Travel and Vacation Archives

You Gotta Spend Money To Make Money, Right? Our Monster Travel Experiment

42 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 23, 2023

We all know the saying “You gotta spend money to make money.” I’ve never bought into that but with this major change we’re making, I’ve really got my fingers crossed that it’ll run true. You see, my family and I made a big decision not even a month ago. We’ve decided to wrap up the lease to our apartment here in Ohio later this summer, put our stuff in storage, and travel around the country with an RV travel trailer …

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Limited Time, Unlimited Dreams: 3 Steps to an Extraordinary Life

6 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Saving, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 9, 2023

As I find my way closer to 50 (I’ll be 48 in a couple of months), I’m starting to see those small changes creeping up that I thought only happen to old people. Oh crap, am I old?!! Out of nowhere, my eyes have gotten a little weaker – both near and far! I can see close-up pretty well most of the time but I finally broke down and bought some readers for nighttime reading. The same goes for distance. …

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10-Year Wait Over: Our Refreshing Small Getaway Alone

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / April 18, 2023

My wife, Lisa, and I used to be the king and queen of the small getaway. We took trips every chance we could… and then we had our daughter, Faith, almost 13 years ago. That changed everything. And that change was wonderful for sure… but the small getaway with just me and Lisa seemed to find its way out the door. Eventually, I retired from my working career at the age of 43 at the end of 2018. It was …

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Creating Your Dream Life: The Ultimate Bucket List Blueprint

20 Comments / Motivation, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 28, 2023

If you’ve been following along, you know that I hit a rough patch in my mental wellness last year. You might also know that I’m now back on track and working on bringing back the eye of the tiger in life. Between reading various books on finding your purpose, doing a ridiculous amount of thinking, and spending time mapping things out, I feel more on track now than I have in a long time. As a lover of spreadsheets, I …

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Rekindling the Eye of the Tiger – Escaping Mediocrity

39 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Self-Employment, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 14, 2023

We all know that life’s got its highs and lows. When you’re riding one of those highs, life can’t get any better. You feel that all your hard work has paid off and you’re sitting on top of the world. But when those lows come, they can be like a sucker punch that takes you completely by surprise. Occasionally, those times can make you feel there’s no way out either. As someone who tends to have higher-than-high and lower-than-low temperaments …

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Master the Art of Anticipation: How Travel Planning Can Double Your Vacation Fun!

9 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / February 28, 2023

It’s hard not to enjoy a good vacation… a chance to get away from the “same old” just for a little while. Traveling can be an opportunity to visit places you’ve never been, see new sites, meet interesting people, and maybe even try some different foods! Whether traveling just a short distance away, flying to another country, or cruising around the world, just the idea of travel gets the vacation-goer chomping at the bit. And that’s what’s so interesting – …

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There Shouldn’t Be Boredom in Retirement or You’re Doing It Wrong

18 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / February 21, 2023

I recently went out with some good friends of mine – one I’ve been friends with since high school and two since college. They’re great guys and it’s always fun when the stars align and the four of us can get together. As always, we reminisced and laughed about all the hijinx and fun from the old days, talked about what’s currently been going on in each other’s lives, and delved into plans for the future. And of course, we …

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A Month-Long Panama Trip for 3 for an Unbeatable Price of Less than $1,500!

23 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 17, 2023

I’ve been excited to talk about this for a while now, but I wanted to hold back until we were sure it was going to happen. Well, it’s now official… We’re heading back to Boquete for a month-long Panama trip! After just shy of 3 years of living in Boquete, Panama, we moved back to the U.S. last spring. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there but it was time to come back. A lot of folks continue to ask us …

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We Got the Chase United Explorer Card… Again. Boom! Easy Free Travel!

6 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By Jim @ Route To Retire / January 3, 2023

We just applied for (and got) the Chase United Explorer credit card. This time around it’s in Lisa’s name (my wife). What’s funny is that I really don’t think this is the best travel rewards card out there for a lot of people. There are so many choices and some others can actually be a better bang for the buck depending on your needs. For some reason though, we’ve come back to this card more than any other. I believe …

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The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2022

4 Comments / Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Panama, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / December 27, 2022

Last year, I wrote a wrap-up post with the 10 most popular posts of the year. It was an idea I borrowed from my friend Fritz over at The Retirement Manifesto (with his permission, of course). I liked that idea so much that I’m running with it again this year. And guess what – Fritz did it again as well and beat me to the punch! If you’re interested (and you should be!), you can check out his post appropriately …