March 2018

Buying Our Second Property In Costa Rica: Using A Self-Directed Retirement Account To Buy Real Estate

– Posted in: Finance
Overhead view of Casa Salita, our second real estate purchase in Costa Rica

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We may receive compensation if you click one of those links and purchase a product. We purchased our second investment in Costa Rica, Casa Salita, using our retirement money. Up until a few years ago when I seriously started researching real estate investing, I only thought of paper assets like stocks and mutual funds when considering where to invest my [...]

Buying Our Second Property In Costa Rica: Why This Rental Property Is Worth More Than Just The Rents

– Posted in: Real Estate
View of extra lot at Casa Salita, our second real estate purchase in Costa Rica

We made our second investment in Costa Rica for a variety of reasons. Casa Salita is a 4-bed, 4-bath house with a separate casita, private pool, wraparound deck (with two hammocks!) and an outdoor kitchen. It sleeps 10, so the capacity of it certainly increases its rental prospects. However, it also has unique properties that add income potential and versatility to what we can do with the property: The property [...]

Buying Our Second Property In Costa Rica: Why We Timed Two Investments So Close Together

– Posted in: Real Estate
View of the pool at Casa Salita, our second real estate purchase in Costa Rica

We closed on our first property, Condo Boom, in October 2017 and then on our second property, Casa Salita, just under two months later. Why two investments so close together? Having expanded our real estate portfolio from two rentals in our first eight years of investing to two or three per year since then, we’ve seen the benefit of volume. When you have two properties and one goes vacant, you [...]

Plan Your Trip To Tamarindo Around The Low Tide

– Posted in: Costa Rica
The rocks at low tide at Tamarindo are really nice - at high tide you won't even see them

In my view, low tide is the best time to spend at the beach in Tamarindo.  The waves break pretty far out, which leaves lots of room to enjoy relatively calm water closer to shore, and provides plenty of sand for walking around and collecting seashells.  It also exposes many large rocks, as seen above, which are completely hidden at high tide. The beach at Tamarindo is always spectacular.  Even [...]

Hobbies In Costa Rica – 4 Days 4 Seashell Collections

– Posted in: Costa Rica
All of the shells we collected on the beach in Tamarindo in March 2018

*** UPDATE *** A helpful reader points out that it is actually illegal to take seashells from the beaches in Costa Rica, and to take them out of the country. We still believe it is a fun activity to look for shells on the beach and take photos, but agree they should be left at the beach when you are done. They provide habitat for little creatures like hermit crabs, [...]

Escaping Nor’easter And Traveling To Costa Rica This Weekend

– Posted in: Travel
snow in NYC on march 2 before our trip to costa rica

If you look closely at the image above our window in New York City, you'll see a bit of snow on the ground, and snowflakes in the foreground of the building across from us.  You can't see it, but we can also hear the wind howl.  It is March 2, and March is definitely coming in like a lion!  A nor'easter forecasted to be fierce and destructive is currently affecting [...]

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