Loneliness is on the rise in the US. A study of 20,000 US adults found that nearly half suffer from feelings of loneliness. Perhaps Tamarindo is a solution - I feel very differently there than in New York City. It is a friendly environment that promotes experiences over stuff and is a natural detox from social media.

I have been to Costa Rica just three times, though Scott has a few more trips under his belt. There are enough restaurants within walking distance in Tamarindo that we could have eaten at a different place each day of our visit. Within driving distance, there are many more to try. However, I find that I have frequented the same places multiple times. Even though we are relatively new to Tamarindo, I already have my favorites: Since we’re not yet empty nesters, we make relatively short stays in Tamarindo, often under a week, which makes breakfast a very tough choice [...]

The return trip from the Philippines is so much fun for me. I get another movie marathon! I can easily watch 7-8 movies on the 17-hour trip, and with the time change (gaining 12 hours), you land as if you just flew cross-country within the US. We left early morning on a Tuesday and arrived early afternoon on the same day! I watched another eclectic mix of movies, and I even dipped into the Classics menu because I had seen too many of the first-run films. (That’s when you know you’ve spent too much time watching movies.) I preferred my [...]

This trip was all about the food, ranging from the food court at NAIA (Manila airport) to the expansive buffet at the Oriental Hotel in Legazpi to several great Filipino food options in Manila, and included eating at every donut shop we could find!

Our three days in Manila were based out of Newport City, which we selected because we had considered buying here, and while we decided not to buy in the Philippines in 2017, we figured we’d give it another look. Our stay this time was at an apartment rented through AirBNB, which gives us another data point to compare to our own AirBNB rentals in Costa Rica. The location of Newport City, both as a location for buying real estate and as a location to stay during our visits, appeals to us for several reasons. Newport City is located right across [...]

We started our week in Legazpi because it’s the location of a non-profit we have supported for 23 years and counting, Children International. CI recently opened a new community center, and the last time we visited in January 2017, it was just a concrete foundation and digital renderings. Now, it’s a fully built out, multiple-level, dual structure compound (with a covered basketball court!) that serves over 3,000 kids in the area. While not visible in the photo, the community center is located only a few kilometers from the Mayon Volcano, which was erupting between January and March. In fact, the [...]

ser·en·dip·i·ty: noun: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. This week, CostaRicaFIRE got two media mentions, which is one of closest experiences I have had with serendipity in my goals; both of these media outlets were a big part of the inspiration behind our pivot into real estate, the FIRE life, and Costa Rica specifically! First off, the publication International Living, which inspired me to take a serious look at Costa Rica as our FIRE destination, featured us in the cover story for their sister magazine, Incomes Abroad. The story was about how to make extra [...]

One of the main reasons Scott and I chose a new retirement lifestyle is the freedom it gives us to travel. We took a trip to the Philippines in January 2017 (Scott’s first and my fourth, but after a 25-year absence), and we loved it so much we booked another trip in April. We found cheap fares on Cathay Pacific and jumped on them. Now I’m writing this post from our AirBNB in Newport City (the complex where we considered buying). I love Newport City because it’s just across from the airport, and you can literally walk from the airport [...]

For me, health optimization is related to stress management. When I’m stressed, I get sick – a cold that won’t go away, an upset stomach, sore muscles. In the year or so right before I left my corporate career, I was besieged by tingling nerves and numbness in my hands and feet that would come and go. Because it was clearly nerve-related, I had my spine looked at, an MRI done, as well as a full check-up. I had been diagnosed with a heart murmur as a child so I had a full EKG work up on my heart. Nothing [...]