Jim @ Route To Retire

Book Review: Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence

Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence

2 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I don’t normally write book reviews on this blog, but I’m making an exception for the new Choose FI book.  I was expecting my opinion to sway one way with the book but my impression after reading it went in a completely different direction. Chris Mamula is the author of Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence (along with coauthors Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa).  If you’re not familiar with Chris, he retired in 2017 at the young age of […]

Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence Read More »

Solving the World’s Problems… Starting with Mine!

20 Comments / Panama, Spending / /

When it comes to solving the world’s problems, I’m the man.  I’ve got it all handled.  Call me “Mr. Fix-It”! Ok, maybe that’s far from true.  I’m not solving the world’s problems at all.  In fact, I sometimes struggle to handle my own problems. But, I’m good at adapting and actually enjoy change.  I have an engineer’s/programmer’s mindset and like to logically find an optimal solution to problems. And now that we’re living in Panama, I get to push my

Solving the World’s Problems… Starting with Mine! Read More »

Do Low and Negative Interest Rates Scare You?

12 Comments / Saving, Investments / /

A couple of weeks ago, I brought up the idea of negative interest rates with my nine-year-old daughter, Faith. Yes, this might be something a little weird to talk about with your kid, but it piggy-backed off of our personal finance class during homeschooling.  And of course, I kept it pretty high-level. I had kept it simple talking about how banks pay interest to people who store their money there.  The banks then take that money and loan it out

Do Low and Negative Interest Rates Scare You? Read More »

Boquete, Panama Places to Live… We Found a Rental!

34 Comments / Panama, Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Real Estate / /

Looking at places to live in Panama is kind of an adventure.  There are a lot of nuances you need to be aware of or you could end up very unhappy. For instance, if you don’t know to ask, you could get a place that has what they lovingly refer to as “suicide showers” here.  And by that, they mean that it doesn’t have hot water! A lot of the local Panamanians here are used to that and that’s just

Boquete, Panama Places to Live… We Found a Rental! Read More »

What the Hell Is Going On with Our Living Expenses?!

26 Comments / Spending / /

Boy, this has been one helluva rollercoaster lately.  Our living expenses have been all over the map this year. We’ve had a ton of abnormal spending (both more and less) throughout the year.  The biggest factors for this were: Preparing for our big move Enjoying our July adventure Living in Texas with family for most of August Now living in Panama For a guy with control issues, this is throwing me off a little.  The roller coaster ride we’ve been

What the Hell Is Going On with Our Living Expenses?! Read More »

We're Now Living in Panama... Finally!!

We’re Now Living in Panama… Finally!!

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

It feels like we’ve been planning this for years (because we have!), but it’s finally happened… we’re now living in Panama! I wasn’t going to post about this yet since we’ve been here less than a week, but I figured a lot of you want to know the details about this adventure. Although I started this site in 2015 intending to focus mostly on personal finance, I feel like I’ve become known more for our plans to retire early and

We’re Now Living in Panama… Finally!! Read More »

Striving to Let Go and Be a Better Person

Striving to Let Go and Be a Better Person

14 Comments / Motivation, General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement / /

Well, tomorrow is the big day… we’re finally flying out and moving to Panama!  And with that, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about change and my plans to be a better person. That’s right – who woulda thunk I could be any more of a better person than I already am?!  Well, guess what – even people like little old me have a little breathing room to improve on in our lives!   Striving to

Striving to Let Go and Be a Better Person Read More »

Flexible Travel Can Yield Huge Benefits

Flexible Travel Can Yield Huge Benefits

16 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending / /

One of the facets of early retirement I was looking forward to the most was flexible travel.  I knew that we’d be able to save some money by not having to be so rigid in our plans. I didn’t realize the extent of how beneficial it could be though.  We’ve been retired for less than eight months now and what we’re already experiencing is awesome! Between cheaper flights, hotels, and cruises, the price is definitely right. Then you throw in

Flexible Travel Can Yield Huge Benefits Read More »

Were We Spending Too Much in July? You Tell Me…

Were We Spending Too Much in July? You Tell Me…

18 Comments / Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

Our July adventure is officially over and now I’m wondering if we were spending too much throughout the month. As most of you already know, we’re moving to Panama later this month.  When we booked our flight earlier this year, my wife, Lisa, wanted to wait until the end of summer to fly out so we could go on vacation with her side of the family first. Because of that, we were running a month-to-month lease on our apartment for

Were We Spending Too Much in July? You Tell Me… Read More »

Did These Flip-Flops Lead Us to Financial Freedom?

Did These Flip-Flops Lead Us to Financial Freedom?

18 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving / /

People hear that my flip-flops are now over 12 years old and love to say, “No wonder you were able to retire!”  But are my old shoes the reason we were able to reach financial freedom? You might decisively be thinking that’s silly, but let’s talk about this a little more before you jump to a conclusion. I think we all know that my shoes aren’t going to be the reason we were able to retire early. But, I can

Did These Flip-Flops Lead Us to Financial Freedom? Read More »