Panama

Solving the World’s Problems… Starting with Mine!

20 Comments / Panama, Spending / By /

When it comes to solving the world’s problems, I’m the man.  I’ve got it all handled.  Call me “Mr. Fix-It”! Ok, maybe that’s far from true.  I’m not solving the world’s problems at all.  In fact, I sometimes struggle to handle my own problems. But, I’m good at adapting and actually enjoy change.  I have an engineer’s/programmer’s mindset and like to logically find an optimal solution to problems. And now that we’re living in Panama, I get to push my …

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Our First Week of Homeschooling in Panama

Our First Week of Homeschooling in Panama

19 Comments / Education, Kids, Panama / By /

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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Boquete, Panama Places to Live… We Found a Rental!

34 Comments / Panama, Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Real Estate / By /

Looking at places to live in Panama is kind of an adventure.  There are a lot of nuances you need to be aware of or you could end up very unhappy. For instance, if you don’t know to ask, you could get a place that has what they lovingly refer to as “suicide showers” here.  And by that, they mean that it doesn’t have hot water! A lot of the local Panamanians here are used to that and that’s just …

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We're Now Living in Panama... Finally!!

We’re Now Living in Panama… Finally!!

46 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By /

It feels like we’ve been planning this for years (because we have!), but it’s finally happened… we’re now living in Panama! I wasn’t going to post about this yet since we’ve been here less than a week, but I figured a lot of you want to know the details about this adventure. Although I started this site in 2015 intending to focus mostly on personal finance, I feel like I’ve become known more for our plans to retire early and …

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Global Entry - Why You Need It and How to Get It for Free

Global Entry – Why You Need It and How to Get It for Free

14 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Panama / By /

Global Entry was something pretty foreign to me at this time a year ago.  We love to travel, but most of it has been domestic here in the U.S. The biggest exception to that are the cruises that we love to take.  But here’s the thing – all the cruises we’ve been on are considered closed loop sailings.  That means that we departed and returned to the same U.S. port when the trip was over. It also means going that …

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The Downsides of Moving to Another Country

The Downsides of Moving to Another Country

39 Comments / Panama / By /

Although we’re ecstatic about this new adventure we’re embarking on, it’s worth noting that there are some downsides of moving to another country. That’s right – in just a couple of months in August of 2019, we’ll finally be making our move to Panama.  It’s exhilarating and just a little scary at the same time. We’ve been preparing for this for several years now, but wanted to reach FIRE before we made it happen. It’s crazy to think that this …

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Relocating to Panama - Awesome Apps We're Using

Relocating to Panama – Awesome Apps We’re Using

20 Comments / Panama / By /

Relocating to Panama has become a much bigger undertaking than we anticipated.  In an earlier post, I discussed some of the tasks we’ve been working on as we get closer to the day of our move. Today though, I thought I’d lighten things up and talk about some of the tools we’ve been using in preparation of the move. My nerdy side loves to find useful new apps and websites and hopefully, you do, too.  More importantly, I love to …

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Homeschooling Research… Aarrgghh!!!!

Homeschooling Research… Aarrgghh!!!!

22 Comments / Guest Posts, Education, Panama / By /

With the Panama adventure around the corner, one of the big tasks on the list has been homeschooling research.  Until we decide we want to pursue residency in Panama, we’ll need to leave the country periodically to comply with tourism laws. Because of that, it makes more sense for us to homeschool our daughter for at least that first year.  The good news for me is that Mrs. R2R has taken on the challenge over the past several months of …

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Using Google Voice to Stay in Touch While Living Abroad

Using Google Voice to Stay in Touch While Living Abroad

103 Comments / Geoarbitrage, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By /

Ever heard of Google Voice?  If not, know that this could be one of the best ways of staying in touch with family and friends while you’re living abroad. One of the small concerns we had was how to keep communication simple with everyone while we’re living in Panama.  When we get there, we’re going to get Panamanian cell service for our phones. The problem is that gives us a Panamanian phone number.  So if we call anyone in the …

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The Minutiae of Moving to Another Country

The Minutiae of Moving to Another Country

32 Comments / Panama, Geoarbitrage, Travel and Vacation / By /

Minutiae.  It’s such a funny word. It makes me chuckle just saying it, so I thought it would be perfect for what I want to talk about today. We’re learning pretty quickly that when you want to move to another country, you can’t just pick up and leave.  There’s a lot of minutiae that will need to be ironed out in the planning. See, wasn’t that was fun to read that word again?  Minutiae. Anyway, I thought I’d take some …

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