During the morning of Christmas Eve, our family of four was in midtown New York City, but not for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Instead, we were at a law office signing important documents everyone should have (and more paperwork than a typical real estate closing!). Our daughters signed their power of attorney documents, which name who can take over their financial accounts and decisions if they are unable to manage themselves, and health care proxies, which are similar documents for medical decisions. Scott and I signed power of attorney documents, health care proxies, as well as an updated estate [...]

Our trip to Arizona was split almost equally among Tucson, Phoenix and Sedona. It was our first “real” trip out there other than a handful of days across the years on quick in-and-outs to Phoenix. We LOVED it and can see ourselves returning again and again. Best of all, there is so much to do for free. In fact, most of our activities turned out to be free. 10 free activities that are highly recommended: Driving around Mount Lemmon and Tucson Mountain Park in Tucson Garden of Gethsemane sculpture in Tucson Casa Grande Ruins between Tucson and Phoenix Phoenix Desert [...]

I LOVE movies and easily watch over a hundred movies each year. My favorite aspect of air travel is getting to watch movie marathons – I watched 15 movies in flight on our last trip to the Philippines. More time for movies is also one of my favorite aspects of the flexible FIRE lifestyle – I’m still giddy over seeing Rowan Atkinson live at a screening of his latest Johnny English film. On our current trip to Arizona, I watched a three-movie marathon on the flight from New York City, and was struck by how all three films had money [...]

The end of a year is already an introspective time, and now that Scott and I are officially empty-nesters, we are taking advantage of our slower, freed up schedule to dig even deeper. We are organizing our mementos, decluttering our stored items, updating our estate plan -- various tasks which prompt us to get even more introspective about then and now. Click to pin me! Some of the tasks, like updating our estate plan, are obviously financial in nature. But even going through our stuff has a financial element – would we buy these things now? What could we have [...]

I am lucky to get dozens of free books each year since my consulting work includes writing advice columns, and publicists send me review copies to hopefully feature their clients in my columns. I try to read as many review books as I can, and I also pick up books on my own dime and time. I particularly love business, personal finance and self-improvement books. You won’t see any fiction in my list. I used to read more in the leadership development category but as I have weaned myself off of working with large institutions and focus more on individuals [...]

I recently posted a guest blog on Sisters For Financial Independence. This is personally exciting for me because the site is helmed by Filipina sisters like me (one of whom coincidentally has the same name as my sister!). It’s also professionally exciting to collaborate with fellow FIRE-fighters and see my writing published elsewhere. Finally, the publicity factor – getting your work out in front of a broader audience – is a valuable FIRE tool, in that it helps us grow our business. I haven’t seen publicity covered as a means of achieving FIRE, but you’re missing out if you overlook [...]

In May 2018, just over a year after our first visit to Costa Rica, I compiled a list of my favorite restaurants in Tamarindo. You can see the full roundup here, but in summary, I selected the following (in alphabetical order): Asian FusionBreakfast GrindsCafé NordicoCafé TicoEnea’sLa BaulaLa BodegaLa EsquinaLongboardsNoguisPasta CaseraSurf Shack We are obviously adept at picking the good places to eat, because a year and a half later, all of them are still in business! One of the things that we love so much about Tamarindo is that we will never lack for interesting restaurants to visit, for such [...]

We received this reader question about whether to buy a small condo for a first investment: Hi guys,   Thanks for all the really useful info!  I'm thinking of buying a small condo as an income property.  I am a single mum living in Vancouver, Canada at the moment.   Do you think this would be a good idea.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated!- Gillian We are not financial advisers, real estate agents, or in any other capacity to give specific advice. So I’m not going to tell Gillian what to do. However, this question brings up issues to explore when [...]

Costa Rica real estate represents over 20% of our portfolio. While we are still bullish on the area, we prioritize diversification in our portfolio, including geographic diversification. While we continually view real estate listings in Costa Rica to stay informed about the market, we are looking for a new area to invest in. We have written before about how we picked Costa Rica and why we selected it for our first international investment and not the Philippines. Where to invest in real estate is a question we have heard from several of our readers. For example, Dante asks: I discovered [...]