planning

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Greg Kitzmiller, a 64-year-old American retiree living in Panama. It has been edited for length and clarity.I was born and raised in Michigan, where I met my wife, Jen, and where we built our life together.In 2016, I retired from my…

I’m 39, and my retirement plan is haphazard, chaotic, and borderline nonexistent. I feel a lot of shame around this fact because I should know better.My first job out of college was at PBS, where I opened a TIAA retirement account at 22. Somewhere in the intervening 18 years, the…

“I guess we’re moving to Canada.”It was a quiet, almost outrageous statement considering our position. Just a few weeks earlier, Hurricane Dorian had slammed into our home in the Bahamas, a country I’d lived in my entire life.My family had spent 24 hours trapped in our attic, praying the roof…