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 »
We’ve now been living in a foreign country for six months. If you’re not familiar, we moved to Panama in August of 2019. We had visited the country in the summer of 2017 as a sort of recon mission along with my brother and sister-in-law. Don’t worry, we had plenty of fun while there, but the real goal was to determine if we could see ourselves actually living there. The cities we scoped out included Nueva Gorgona, Coronado, El Valle
What’s It REALLY Like to Live in a Foreign Country? Read More »
Last week we made our first visit to the dentist in Panama. I had been looking forward to it for a while now because I’m always intrigued just to see the differences from what I’m used to in the United States. I was told that going to the dentist here is a lot like being waterboarded. Thankfully, I’d never experienced anything like that before but somehow that actually intrigued me more. Curiosity killed the cat though, right? Even though we
Our First Visit to the Dentist in Panama Was… Different Read More »
Somehow I was able to get invited back on the “What’s Up Next?” podcast… who’da thunk it?! You’d think after Doc G and Paul Thompson had me on their “What’s Up Next?” show the first time around, they would’ve learned their lesson. Not so much! To top it off, they invited my better half to be a part of it – maybe they were thinking that through the law of averages, Lisa could help bring me up a little more.
Somehow I Got Asked Back on “What’s Up Next?” Read More »
This return trip to Panama is well overdue. We had a blast, but we’re whupped and ready to get back home (we’re finally starting to get comfortable calling Panama “home”). We spent over a month in the U.S. enjoying time with friends and family. Then we took a roundtrip Caribbean cruise out of Miami. Who’da thunk that we’d be ready to go home after so much fun?! But we really are – it’s time to enjoy the holidays together and
Our Return Trip to Panama – How We Saved Thousands Read More »
One of the things we did before we headed to Panama was to change our state of domicile. If you’re not familiar with the term, your state of domicile refers to your principal place of residence. If you leave for a while, it’s what can be thought of as the place you would return to afterward. In other words, it might be considered your “home base” in the U.S. – your permanent place of residence. For snowbirds that head from
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Retirement expenses are a tough one to plan for in life. You can budget for what you think your expenses will be, but you really don’t know if they’ll be more or less. The biggest reason is that your life will likely be dramatically different at the time. This is probably even more on par the younger you are when you leave the workforce because you’re likely not going to be resting on your laurels. Not only would you be
Uh-Oh… Our Retirement Expenses Are Higher than Expected Read More »
Recently, my friend Lisa from the Mad Money Monster blog wrote about the “what ifs” on moving to a different country. It was appropriately titled The What Ifs of International Geoarbitrage And Early Retirement. There’s a lot of talk on the Internet, particularly in the personal finance community, about the idea of geoarbitrage. That’s the strategy of moving to another location, domestic or abroad, to take advantage of the lower cost of living and move ahead financially or possibly retire
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Life’s not all a bed of roses here in Boquete. I thought today that I’d share some reasons not to live in Panama. So far, living here has been a wonderful experience for me and my family. It definitely was an adjustment (and still is occasionally), but just being a part of a life that’s so different than we’re accustomed to is both interesting and amazing. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about The 7 Reasons I Love Living in
10 Reasons Not to Live in Panama Read More »
I’ve been living in Panama as an expat for a little over a month and a half now. And what a truly awesome experience it’s been so far for me and my family. The first couple of weeks were like a vacation. Most of our time was consumed with exploring and having fun. We spent our days eating out, shopping (ok, mostly just browsing!), and doing fun activities like whale watching. Starting at the beginning of September, we began to
The 7 Reasons I Love Living in Panama as an Expat Read More »
