Travel/Vacation Archives - Route to Retire

Travel Rewards – 12 Free Flights Earned in 9 Months!

You ever see those offers from the credit card companies with the big juicy sign-up bonuses? They might be offering 50,000 points or miles in travel rewards for spending maybe $3,000 in the first few months. If you’re like I used to be, you get those offers in the mail and just tear ’em up and pitch ’em. Those jerks aren’t suckering me into their little trap of overspending my hard-earned money for a lousy plane ticket or hotel stay! Yeah, well that was then. Back in my college days, I got my first credit cards and ran up about $30k in credit card debt. It took me years to realize just how screwed I was and work my way

The #1 Question We’re Asked About Moving to Panama…

My loyal readers know that we’re planning on moving to Panama in 2020. We’re quitting our jobs at the end of 2019. We’ll then let our daughter finish out her school year (fourth grade). And then, yeah, we’re moving to Panama. Sounds crazy, right? You can say it – you won’t hurt my feelings. What’s funny is that most of our friends don’t have the heart to tell us what they’re really thinking. We know what they’re really thinking is “What the #$%^ is wrong with you? Panama? Are you insane?!” Instead, they aim for a more diplomatic approach and the first question is always the same… Why Panama? It seems like no one wants to ask us why we’re

A Fun Interview on Our Plans to Move to Panama

Hey everyone – I just wanted to let you know that Laurie at The Three Year Experiment recently invited me to be interviewed on her series, “Location Independent, International Jobs.” I was excited to say yes and she hit me with all kinds of great questions (both financial and otherwise) regarding our plans to move to Panama in a couple years. Among other things, we talked about working or not working, schooling for my daughter, costs of living, and of course the great food! I think you’ll really enjoy the interview as we go into a number of points I haven’t discussed yet on this site. Please check it out and let me know what you think… Location Independence, International Jobs: Jim

What if Moving to Panama Sucks?

If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you know we’re moving to Panama in 2020 – Boquete, Panama to be specific. I’ll be quitting my job at the end of 2019 and then getting everything prepared and ready to go while my daughter finishes her fourth-grade year of school. To say we’re excited would be an understatement. In the blink of an eye, everything’s changing. We’ll have vast new territory to explore and no 9-5 jobs getting in the way of making it happen. I have that perfect vision in my head about us all having breakfast together in the morning before my daughter heads off to school. Then my wife and I spend some time taking a nice

The Cost of Living in Panama… Geoarbitrage at Work!

Ah, the cost of living in Panama… something I should have posted about months ago. As my long-time readers know, the Route to Retire family has decided to move to Panama in a couple years as part of our FIRE plans. I’ve also talked about how inexpensive it can be to retire to a place like this. It’s interesting that you can actually take advantage of the difference in living costs between two locations to help you financially. And there’s actually a term for this – geoarbitrage. It might be done to live on less money. Alternatively, it might be to have the ability to afford the “greater things in life” you otherwise couldn’t afford. You see that used quite a bit on

Backpacking Trip… Cross It Off the Bucket List!

I’m no Mrs. ONL when it comes to the outdoors, but I do enjoy some outdoor time when I can find it. And there’s been one adventure that’s been on my bucket list for quite some time now. I love camping and enjoy the idea of some of the disaster preparation and survival shows. So why not combine the two with a backpacking trip for a couple nights? This trip has been in the making for a few years. Every year though, it seemed to fall apart for one reason or another… until this year. I went with a buddy of mine. I thought about calling him by his first name in this post, but then I decided that might not

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