Oh, don’t you worry, this planned trip is just a visit to the States – we’re not ready to move back from Panama just yet! Crazy times we’re living in aren’t they? This pandemic has probably affected every one of us in one way or another… it’s kind of insane when you think about it. At the end of March, we had decided we would take our chances here in Panama rather than head back to the U.S. It was […]
If you’re an English-speaker in a country like Panama and don’t speak Spanish well, you’ll find yourself saying things like this quite a bit to strangers: ¿Habla usted Inglés? or ¿Hablas Inglés? Both sentences are asking “Do you speak English?” with the first being a little more formal. Either iteration tends to get the point across though… you don’t speak Spanish well and you’re praying the other person does. Generally here in Boquete, Panama, the response will be “no”… and
Living in a foreign country means it’s in your best interest to learn the ropes. One of those ropes I wanted to become familiar with was the medical service in Panama. I wanted to see how things flowed and have an idea of costs that were involved. I wanted to know what happens when you need to go to the hospital here. If an emergency should happen while we’re here, being a little familiar with how things work here could
My Test Run of Medical Service in Panama Went Awry Read More »
If you’re like many of us, you’ve been spending a heckuva lot more time at home during this pandemic. And right now, streaming services are busy providing entertainment to folks at home. But living outside the U.S. generally warrants a VPN to access that same entertainment. I’m sure you’ve heard that term “VPN” before, but even if you’re not very technical, I’m going to get you on the right page with what you need to know. Today I’ll talk about
How We Use a VPN for Streaming & More While Abroad Read More »
This week marks five years for me as a blogger. For some that’s nothing – just ask J.D. Roth, Jim Wang, and ESI Money who are just a few personal finance bloggers who have been around for ages… and they’re all fantastic! For others though, five years might seem like a lifetime. I’ve heard statistics that most blogs fail within 6 months or that 95-99% of blogs fail each year. I’m not going to link to any of these articles,
Stay at home. Those might end up being the most spoken words of 2020. This COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic has caused a whirlwind of change in an instant. Businesses have had to figure out how to adapt quickly or close, unemployment has reached record numbers, and social gatherings have all but disappeared. On top of all that, a large number of people have suddenly become telecommuting employees. And many surprised parents became homeschooling teachers at the drop of a hat. Some people
Is This Stay-at-Home Thing a Taste of Early Retirement? Read More »
Any House Hunters International fans out there?! Of course, you are! Anybody a fan of Jim, Lisa, and Faith (that’s us!)? Ok, fine – maybe not of me, but at least Lisa and Faith? Hopefully, you are – that’s why you come to this site in the first place, right?! How about Panama? Maybe even specifically Boquete? Yeah, that’s us, too. But wouldn’t it be even more fun to squoosh all those cool things together and come up with something
House Hunters International (Panama) – Jim, Lisa, & Faith Read More »
Reaching early retirement in 2018 at 43 isn’t something that a lot of the population is interested in or trying to pull off. But change that to being in early retirement with kids to raise and that puts us in even more of a niche. We have one child, our daughter Faith, who’s a great kid. She’s 9 but acts like a really short adult most of the time. That probably makes life a little easier for us and we
Early Retirement with Kids Is Wonderful… but Frustrating Read More »
Random thoughts everyone… get ’em here while they’re hot! I decided to make this week’s post a little different. Times are crazy right now. With the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc, it’s surreal to think about how so many folks throughout the entire world are at home right now. Some are self-isolating while others are being required to be in lockdown. Regardless, I don’t know of a time like this in this modern age. This is something new to the world.
I’m usually not a fan of the home workout because I don’t feel like I’m getting a strong enough workout in… not enough bang for the buck so to speak. It also doesn’t help to have distractions around (kids, anyone?) so it tends to take much longer. I recently talked about how I’ve been on a roll going to the gym here. Even since that post, I started adding a little more variety into my regiment and changed how I
