Month: August 2017

Searching for a Rental House

Jen and I have made the decision to search in advance for a house to rent while we are in Panama for our February/March adventure. We have found an excellent agent in Coronado who is going to show us properties while we are on vacation there in October. Our criteria is 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a pool. We want to have plenty of room for visitors. We are trying to stay in a central location so that we can easily travel around to look for our ideal place to retire. We are wanting to be in a more mountainous area near rain forest, but not too far from the beach. Coronado is about an hour from Panama City by car, and is near many American communities. This may prove helpful as neither of us has mastered Spanish. We know from our research that there is fresh seafood available on the beach, and as you travel inland, many markets where we can experience the local fresh fruits and groceries. Being anchored near Coronado seems to be the ideal choice for these and many other reasons. We began our search at http://trypanama.com

The Visa Process update

A couple of days ago I learned that my fingerprint cards were rejected by the FBI. They informed me that my prints were not clear enough or had smears. Oh my…I hope that this is no indication of how this will go. Today I returned to the sheriff’s department to be reprinted. The print tech was awesome. She reprinted me and I got the new prints off to the channeler. Jen’s went through without a hitch. Now we wait for the background checks. We are continuing to plan for our adventure and will do our best to keep this page up to date.

Greg and Jen start the Visa process

This week Jen and I started the Pensionado Visa process for our Panama adventure. Step 1 is to secure the services of a Panamanian attorney. We secured the services of an expert in Panamanian immigration law. She came highly recommended, and has proven, so far, to be very responsive and knowledgeable. The process includes FBI background check, fingerprints, documentation authenticated by the department of state, proof of pension and more. All of this must be translated to Spanish and submitted. The process takes up to 16 weeks. The longest part of the process is the background check. Fingerprints must be included with the FBI application. The fine people at Van Buren County fingerprinted us and we have elected to use a channeler. A channeler speeds up and streamlines the process. Holidays in Panama tend to slow the process. February in Panama is Carnival so much of the month is holiday. Our goal is to have as much of this done in advance as possible, so that  we can get our Visas as soon as possible upon arrival. I will keep you informed at we go.

Greg enrolls in Blogging University

It is day one lesson one of Blogging University and my assignment is to write my first blog.  It is to be about me and why I’m here. I would like to direct you all to the page menu at the top of the screen and ask that you read the “About Our Journey” page which describes the reason for the blog and where this whole thing is going. I am also supposed add media and links. Retirement for Jen and I has been a driving force in everything here. The media I am choosing today is an image from an ad that I have been running on Facebook and Instagram. The link is to our Financial Coaching Business,  This link and media is related to our retirement activities. Many of you may know that while our business is a business, it is more often an outreach. Our hope for all of you is that you can retire early and debt free. We are doing it and will enjoy our next few years chasing our dreams. Last, but not least, thank-you for sharing this journey with us. Please sign up below to receive our blog by e-mail. Do this by leaving us with your e-mail addess and clicking the subscribe button. We are excited to share this adventure.