That Day I Sold My Coin Collection to J. Money...

That Day I Sold My Coin Collection to J. Money…

23 Comments / Investments / /

Another day where the personal finance community helps each other out.  This time it was with my very own coin collection. As we’re continuing to prepare for our big move to Panama later this summer, we’re cleaning house as much as we can.  Between selling, giving away/donating, and trashing all our stuff, we’ve been plenty busy. Eliminating the big stuff like furniture has been nice.  It’s been pretty quick to go on OfferUp and frees up tons of space.  We […]

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8 Financial Tips I Wish I Knew When I Was in My 20’s

16 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / /

My nephew recently started reading this blog and it got me thinking.  What would be valuable information for him as a reader?  What do I wish I knew when I was younger? He’s almost 20 years old and he just started a career in construction probably close to a couple of years ago.  At his age, I know I wasn’t very smart financially.  Don’t get me wrong – I thought I was, but looking back, I made some stupid decisions.

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FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

FOMO is the Cancer of FIRE

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

Scary title, right?  Using a word like “cancer” is not something to take lightly and saying that FOMO is the cancer of FIRE is something that should make you raise an eyebrow. But here’s the thing… that’s exactly what it is.  And it has the power to destroy your journey to FIRE. Today I’m going to explain why this and how to avoid it. But first, let’s define a couple of words:   FOMO (or FoMO) FOMO stands for Fear

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We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

We Thought We Could Just Pack Up and Go…

26 Comments / General Thoughts, Travel and Vacation / /

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

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Guest Appearance on the What's Up Next Podcast

Guest Appearance on the What’s Up Next Podcast

4 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances / /

The “What’s Up Next?” podcast is a little newer to the scene.  In fact, the first episode just came out in November of 2018. However, I’ve known Doc G from DiverseFI for a while and we finally had that opportunity at FinCon in Dallas last year.  It’s great to meet other bloggers in real life and Doc is no exception. He’s a great guy and we had some good conversation… and a few beers, of course! Anyway, a few months

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Estimated Self-Employment Tax Used to Scare Me!

Estimated Self-Employment Tax Used to Scare Me!

8 Comments / Self-Employment, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I’m just going to say it – I have three very small businesses that I’ve been running for years and I’ve never paid estimated self-employment tax payments. Ouch, for shame, for shame! That’s right, I’m a complete failure in that avenue.  And that could have cost me, too. If you owe $1,000 or more come tax day in April, you might be hit with a penalty by the IRS.  In essence, it’s an interest penalty on the difference of what

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Guest Appearance on the Marriage, Kids and Money Podcast

Leave a Comment / Podcasts and Other Appearances / /

I like Andy Hill from the Marriage, Kids and Money site a lot.  He’s a genuinely nice guy and I love that he focuses on finances as a family. I would guess that the majority of the folks we hear from in the personal finance community don’t have kids.  That doesn’t necessarily represent everyone tuning in, but the voices tend to be less. Enter Andy Hill.  Not only does he focus on improving family finances, but he loves to show

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Using Google Voice to Stay in Touch While Living Abroad

Using Google Voice to Stay in Touch While Living Abroad

107 Comments / Geoarbitrage, Panama, Travel and Vacation / /

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

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An Interview with My Daughter about Our Crazy Plans

18 Comments / Guest Posts, Kids, Travel and Vacation / /

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

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It Takes More than Money – My Interview on Retire By 40

3 Comments / Guest Posts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement / /

A lot of you already know that Joe from Retire By 40 was my inspiration for heading down the path to FIRE.  He gave me the kick in the pants I needed to realize that early retirement was possible. I took a week off of work when my daughter was born in 2010.  When I had to go back to work after that and couldn’t be with her throughout the days after, it crushed me.  I struggled, but I thought

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