Flexibility to accommodate mid-week movies is one of my favorite perks of the FIRE lifestyle. This past Tuesday, I took my youngest daughter to an advance screening of “Crazy Rich Asians”, including an Asian-American business pre-show talk, by Nielsen, and an Asian food-themed after-party. A few years earlier, I took my oldest daughter to an advance screening of “Today’s Special” including a talkback with the movie’s star and creator, Aasif [...]
I had been reading business and personal finance books and news since college, but didn’t focus on real estate topics. Once we realized real estate could be the linchpin of our FIRE journey, I did start reading more real estate news and resources. Here are my favorites.
In part 2 of our FIRE drill in Jacksonville, we looked at the different beaches we visited, the ways in which we were able to experience the arts, cheap deals we found, and lastly the weather, as we tested out Jacksonville as a location to spend lots of our time once we are able to be location independent.
We are a year away from having the ability to be location independent and more fully live the FIRE lifestyle. To that end, we spent a week in Jacksonville, testing out everything it has to offer, to try and confirm if we feel it is a location where we can spend lots of our time.
When we started blogging on CostaRicaFIRE, with the FIRE piece standing for Financial Independence, Retire Early, my earliest readers (predominately family and friends, of course) thought I was so clever to come up with that acronym. I wish I had been that clever! FIRE is already a popular movement of its own with multiple blogs, Reddit groups, Meetups and other communities being built around it. It makes sense that my [...]
This year was both my 25-year college reunion and my oldest daughter’s own college graduation. She’s starting her career, as I celebrate 25 years into mine. When I landed my first job 25 years ago, Costa Rica wasn’t even on my radar. Now, as Scott and I have Costa Rica top of mind for our second acts, I wonder if I could have skipped my first career altogether and established [...]
How my husband and I picked Costa Rica for our post-corporate life is a question we get a lot. There are very practical reasons that I have already explained in past blog posts, including why Costa Rica is a good real estate investment, why Costa Rica is good for our gig-based new retirement, and why we love coming to Costa Rica. Costa Rica also builds on key elements we had [...]
In various media outlets -- The Guardian, Entrepreneur, Quartz -- you’ll see mention of the rise in freelance or “gig economy” work, alternative work arrangements to the permanent, full-time job. Some of these jobs are not remote. If you’re an Uber driver or on call as a warehouse stocker, you’ll need to live where you work. But many jobs, especially the higher-paying knowledge work, can be handled remotely. I have been [...]
With two properties and over 20% of our net worth invested in Costa Rican real estate, our actions and wallet have clearly answered Yes to the question, “Is real estate in Costa Rica a good investment.” I’m not a financial advisor so I would never give another person specific investment advice anyway, and just because real estate in Costa Rica works for us doesn’t mean it will work for you. [...]
Loneliness is on the rise in the US. A study of 20,000 US adults found that nearly half suffer from feelings of loneliness. Perhaps Tamarindo is a solution - I feel very differently there than in New York City. It is a friendly environment that promotes experiences over stuff and is a natural detox from social media.
