Product and Service Reviews

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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Our 9-Month RV Adventure: The 55+ Essential Items We Bought for the Road

Our 9-Month RV Adventure: The 55+ Essential Items We Bought for the Road

8 Comments / Road Trip, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews, Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

It’s crazy to think that we’re already 4 months into our 9-month RV adventure around the country. We completed our first loop (of 3 planned) and went from Ohio to Texas and back. We’re now on loop 2 as we head toward the south for a couple of months and then make our way up the east coast when we smell spring getting near. Then we’ll be making a massive trip out west for loop 3 throughout the spring and

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Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

10 Comments / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Debt, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Saving, Spending / /

If you haven’t heard, Intuit decided to shut down the Mint personal finance site/app on January 1, 2024. They made this announcement on October 31, 2024, giving users only about 2 months to decide what they were going to do. All I can do is shake my head at how disrespectful this is to their loyal customer base. UPDATE: I just I received an email from Intuit on 12/17/2023 stating that I can continue using Mint until March 23, 2024,

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AI Chatbots: My Sidekick for Getting Sh*t Done

AI Chatbots: My Sidekick for Getting Sh*t Done

10 Comments / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Education, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / /

Depending on how much you keep up with technology, you may or may not have a decent understanding of what AI chatbots are (AI being artificial intelligence). Heck, you may not have even heard the term before. But you may have heard of ChatGPT as it’s been in the news quite a bit over this past year. For a while, the phrase “artificial intelligence” usually had at least one mention of ChatGPT. I still enjoy reading about, learning, and experimenting

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The Calyx Institute: Our Secret to Inexpensive, Unlimited, Unthrottled Internet on the Road

The Calyx Institute: Our Secret to Inexpensive, Unlimited, Unthrottled Internet on the Road

27 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews, Road Trip / /

Well, after almost a month of living in our new trailer at two local campgrounds to get the hang of things, we’re finally off and running. We’ve started our road trip around the country with an anticipation of finishing in early summer next year! I think we did a good job learning as much as we could beforehand because things have gone relatively smoothly thus far. Sure, there have been some minor things like me getting sprayed down from water

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Mint Mobile Review: 1 Year Later – Does It Live Up to the Hype?

Mint Mobile Review: 1 Year Later – Does It Live Up to the Hype?

24 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Spending / /

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s no doubt you’ve seen the Mint Mobile commercials with Ryan Reynolds. The ads are a little quirky and fun and they promote the idea that the service is great while the prices are low. Hopefully, those commercials will continue since they can be entertaining. Mint Mobile was acquired by T-Mobile earlier this year netting Ryan Reynolds a nice $300 million paycheck but he agreed to stay on as a spokesperson. Mint seems

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Is Temu Legit? Here’s How I’m Saving Big With This Fun App

Is Temu Legit? Here’s How I’m Saving Big With This Fun App

12 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Saving, Spending / /

So I’ve been playing a Mahjong game on my phone periodically when I get a few minutes here and there. My wife, Lisa, loves to rag on me and tell me that it’s a game for 95-year-old women but I enjoy it so I’ll just graciously accept my lumps from her. But the game does have its share of ads in it that you can’t pay to remove (though I’d probably be too cheap to do so anyway). For the

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Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing

Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing

23 Comments / Blogging, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Saving / /

I’m both excited and scared about the concept of Artificial intelligence (AI) including ChatGPT, which is currently all over the technology news. The technical and engineering side of my brain is fascinated by the whole idea. The potential of artificial intelligence growing up and being able to make our lives easier in different aspects is incredible. We have 3 of those Google Nest Minis in our apartment (we got 1 for free and paid $1 each for the other 2).

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We Got the Chase United Explorer Card… Again. Boom! Easy Free Travel!

We Got the Chase United Explorer Card… Again. Boom! Easy Free Travel!

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / /

We just applied for (and got) the Chase United Explorer credit card. This time around it’s in Lisa’s name (my wife). What’s funny is that I really don’t think this is the best travel rewards card out there for a lot of people. There are so many choices and some others can actually be a better bang for the buck depending on your needs. For some reason though, we’ve come back to this card more than any other. I believe

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Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

14 Comments / Motivation, Education, Health and Fitness, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / /

When I reached early retirement at the end of 2018, I gained the one big gift I was looking for in life… more time and freedom. That’s a true blessing, my friends, and I try not to squander it. I strive to use some of that “super power” to push myself to become a better person – both physically and mentally. Change is hard, but I like it. It’s easy just to continue rolling forward while doing the same old

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