Caroline

Costa Rica FIRE got a mention recently on VICE.com, as I shared tips for digital nomads – i.e., gainfully employed people who choose to do their work remotely so they can travel at the same time. Apparently, there are 5 million digital nomads in the US, and Scott and I hope to join them as soon as next year, when we are empty-nesters! The VICE piece was focused more on [...]

My 17-year old and I are BIG fans of Rowan Atkinson ever since stumbling on a compilation of his skits, including this hysterical bit with Atkinson in religious garb, at a lectern, retelling popular Bible stories. So I jumped on an offer of two free tickets to the New York premiere of Johnny English Strikes Again. The screening was at the AMC near Lincoln Center. We had scored reserved tickets [...]

I’ve written before about the perks of the FIRE lifestyle, such as getting to do weekend activities in the middle of the week, beating the crowds and perhaps scoring some bargains. However, you don’t need to wait till you’re financial independent and untethered from a traditional job to live the FIRE lifestyle. If you negotiate for more flexibility at work, you can stay at your job while enjoying the autonomy [...]

Scott recently ran the Maine Marathon in Portland on a Sunday so we turned the trip into a four-day, couples-only weekend (a perk of the FIRE lifestyle!). We both love the water, and Maine has plenty of that, so we planned our pre-marathon Saturday around different water views – The Giant’s Stairs on Bailey Island, Two Lights State Park. By the end of the day, Scott had already taken over [...]

Scott and I are divided on whether to sell our Indianapolis rental real estate. I’m on Team Sell, and since I tend to blog more frequently, I have already posted the bundle for sale.😊 Seriously, for marital bliss I wouldn’t recommend marketing property you own jointly with your spouse while you still disagree! I did check that Scott is on board with at least exploring a sale (hence the post). [...]

UPDATE 2: we ended up selling this portfolio in mid-2019. It is no longer available. UPDATE: as of October 2018, we decided to keep these properties, deciding instead to change property management companies. ====== With properties in four cities and internationally, it is time to streamline. Our Indianapolis rental investment portfolio is our strongest-performing group from a cash flow perspective. However, we have five properties in Indianapolis, which is more [...]

We just completed a bathroom renovation for our primary residence in New York City. Updating our 5x8 bathroom set us back almost $15,000! We replaced everything, so labor is the bulk of the cost. Our fixtures and finishes are pretty standard, and this kept the total budget down – yes, $15,000 is still a standard bathroom renovation for NYC. You can find a handy remodel calculator on HomeAdvisor. Did we [...]

Travelling the world has always been a dream for us. Once we set it as one of our life-goals, along with establishing location-independent business ventures, we knew we would get there some day. We still have a long way to go to fulfill the dream, but we are on the path, the journey ahead is becoming clearer, and meditation has played a big role! A few years before Scott officially left [...]

When we bought our first international rental property (Condo Boom in Tamarindo, Costa Rica), we decided to do a cash-out refi of another investment property to buy it all cash. Damn Millennial asked us a question on Twitter that we also asked ourselves: Out of curiosity why did you choose the cash out refi over the Heloc? The way I understand it the cash out is more expensive isn't it? [...]