Kids

Our First Week of Homeschooling in Panama

Our First Week of Homeschooling in Panama

19 Comments / Education, Kids, Panama / By / September 13, 2019

We’ve been preparing for our move to Panama for over a year now.  When we decided to move, we knew we were going to be homeschooling for at least the first year we’re here. Immediately, I started researching homeschooling and have been trying to figure out this new world.  There are so many different philosophies and strategies on how to homeschool that I wrote about previously in my post, Homeschooling Research… Aarrgghh!!!!. I quickly realized this was going to be …

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

16 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), 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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An Interview with My Daughter about Our Crazy Plans

18 Comments / Guest Posts, Kids, Travel and Vacation / By / April 5, 2019

We all know that everyone loves to hear from my daughter on here more than me.  So I thought that this time I’d bring her back as an interviewee. Most of you think that our plans to move out of the country later this year are pretty bold but cool (albeit, a little crazy). But the problem is that you’re only getting my perspective on our upcoming plans.  And I know a lot of you want to know what the …

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Finding Balance in Early Retirement with Kids

31 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, 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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Meet My Daughter on Women Who Money

Meet My Daughter on Women Who Money

Leave a Comment / Guest Posts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / By / September 24, 2019

You’re probably bored with me rambling all the time (who isn’t?!).  Well, I’ve got good news for you!  This post is intended to let you hear what my daughter has to say instead! Although she’s only eight, she’s got a good head on her shoulders.  She’s always been a good kid and she’s a thinker.  Her smarts make me raise an eyebrow sometimes with the things she says. You’d think that with a brain like hers that she’d be no …

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Homeschooling... a Great Start to Awkward Conversation

Homeschooling… a Great Start to Awkward Conversation

23 Comments / Education, Kids, Panama / By / September 25, 2019

As soon as you mention the idea of homeschooling, people get uncomfortable. Some shut down, go silent, and give you a stare that quietly says, “I’ll keep listening, but you’re now officially crazy in my book.” Others quickly object.  They might say, “That’ll cause all kinds of social problems for your kid!” or maybe “That’ll be too much work!” or some other wonderful expression of disapproval. Personally, I don’t have the same feelings.  Although it’s still not really mainstream, a lot of folks …

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Um, I Was Told to Stop Talking to My Kid About Money…

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

Everyone has opinions on how kids should be raised.  And there really are no perfect answers.  However, I never thought there’d be a day when my own parents would tell me to stop talking to my kid about money. But that’s exactly what happened. If you’re not familiar with my daughter, she’s a stellar writer on the Route to Retire blog.  Her post Like Father, Like Daughter… got some pretty good attention – including making it onto Rockstar Finance. She’s seven and …

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I’m Struggling Right Now

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

I’m struggling.  I’ve been very careful to keep politics and other sensitive issues out of my blog.  We all have our opinions, of course, but I just don’t think this particular blog is the right place for that kind of discussion. So I’m going to try to keep this high-level on that front, but there’s something that’s affecting me deeply right now. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know about the shootings that have been happening in our school …

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Like Father, Like Daughter…

39 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / By / September 24, 2019

Like father, like daughter… Recently, my 7-year-old daughter started asking me some questions about my blog.  She wanted to know what I write about and why I do it. I’m very deliberate in making sure that I don’t treat her like a kid when she’s interested in answers to something.  I have a couple reasons for this: 1) I want to ensure she’s never afraid to ask questions.  And so far, that’s always been effective.  She never feels like she …

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The 10 Commandments for Kids and Money

10 Comments / Kids, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Self-Employment / By / September 24, 2019

When it comes to kids and money, we all want to ensure that they’ve got the greatest chance to succeed in life. We can push our kids to be smart and learn in school.  We can teach them to be good to other kids and to share. We can help them to understand that they should respect others.  We can show them good manners and how to be polite. But what about the money side of the formula?  Isn’t that …

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