! Out of nowhere, my eyes have gotten a little weaker – both near and far! I can see close-up pretty well most of the time but I finally broke down and bought some readers for nighttime reading. The same goes for distance.

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10-Year Wait Over: Our Refreshing Small Getaway Alone

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / Jim @ Route To Retire / April 18, 2023

My wife, Lisa, and I used to be the king and queen of the small getaway. We took trips every chance we could… and then we had our daughter, Faith, almost 13 years ago. That changed everything. And that change was wonderful for sure… but the small getaway with just me and Lisa seemed to find its way out the door. Eventually, I retired from my working career at the age of 43 at the end of 2018. It was

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Is Temu Legit? Here’s How I’m Saving Big With This Fun App

12 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Saving, Spending / Jim @ Route To Retire / April 11, 2023

So I’ve been playing a Mahjong game on my phone periodically when I get a few minutes here and there. My wife, Lisa, loves to rag on me and tell me that it’s a game for 95-year-old women but I enjoy it so I’ll just graciously accept my lumps from her. But the game does have its share of ads in it that you can’t pay to remove (though I’d probably be too cheap to do so anyway). For the

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Creating Your Dream Life: The Ultimate Bucket List Blueprint

20 Comments / Motivation, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / March 28, 2023

If you’ve been following along, you know that I hit a rough patch in my mental wellness last year. You might also know that I’m now back on track and working on bringing back the eye of the tiger in life. Between reading various books on finding your purpose, doing a ridiculous amount of thinking, and spending time mapping things out, I feel more on track now than I have in a long time. As a lover of spreadsheets, I

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Boost Your Child’s Credit Score With This Simple Trick

Leave a Comment / Kids, Debt, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning / Jim @ Route To Retire / March 21, 2023

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trying to give my daughter the hook-up on her credit lately. Yes, Faith’s only 12, but that’s even more of a reason to work on it now – this will put her on the right track so she’ll be starting out strong. A few weeks ago, I discussed Freezing Your Child’s Credit: Why It’s Critical and How To Do It. This was the first step I wanted to do to make sure she

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