Life in Early Retirement

What I’ve Learned Throughout My Final Year of Work

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

Well, that does it… I’m officially FIRE (financially independent / retired early).  12/31/18 was my last day of “working for the man” hopefully for the rest of my life. Whoa.  Hang on – I just need a second to process that. Damn, that feels good to think about!  Woo-hoo!!!! Ok, thanks for that – I really needed to get it out of my system.  The idea is still a little surreal and will probably take a while to make it […]

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Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

23 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving / /

One million dollars.  It’s the coveted goal for many. Maybe it’s something you think is way out of reach.  Or maybe you’re on the other side of the spectrum and close to it or even long surpassed that number. Regardless, one million dollars just seems to be a good round number in our heads to strive for reaching.  In fact, it’s a number that many folks have had as their target number for financial independence or retirement for decades. You

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Guest Post on ESI Money: How to Get Up the Nerve to Retire

Guest Post on ESI Money: How to Get Up the Nerve to Retire

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

Hey, regular readers – just thought I’d drop a quick note to let you know about a guest post that I recently did on getting the nerve to retire early. John at ESI Money reached out to me recently to let me know that a number of his readers had a concern.  The problem they were having is that they were close to early retirement but have been unable to pull the trigger. Since he knew that I’m close to

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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