A few months ago, Scott and I updated our estate plans to switch from a will to revocable living trust structure, as well as update key documents to reflect that both of our kids are legal adults (i.e., age 18 and over) and that our primary residence is now Florida. We are almost done with […]
This is part of an ongoing series where we highlight things that we love about Costa Rica. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to allow same-sex marriage. This process has been a long time coming – it was back in January 2018 that Inter-American Court of […]
We are not financial advisors so nothing in this post should be construed as specific financial advice. However, with $3 million being the new recommended retirement target, I was intrigued by a reader’s retirement plans. Stephanie, currently a US resident in her early 50’s, wrote to us with questions about Costa Rica, as she is […]
I have never been a fan of budgets. I don’t like budgets because I already am risk averse and hard on myself. Budgeting plays into scarcity thinking — no, thank you, I can do that so well on my own! It helps that I’m naturally attuned to looking for deals – e.g., waiting for sales, […]
This post is inspired by a back-and-forth I had with Accidental FIRE about his post on Earning More and Spending Less. Accidental Fire wrote about the tendency to spend more as income rises, which causes a surprising amount of credit card debt among high-net-worth households. I then commented about how dual-career couples with kids often […]
If you don’t know about Jeff Bezos’ take on decision-making – specifically what he calls Type 1 v. Type 2 decisions – it is definitely worth checking out. There are good summaries in Inc, Business Insider and Forbes. To quote Bezos directly from a letter to Amazon shareholders: Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or […]
I have worked from home for 12+ years now, so the shelter-in-place orders didn’t change my work routine too much. The biggest change is a more crowded household — our empty nest stage was short-lived, as our youngest is now attending college virtually. That said, I do find myself on many more video calls than […]
Even though I left a lucrative corporate career in my mid-30’s for the unknown of going into business for myself, I’m actually a risk-averse person. My risk aversion just means that I don’t like taking risks – I still take risks, as long as I can manage them. Going into business for myself was a […]
Our business income (mainly income from my HR consulting activities) is the first money we tap to fund our day-to-day living expenses. Other streams include our long-term rentals in the US, vacation rentals in Costa Rica and our paper assets. However, with the stock market volatility, Costa Rica border closures and a slowing economy potentially […]
We recently received a reader question asking if now is the time to buy real estate in Costa Rica: Do you think that based on everything that is happening right now, it may be a good time to buy? Are there more properties on the market now in light of the pandemic? I know that […]
