Motivation

Money Growing Up – I’m Not Taking a Paycheck This Month

Money Growing Up – I’m Not Taking a Paycheck This Month

24 Comments / Motivation, General Thoughts, Self-Employment / /

Every family is different. And every family’s financial situation is different. Growing up in my family was unique as well. “I’m not taking a paycheck this month” were confusing words we’d hear periodically from my mom. We never fully understood what that meant or why at the time but we knew we’d be tighter on money for a little while. We weren’t poor but we were far from rich as well. Looking back, I would have thought we were lower-middle […]

Money Growing Up – I’m Not Taking a Paycheck This Month Read More »

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream

14 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments / /

If you sit on the sidelines and continue to fold instead of playing the hand you’re dealt, you’re never going to get ahead. This is true in poker, but it’s also true in life. It’s time to stop just going through the motions and work on making your dreams come true. I reflect on how much we’ve progressed the last decade or two and I’m amazed and proud of us. Seriously. I retired a couple of years ago at the

Play the Hand You’re Dealt To Live the Life You Dream Read More »

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

Finding Happiness Once You Leave the Rat Race Read More »

More Topless Photos for Your Enjoyment!

More Topless Photos for Your Enjoyment!

16 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation / /

Topless photos on a blog that tends to focus on Panama, personal finance, and life in early retirement?! Jim, what the @#$% are you thinking? You should be ashamed of yourself! I know, I know… but it needs to be done. You can close your eyes if you want, but it’s not going to stop it from it happening! It’s that time of the year when many folks have made a decision, a resolution if you will, to get in

More Topless Photos for Your Enjoyment! Read More »

Here’s Why I’m Liking… The Courage to Be Disliked

Here’s Why I’m Liking… The Courage to Be Disliked

18 Comments / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Motivation, Product and Service Reviews / /

I’m not sure why I had the book “The Courage to Be Disliked” on my Amazon wish list. Someone either told me it was a good read or I had read about it somewhere. I use different wish lists on Amazon for myself so I don’t lose track of the books I’m interested in reading. Since I only get a chance to read a little each night, it takes me a while to get through each book. I’ve got probably

Here’s Why I’m Liking… The Courage to Be Disliked Read More »

To Truly Reach for the Stars, Challenge Herd Mentality

To Truly Reach for the Stars, Challenge Herd Mentality

24 Comments / Motivation, General Thoughts, Kids / /

I had a little bit of a strange realization the other day. We tell our kids, friends, and other family members that we support their dreams. We tell them to reach for the stars and they can be or do anything they want to in life. But guess what – those are just some empty words. Even though we say to reach for the stars, those words can be meaningless due to our actions. We push our kids to chase

To Truly Reach for the Stars, Challenge Herd Mentality Read More »

Only You Can Change Your Life… Seriously!

22 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Panama / /

Only you can change your life.  Only you can change you. I was jogging back from the gym the other day and it reminded me of something.  I absolutely hate going to the gym.  I’ve talked about it before, but I do – I hate it. So then why do I do it? Because I want to be a better me. That’s it.  That’s the only reason.  It would be so much easier to sit on the couch and drink

Only You Can Change Your Life… Seriously! Read More »

Is FIRE the Finish Line or Just the Beginning?

22 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Self-Employment / /

Looking back on my own path to financial independence, I treated the whole thing like a race in my mind.  Reaching the finish line was the utmost important goal. As I continued to make more money every year through raises, I saved more and more.  But the other side of the equation is cutting expenses… and cut expenses we did! In my mind, if it wasn’t a necessity, I really had to think about if it made sense to spend

Is FIRE the Finish Line or Just the Beginning? Read More »

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Motivation / /

I recently came across a question in the FinCon Community Facebook Group relating to the FIRE movement (financial independence / retire early).  It was asked by Jeff Rose, creator of the Good Financial Cents site. If you’re not a member of the FinCon Facebook group, you likely won’t be able to access this link.  However, the question asked was “Who disagrees with the FIRE movement and why?” The post drew quite a number of comments that spanned all sorts of

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me Read More »

The Biggest Secret the Library Offers to Enrich Your Life

The Biggest Secret the Library Offers to Enrich Your Life

18 Comments / Education, Motivation / /

Oh, the times they are a-changin’.  I don’t think Bob Dylan was talking about the library in his early ’60s song, but boy oh boy, libraries are much different than they were when I was a kid. Of course, you have the obvious stuff like digital card catalogs and the ability to use the computers if you need Internet access.  Heck, I even used them over the past year during those unusual times I needed to print something (I haven’t

The Biggest Secret the Library Offers to Enrich Your Life Read More »