Caroline

Bleisure Travel At Its Best – Our Latest Trip To Costa Rica

– Posted in: Tamarindo

We recently took a five-day trip, Thursday to Monday, to Tamarindo, which seemed a perfect example of bleisure (business + leisure) travel. We timed the trip around the annual homeowners’ association meeting at our condo complex, so it was first and foremost a business trip. Once we had the dates for the trip, we lined up other business meetings and errands since many things are best handled live - in [...]

Update The Kitchen? Redo The Bathroom? Why We Decided Not To Renovate Our Florida Condo

– Posted in: Finance
various tools lined up on a table

A few months ago, we moved into one of our Florida rentals and have made Florida our primary residence as of 2020. The rental needed a lot of work, as we had a tenant in place for six years. A longtime tenant is great financially because there is no lost rent due to vacancy or turnover costs in-between move-ins. However, when you do turn over the unit, there is a [...]

We Have Moved To Florida And Started FIRE Stage 2

– Posted in: FIRE
large sign that says Florida

We posted before about how we are targeting FIRE in stages of increasing spending levels: Our stage 1 is relocating full-time to Costa Rica and a level of spending that can easily be covered by our current income streams. This first stage is also purely hypothetical -- a Plan B option we set up just in case we need to drastically reduce our spending. As of now, the longest time [...]

How We Are Investing In Real Estate Now — Three Real Estate Trends To Follow In 2020 And Beyond

– Posted in: Real Estate
hand holding up a key to a house

With the upcoming tax season comes the inevitable reckoning with our numbers and seeing how we are doing with our businesses, mutual fund accounts and investing in real estate. We had no new acquisitions but still had six real estate closings in 2019! We did a cash-out refinance on our Florida duplex to pay back a private loan we took from a friend. We also sold our entire portfolio in [...]

Revocable Living Trust, Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy – Not Your Typical Christmas Eve Outing

– Posted in: Finance
woman in front of cityscape with binoculars

During the morning of Christmas Eve, our family of four was in midtown New York City, but not for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Instead, we were at a law office signing important documents everyone should have (and more paperwork than a typical real estate closing!). Our daughters signed their power of attorney documents, which name who can take over their financial accounts and decisions if they are unable to [...]

12 Days In Arizona – Amazing Things To See and Many Sites Are Free

– Posted in: Travel
landscape with many cacti

Our trip to Arizona was split almost equally among Tucson, Phoenix and Sedona. It was our first “real” trip out there other than a handful of days across the years on quick in-and-outs to Phoenix. We LOVED it and can see ourselves returning again and again. Best of all, there is so much to do for free. In fact, most of our activities turned out to be free. 10 free [...]

What Are You Willing To Do For Money? Six 2019 Movies Explore This Age-Old Question

– Posted in: Finance
Hundred dollar bills on top of a movie 'slate'

I LOVE movies and easily watch over a hundred movies each year. My favorite aspect of air travel is getting to watch movie marathons – I watched 15 movies in flight on our last trip to the Philippines. More time for movies is also one of my favorite aspects of the flexible FIRE lifestyle – I’m still giddy over seeing Rowan Atkinson live at a screening of his latest Johnny [...]

What I Wish I Knew Before – Financial Bloggers Share What They Have Learned About FIRE And Personal Finance

– Posted in: FIRE
silhouette of person jumping on beach in front of sunset

The end of a year is already an introspective time, and now that Scott and I are officially empty-nesters, we are taking advantage of our slower, freed up schedule to dig even deeper. We are organizing our mementos, decluttering our stored items, updating our estate plan -- various tasks which prompt us to get even more introspective about then and now. Click to pin me! Some of the tasks, like [...]

My Ten Favorite Books From 2019 (Out Of The 43 Books I Finished)

– Posted in: Book Review
Open book on a table

I am lucky to get dozens of free books each year since my consulting work includes writing advice columns, and publicists send me review copies to hopefully feature their clients in my columns. I try to read as many review books as I can, and I also pick up books on my own dime and time. I particularly love business, personal finance and self-improvement books. You won’t see any fiction [...]

Publicity Is A Valuable FIRE Tool – Seven Ways To Promote Your Side Hustle, Small Business Or Personal Brand

– Posted in: FIRE
man speaking into a megaphone

I recently posted a guest blog on Sisters For Financial Independence. This is personally exciting for me because the site is helmed by Filipina sisters like me (one of whom coincidentally has the same name as my sister!). It’s also professionally exciting to collaborate with fellow FIRE-fighters and see my writing published elsewhere. Finally, the publicity factor – getting your work out in front of a broader audience – is [...]

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