Life in Early Retirement

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone Led to an 8-Night Fishing Trip of a Lifetime in Canada

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone Led to an 8-Night Fishing Trip of a Lifetime in Canada

18 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement / By / August 8, 2022

I like to push myself to try new things that are outside of my comfort zone. A good example of this is when I hiked up a volcano in Panama earlier this year. Although it was definitely out of my wheelhouse, these are the sorts of things that help open my mind up to new and possibly great experiences. So when my cousin Dennis told me they had someone back out of their big week-long fishing trip in the bush …

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I Need a Mental Break

I Need a Mental Break

30 Comments / Health and Fitness, Blogging, General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By / July 7, 2022

I’m exhausted and I need a mental break. There’s this weird dynamic in the blogging (and social media) world where the more you’re out doing “stuff”, the more it looks like you’re out living the dream. I’ve never really cared much about all that but I do put my life out there for everyone (both good and bad). And this year, we’ve been insanely busy doing more stuff than I could have ever imagined. Most of you know that we’ve …

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On the Road: The Wrap-Up and Some Fun Stats!

On the Road: The Wrap-Up and Some Fun Stats!

10 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / July 2, 2022

And we’re back! We just returned from 31 days on the road. Even though we didn’t plan for a specific number of days, we ended up traveling for a full month pretty much on the nose! We had so much fun and got to check out so many places we’d never been to before. Along the way, we had our share of headaches as well (that comes with traveling!) but I’m glad we did this trip while our daughter’s still …

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4 Easy Ways We Were Able To Save Money in Las Vegas… BIG Money!

4 Easy Ways We Were Able To Save Money in Las Vegas… BIG Money!

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / August 20, 2022

I’m always happy to save money in Las Vegas. I’ve been there a lot over the years and every time it’s a little different. Regardless, of the trip though, I’m always all about “finding the best deals.” We’re currently on our month-long road trip around the country and just spent a whopping 8 nights in Vegas! That’s the longest I’ve ever stayed there in one trip. In that amount of time, we crammed in a lot of fun including walking …

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Our Summer Road Trip So Far Includes a Flood, Wildfires, Freezing Temps, Blistering Heat, Strong Winds, and a Thrown-Out Back!

Our Summer Road Trip So Far… Mother Nature’s Vengeance!

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Health and Fitness, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / July 17, 2022

Yeah, there’s a lot going on there, right? Looking at a title like this, you might feel convinced that our summer road trip has been a bust. I can’t argue with that line of thinking. There’s not one thing on this list that sounds positive at all. So you might be surprised to know that the first two weeks of our summer road trip have actually been a ton of fun. And two of Mother Nature’s natural disasters made us …

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Renting an Apartment With No W2 Income as a Retiree

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Blogging, Real Estate / By / June 15, 2022

Not having a W2 income was one of the things that made me a little uneasy when planning for early retirement. Would renting an apartment or getting a mortgage for a place be a massive headache? My concern stands that when you need to open a new line of credit or fill out a rental application, one of the expected questions for you to answer is “what’s your annual income?” For the most part, we’re living off our portfolio income. …

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Planning a Road Trip… Learning From 3 Simple Mistakes

Planning a Road Trip… Learning From 3 Simple Mistakes

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By / July 5, 2022

In 2020, we bought a 2012 Honda Pilot and took off across the country for over a month. Even though we were planning a road trip this big, we didn’t focus too much on every detail. Instead, the goal was simple – take advantage of the less empty roads and sites during the pandemic and tour the country. Sometimes we’d sleep in the back of the Pilot, other times we’d do some tent camping, and periodically we could stay the …

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Lisa’s Now a Secret Shopper… Is This Legit or Even Worthwhile?

Lisa’s Now a Secret Shopper… Is This Legit or Even Worthwhile?

14 Comments / Self-Employment, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving / By / May 28, 2022

Have you ever heard of those mythical jobs where you’re hired to go into a store or restaurant as a customer and then report back and get paid? Generally, that person is known as a secret shopper or a mystery shopper. Yeah, well, here’s a little treat – they’re real. I had forwarded over a link to Lisa for a company called Market Force Information that acts as a liaison for this exact purpose. Sure enough, after Lisa dug into …

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3 Attainable Characteristics That Drastically Improved My Quality of Life

3 Attainable Characteristics That Drastically Improved My Quality of Life

14 Comments / Motivation, Education, General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By / August 8, 2022

None of us are perfect. That’s life and we all know it. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to improve our quality of life. That applies to us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Doing so can make you healthier, stronger, smarter, and happier. I have this innate tendency to not become complacent. I want to continually work on bettering my quality of life. I want to become the best person I can be. I know that I’ll never be able …

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Solving the Puzzle To Make It All Work… That’s Life, Folks!

Solving the Puzzle To Make It All Work… That’s Life, Folks!

16 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By / May 13, 2022

We’re currently attempting to put together the puzzle of integrating back into the U.S. and trying to make it all work is tough. There are so many details with these pieces that don’t want to line up together the way we want them to – everything from scheduling to availability to cost. We’ll make it all work in the end – I’m sure of it. It might not be perfect or exactly the way we want everything, but things always …

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