Our oldest daughter converted a temporary job to a full-time offer, so we have one of two children officially launched! This first job is a traditional office job with a biweekly paycheck, benefits package and retirement account. However, it also comes with a 9-5 schedule and limited vacation time that needs to be requested in advance. Already, our daughter had to give up free show tickets that a friend offered her because it was on a weekday afternoon, and she had not accrued enough vacation time, nor found out with enough lead time to properly request the day off. On [...]
Since Costa Rica is the place we are adopting as our new home away from home, one of the things we would love to learn more about is the history of the country. One of the things that makes Costa Rica unique is that it has no military. From LA Times: To this day, Costa Rica has no army, navy or air force, no heavy weapons of any kind. There are local police forces but no national defense force. When visiting dignitaries arrive in San Jose, they are never met by bands in military-style uniforms or uniformed national officials of [...]
I reconnected recently with an old friend, who paid me one of the nicest compliments I have ever been given. She told me that she was out with friends and I came up in conversation. When one of them asked her what I do, she answered, “Caroline and her husband actually do the things that the rest of us just talk about doing.” Thanks Sarah – your words still make me blush! Sarah was referring to our embrace of the FIRE lifestyle -- leaving our corporate jobs and jumping into real estate and launching Costa Rica FIRE. It’s funny that [...]
Marathon season comes twice a year, in the spring and the fall, and we are now finishing up with the 2018 fall season, exciting for me because I added two states to my total (I now have a marathon in 15 states), and for fans of Costa Rica, a Tica (Jenny Méndez) won the Marine Corps Marathon! First, a bit about Jenny Méndez. She is 38 years old, born in Columbia, but has lived in Costa Rica for the last 19 years and raised her family there, and is a naturalized citizen. Most importantly, she only started running within the past 10 [...]
New York City may be known for its big buildings and big crowds, but you can get back to nature without having to travel too far. Scott and I moved to Riverdale in the Bronx after I had spent 40+ years living in Manhattan (I even went to college here!) and Scott had spent most of his years in Brooklyn, then Manhattan with me. One of the things we love about Riverdale is how much nature there is within walking distance and certainly within a short drive. Now that we both have flexible schedules (a perk of the FIRE lifestyle!), [...]
Costa Rica FIRE got a mention recently on VICE.com, as I shared tips for digital nomads – i.e., gainfully employed people who choose to do their work remotely so they can travel at the same time. Apparently, there are 5 million digital nomads in the US, and Scott and I hope to join them as soon as next year, when we are empty-nesters! The VICE piece was focused more on the types of jobs you can do as a digital nomad, and did not include all of the ideas and detail I had shared about important considerations. Luckily, the interview [...]
My 17-year old and I are BIG fans of Rowan Atkinson ever since stumbling on a compilation of his skits, including this hysterical bit with Atkinson in religious garb, at a lectern, retelling popular Bible stories. So I jumped on an offer of two free tickets to the New York premiere of Johnny English Strikes Again. The screening was at the AMC near Lincoln Center. We had scored reserved tickets so could bypass the line and spend the waiting time walking around one of our favorite neighborhoods. (If you haven’t seen Lincoln Center at night, I highly recommend it!) A [...]
I’ve written before about the perks of the FIRE lifestyle, such as getting to do weekend activities in the middle of the week, beating the crowds and perhaps scoring some bargains. However, you don’t need to wait till you’re financial independent and untethered from a traditional job to live the FIRE lifestyle. If you negotiate for more flexibility at work, you can stay at your job while enjoying the autonomy to schedule differently. Here are six steps to negotiate for more flexibility at work: Working from home or working from a regional office where your group isn’t based are examples [...]
Scott recently ran the Maine Marathon in Portland on a Sunday so we turned the trip into a four-day, couples-only weekend (a perk of the FIRE lifestyle!). We both love the water, and Maine has plenty of that, so we planned our pre-marathon Saturday around different water views – The Giant’s Stairs on Bailey Island, Two Lights State Park. By the end of the day, Scott had already taken over 100 photos! We have this problem with every trip, from the short weekends away to our 2.5-weeklong trip in India in 2017. At this stage, we have our photos saved [...]
I've written somewhat tangentially about running the Maine Marathon last week. In the lead up to that race, a few weeks ago I ran an 18 mile training run. Since my summer training had been so bad and I had a hard time getting long runs done in the abnormally humid weather, I needed to downgrade my runs and incorporate regular walking breaks. I set myself up to run 12 minutes then walk 2 minutes, and then repeat, and during each of the walk breaks I took a photo of my location. My running app has a great feature that allow [...]
