Author Archives: Travis

24 Jul

Early Retirement With Zero Income Taxes

Everyone loves taxes, and now that we’re traveling the world and no longer going to work everyday, what better time to plan for our future income taxes?

After years of working hard at our careers, we were curious to see how much of our previous income we’ve already paid to income taxes. Here is a table showing our income and taxes over the last seven years:

Year Income (AGI) Federal Tax CA State Tax Total Tax Paid Effective Tax Rate
2008 $177,863 $26,290 $11,445 $37,735 21.22%
2009 $158,857 $26,192 $9,713 $35,905 22.60%
2010 $146,863 $23,407 $8,574 $31,981 21.78%
2011 $149,305 $24,775 $8,229 $33,004 22.11%
2012 $207,581 $38,892 $13,507 $52,399 25.24%
2013 $204,718 $38,241 $13,729 $51,970 25.39%
2014 $234,992 $43,428 $16,368 $59,796 25.45%
Total $1,280,179 $221,225 $81,565 $302,790 23.65%

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09 Jul

Going to a Dentist in Costa Rica

When we were working full-time jobs, dental insurance is something that we always had. It’s a standard employer-provided benefit in both Canada and the US. During those days, we didn’t pay much attention to how much the insurance company was being billed for our dental visits.

However, now that we’ve both quit our jobs to travel and live the good life – we no longer have dental insurance! Amanda needs something called an inlay (bigger than a filling, smaller than a crown), I need a new mouth guard, and we both need standard checkups, x-rays, and cleanings. Let’s go see a dentist in San Jose, Costa Rica!

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08 Jun

Nicaragua-Costa Rica Border Crossing @ Peñas Blancas

One final overland border cross on our southbound journey. We’re about to enter Costa Rica and the suspense is unbearable. We are finally here! A few… more… line-ups… and dealings with people who seem to hate their jobs. Just let us in! Here’s our experience at the Peñas Blancas border crossing between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

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01 Jun

Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe and San Juan del Sur

An adventure over water, as Bruno floats across Lago Nicaragua and travels with us to Isla de Ometepe! The island is comprised of two volcanoes connected by a skinny landmass. There is little space around the edges for people to live, let alone all the tourism this island is known for. And the monos! We found Ometepe pleasantly packed full of monos.

Bruno on the mainland with Ometepe in the background.

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19 May

Big Border Crossing – El Salvador to Honduras to Nicaragua

Two crossings in one day that certainly lived up to expectations! Beggar kids following you around, men riding along on Bruno’s footrests and hanging onto the roof rack, just to help you through the crossing and make a buck. We gave one kid a $1 US coin from El Salvador. His eyes lit up huge and he danced around, rubbing it in all the other kid’s faces. What a sweetheart.

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19 May

El Salvador Stats Summary

Back to the familiar US dollar – El Salvador’s official currency since 2001! They also use $1 coins, which is unique since in the US everybody still uses the one dollar bill (for reasons not completely understood). As a side note, it seems odd that El Salvador would adopt the US currency, considering that the US heavily supported the “bad guys” during the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980’s…

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13 May

El Salvador

We weren’t sure what to expect from you, El Salvador, but you’ve warmed our hearts. The smallest and most densely populated country in Central America had some stunning vistas, with no one around for miles. We are impressed by the significant amount of geothermal energy powering the country (close to 30%), the lush greenery and friendly faces all around. Your people and your stray dogs welcomed us with open arms.

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30 Apr

Mexico Stats Summary

Well, it’s now been almost a month and a half since we quit our jobs in San Francisco and started this road trip. We’ve had a wonderful time traveling through Mexico, and now that we’ve crossed the border into Guatemala we wanted to crunch the numbers and tally all of our Mexico expenses.

As noted earlier, we’re aiming to live on 4% of our equity portfolio, which is $40,000/yr. In truth, we would actually be very happy having our annual living expenses be closer to $30,000, but that’s an aggressive target. Let’s see how we’re doing so far.

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30 Mar

Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara

So far, Bruno is doing good. We’re really proud of him. We’ve bounced him over more topes (surprise Mexican speedbumps) than I can count, sometimes going faster than we probably should. Whenever this happens, our entire sleeping platform in the back of Bruno briefly flies into the air with simulated zero-gravity and then crashes back down with a giant thud. Bruno loves it (I think?)

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