Would You REALLY Work Out Once You’re Retired?

28 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement / /

I hate to work out. When talking to gym-addicts, they love to tell me things, “oh, you’ll learn to enjoy it over time.”  I chuckle. I don’t think so.  I hate knowing that it’s time to go work out and I hate the actual workout. “Yeah, but you feel so much better once you’re done, right?” Um, no.  I’m glad it’s over, but no, I don’t feel better or refreshed at all. Look, I’m just keeping it real.  I do […]

Would You REALLY Work Out Once You’re Retired? Read More »

Make Your Money Work for You Instead of Vice Versa

14 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

I think I first heard the mantra of “make your money work for you” when I was a kid.  I’d also guess that it was my grandfather who preached it.  He was able to retire in his mid-40’s before the term FIRE (financial independence / retire early) was even coined. But it took me years to really understand what that meant.  And even once I thought I got it, I still assumed it was just some pipe dream that only

Make Your Money Work for You Instead of Vice Versa Read More »

What's Up Next? - Geoarbitrage Podcast

Somehow I Got Asked Back on “What’s Up Next?”

2 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Geoarbitrage, Panama / /

Somehow I was able to get invited back on the “What’s Up Next?” podcast… who’da thunk it?! You’d think after Doc G and Paul Thompson had me on their “What’s Up Next?” show the first time around, they would’ve learned their lesson.  Not so much! To top it off, they invited my better half to be a part of it – maybe they were thinking that through the law of averages, Lisa could help bring me up a little more.

Somehow I Got Asked Back on “What’s Up Next?” Read More »

5 Life Lessons from Our First Year of Early Retirement

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

It’s time to share some life lessons I’ve gone through in my first year of early retirement. Exactly one year ago today, I was at the office on the last day I would ever work in my career again.  It was New Year’s Eve, 2018 and it was the day before my retirement officially began at the sweet age of 43. My career in IT started back in 1999 and lasted almost 20 years.  I started as an unexperienced Systems

5 Life Lessons from Our First Year of Early Retirement Read More »

Our Return Trip to Panama – How We Saved Thousands

14 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

This return trip to Panama is well overdue.  We had a blast, but we’re whupped and ready to get back home (we’re finally starting to get comfortable calling Panama “home”). We spent over a month in the U.S. enjoying time with friends and family.  Then we took a roundtrip Caribbean cruise out of Miami. Who’da thunk that we’d be ready to go home after so much fun?!  But we really are – it’s time to enjoy the holidays together and

Our Return Trip to Panama – How We Saved Thousands Read More »

The Roth Conversion Strategy Guide for Early Retirees

The Roth Conversion Strategy Guide for Early Retirees

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

Doing a Roth conversion can be the key to a successful FIRE (financial independence, retire early) strategy.  That’s definitely the case for us. By doing some financial planning, this one move is allowing us to access money in our pre-tax retirement accounts with no penalty and the ability to pay little to no tax when it happens. Today, I’m going to take you through some more details on what a Roth conversion is and why it’s so valuable.  I’ll also

The Roth Conversion Strategy Guide for Early Retirees Read More »

We Got Turned Down for a Credit Card… Ok, Four!

16 Comments / Spending, Debt, Travel and Vacation / /

Yeah, getting turned down for a credit card isn’t a good feeling. It doesn’t matter that Lisa and I each have credit scores of over 800.  It doesn’t matter that we have plenty of credit cards already and don’t really need another. We also have more of an unused credit line spanned across all our cards than we’ll never need.  And then, of course, there’s that little piece of info that we’ve saved up enough money that we never have

We Got Turned Down for a Credit Card… Ok, Four! Read More »

How and Why We Changed Our State of Domicile

16 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Estate Planning, Investments, Panama, Real Estate / /

One of the things we did before we headed to Panama was to change our state of domicile. If you’re not familiar with the term, your state of domicile refers to your principal place of residence.  If you leave for a while, it’s what can be thought of as the place you would return to afterward. In other words, it might be considered your “home base” in the U.S. – your permanent place of residence. For snowbirds that head from

How and Why We Changed Our State of Domicile Read More »

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Motivation / /

I recently came across a question in the FinCon Community Facebook Group relating to the FIRE movement (financial independence / retire early).  It was asked by Jeff Rose, creator of the Good Financial Cents site. If you’re not a member of the FinCon Facebook group, you likely won’t be able to access this link.  However, the question asked was “Who disagrees with the FIRE movement and why?” The post drew quite a number of comments that spanned all sorts of

What the FIRE Movement Means to Me Read More »

Uh-Oh… Our Retirement Expenses Are Higher than Expected

20 Comments / Spending, Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Retirement expenses are a tough one to plan for in life. You can budget for what you think your expenses will be, but you really don’t know if they’ll be more or less.  The biggest reason is that your life will likely be dramatically different at the time. This is probably even more on par the younger you are when you leave the workforce because you’re likely not going to be resting on your laurels.  Not only would you be

Uh-Oh… Our Retirement Expenses Are Higher than Expected Read More »