We first visited Costa Rica in March 2017 and closed on two properties before the end of the year. For our first property, we knew we wanted to be in Tamarindo, a popular beach town. Our intent was to buy a vacation rental investment for now, and “popular” ensures strong rental potential and “beach town” fits in with our priority to retire by the water.
Buying in Costa Rica was important to us because we look at it as our FIRE Plan B – if we can’t afford to retire early in pricey New York City, we could definitely do it here.
I have a coaching exercise called 100 Dreams, which helps clients flex their wish muscles and also reminds them that there isn’t one be-it-and-end-all dream. The popularity of the exercise has resonated with the likes of Chris Guillebeau and Laura Vanderkam, and I’m thrilled they have introduced it into their communities. I do the 100 Dreams exercise for myself, and increasingly my dreams revolve around travel. I could fill the [...]
After our second child arrived in 2001, our New York City apartment felt smaller and smaller.
We always had a strong interest in buying real estate, but never pulled the trigger. A big regret was not buying a top floor duplex apartment in a small building in the Kips Bay section of Manhattan in the mid 90’s. In our defense, we were less than 2 years out of college and it would have been a financial stretch to do so.
But before long, that several-hundred-thousand-dollar apartment would be worth more than a million. What an investment that would have been!
One of the things I've had to get used to as a visitor to Costa Rica are all of the dirt roads. The first time we visited Costa Rica was in the month of March, well after the end of the rainy season and after all of the dirt roads had been fixed and re-graded for the high/dry season and were not hard to drive or navigate. In subsequent visits [...]
