Freedom With Bruno | Retired in our 30's, having adventures with Bruno, enjoying our newfound freedom! | Page 3

Retired in our 30's, having adventures with Bruno, enjoying our newfound freedom!

21 Oct 2015

Six Months of Early Retirement

Back in March, everything was coming together nicely: we had reached our financial goal of $1M, quit our jobs and cleared out our two-story rental home in Oakland using Craigslist. We had successfully purchased and fixed up Bruno – our used 2000 Toyota 4Runner, and we started driving down to Costa Rica from California. It’s now six months later and in this post I’ll answer such questions as: Have you run out of money yet? What do you do in Costa Rica? and Did Bruno break down and fail you yet?

Playa Pelada, Costa Rica

Playa Pelada, Costa Rica – This is our beach, a two-minute walk from our back yard!

15 Oct 2015

Storing your vehicle in Costa Rica at an Almacen Fiscal – Part II

The time has come! Bruno is to be freed from the chains of bondage. Well, that may be a little strong-worded. I’m pretty sure he just sat idly in a grass field during the bulk of Costa Rica’s rainy season. Could be worse.

What did it take to jail-break Bruno? A lot of patience, paperwork, and an entire day to waste away… at least, this was our experience. With these handy tips, we hope you can do it a lot faster!

07 Oct 2015

Exploring New York City with Citi Bike

While visiting New York City as tourists, we quickly began to appreciate just how huge the city is. So what is the best way to get around and see this amazing place?

The NYC subway is great and all, but with a $2.75 flat fee ride, it costs us $11 round trip anytime we want to go somewhere in the city. Travis thoroughly researched the Citi Bike program in NYC, as we’ve been seeing docking stations all over town. It turns out that at a cost of $10 p.p./day or $25 p.p./7 days, this absolutely saves us money and we also get a workout in between pizza slices!

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05 Oct 2015

New York, New York!

Travis really liked the idea of taking the train to get from D.C. to New York City, but the reality is that it’s not cost effective. We scored two tickets on Boltbus that together cost $30, while Amtrak would have cost us $104. With this extra money saved, we’ll be able to eat as much 0.99¢ NYC pizza as we want!!

25 Sep 2015

Taking Washington, D.C. by storm – and by bike!

Oh, we flew into Miami Beach B.O.A.C. Didn’t get to bed last night. We’re back in the U-S-S-A! Temporarily. A little two-week jaunt, before returning for our final 3 months in Costa Rica. Thanks for the good times, D.C.! Amanda kicking things off at the Supreme Court building.

16 Sep 2015

Panama City and the Illustrious Canal

So far during this month’s trip away from our home in Cost Rica, it turns out that leaving behind the laptop’s power cable was not the only thing Travis was to forget. Upon flying out of Panama City at the end of our 4-day visit, he left his cell phone plugged into a power outlet at the airport! While the phone is not particularly expensive (it’s four years old), we did have a bunch of beautiful panoramic pictures of Panama City that were on it. Thankfully, we still have lots of nice pictures from our compact Canon camera to share with you!

04 Sep 2015

Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica and Panama

We’ve followed the Pacific Ocean south from San Francisco to our current home in Nosara, Costa Rica. Our 90-day Costa Rican visitor visas are about to expire, so it’s time to take a trip to renew them! We’ll check out the Caribbean vibe and then cross over into Panama, the southernmost country we’ll be hitting up on our Central American travels. We’re back on the road, and this time backpacking without our 4Runner Bruno!

12 Aug 2015

50 Best US Cities for Early Retirement

Upon becoming financially independent, we decided to move away from the expensive San Francisco Bay Area. Although we’re currently enjoying life in Costa Rica, we will soon be driving Bruno back up to the US and need to figure out which cities are good candidates for living in.

To help us make this decision, I wanted to see which US cities have the lowest cost of living, are considered somewhat liberal, and also have mild winters.

24 Jul 2015

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%

16 Jul 2015

Family Visit to Monteverde Cloud Forest & Nosara Beaches

A family vacation of Central American proportions! Grandiose sunsets, colorful wildlife in lush, wet cloud forests, yummy foods, quotes from movies of our youth the likes of Ace Ventura and Speed. Couldn’t ask for anything better.

09 Jul 2015

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!

03 Jul 2015

Storing your vehicle in Costa Rica at an Almacen Fiscal – Part I

We drove Bruno to San Jose! Costa Rica has a population of 4.5 million people, and the metro area around San Jose represents 2.1 million alone. Guidebooks set our expectations low and prepared us for a drab city, but compared to the other Central American cities we’ve driven through, San Jose is pretty modern!

18 Jun 2015

Arrival to Costa Rica

Planning and preparation for this trip began over a year ago. Now, with two and a half months of overland travel under our belts, we have finally reached our destination of Costa Rica!

08 Jun 2015

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.

08 Jun 2015

Nicaragua Stats Summary

Here are some of the statistics we threw together for our fourth country of the trip. Are we still on budget? Could we theoretically live in Nicaragua full-time on our aggressive target of less than $30,000/year? Let’s find out!

01 Jun 2015

Getting Your Car Onto Isla de Ometepe

This post could be titled: “Bruno Goes For A Boat Ride”. It’s the only way to get him over to Isla de Ometepe with its two prominent volcanoes, out in the middle of Lago Nicaragua. Detailed below is all the gory details for overlanders planning to undertake this wonderful adventure.

01 Jun 2015

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.

26 May 2015

Nicaragua: León to Granada

First impressions of Nicaragua, driving to León from the border are that it is more arid than the lush El Salvador we left behind. More cattle grazing in wide open spaces. More farming, oxen plowing and trotting their owners in carts down main street. Bicycles. Lots and lots of bicycles as a means of transportation. Kids of various ages are all in school uniforms. From teenagers to cute little ones with reading glasses. It’s quite uplifting to see.

19 May 2015

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.

19 May 2015

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…