With both our youngest daughter and my nephew graduating high school this year, the subject of taking a gap year did come up for discussion. Both kids are going straight to college, but both did express interest in Costa Rica if they had opted to do a gap year. My nephew is interested in marine biology and spent a few weeks in Spain studying Spanish, so Costa Rica would be perfect. Our youngest daughter has studied some Spanish and has an interest in the environment. She does love the beach, and the gentle waves of Playa Tamarindo would be perfect [...]

In a recent post, Mr. Free @ 33 blogged that FIRE is a paradox, pointing out that the people most well-positioned to achieve are the people least likely to need it – Warren Buffett is the example cited. In the post, Mr. Free @ 33 was inspired by Retire By 40, another blogger who had posted that FIRE is a fad due to its anti-establishment appeal which by definition then limits its spread. That Retire By 40 post was inspired by Physician On FIRE, yet another blogger (are you following me down the rabbit hole?), who posited that FIRE is [...]

My friend who took almost six months off for a travel sabbatical recently landed a job. He got this offer after two to three months of job searching, and it is at a comparable level to where he left off. Clearly his time away didn’t detract from his career. That said, there is no guarantee that if you take extended time away from your career you can pick up right where you left off. My friend worked hard on his search, frequently scheduling six to seven meetings in a day. He also built a solid network throughout his career, so [...]

While we have sold off real estate before, we have done far more buying than selling (19 purchases, 3 sales). However, we have a rental condo in our Jacksonville Florida portfolio that we are thinking of selling. We have made the mistake before of selling prematurely, and we have good reasons to keep this place. We similarly considered selling our Indianapolis turnkey portfolio recently, but instead opted to hold it and change property managers because with good property management, the Indianapolis set of properties has great cash flow potential. We have a great tenant in place We still have the [...]

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 priorities. Caroline had long been following personal finance websites and FIRE blogs, and she came to the realization that combining FIRE with our interest in real estate and travel was [...]

One of my favorite parts about owning vacation rental property in Costa Rica is that we have business reasons to visit, making our trips tax-deductible! It is also fun to experience business in another country and culture. We had just six days in Guanacaste, but we squeezed out a lot of work and play. Day 1: Sunset at Playa Brasilito The flight from New York City to Liberia is about five hours, and luckily we had a smooth, on-time journey. As with many of my flights, I passed the time watching the in-flight entertainment, in this case the Robert Redford [...]

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 would be ideal for my height, and technically in the obese zone, according to the CDC, with a BMI in the low 30's for much of 2013 through 2017. As [...]

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 for taking vacations, and partially because we've spent the last 15 years building our real estate portfolio, prioritizing the use of our money to fund real estate investments. Over the [...]

A few years ago, I read the book, “One Word That Will Change Your Life” by Dan Britton, Jimmy Page and Jon Gordon  The premise is alluringly simple, yet powerful: instead of a long list of goals and resolutions for the year, pick one word that captures the essence of what you want. Your One Word gives you focus when you need to prioritize day-to-day and make longer-term decisions. It also serves as inspiration and a reminder of what’s important for the year. My first One Word was Joy, and that was very useful in pivoting me from my natural [...]