Spending

A Travel Nightmare: Free Airport Lounge Access to the Rescue!

A Travel Nightmare: Free Airport Lounge Access to the Rescue!

We had a travel fiasco last summer on our way back from a month-long stay in Boquete, Panama. One small element of bad weather caused a delay that turned everything into an overnight mess. Exhausted, both physically and mentally, we ended up finding some sort of redemption the next morning thanks to a free credit card perk we have… airport lounge access. If you’re not aware of how nice airport lounge access can be when traveling, you’re missing out. But […]

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My Game-Changing Spreadsheet to Track Upcoming Credit Card Bills

My Game-Changing Spreadsheet to Track Upcoming Credit Card Bills

Once upon a time, I decided that I wanted to be a little more “hands-off” with our finances once we became early retirees. This didn’t mean to push down the major planning or big moves but rather just the day-to-day spending. For years, I was spending my life inside Quicken instead of taking a step back, handling the big picture, and not worrying so much about all the smaller details. So, I let Quicken go after almost 20 years of

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Our 9-Month RV Adventure: The 55+ Essential Items We Bought for the Road

Our 9-Month RV Adventure: The 55+ Essential Items We Bought for the Road

It’s crazy to think that we’re already 4 months into our 9-month RV adventure around the country. We completed our first loop (of 3 planned) and went from Ohio to Texas and back. We’re now on loop 2 as we head toward the south for a couple of months and then make our way up the east coast when we smell spring getting near. Then we’ll be making a massive trip out west for loop 3 throughout the spring and

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Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

In the blink of an eye, 2023 has come and gone. Whether you had a great year or not, it’s time to decide if you’re going to make 2024 a better one! Our 2023 was something truly different and not anything I would have imagined. Our wanderlust took over and we ended up buying an RV, letting the lease lapse on our apartment, putting our stuff in storage, and set off to travel the country. We’ve been learning the RV

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Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

If you haven’t heard, Intuit decided to shut down the Mint personal finance site/app on January 1, 2024. They made this announcement on October 31, 2024, giving users only about 2 months to decide what they were going to do. All I can do is shake my head at how disrespectful this is to their loyal customer base. UPDATE: I just I received an email from Intuit on 12/17/2023 stating that I can continue using Mint until March 23, 2024,

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Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Personal finance is such an interesting facet of life. It’s a part of every one of our lives whether we like it or not and most of us think we know what’s best for ourselves… and everyone else. But the reality is that while we can learn as much as we want about the subject, we really should only focus on what’s best for ourselves. Why is that? It’s because, funny enough, personal finance truly is personal. You might have

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RV Boondocking: Spending a Little Money on 3 Changes Now to Reap Huge Savings and Enjoy a Better Trip Later

RV Boondocking: Spending a Little Money on 3 Changes Now to Reap Huge Savings and Enjoy a Better Trip Later

This past spring, Lisa and I bought an RV travel trailer – a 2022 Jayco Jay Flight SLX 7 184BS to be more exact. We’ve never owned an RV and we didn’t know much about them. All we knew was that our family of three had two incredible month-long road trips in our Honda Pilot in 2020 and in 2022. So why not try something bigger just because we can? That led us to planning a 9-month road trip, buying

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Mint Mobile Review: 1 Year Later – Does It Live Up to the Hype?

Mint Mobile Review: 1 Year Later – Does It Live Up to the Hype?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s no doubt you’ve seen the Mint Mobile commercials with Ryan Reynolds. The ads are a little quirky and fun and they promote the idea that the service is great while the prices are low. Hopefully, those commercials will continue since they can be entertaining. Mint Mobile was acquired by T-Mobile earlier this year netting Ryan Reynolds a nice $300 million paycheck but he agreed to stay on as a spokesperson. Mint seems

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A Month-Long Vacation in Boquete, Panama: What I Loved… and What I Didn’t

A Month-Long Vacation in Boquete, Panama: What I Loved… and What I Didn’t

Well, we just wrapped up a month-long vacation in Boquete, Panama. Wow, I missed it here! For those of you who aren’t regular readers, we lived in Boquete for just shy of three years starting in 2019 before returning to the U.S. in the spring of 2022. Moving back to the U.S. was a difficult decision that has both its pros and cons but either way, it was great to be back there again. This trip came about because of

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Running Out of Money To Save $52: Is It Worth It?

Running Out of Money To Save $52: Is It Worth It?

Here we are cruising along into almost 5 years of early retirement. It’s been a heckuva blessed ride… life’s been good for sure! But now we’re at a pivot point that will likely make running out of money by the end of this month a good possibility. Wait, what? Aren’t you guys millionaires? How is that even possible and what the heck is going on?! It’s not as bad as it sounds but I’m pushing things right to the wire

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