Spending Archives - Route to Retire

Our Travel Perks Are Drying Up and That’s Big $$$!

11 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / July 13, 2021 July 11, 2021

Between free flights and hotels, zipping through security and customs, or relaxing in airline lounges, travel perks can be such a wonderful asset. And without a doubt, I love every bit of ’em! Over the years, we built up a nice stash of these things just by being strategic in our credit card spending. They’ve not only helped to make our travel more comfortable but also a lot cheaper or completely free. Well, it’s been a few years, but our …

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One of My Favorite Ways To Learn How To Save Money

8 Comments / Consumer Protection, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 25, 2021 May 27, 2021

Those of you on the path to financial independence know there are only two ways to fatten your wallet: make more money or spend less. Today, I want to focus on telling you about an invaluable tool to learn how to save money. Most folks tend to start with cutting out the excess spending in their lives simply because it can be much easier than chasing after making more money. Regardless, both areas can be largely worthwhile and beneficial for …

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Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled

14 Comments / Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 30, 2021 March 31, 2021

Relying on schools to educate your kids about personal finance is generally not going to be a smart move… most schools don’t even have a curriculum to teach them the basics. When it comes to teaching kids about money, the onus falls on you. That’s good news because you have an opportunity to ensure that your children are learning the right information. Just as many parents haven’t been educated about personal finance, many teachers themselves haven’t been either. If you …

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Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?

26 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 2, 2021 February 27, 2021

Ah, the allure of tons of money… who hasn’t had the dream of being rich?! The things you could afford, the places you could go, the luxurious good times you could have. It’s fun to imagine all the cool things you could do with boatloads of money. Wait a minute, Jim – aren’t you already rich? You retired a couple of years ago at 43 for Pete’s sake! We’re definitely in a position that I’m more than elated for – …

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How We’re Streaming Movies, TV, and Music for Free

4 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / February 23, 2021 February 23, 2021

The past decade has substantially transformed how we watch movies and TV and listen to music. Streaming movies, TV, and music is a great avenue of entertainment and the technology continues to mature and become better and better. All this cord-cutting has made the cable companies cringe, but I’m happy to see it. They’ve been gouging customers for years now as what I’d say are essentially monopolies across the U.S. Right now, they can still crush you on Internet prices, …

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A Better Life for Half the Price… Sound Appealing?

14 Comments / Geoarbitrage, Panama, Podcasts and Other Appearances, Product and Service Reviews, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 12, 2021 January 12, 2021

I recently finished reading the book “A Better Life for Half the Price” by Tim Leffel. This is the second edition of the book and it was just released this past November. Why was I reading this book when I’m already living that kind of life? Two reasons: 1) It’s intriguing to read about living in different areas of the world and compare my experiences from the U.S. and Panama. 2) I’m quoted in it a few times (how cool …

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Imagine No Internet at Home for 53 Days… Ugh.

18 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 29, 2020 December 26, 2020

Yeah, no need for us to imagine here… 53 whole days without internet at home. That’s almost two full months. Although we made a small mistake on our end that didn’t help, most of the cause of this falls on Panama just being Panama. And you don’t realize just how critical solid internet is at home until you need to go without it. It’s become such an essential part of our day-to-day lives… for better or for worse. We adjusted …

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The FI Show Podcast Appearance – Geoarbitrage

Leave a Comment / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Podcasts and Other Appearances, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 24, 2020 December 29, 2020

I first met Justin and Cody from The FI Show at a FinCon conference a couple of years ago. These might be two of the nicest guys I’ve ever meet. I believe that they were just starting their podcast at the time and they had asked me to be a guest at some point. I was game to do it but our paths didn’t really cross much for a while after that. Well, a few months ago, Justin and I …

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Overthinking the Cost of a Gym Membership

16 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 15, 2020 December 17, 2020

In the personal finance community, you tend to hear overwhelming voices shouting about how the cost of a gym membership makes it such a waste of money. It’s not hard to see why. Most folks in the community are trying to optimize their spending and cut out the costs they don’t need. Larger expenses like giant houses, fancy cars, and eating out excessively are a few of the big ones that we all know that can make it a lot …

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The Best Chrome Extensions for Online Shopping $$$

8 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Saving, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / November 17, 2020 November 13, 2020

Last week, I dished out a post of over 6,800 words: Moving to Boquete or Visiting? The Ultimate List of Tips!! This week, I thought I’d keep things a little simpler and let you know about some of the best Google Chrome extensions for online shopping. It’s time to save some money, folks! With the holidays around the corner and the pandemic continuing to do its thing, shopping online should be even more widespread than ever this year. Sometimes I …

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