A Month-Long Panama Trip for 3 for an Unbeatable Price of Less than $1,500!

A Month-Long Panama Trip for 3 for an Unbeatable Price of Less than $1,500!

23 Comments / Panama, Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By /

I’ve been excited to talk about this for a while now, but I wanted to hold back until we were sure it was going to happen. Well, it’s now official… We’re heading back to Boquete for a month-long Panama trip! After just shy of 3 years of living in Boquete, Panama, we moved back to the U.S. last spring. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there but it was time to come back. A lot of folks continue to ask us …

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Squeezing Out Higher Returns – 5 Minutes of Work for Short-Term Gains

Squeezing Out Higher Returns – 5 Minutes of Work for Short-Term Gains

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

Being aware of opportunity can be extremely valuable in building your nest egg. This doesn’t mean veering from the path – sticking to your investment plan is highly important to growth. You put the money in (broad-based index funds for this guy) and then just leave it alone to do its thing… with some regular rebalancing once or twice a year. But what about taking advantage of higher returns for the short term? As early retirees, we get our annual …

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We Got the Chase United Explorer Card… Again. Boom! Easy Free Travel!

We Got the Chase United Explorer Card… Again. Boom! Easy Free Travel!

6 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Product and Service Reviews, Spending / By /

We just applied for (and got) the Chase United Explorer credit card. This time around it’s in Lisa’s name (my wife). What’s funny is that I really don’t think this is the best travel rewards card out there for a lot of people. There are so many choices and some others can actually be a better bang for the buck depending on your needs. For some reason though, we’ve come back to this card more than any other. I believe …

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The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2022

The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2022

4 Comments / Blogging, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Panama, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By /

Last year, I wrote a wrap-up post with the 10 most popular posts of the year. It was an idea I borrowed from my friend Fritz over at The Retirement Manifesto (with his permission, of course). I liked that idea so much that I’m running with it again this year. And guess what – Fritz did it again as well and beat me to the punch! If you’re interested (and you should be!), you can check out his post appropriately …

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ETFs vs Mutual Funds… Why I'm All-In on ETFs

ETFs vs Mutual Funds… Why I’m All-In on ETFs

10 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / By /

In my last post, Opening the Books to Our Investment Portfolio, I broke down our entire portfolio. This included every holding and the values of each (rounded slightly just for security). This turned out to be a pretty popular post and generated a little bit of fun discussion – both in the comments and through email several email conversations I had with readers. One fair comment was about why I choose to buy the Vanguard ETF VTI instead of the …

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Opening the Books to Our Investment Portfolio

Opening the Books to Our Investment Portfolio

49 Comments / Investments, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / By /

Ah, how time flies! In February 2019, I wrote a post called The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments that detailed our investment portfolio at the time. As you’d expect, it broke down all our assets and liabilities and gave a good snapshot of our financial picture. This was just a couple of months after I had retired from the corporate world so it gave us a pretty good baseline to start our retirement. But holy schnikes – …

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Entitled Kid Syndrome… Our 4-Part Preventative Strategy Entitled Kid Syndrome…

Entitled Kid Syndrome… Our 4-Part Preventative Strategy

18 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By /

“Wow, that’s one entitled kid for sure!” Words you don’t ever want to hear about your child. We’re blessed to have saved enough money to be able to enjoy early retirement. As a millionaire family that doesn’t live extravagantly, a lot of the money stress tends to subside (though not completely). It’s been wonderful to be able to spend my days with my wife and daughter. In fact, being able to be a bigger part of my daughter’s life while …

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10 Secret Library Resources That Can Save You a Ton of Dough!

10 Secret Library Resources That Can Save You a Ton of Dough!

23 Comments / Saving, Education, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Spending / By /

You might have noticed that I didn’t write anything last week. Last year, I “gave myself permission” to take time off from blogging periodically. That’s not an easy thing for me. In the year and a half since I wrote that post, I’ve only skipped a few weeks of writing… it’s hard to let go! I enjoy writing for the blog but I sometimes struggle by making it more of an obligation than a fun hobby. Nevertheless, it was nice …

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Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick

14 Comments / Motivation, Education, Health and Fitness, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / By /

When I reached early retirement at the end of 2018, I gained the one big gift I was looking for in life… more time and freedom. That’s a true blessing, my friends, and I try not to squander it. I strive to use some of that “super power” to push myself to become a better person – both physically and mentally. Change is hard, but I like it. It’s easy just to continue rolling forward while doing the same old …

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My 3 Rules and My 3 Favorite Indulgences Cruise Vacations

Cruise Vacations – My 3 Rules and My 3 Favorite Indulgences

16 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By /

Ah, the world of cruise vacations… some people love ’em and some people hate ’em. Without a doubt, I’m in the former camp. Cruising is my absolute favorite type of vacation and I’ve even dug into what it would take to live on a cruise ship! I guess I’m not the only one either. My friend John over at ESI Money wrote a deep-dive post into the subject a few years ago titled, Is Retiring on a Cruise Ship an …

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