Life in Early Retirement

Strategies We’re Using in Our Early Retirement Planning

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Investments, Panama, Self-Employment / /

Early retirement planning.  You’d think the closer we get to our FIRE date, the simpler things would become. I mean really – I’m leaving my job in just a few months so as I continue to train my replacement, my workload should start to diminish over time.  Plus, we’re downsizing to an apartment soon (if we could ever sell our house!). What else could there be, Jim?  How much early retirement planning do you really need?  Didn’t you already get these […]

Strategies We’re Using in Our Early Retirement Planning Read More »

Why Is It So Uncomfortable to Say I’m Retiring Early?

38 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

The idea of retiring early is something that most folks in the personal finance and FIRE world understand.  When I tell people in the community that I’m retiring early at the age of 43, they say “good for you” and move on. Nevertheless, when friends or family ask me what we’re planning to do once we move to Panama (that is after they get past the idea that we’re moving to Panama!), it gets a little weird. Ok, it gets

Why Is It So Uncomfortable to Say I’m Retiring Early? Read More »

The Next Steps in Our Early Retirement Plans

The Next Steps in Our Early Retirement Plans

22 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

I thought I’d take a step back from my normal posts to update everyone on our status – where we’re currently at and the next steps in our early retirement plans. My regular readers know that I’m leaving my job at the end of this year and we’re moving to Panama next summer (2019).  It seems like an eternity away, but it’s really not a lot of time. So the good news is that the adventure is almost ready to

The Next Steps in Our Early Retirement Plans Read More »

The 3 Things Scaring Us the Most in Our FIRE Plans

The 3 Things Scaring Us the Most in Our FIRE Plans

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

By now, many of you are already familiar with our FIRE plans (financial independence / retire early). I’m leaving my job at the end of 2018 at the age of 43 and then we’re planning to move to Panama in the summer of 2019.  The gap is so that we can let our daughter finish out the school year before we move. The whole idea sounds pretty straightforward, but that’s going to be a lot of change happening within a

The 3 Things Scaring Us the Most in Our FIRE Plans Read More »

Working Toward FIRE is Not About Sacrifice

28 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

Recently, I was taking a walk with a coworker (something I do on a regular basis now).  While we were walking, we were talking about my plans to retire at the end of the year.  He then said something I thought was interesting… “You guys deserve it – you’ve sacrificed a lot to get where you are.”  Sacrifice? Obviously, his intent was good (he’s a great guy!), but it’s a bit shortsighted.  And unfortunately, it’s a common mindset that many

Working Toward FIRE is Not About Sacrifice Read More »

2 Weeks Notice? Here’s Why I Gave My Boss 6 Months!

25 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

When you’re deciding to leave an employer, it’s customary to give 2 weeks notice as part of your resignation.  The idea is that it gives the company enough time to transition the loose ends over to another employee. Really though, in many places, that’s not a lot of time.  If you’re in a very complex position or a company that’s project-oriented for instance, 2 weeks notice is barely enough to get the ball rolling.  And it’s likely to leave a

2 Weeks Notice? Here’s Why I Gave My Boss 6 Months! Read More »

Considerations for Planning to Retire Abroad

Considerations for Planning to Retire Abroad

17 Comments / Geoarbitrage, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

With our recent announcement of us moving up our early retirement date to the end of 2018, the pressure’s now on.  We’re now planning to retire abroad to Panama in the summer of 2019. The news was exciting for us to share, but now reality’s setting in.  Although a year seems like a lot of time, there’s really a lot that needs to be done. It would be one thing if we were just moving to another country for a

Considerations for Planning to Retire Abroad Read More »

Shit Just Got Real... Moving Early Retirement Up to 2018!

Shit Just Got Real… Moving Early Retirement Up to 2018!

54 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Panama / /

So things just got interesting here in the R2R household.  We’ve decided to move our early retirement date up to be 12/31/18. Yeah, that’s right – just over six months from now.  Crazy, right? Then to top it off, we decided to push up our move to Panama as well.  We’ll now be starting that adventure about a year from now in the summer of 2019. Making the decision to move up our early retirement date isn’t a decision we’re taking

Shit Just Got Real… Moving Early Retirement Up to 2018! Read More »

Is Retiring Early Really the Best Thing for Our Family?

Is Retiring Early Really the Best Thing for Our Family?

27 Comments / Guest Posts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Motivation / /

Is retiring early really the best thing for our family?  That’s the question Mrs. R2R sought to answer. Since the Route to Retire blog started in May of 2015, I’ve been hoping to get the other side of the R2R equation (Mrs. R2R) to be a part of the conversation here. It’s easy to get the opinion of one person on the subject of financial independence and retiring early.  However, it’s a completely different story to hear what that person’s

Is Retiring Early Really the Best Thing for Our Family? Read More »

If Tomorrow Never Comes...

If Tomorrow Never Comes…

23 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Geoarbitrage, Motivation / /

I’ve been thinking a lot about tomorrow lately and any regrets I would have if that day never arrived. There was a touchy-feely show on back in the 80’s called Highway to Heaven.  I was only a kid back then, but I used to watch it all the time and I loved it. I’ll wait while you laugh at me. Yeah, well, it gets worse. I was pretty excited to see that it showed up on Netflix at some point

If Tomorrow Never Comes… Read More »