Route to Retire ...the path to financial independence

Three Weeks in Texas – A Big Stop on the Road Trip

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip / Jim @ Route To Retire / September 8, 2020

I’m typing this in the car while back on the road and heading out of Texas. Don’t worry, I’m not the one driving! We spent three weeks in the state and now it’s time for us to move on. For those of you following along, we started our road trip out of Ohio on August 10 and made our way to Texas on August 14. My brother and sister-in-law live just outside of Austin and we spent the past few […]

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Well… We Booked a Flight Back to Panama!

26 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / Jim @ Route To Retire / September 1, 2020

And just like that, everything changed in an instant. That glimmer of hope is now sparkling so… we booked a flight to Panama! Booked a flight??? What the heck are you talking about, Jim?! Just last week you talked about what it’s looking like to move back to the U.S. for the long-term. 100% true. And it was looking like it would be inevitable that we’d be putting that plan into motion over the next month or so. I ended

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The Financial Impact of Moving Back to the U.S.

33 Comments / Geoarbitrage, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama / Jim @ Route To Retire / August 25, 2020

2020 has been one helluva year, hasn’t it? For us, this pandemic could be the sole catalyst in our possibly moving back to the U.S. from Panama. Not only did our first year there get severely hindered by this mess, but it might also be the reason we don’t go back for a second year. That’s a tough enough pill to swallow considering how much we were enjoying our time there. But life happens and you just gotta adapt accordingly.

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Tennessee and Arkansas – Leg 1 of the 2020 Road Trip!

17 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip / Jim @ Route To Retire / August 18, 2020

From Opryland and hot chicken sandwiches in Nashville, Tennessee to camping and hot springs in Arkansas. It’s been a fun start to our road trip and it’s only just begun! We decided on our method of transportation, loaded up, and took off. This leg of the trip wasn’t exactly slow travel but we’ve made some headway across the country. We’ve gone from Ohio to Tennessee, to Arkansas, and now we’re in Texas. We’ll be planting ourselves here in Texas for

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Is It a Smart Idea to Pay Off the Rental Property?

36 Comments / Real Estate, Debt, Investments / Jim @ Route To Retire / August 11, 2020

I’ve been salivating over these insanely low mortgage rates out there right now. But I never even thought that another option might be to just pay off the rental property. Today I want to tell you about how I went from unsuccessfully trying to refinance to considering that maybe I just pay off the rental property. It even involves a discussion with the one and only Clark Howard! There’s always discussion in the real estate world about whether it makes

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Is Our Retirement in Panama Unexpectedly Over?

41 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement / Jim @ Route To Retire / August 4, 2020

We started our early retirement in Panama in the late summer of 2019. It was just me, my wife, Lisa, and our daughter, Faith, who was 9 at the time. We moved there and found a condo close to town in Boquete that we really liked. We even got to be part of a House Hunters International episode along the way! Things were moving along very well. The weather in the mountains of Boquete where our place resides is wonderful

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When Life Gives You Lemons… Take a Road Trip!

36 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 28, 2020

As we’re sitting here in Ohio wondering when (or if) we’ll be able to get back to Panama, we decided why not take a road trip? The iconic road trip is something that used to be the standard of almost every family vacation. With the pandemic raging stronger than ever, these types of trips have been making a big comeback this summer since not many folks are ready to jump on a plane right now. We’re in that same boat

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A Couple of Good Fiction Books to Read

8 Comments / Product and Service Reviews / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 21, 2020

I’m constantly reading non-fiction books to continue learning – personal finance, biographies, business books, etc. But sometimes, I just need a couple of really good fiction books to read to free up my mind and get my imagination going. With the amount of traveling we had to do recently to get from Panama to the U.S. and then all the unknowns pushing up my anxiety, some good fiction books to read are just what the doctor ordered! I don’t have

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Earn & Invest Podcast Appearance – Panama Update

8 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Panama / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 16, 2020

One of my favorite podcasts is the Earn & Invest podcast with Doc G (formerly the What’s Up Next? podcast). I’ve known Doc for a handful of years now. We met at FinCon years ago and I’ve been on his show on a couple of times since then. The first time I was on a panel to discuss the topic of whether passive income can really be passive. The second appearance was with my wife, Lisa, along with Amon and

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Is Anyone Else’s Mental Health Still a Wreck?

30 Comments / Health and Fitness, General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement / Jim @ Route To Retire / July 14, 2020

What a year! And I figured that if my mental health is still a mess right now, then I’m sure some of you might be in the same boat. Before you get too concerned about me though and start telling me that I need to talk to someone… I’m fine. I’m just a lot more off-balance than usual. I feel like I’m exhausted all the time and just plain anxious. Anxiety is something new to me. I’m used to being

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