My Test Run of Medical Service in Panama Went Awry

My Test Run of Medical Service in Panama Went Awry

16 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Living in a foreign country means it’s in your best interest to learn the ropes. One of those ropes I wanted to become familiar with was the medical service in Panama. I wanted to see how things flowed and have an idea of costs that were involved. I wanted to know what happens when you need to go to the hospital here. If an emergency should happen while we’re here, being a little familiar with how things work here could […]

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How We Use a VPN for Streaming & More While Abroad

How We Use a VPN for Streaming & More While Abroad

6 Comments / Product and Service Reviews, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / /

If you’re like many of us, you’ve been spending a heckuva lot more time at home during this pandemic. And right now, streaming services are busy providing entertainment to folks at home. But living outside the U.S. generally warrants a VPN to access that same entertainment. I’m sure you’ve heard that term “VPN” before, but even if you’re not very technical, I’m going to get you on the right page with what you need to know. Today I’ll talk about

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5 Years as a Blogger - Is It Time for a Change?

5 Years as a Blogger – Is It Time for a Change?

63 Comments / Blogging, Life in Early Retirement / /

This week marks five years for me as a blogger. For some that’s nothing – just ask J.D. Roth, Jim Wang, and ESI Money who are just a few personal finance bloggers who have been around for ages… and they’re all fantastic! For others though, five years might seem like a lifetime. I’ve heard statistics that most blogs fail within 6 months or that 95-99% of blogs fail each year. I’m not going to link to any of these articles,

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Is This Stay-at-Home Thing a Taste of Early Retirement?

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

Stay at home.  Those might end up being the most spoken words of 2020. This COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic has caused a whirlwind of change in an instant.  Businesses have had to figure out how to adapt quickly or close, unemployment has reached record numbers, and social gatherings have all but disappeared. On top of all that, a large number of people have suddenly become telecommuting employees.  And many surprised parents became homeschooling teachers at the drop of a hat. Some people

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House Hunters International (Panama) – Jim, Lisa, & Faith

38 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / /

Any House Hunters International fans out there?!  Of course, you are! Anybody a fan of Jim, Lisa, and Faith (that’s us!)?  Ok, fine – maybe not of me, but at least Lisa and Faith?  Hopefully, you are – that’s why you come to this site in the first place, right?! How about Panama?  Maybe even specifically Boquete?  Yeah, that’s us, too. But wouldn’t it be even more fun to squoosh all those cool things together and come up with something

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46 More Unforgettable Quotes from My Daughter [Part 2]

46 More Unforgettable Quotes from My Daughter [Part 2]

4 Comments / Kids, General Thoughts / /

Hello, friends!  I hope you enjoyed part 1 of the quotes from my daughter.  Those quotes were from when she was between ages 2 through 4. It’s time to share another batch of lines that struck me as worthwhile to jot down over the years. These quotes from Faith are from when she was age 5 up until now (age 9). During these goofy times with the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic, a lot of things are out of whack from what we’re

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Early Retirement with Kids Is Wonderful... but Frustrating

Early Retirement with Kids Is Wonderful… but Frustrating

24 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Kids, Life in Early Retirement / /

Reaching early retirement in 2018 at 43 isn’t something that a lot of the population is interested in or trying to pull off.  But change that to being in early retirement with kids to raise and that puts us in even more of a niche. We have one child, our daughter Faith, who’s a great kid.  She’s 9 but acts like a really short adult most of the time.  That probably makes life a little easier for us and we

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41 Unforgettable Quotes from My Daughter - Part 1

41 Unforgettable Quotes from My Daughter [Part 1]

15 Comments / Kids, General Thoughts / /

Quotes from your daughter for your blog post, Jim?  Um, isn’t this a little bit of a weird post? So, yeah… about that.  Truth be told, I’ve been struggling to figure out what to write about today. Recently, I’ve given you my 2 cents about the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic.  I’ve also written about some random thoughts on how about how the pandemic is going in Panama and how we’re handling things.  I’ve even talked about whether the recession is going to

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Random Thoughts in These Unusual Times

Random Thoughts in These Unusual Times

20 Comments / General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Random thoughts everyone… get ’em here while they’re hot!  I decided to make this week’s post a little different. Times are crazy right now.  With the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc, it’s surreal to think about how so many folks throughout the entire world are at home right now.  Some are self-isolating while others are being required to be in lockdown. Regardless, I don’t know of a time like this in this modern age.  This is something new to the world. 

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My Home Workout during the Lockdown in Panama

6 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

I’m usually not a fan of the home workout because I don’t feel like I’m getting a strong enough workout in… not enough bang for the buck so to speak.  It also doesn’t help to have distractions around (kids, anyone?) so it tends to take much longer. I recently talked about how I’ve been on a roll going to the gym here.  Even since that post, I started adding a little more variety into my regiment and changed how I

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