Scott

Caroline and I just finished up our first week in Costa Rica. We will be here for just about a month in total. Our prior trips have all just been a few days. Normally at that point we'd be heading home, but since we are now empty-nesters, there is no rush, and we are happy to still have more than 3 weeks remaining in this trip! We are not adventure [...]

By Nate Matherson, Co-founder of personal finance site LendEDU, and a recent college graduate from the University of Delaware’s Class of 2016. As a student debtor himself, Nate is an expert in all things related to paying for college and student loan debt. Paying for college has become unaffordable for most families, so borrowing has become a necessity. And, it’s not just students taking out loans either – many parents [...]

While there are many great places around the world for people to spend their retirement or in an effort to downsize, or become financially independent, Caroline and I have come to love Costa Rica. It is reinforced on a regular basis when I hear about Costa Rica in the news. Here are some of the interesting things I have seen over the last few weeks: While deforestation is a problem [...]

Caroline and I recently had a quick getaway for a family wedding. My cousin who lives in Sanford, North Carolina, was getting married, and the wedding was held there. This was a solo trip for myself and Caroline because our younger daughter was performing in a musical Saturday and Sunday of that same weekend, and our older daughter was finishing up her yoga certification and couldn't commit to the date. [...]

I wrote previously about how 2019 is going to be a big travel year for us, after our younger child goes off to college in August. One of our trips is expected to be to Spain, Portugal and France in September and October, and we are starting now to think about an itinerary. Our intent is to 'slow travel' and stay at reasonably priced AirBNB's off the beaten path, so [...]

It's a bit hard to believe how quickly the time goes by, but one year ago Caroline and I started our new website, Costa Rica FIRE! It was not our first attempt at a website. We had created one previously, while I was still working my corporate job, and over time we felt the name of the site and the direction of the content just didn't fit our passions and [...]

I've been on a radical new nutritional plan (OK, a diet) for the last 5 weeks, and wanted to report back on my thoughts and impressive progress! Caroline and I in 1989 at our high school prom, in our skinny days! While I started out as a very skinny kid, over the years I've slowly gained weight. I've never considered myself obese, but definitely a couple dozen pounds heavier than [...]

2019 will be a major transition year for us. After 23 years of raising two kids, our younger child goes off to college in August. Caroline and I have had the year 2019 circled on our proverbial calendar for a loooong time. We've always been interested in travel but never really had the luxury of doing it, partially because my full time corporate career didn't leave a lot of room [...]

UPDATE: The 2019 report is out, and Costa Rica remains a full democracy! It moved up in the rankings from #20 to #19 (out of 167 countries), and the total score is up to 8.13, from 8.07. Another great honor, on top of recently being named a Champion of the Earth! ====== We enjoy reading about the characteristics of Costa Rica that make it an attractive location for us to [...]