Estate Planning

Estate Planning 101 – Getting Your Affairs in Order

Estate Planning 101 – Getting Your Affairs in Order

3 Comments / Estate Planning, Insurance, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Real Estate / /

I just finished reading a book called Estate Planning 101 by Vicki Cook and Amy Blacklock. If you haven’t gotten your affairs in order yet, this book can really help get you on track. You can check out the book here. Let’s be honest – estate planning isn’t the most exciting topic. That said, it might be one of the most important subject matters you ever focus on. I dug into this quite a bit in 2013, a few years […]

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How and Why We Changed Our State of Domicile

16 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Estate Planning, Investments, Panama, Real Estate / /

One of the things we did before we headed to Panama was to change our state of domicile. If you’re not familiar with the term, your state of domicile refers to your principal place of residence.  If you leave for a while, it’s what can be thought of as the place you would return to afterward. In other words, it might be considered your “home base” in the U.S. – your permanent place of residence. For snowbirds that head from

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If I Die, Here’s What to Do…

28 Comments / Estate Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

Don’t die.  But if you do, hook your loved ones up beforehand. FIRE isn’t just about your numbers – it’s also about planning for your health and well-being in general.  You go through life expecting to live happily ever after… but I’m sorry to break it to you, #$%^happens. No one really wants to think about this, but it will happen to you.  That’s right, you’re going to die at some point.  It might be decades from now or it

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Why Do We Buy Crap??

20 Comments / Spending, Debt, Estate Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

Sometimes I can’t help but shake my head that we as a society feel compelled to buy crap just because we feel we “need” it. There are millions of people here in the U.S. that, although not by choice, manage to live on $2 a day.  But when it comes to the middle class, even with increasing salaries, most families buy and buy and still feel like they need more stuff. Why? Why do people love to waste their hard-earned

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Should You Buy Disability Insurance?

8 Comments / Insurance, Estate Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

When I used to think about disability insurance, it used to be a “yeah, yeah…” subject for me.  In fact, if you asked me a year ago if I should buy disability insurance, I would have told you that I was already covered. Here’s the problem… I’m really not. I’ll talk about the “why not” part shortly, but first, let’s dig into what disability insurance is all about…   What is disability insurance? Disability insurance is intended to help cover you in

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Protecting Your Assets

Protecting Your Assets

8 Comments / Estate Planning, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Insurance, Investments, Real Estate / /

So, you’re going down the right path on the road to financial freedom slowly but surely, but you want to make sure that you’re protecting your assets in the meantime?  Well, hopefully, this post will help you with some ideas! I’ve noticed that as I’ve started to build up my assets, my needs have started to morph as well. I now have rental properties, multiple LLCs, and growing and expanding savings, investment, and retirement accounts.  And, as the accounts continue to grow,

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The Importance of Estate Planning

The Importance of Estate Planning

12 Comments / Estate Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness / /

Raise your hand if you’re planning on living forever?  I know I am, but I have a bad feeling that my odds aren’t real good on this one.  If you have any loved ones such as a spouse or especially any children, this post is very important. First of all, let’s start this article by stating that I am by no means an attorney of any sort.  I’ll be discussing what my wife and I have personally put into place and what I know

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