I have kept an Excel log of the books I have read since 2000, or 22 years and counting. In total, I have read 732, or an average of 33 books per year. In 2020, I read exactly 33 books. In 2021, I also read exactly 33 books! This was a bit of a cheat because I realized during the last week of the year that I had just 32 books, so I plowed through one just to get to 33. I had an erratic reading schedule last year so would probably have finished with just 32. In addition to [...]
Several media outlets report that people give up on new year’s resolutions by as early as mid-January. It’s the second Friday of January according to Best Life. Forbes is more optimistic but still mid-February! One of my favorite hacks for sticking to new year’s resolutions is setting monthly goals instead of annual (hat tip to educator Miho Kubagawa for introducing me to that one!). If you make 12 monthly mini-resolutions instead of a sweeping proclamation that will take a year, you’ve potentially outlined baby steps to the big resolution anyway, and you can notch some quick wins along the way. [...]
If you work for a company that has an official review process, take advantage of it! I wouldn’t dread it as too many people seem to do. Embrace the chance to get some candid feedback, better understand your manager’s priorities and come up with a gameplan for next year. Preparing for a performance review also gives you an opportunity to advocate for yourself. If you had a breakout year on the job, use the performance review to advance your career. If you didn’t have a strong year, prepare proactively for a negative performance review so you can get back on [...]
From 2007 to 2018, 12 full years, I had a business partner in my career coaching business, and there were pros and cons to having an official partnership. In the plus column, I wouldn’t have started the business without a partner. I’m risk averse and felt that two people building a business from scratch would enable us to get up and running faster. My partner at the time had more experience and a big network. Two additional pluses were credibility in the early days from her deep experience, as well as landing some early sales from her established network. On [...]
October marked the four-year anniversary of our first purchase in Tamarindo, Costa Rica! While we had owned long-term rental real estate for over 12 years at that point, Condo Boom was our first vacation rental. Even with a strong property manager with vacation rental experience and SuperHost status on Airbnb, we still need to manage the manager, and it’s been a steep learning curve. Guest interaction has been one good way to get up to speed on the nuances of vacation rentals v. long-term rentals. While our property manager is the on-the-ground contact with guests, Scott still sees the communication [...]
Four million US workers quit their job in July 2021 alone. So many employees are quitting that the phenomenon has been dubbed the Great Resignation all over the media (Harvard Business Review, NPR, the BBC and more). The dearth of employees makes this a great time to earn more money and jumpstart your FIRE goals. Here are four ways to make the Great Resignation work for you, whether you are a consultant or employee and whether you plan to stay where you are or quit for greener pastures: Whether you have an existing consulting business or have been thinking about [...]
October is Filipino American History Month in the US. I’m a Fil-Am, and apparently Fil-Ams are the second largest Asian American group in the US! Though Scott is not Filipino, we have been a couple for over 30 years, and he is an honorary Fil-Am, having attended many large and loud family events. We both love traveling to the Philippines and have done three trips in just the last five years – 2017, 2018 and 2020. With the pandemic still an obstacle to international travel, we’ll have to get our fix in the US. There are several Filipino eateries in [...]
Maybe it’s turning 50 or maybe it’s the pandemic upending things, but whatever the root cause, I’ve become more introspective. I have been rethinking my perfect day (turning 50, part 1) and what that means for the next few years (turning 50, part 2). I feel like I’m ready for big changes to my business and maybe even our real estate investing, but the specifics I don’t know yet. In the meantime, I have been focusing a lot on this concept of abundance – feeling gratitude or at the very least, feeling less worry and scarcity. If I’m being honest, [...]
A recent Twitter conversation reminded us about how we often refer to our rental properties birthing babies, when we tap the equity in them to buy more houses. We used a cash-out refinance of our two North Carolina rentals to buy our condo in Costa Rica. Essentially, our Asheville places birthed Condo Boom. You can also access your property’s equity with a home equity line of credit. We used a HELOC on our first property in New Jersey to buy our first investment property in North Carolina -- the first rental baby! That Twitter conversation was about someone looking to [...]
Wondering how should one start if I am looking to buy a single family in Costa Rica. I have been there a couple of years back and would look to have a place that we can use when travel and then rest of the time can use as vacation rentals. – Sushil We are not financial advisors or real estate agents, so we don’t give advice. However, we have written in detail about what worked for us, and then you can take what applies to you and discard the rest. We have written multiple posts with the details of how [...]
