Insurance

Unveiling the Pros and Cons of ACA Healthcare in Early Retirement: Our Story

Unveiling the Pros and Cons of ACA Healthcare in Early Retirement: Our Story

36 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / /

There are likely thousands of blogs and websites dedicated to pursuing financial independence and early retirement if desired (FIRE). These can be extremely beneficial for the motivation you’ll likely garner and for the potential of finding new ideas to streamline your approach. That said, there aren’t a ton of blogs from folks who have made it to the point of reaching early retirement. Figuring out the math and how to get there is one thing, but knowing what actually transpires […]

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ACA Subsidies Mean We Only Pay $227.34/Mo for Our Family of 3

ACA Subsidies Mean We Only Pay $227.34/Mo for Our Family of 3

22 Comments / Health and Fitness, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Insurance, Life in Early Retirement / /

I talked last year about how we planned to keep our health insurance costs low once we moved back to the U.S. from Panama. Well, that time is now and I wanted to share how ACA subsidies have enabled us to keep our costs even lower than anticipated. One of the toughest areas to plan for in early retirement is health insurance. Finding quality health care coverage at an affordable price to tide you over until Medicare eligibility at 65

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Health Insurance in the U.S. – How We'll Keep Costs Low

Health Insurance in the U.S. – How We’ll Keep Costs Low

33 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement / /

The subject of health insurance in the U.S. tends to make people cringe immediately when thinking about it. And rightfully so! I don’t think anyone can argue that the system in the U.S. is broken. It’s overly complex, the costs are out of control, and something needs to change. Now, we might all have different thoughts on what should be done, but we all know that something needs to be done. Unfortunately, though, the choices are pretty limited. If you

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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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An Example of the Cost of Healthcare in Panama

An Example of the Cost of Healthcare in Panama

27 Comments / Panama, Health and Fitness, Insurance / /

The cost of healthcare in the United States is insane. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the whole U.S. system is essentially broken. As a country, we pride ourselves on trying to be the best in the world. But healthcare is one of those areas where the U.S. has not only fallen short but it’s gone off a giant cliff that seems impossible to climb back up from. If you look at the rest of

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Life Insurance in Early Retirement… Cancel or Keep It?

26 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I just paid the $335 annual premium again for the term life insurance policy we have in place on Lisa… same as I do every June. Then every January we pay the $673 annual premium on the term life insurance policy on my head. We’ve paid $1,008 out of our pockets every year since 2010. That’s over $10,000 spent on something we haven’t gotten anything out of at all. Our 20-year policies expire in the year 2030 so that’s another

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Expat Health Insurance – Our Plans for Panama

27 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Panama, Travel and Vacation / /

Expat health insurance – the one piece of retirement unique to those living in another country. One of the biggest struggles for folks wanting to pull the trigger on early retirement in the U.S. tends to revolve around healthcare.  Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that one except to say to plan for the worse.  You have to build the unknown into your FIRE number because it can be the one wildcard that can throw off anyone’s plans. That sucks,

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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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