Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE)

We Don’t Need More Money... But I Want It!

We Don’t Need More Money… But I Want It!

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / /

The guiding principle of the Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) movement is to get to the point in life where you have enough and don’t need more money to cover your expenses. Once you pull that off, you’re golden. You’re now financially independent and never have to work another day in life again… if you don’t want to. It sounds great, right? And for someone that pulled it off at the age of 43 a couple of years ago, […]

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Our Moving Plans Changed Again… and That’s OK

Our Moving Plans Changed Again… and That’s OK

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

Moving plans are generally immensely stressful. Trying to coordinate everything to fall into place as smoothly as possible can be extremely complex. Depending on your scenario, it could involve a lot of juggling. Maybe you have to hire a real estate agent to sell your home and coordinate house showings around your work schedule and home life. Make sure to keep your house immaculate while strangers traipse through it without you even being there. Don’t forget about the pain of

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What I Did During My First Week Off in 6 Years!

What I Did During My First Week Off in 6 Years!

12 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Panama / /

It took a lot for me to not write a blog post last week. After not missing a single week for over 6 years, it’s just became ingrained into my weekly routine. So my first week off gave me a little bit of a strange feeling. I generally write the following week’s post sometime later in the week. However, I don’t usually get it completely done in one sitting. I might start a post on Thursday and work on it

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Finding Happiness Once You Leave the Rat Race

Finding Happiness Once You Leave the Rat Race

28 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement / /

I remember thinking that finding happiness would be instantaneous once I left my career behind. After all, work was the time-suck in my life that was holding me back. Back in 2010, I was crushed when I had to go back to work after the short vacation I took once my daughter was born. My 9-5 was in the way of everything and I wanted out. Fast forward to my first day of early retirement on January 1, 2019, and

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One of My Favorite Ways To Learn How To Save Money

One of My Favorite Ways To Learn How To Save Money

8 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Consumer Protection, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / /

Those of you on the path to financial independence know there are only two ways to fatten your wallet: make more money or spend less. Today, I want to focus on telling you about an invaluable tool to learn how to save money. Most folks tend to start with cutting out the excess spending in their lives simply because it can be much easier than chasing after making more money. Regardless, both areas can be largely worthwhile and beneficial for

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Designing Our New Life – The Power of Early Retirement

Designing Our New Life – The Power of Early Retirement

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip, Travel and Vacation / /

Change. I thrive on it. It’s the only way to continue to learn, grow, and become better. On the flip side, I think that complacency is just the path to a slow death. That’s why, as much as I know I’m going to miss Boquete, I’m excited to map out our new life for next year. We’ll be moving back to the U.S. in May of 2022. Although a year seems like a long way off, it’s time to start

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The FIRE Planner – A Solid Start in the Quest for FI

The FIRE Planner – A Solid Start in the Quest for FI

3 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Education, Geoarbitrage, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Real Estate, Saving / /

I just finished reading a really good book. It’s called The FIRE Planner and it might be a great asset for those ready to get on the path to financial independence or those who are already on it. The FIRE Planner was written by a friend of mine named Michael Quan. I met Michael at one of the FinCon money conferences a few years ago (I believe it was the 2017 expo in Dallas). It seems like FinCon events are

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I’m Now a 401(k) Millionaire – Can You Be One, Too?

I’m Now a 401(k) Millionaire – Can You Be One, Too?

36 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

So here’s something unexpected… I just became a 401(k) millionaire last week. As an early retiree, I had rolled over my 401(k) into a traditional IRA in March 2019. So on a technicality, I’m really a rollover IRA millionaire, but it’s still my 401(k) account sitting there with nothing new added to it since January 2019. I had even pulled a little over $60,000 out of the account in December 2019. That was part of the Roth IRA conversion ladder

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Investment Portfolio Changes I'm Making!

Investment Portfolio Changes I’m Making!

43 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Taxes and Financial Planning / /

It’s time to make some changes to my investment portfolio! I wrote a post last month called We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much! that discussed how too much of our portfolio is sitting in cash. Apparently, that’s not uncommon right now as I received a lot of feedback in the comments and replies back from my mailing list (which I recommend you sign up for on the sidebar!). So I decided to write a post

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How and Why To Open a Custodial Roth IRA at Vanguard

How and Why To Open a Custodial Roth IRA at Vanguard

74 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / /

I recently wrote a post called Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled. As I was in the process of writing it, I got motivated to open a custodial Roth IRA for my daughter, Faith. If you’re new to this blog, Faith is 10 years old (11 in a few months). When you hear that, you might be thinking, “What the @#$% does a 10-year-old need with a retirement account?” or “Um, Jim, don’t you need to have earned

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