Doing Your Own Taxes and Planning… or Die Trying!

Doing Your Own Taxes and Planning… or Die Trying!

10 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Self-Employment / /

I’ve bounced back and forth over the years in preparing my own taxes or having a CPA handle the job. If you’re using TurboTax, H&R Block’s software, TaxSlayer, TaxAct, or some other software when doing your own taxes, you’re already familiar with how they’re relatively easy to use (except when they’re not). But if you’re trying to do financial planning along the way that might affect your taxes, running solo can be a struggle if you don’t know the ins […]

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Selling Everything We Owned Has Been Truly Liberating

Selling Everything We Owned Has Been Truly Liberating

24 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Motivation, Panama, Travel and Vacation / /

Selling everything and just taking off and leaving is a dream a lot of folks have… even if it’s just a fleeting thought. To actually do it though sounds crazy. Who would do something like that?! Yeah, we were those people. We got rid of just about everything we owned and headed to Panama in the summer of 2019. At the time, we were just going through the checklist of moving preparation to make it happen. One of the biggest

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Looking Back From Your Deathbed… Be Alive Now!

Looking Back From Your Deathbed… Be Alive Now!

13 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / /

Picture yourself on your deathbed looking back on your life… A few fun vacations, some great nights out with friends, or maybe some great memories with a loved one or kids. Whatever comes to mind, I’m sure there will be some great memories that’ll make you smile. But now dig a little and try to think about what you’ve regretted not trying or doing more of in life. Maybe it’s the simpler things like sitting back and watching a couple

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Using Your HSA for Retirement – How to Track It Easily and Efficiently

Using Your HSA for Retirement – How to Track It Easily and Efficiently

34 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) have been around in the U.S. since the end of 2003. However, using your HSA for retirement has only been gaining popularity over the last handful of years. There’s no doubt that this is one very special account. Although designed as a medical savings account to be paired with a high-deductible health plan (HDHP), there’s a crafty way to make it even more valuable. In doing so, your money goes in with pre-tax dollars, grows tax-free,

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The 2 Most Useful Spanish Phrases I Love to Use

The 2 Most Useful Spanish Phrases I Love to Use

18 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Education, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

For those of you who are regular followers of this site, you know that I’ve continued to improve my Spanish-speaking skills since moving to Panama in 2019. That said, some Spanish phrases are more useful than others. Sure, it’s great to know common expressions such as: Buenos días (Good morning) ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) ¿Hablas inglés? (Do you speak English?) Disculpe/Permiso (Excuse me – disculpe to ask a question and permiso to pass by someone) Terminology like these examples

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Getting a 7.12% Return With Series I Savings Bonds

Getting a 7.12% Return With Series I Savings Bonds

20 Comments / Investments, Saving / /

Yeah, you read that right… a 7.12% return with Series I Savings Bonds. Sounds pretty good, right? Right now, it’s a real struggle to figure out what to do with the cash you’re just sitting on. I talked about that in a post earlier this year, “We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much!“ The problem is that interest rates are so low. While that’s great if you’re buying a house, it’s not so good on the

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Aren’t You Bored in Retirement? The Truth Comes Out!

Aren’t You Bored in Retirement? The Truth Comes Out!

20 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Motivation / /

Bored in retirement. For some reason, that seems to be a concern many folks have with retirement, particularly early retirement. The “easy” part’s done. You’ve saved up enough money that you’re able to leave work on your terms. You’ve hopefully used a free retirement planner like the one in Empower (formerly Personal Capital) to give you the confidence you need on that front. With the money equation out of the way and retirement here, you’ve gained the freedom of choice.

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The #1 Easy Way We’re Getting the Southwest Companion Pass

The #1 Easy Way We’re Getting the Southwest Companion Pass

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / /

The Southwest Companion Pass is considered by many to be the holy grail of travel rewards. By letting you bring along a second person for free on all Southwest flights (except for a few dollars in tax), it can be a huge money-saver! Not only that, but the airline makes the Southwest Companion Pass extremely easy to use. It’s simply a matter of booking a reservation and once confirmed, tacking on your companion to it after. We’ve had the Companion

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One of the Best Money Books I've Ever Read

One of the Best Money Books I’ve Ever Read

14 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Debt, Education, Saving, Spending / /

I just finished one of the best money books I’ve ever read. It’s vastly different than other books I’ve read over the years… and that’s a good thing. Alternating between reading fiction, non-fiction money-related books, and non-fiction books unrelated to finance works well for me. I love learning new takes on money but I don’t want to become completely absorbed in it. I also want some time for fiction to take me away periodically and allow my imagination to take

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I’ve Decided to Hike up an Active Volcano...

I’ve Decided to Hike up an Active Volcano…

12 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Panama / /

The thought of hiking up an active volcano might seem out of sorts for me, but it’s now something that’s going to happen in a few months. First off, I skipped another week of writing (I’m getting pretty good at this!). But I do have a good excuse – we had guests for 8 days. Our friends Steve and Courtney Adcock visited us for about a week in Boquete, Panama and we had a rocking good time! As I write

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