Sunshine Blogger Award Nomination

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a peer-recognition award, given to those who inspire you, motivate you, or otherwise add “sunshine” to your day. There’s no formal, nomination process nor awarding ceremony but it’s a chance to be spotlighted by peers and then to pass on the sunshine to others – as you’ll see in the Award Rules.

Sunshine Blogger Award Rules

When you are nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award, you must follow these four rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you. Add backlinks to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions they posed to you.
3. Nominate another 11 new bloggers and give them 11 new questions.
4. Include these rules in your post and use the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post.

Who Nominated Us?

Thrifty Hustler nominated Costa Rica FIRE for the Sunshine Blogger Award. I have been reading and commenting on Thrifty Hustler since last year, and it’s nice to connect with a fellow Filipino! Thrifty Hustler writes about all things money – I am particularly drawn to the posts on side hustles and entrepreneurship. Check out Thrifty Hustler Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram!

Here are the questions that Thrifty Hustler asked me, and my answers:

What do you consider as your biggest financial mistake?

I actually keep a list of money mistakes – not so I can remember them but so I can forget. My hope is that I write them once and then never revisit. But now I have to revisit to answer this question!

Most of the mistakes that linger are about deals I wish I made – real estate, investments, business ideas. There was an apartment in New York City that I really liked, and in my favorite neighborhood. I had seen it about a year or two earlier than we expected to buy, so I wasn’t very aggressive about landing it. Since it was a good buy, it went to a bidding war, and instead of competing we just walked. I still miss that apartment. Of course, there are two other apartments I also still covet that I declined to pursue, and that’s just in New York City alone (we have other stories for other locations). Clearly, that “deal of a lifetime” comes up multiple times per lifetime…

How did you turn the situation around?

I didn’t turn that situation around in the sense of finding an apartment in the same area. That neighborhood just became more and more expensive. We did end up buying in another neighborhood we really liked, so another example that there are multiple good deals are out there.

What advice can you give to someone who’s just starting to save money a bit late in their life (like me!)?

When you start late, you have less time for compounding to work for you. But there are other ways to make money than compounding — like starting a business, taking a side job, negotiating a raise or finding a great investment. What you might have lost in time by starting late can be made up with creativity or ingenuity. The fact that you have started is great. Now just keep going!

If money is not a concern, what would you like to do in life (it can be a profession or anything you’d like to do if you do not have to work for money)?

Having reached a minimum level of FIRE (aka Lean FIRE), we try to live life as if money is not a concern, even though we still have to actively manage our cash flow and be prudent about how we spend. For us, this means we both untethered from traditional 9-5 jobs for maximum flexibility and then using that flexibility to travel (pre-pandemic of course), go to the beach several times per week and even simply running errands in the middle of a weekday when it’s less crowded and we can take our time. We also love afternoon naps!

Would you rather live in the city or in the countryside? Why?

We both grew up in the busiest city in the world – New York – so the idea of the countryside is intimidating. I would freak out not being able to see my neighbors! That said, we don’t need the hustle and bustle of a city 24/7. We live in a suburban area in Florida now, and there is a busier downtown area about 40 minutes away when we need the city life, but day-to-day we have the leisurely pace and proximity to the beach of a less crowded neighborhood.

What’s your biggest splurge this year?

Right before the pandemic we were lucky enough to have one last international trip to the Philippines. We spent a week in Cebu and a week in Manila. While the Philippines is a cheap vacation once you get there, with airfare, the cost is still several thousand dollars but well worth it!

Any plans to travel once everything goes back to normal? Where to and why?

YES. We had international trips to Portugal, Spain, Singapore and Costa Rica that were cancelled due to the pandemic, so we can’t wait for borders to relax and then we can reschedule these and more.

Name three countries that you’d like to visit (Dream destinations perhaps?)

In addition to the above, Australia and New Zealand are high on my list. I would also love to visit Japan because I love the food and topography. We also have wanted to do a cross-country road trip across the US for a while, and with the youngest now in college, we have the time and flexibility to do that.

One thing that you can’t leave the house without (Except face shields, face masks, and hand sanitizers LOL!)

Now that we drive everywhere, I have a terrible habit of assuming my husband has everything and just leaving the house with nothing – no cell phone, no ID. So clearly there isn’t anything I don’t easily separate from!

How are you coping up with the craziness of 2020?

I actually just blogged about the ten things that kept me sane during the pandemic!

Which blog post of yours is your favorite and why? I know this is Chrissy’s question, but I also would like to ask you this as well. I think this is a very interesting question for bloggers.

I love when I get reader questions. Selfishly it means that I don’t need to come up with a topic to blog about. But I also like the specificity of diving in on that one thing. I recently got a question from a reader who was sitting on some vacant land, and I turned it into a post on opportunity cost, which I think is a very important and too often overlooked consideration.

My Sunshine Blogger Award Nominees

Now that Thrifty Hustler has tagged me, it’s my turn to nominate others. There were some blogs I follow regularly that were already on Thrifty Hustler’s list, so in the spirit of spreading the sunshine, I am avoiding any repeats. Here are 11 blogs I rely on for FIRE and money inspirations in general:

1. Max Out of Pocket
2. 39 Months
3. Sisters for FI
4. Late Starter FIRE
5. Women Who Money
6. Financial Diet
7. I Pick Up Pennies
8. Burning Desire for FIRE
9. Cash for Kat
10. Heartland On FIRE
11. Live Your Wage

My Sunshine Blogger Award Questions

While I’d love to repeat some of Thrifty Hustler’s great questions, there are so many ways to look at money issues, that I am challenging myself to come up with brand new questions. Here are my 11:

1. What is a good money hack, tip or lesson that you know now that you wished you knew earlier?
2. What is something you used to believe about money (e.g., how to invest it, how to earn it) that you no longer believe?
3. What is the best investment you ever made?
4. What is the worst investment you ever made?
5. What is your favorite money-related, business or personal development book?
6. If you were given $10,000 no strings attached, how would you spend it?
7. If you were given $1 Million no strings attached, how would your spending approach change?
8. If you were given $1 Million to give away, what would your giving strategy be – e.g., small donations to many, everything to one? What charities (either specific organizations or general causes) would you support?
9. If you could live anywhere in the world, but not your current residence, where would that be?
10. If you could be CEO for a week at any company, which company would you pick?
11. What dream home would you choose: a penthouse condo in a global city like Singapore or San Francisca; a remote villa in the countryside somewhere like England or France; or a beach dream home in the tropics like Bali or a private island in Belize?

Final Thoughts

Thank you, Thrifty Hustler, for nominating Costa Rica FRE and for the thought-provoking questions.

To those whom I nominated, let us know when you’ve posted your response so we can all keep spreading the Sunshine. I also can’t wait to see your answers to my questions and to see your 11.