Travel/Vacation Archives - Route to Retire

You Get What You Get, So Don’t Throw a Fit

You get what you get, so don’t throw a fit. This might be a little bit of an off-topic post, but since cruises are my favorite vacation and that’s the banner on my site, I’m hoping you’ll hang with me on it. Plus, the point is actually more than the cruise itself – it’s about enjoying life and aiming for more. I started this post while on a cruise ship. We’ve been on a number of cruises with lines like Princess and Celebrity, but this is our first time with MSC Cruises. We’re on the MSC Seaside en route from Miami to St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas before we head back to Miami. We didn’t plan to take

Expat Health Insurance – Our Plans for Panama

Expat health insurance – the one piece of retirement unique to those living in another country. One of the biggest struggles for folks wanting to pull the trigger on early retirement in the U.S. tends to revolve around healthcare. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that one except to say to plan for the worse. You have to build the unknown into your FIRE number because it can be the one wildcard that can throw off anyone’s plans. That sucks, but it’s our fault as a country for letting the healthcare industry get as powerful as it has. Unfortunately, that puts most of us in the U.S. in a tough spot where medical care costs more here than any other

A Moment to Exhale… So Now What?

Well, we’re finally over the hump. We actually had a moment to exhale. We sold the house and moved into an apartment. Everything should start to get easier and easier as we get closer to the big move to Panama next summer. I started this post while at the airport on our way to Miami to get our cruise kicked off. We booked this trip at the beginning of the year thinking we’d have nothing going on at this time. Yeah, we were wrong. Once we got through security here at Hopkins airport here in Cleveland, I got a text from my agent telling me everything just finished. The closing is officially done and they’re in the process of filing

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

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