General Thoughts

8 Financial Tips I Wish I Knew When I Was in My 20’s

16 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

My nephew recently started reading this blog and it got me thinking.  What would be valuable information for him as a reader?  What do I wish I knew when I was younger? He’s almost 20 years old and he just started a career in construction probably close to a couple of years ago.  At his age, I know I wasn’t very smart financially.  Don’t get me wrong – I thought I was, but looking back, I made some stupid decisions. …

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We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

26 Comments / General Thoughts, Travel and Vacation / By / August 14, 2019

When we first sought out our new adventure, we thought we could basically just pack up and go.  I mean, you just sell everything and move to Panama, right? Ha!  Wishful thinking!  There’s a tremendous amount of planning involved to make this a smooth transition. I’ve talked about some of the minutiae we’ve encountered in our planning, but now it’s time for more scoop. And considering we’re about to embark on a huge adventure, I thought it would make sense …

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Some Honest Thoughts about Running a Blog

36 Comments / Blogging, General Thoughts / By / February 3, 2020

I’ve been running a blog now for almost 4 years and I have a few thoughts on the subject that have been rattling around in my head lately. I probably should be saving this post for my “blogiversary” in a couple of months.  But since this was on my mind, I figured I’d be a rule-breaker… yeah, I’m a rebel like that! Running a blog is a unique endeavor.  Some folks do it as a hobby and some as a …

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Holy Schnikes! Another Change of Plans for Us!

Holy Schnikes! Another Change of Plans for Us!

19 Comments / General Thoughts, Travel and Vacation / By / February 27, 2019

Another day, another change of plans!  This slight change is going to add to our already exciting adventure! As most of you already know, we’re moving to Panama this summer.  I retired from my job at the end of 2018 and we’re getting closer to making this happen. In the meantime, we have two reasons we’re waiting so long to leave: We need to wait for our daughter to finish out her school year. We have a vacation planned with …

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Finding Balance in Early Retirement with Kids

31 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Kids, Life in Early Retirement / By / September 24, 2019

Finding balance in life is tough.  Between your regular job, chores, time with spouses or people you’re dating, and going out to play with friends and family, time is limited. The fact is that we all only have 24 hours per day… 168 hours each week. Then you throw a kid into the mix… ha!  Good luck!  It’s like a turbulent hurricane of confusion every day.  And the frenzied mess doesn’t scale well either.  With each additional child you have, …

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What Did We Just Do?!! Thoughts from a New Retiree

28 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement / By / September 24, 2019

So, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about for my first post as a new retiree.  I have all these things on my mind, but I’ve been struggling to figure out just the right topic. And that’s when it hit me… why not just talk about some of the random thoughts that have been floating around my head this week? Maybe some of what’s going on in this noggin of mine could …

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What I’ve Learned Throughout My Final Year of Work

36 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement / By / February 4, 2020

Well, that does it… I’m officially FIRE (financially independent / retired early).  12/31/18 was my last day of “working for the man” hopefully for the rest of my life. Whoa.  Hang on – I just need a second to process that. Damn, that feels good to think about!  Woo-hoo!!!! Ok, thanks for that – I really needed to get it out of my system.  The idea is still a little surreal and will probably take a while to make it …

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No One's Asked - Here's Why You Should...

No One’s Asked – Here’s Why You Should…

26 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Motivation / By / September 24, 2019

No one’s asked.  Not a one.  Not one single person in my entire office. I’m now just days out from my retirement – December 31, 2018, is my last day of work.  I gave my notice in early summer and we kept it low-key in the office for a little bit while we worked out the game plan. However, I officially made the announcement to my engineers in a meeting on August 13.  And as many of you know, the …

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A Moment to Exhale... So Now What?

A Moment to Exhale… So Now What?

22 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Travel and Vacation / By / March 9, 2020

Well, we’re finally over the hump.  We actually had a moment to exhale.  We sold the house and moved into an apartment.  Everything should start to get easier and easier as we get closer to the big move to Panama next summer. I started this post while at the airport on our way to Miami to get our cruise kicked off.  We booked this trip at the beginning of the year thinking we’d have nothing going on at this time. …

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Money Throughout My Life

Money Throughout My Life

17 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Saving / By / September 24, 2019

Money.  We all know its importance or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Whether you like it or not, it’s what the world runs on.  You could opt out of playing the game and become a hobo, but there are very few of us that can live happily ever after in that position. You can’t let money rule your life, but it’s important to understand its role.  Once you can control your capital instead of it controlling you, you’re one …

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