We'd just returned from a two-week trip to Peru. After dropping our luggage at home, we headed straight out again to pick up our dogs. Unfortunately, none of our friends can watch both dogs while we're away, so we've always relied on pet boarding services. And boarding two dogs isn't exactly cheap. As happy as we are to see them again, getting the final bill at checkout is another story. Nothing says "Welcome home!" quite like a bill that dropkicks you out of your post-vacati

Since retiring early, we’ve been traveling a lot more, but it sure gets expensive. Naturally, we’d like to keep costs as low as possible without giving up too much convenience or comfort. I’ve looked into popular travel hacks such as credit card point churning and searching for alternative airports. But a lot of them remind me of extreme couponing: They might save us money, but they also sound like a lot of work. And that's not exactly what I had in mind when I retired early.

You'd think achieving FIRE would mean we’d stop worrying about saving money and simply spend freely. Nope. Reaching financial independence doesn't mean you suddenly start ignoring price tags. If anything, FIRE changes the way you think about spending. We don't avoid spending money because we're afraid we'll run out. We avoid wasting money because we'd rather spend it on things we actually value. It goes back to thinking like a CEO and putting our money to work where it genera

Our COBRA coverage expires this year. And next year, we plan to switch to an ACA insurance plan. As mentioned in an earlier post about ACA health insurance in early retirement, we're hoping to qualify for ACA subsidies. Doing so could dramatically lower our insurance premiums. The catch? We need to manage our household MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income). It’s a major factor in determining whether we qualify for subsidies and how much we can receive. How ironic is it that w