-
What Should An Airbnb Review Say?
What Should An Airbnb Review Say? If you’ve just wrapped up being a guest at an Airbnb, you may be wondering what your review about the Airbnb should say and maybe even how many stars you should leave. Another thing you may be thinking about is what will the Airbnb host say in their review about you. Well, don’t worry because we’ll also cover our tip on how you can get 5 stars on your next Airbnb review! How was Your Airbnb Stay? We’ve been hosts for 5 years and we know the most important thing about your review is to be honest about your experience. Don’t say that the…
-
We’re Alive! – 2020 Edition
We’re happy to let y’all know that we’re still alive! It’s been nearly three years since we’ve posted on our site and man, has it been a wild three years. We’d love to apologize about the absence, but honestly, we don’t feel that bad about it. We’ve been out there in the world living life and enjoying ourselves and there’s nothing about that to be sorry about. I guess the only real thing we’re sorry about is that our memories are going to miss some of the details, but we’re here to give you an update on our past three years. (Editors note: this is getting a little long winded,…
-
9 Ways to Avoid Boredom at Home
In light of everything going on in the world, I figured now would be the best time to give you 9 ways to avoid boredom at home during an extended time off work & school. It’s always helpful to be armed with information. Being holed up in your house doesn’t need to be boring and unproductive. You can still continue to be healthy and continue learning during your time avoiding contact with others. Finally, introverts, like myself, can enjoy their days without being bombarded with conversations, event requests, parties, etc. However, now I’ve got the sole responsibility of keeping James’s extroversion tendencies busy. Buckle up, hunker down, and lock your…
-
How to be a Landlord
How to be a Landlord This probably goes without saying, but rental properties are by far our favorite investments. By investing in real estate and learning how to be a landlord over our rental properties we’ve been able to retire on less money invested into fewer properties. Ultimately, this means we were able to quit our jobs earlier which equals more happiness. Today, we are going to take you through our process and explain how we are landlords and how we manage our properties. Responsibilities of Landlords Deciding to be a landlord and manage your rental properties adds a larger level of complexity to real estate investing. After all, you…
-
Benefits & Drawbacks of Unemployment
As of two weeks ago, I am officially unemployed. You may be thinking to yourself, I thought you guys already quit your jobs last year? Well, that’s not completely true. If you haven’t read our article about kinda quitting our jobs, go read that real quick and then jump back to this one. Today though, we are going to cover some of the benefits and drawbacks of unemployment. 6 Months of Unemployment While James only had a month for his leave of absence, I was able to take 6 months. There were many benefits of easing into unemployment with a leave of absence versus flat out quitting my job. In…
-
3 Ways to Increase Property Value in a Weekend
Curious to find out how to increase your property value by over $10,000 in a weekend? Today, we are covering everything, including what we did, how we did it, the materials for the project, the cost, and breaking down the added value. Background When we found out about Financial Independence and Early Retirement, we began looking for easy ways to lower our cost of living. We quickly became tired of living in a super fancy condo. Don’t get us wrong, we love nice stuff as much as the next person. The problem was, a significant amount of our money was going to the mortgage and the ridiculous HOA just to…
-
Early Retirement Update: January
January has long come and gone and we are knocking on the door of March already. Luckily, as an early retiree, we largely have no deadlines and can publish these early retirement updates whenever we see fit, dammit. January was a full month of traveling, eating, and some surprise expenses that we weren’t expecting. Spoiler alert: we’ve already busted the budget one month into the year. Let’s dive in and find out how, and by how much. If you are interested in the tools we use to keep track of our income & spending at a glance, be sure to check out Mint for budgeting & spending and Personal Capital…
-
What to do in Malta in January
For the past 5 years, Malta has been on our bucket list of places to visit. Finally, we were able to make a trip to the island a reality this past January with a much-needed reprieve from the winter weather of central Europe. While we were only here for a week, and in the dead of their ‘winter’, we still found plenty of activities & things to do in Malta in January. Malta is an island in the Mediterranea Sea just south of Sicily. The Republic of Malta consists of 5 islands, Malta, Gozo, and Comino, and the desert islands of Cominotto and Filfla. With a history dating back to…
-
4 Ways to Save Money on Amazon
Amazon, a name that I’m sure you’re familiar with, is pretty much everyone’s go-to shopping resource. Even tight-fisted spendthrifts like ourselves do our online shopping at Amazon. Hell, it’s hard not to when they’ve got everything from home improvement supplies to electronics & supplements. However, just because you’re only shopping on Amazon doesn’t mean you can’t save more money. We are here to explain exactly how to do that with our 4 ways to save money on Amazon. 4 Ways to Save Money on Amazon Like yourselves, we like to hang onto as much of our money as we can. We certainly don’t want to frivolously give a multi-billion dollar…
-
Munich in December
When we originally relocated to Cyprus, we were really looking forward to a mild winter. Lo-and-behold though, we accepted a house sit in Munich in December and braced ourselves for the cold. As much as I hate the cold, December really is an amazing time to visit Munich. There’s nothing quite like visiting the German Christmas markets and drinking mulled wine while enjoying all the Christmas festivities. Since we spent 3 weeks in Munich, we found all of the best places to visit during your stay in Munich. Check out our Travel Resources to see how we travel the world like pros for free. Munich, Germany Areas to Stay Really,…