Life in Early Retirement Archives - Page 2 of 8

Our Trip to Panama – What to Expect As Borders Reopen

28 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / October 20, 2020 October 17, 2020

We made it! Our trip to Panama went well and we’re back at our condo in Boquete safe and sound and enjoying the beautiful weather again. It was only a couple of months ago that we thought we’d be unable to get back to Panama at all. But in an unexpected turn of events, Panama announced they were going to reopen Tocumen International Airport to tourists starting October 12, 2020. Although I wasn’t confident this would actually happen, we booked …

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Getting an Antigen Test to Travel to Panama… Ugh!

12 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / October 13, 2020 October 13, 2020

Yeah… ugh. What a mess things are. As you read this, we should be just hours away from flying back to Panama. The key to making this happen… finding a place to get an antigen test done. Oh, and we needed to take the test within 48 hours of our scheduled arrival time in Panama. And somehow we had to have the negative results in hand in that small window of time. That can still be a real hurdle and …

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An Overnight at Cracker Barrel and 5,863 Miles Logged

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 22, 2020 September 30, 2020

It’s hard to believe that our road trip is now over and we’re back in Ohio. It’s crazier to think that our first night of the last leg of our trip involved sleeping in a Cracker Barrel parking lot! We’ve been across a large part of this country on this journey and have had a ton of fun in the process. It’s been a good way to end the summer and have some fun while waiting and hoping we can …

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El Paso, Tucson, Viva Las Vegas!! – Road Trip Leg 2

23 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 15, 2020 September 15, 2020

The second leg of our road trip was an absolute blast and ended with some time in Sin City… viva Las Vegas! Ok, there wasn’t much gambling and drinking since we have our ten-year-old with us, but we had one of our most fun times there regardless. We didn’t spend a ton of money but it was still just a great time all around. And before we got to Vegas, we spent a night in the desert trying to make …

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Three Weeks in Texas – A Big Stop on the Road Trip

12 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 8, 2020 September 8, 2020

I’m typing this in the car while back on the road and heading out of Texas. Don’t worry, I’m not the one driving! We spent three weeks in the state and now it’s time for us to move on. For those of you following along, we started our road trip out of Ohio on August 10 and made our way to Texas on August 14. My brother and sister-in-law live just outside of Austin and we spent the past few …

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Well… We Booked a Flight Back to Panama!

26 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 1, 2020 September 1, 2020

And just like that, everything changed in an instant. That glimmer of hope is now sparkling so… we booked a flight to Panama! Booked a flight??? What the heck are you talking about, Jim?! Just last week you talked about what it’s looking like to move back to the U.S. for the long-term. 100% true. And it was looking like it would be inevitable that we’d be putting that plan into motion over the next month or so. I ended …

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The Financial Impact of Moving Back to the U.S.

33 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / By Jim @ Route To Retire / August 25, 2020 August 25, 2020

2020 has been one helluva year, hasn’t it? For us, this pandemic could be the sole catalyst in our possibly moving back to the U.S. from Panama. Not only did our first year there get severely hindered by this mess, but it might also be the reason we don’t go back for a second year. That’s a tough enough pill to swallow considering how much we were enjoying our time there. But life happens and you just gotta adapt accordingly. …

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Tennessee and Arkansas – Leg 1 of the 2020 Road Trip!

17 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / August 18, 2020 August 16, 2020

From Opryland and hot chicken sandwiches in Nashville, Tennessee to camping and hot springs in Arkansas. It’s been a fun start to our road trip and it’s only just begun! We decided on our method of transportation, loaded up, and took off. This leg of the trip wasn’t exactly slow travel but we’ve made some headway across the country. We’ve gone from Ohio to Tennessee, to Arkansas, and now we’re in Texas. We’ll be planting ourselves here in Texas for …

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Is Our Retirement in Panama Unexpectedly Over?

41 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama / By Jim @ Route To Retire / August 4, 2020 August 4, 2020

We started our early retirement in Panama in the late summer of 2019. It was just me, my wife, Lisa, and our daughter, Faith, who was 9 at the time. We moved there and found a condo close to town in Boquete that we really liked. We even got to be part of a House Hunters International episode along the way! Things were moving along very well. The weather in the mountains of Boquete where our place resides is wonderful …

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When Life Gives You Lemons… Take a Road Trip!

36 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / July 28, 2020 July 28, 2020

As we’re sitting here in Ohio wondering when (or if) we’ll be able to get back to Panama, we decided why not take a road trip? The iconic road trip is something that used to be the standard of almost every family vacation. With the pandemic raging stronger than ever, these types of trips have been making a big comeback this summer since not many folks are ready to jump on a plane right now. We’re in that same boat …

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