Travel/Vacation Archives - Route to Retire

6 Months of Early Retirement… We’re Now Homeless

I left my management job in IT at the end of 2018 at the age of 43. The goal was to reach early retirement with my family so we could live a life of freedom and adventure… and now we’re homeless. This might sound unexpected, but here’s the thing – that was exactly the plan. Being homeless is something we’ve been working toward for a long time now. For those of you familiar with our path, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But for my new readers, you might be a cringing a little bit. No need to fear though, we’re not homeless in the sense of sleeping on the streets. We’ve just decided to spend about a month and

Global Entry – Why You Need It and How to Get It for Free

Global Entry was something pretty foreign to me at this time a year ago. We love to travel, but most of it has been domestic here in the U.S. The biggest exception to that are the cruises that we love to take. But here’s the thing – all the cruises we’ve been on are considered closed loop sailings. That means that we departed and returned to the same U.S. port when the trip was over. It also means going that through customs is a little simpler. You generally zip through those lines like nothing. However, with us planning to bounce in and out of Panama over the next few years, customs will become a little more of a burden. Sure,

We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

When we first sought out our new adventure, we thought we could basically just pack up and go. I mean, you just sell everything and move to Panama, right? Ha! Wishful thinking! There’s a tremendous amount of planning involved to make this a smooth transition. I’ve talked about some of the minutiae we’ve encountered in our planning, but now it’s time for more scoop. And considering we’re about to embark on a huge adventure, I thought it would make sense to try to update everyone a little more frequently on how things are coming along. Sometimes I get caught up in trying to stick solely to money topics that I forget our readers also want to know what’s actually going

Using Google Voice to Stay in Touch While Living Abroad

Ever heard of Google Voice? If not, know that this could be one of the best ways of staying in touch with family and friends while you’re living abroad. One of the small concerns we had was how to keep communication simple with everyone while we’re living in Panama. When we get there, we’re going to get Panamanian cell service for our phones. The problem is that gives us a Panamanian phone number. So if we call anyone in the U.S. or they call us, it’s an international call. That means some potential extra money for each phone call… and we know I don’t like that! Plus, we have to ensure that everyone has our new number, which can also

An Interview with My Daughter about Our Crazy Plans

We all know that everyone loves to hear from my daughter on here more than me. So I thought that this time I’d bring her back as an interviewee. Most of you think that our plans to move out of the country later this year are pretty bold but cool (albeit, a little crazy). But the problem is that you’re only getting my perspective on our upcoming plans. And I know a lot of you want to know what the rest of the family is thinking. So today, I’m presenting an interview I did with my daughter, Faith, to talk about our July plans as well as our upcoming move to Panama in August. Hopefully, I can get Mrs. R2R

Holy Schnikes! Another Change of Plans for Us!

Another day, another change of plans! This slight change is going to add to our already exciting adventure! As most of you already know, we’re moving to Panama this summer. I retired from my job at the end of 2018 and we’re getting closer to making this happen. In the meantime, we have two reasons we’re waiting so long to leave: We need to wait for our daughter to finish out her school year. We have a vacation planned with Mrs. R2R’s side of the family at the end of July. When we head from Cleveland to South Carolina for the vacation, that’s about it. Our lease will be done at the apartment and we’ll have our two suitcases each

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