As I prepare for our permanent move to Costa Rica in July of 2022, I’ve been busy decluttering on a massive scale. Already a self-proclaimed minimalist, I still had an unbelievable amount of things to sort through. While I’d already decluttered to the things I felt I needed to run a household of four and decided what items I believed brought value to our lives, this was still far too much for an international move which will first include a rather nomadic way of life. We decided our goal was to reduce our belongings down to just TWO SUITCASES per person. I’ve been decluttering/downsizing/sell ..read more

Welcome to Season 2 of “The Journey to Freedom” podcast! After a short pause, I’m happy to begin the next season and I’m kicking it off with some exciting news: We are finally taking the first steps towards moving to the jungle! I fill you in on a recent trip to Costa Rica and some developments for the move date.  Around 30 minutes in, I read the rough draft* of my upcoming book’s intro and Chapter 1. I first give a quick synopsis of the history of traditional retirement and why it is failing us. Then, I explain what the F.I.R.E. Movement really is, give the history of the movement and be ..read more

A few days ago, influential blogger/vlogger Matt D’avella released this video titled “Is this the end of minimalism?” Matt has been a big proponent of minimalism over the years and you can see his refreshingly simple home in the background of most of his videos. He builds a case in his video with data pulled around minimalism as a “trend”–likely pulling Google keyword search popularity as part of this data set (his source is Google Trends). You can see the spikes and dips–the largest spike being in 2016 after the “Minimalism” documentary was released (he directed/filmed/produced this with The ..read more

Today I’m speaking with Beth Inglish, who happens to be an old friend from my Nashville days early in my career, and is now a professional motivational speaker and artist with a mission to connect people and to teach them how to put their creativity to work. She’s built her entire life on openness, creativity and connection, and now she’s teaching large audiences to feel the same way. She’s blended her experiences with trauma recovery with 13 years of art-making and community leadership into a simple message–to change how people feel. She’s been a creative with a capital C all her life–she’s ..read more

Whew! Lots of stuff jam-packed into today’s video! As I’m deciding to take the Vlog a little more seriously and professionally, I spent more time editing this one and figured I’d take some time to introduce our little family to the new folks that recently subscribed and are curious about this new journey we are on. Let me break it down for you so you can navigate to the section you want, if you only have time for a piece of it: Introduction of our Family Why Costa Rica, 2:13 Current plan & progress towards the big move, including selling a rental property, 4:27 Tour of a Minimalist Kids ..read more

After property hunting in Costa Rica a few months ago, we started eyeing a certain property and making loose plans to rent a house right next to it (to test the area out first) and then to purchase the property if we liked it as much as we thought. Well…it just sold. And we were a bit bummed. But then almost instantly, the universe realigned itself and amazing things started to happen. In short, we will now be house-sitting and got a free house to live in when we first arrive! There are other house-sitting gigs in the works, too. I made a video to talk about this in more depth. Watch on YouTub ..read more

So this week’s podcast episode bio will be a little different than usual. No Forbes articles and blogger awards to list out and such. But man, is he awesome in all the other ways! This week, I can’t wait for you to meet my husband, Jeremy Fowler. He’s amazing. Originally from lower Alabama, he attended the University of South Alabama and Faulkner University for civil engineering and explored all sorts of engineering, until at the very end, realized he would make more money and –enjoy more– being an auto mechanic. Which he did enjoy very much until…he didn’t. To be clear, he does still lov ..read more

On April 30th, we leave St. Augustine, Florida. We will make a brief pitstop in Alabama to drop off the VERY few items we want to keep (Jeremy’s toolboxes of woodworking and mechanic supplies & about 10-12 boxes for the rest of the entire family, including our winter clothes when we come back to the States to visit on holidays). That’s it. Otherwise, we are selling, gifting, donating and trashing evvvvvverything else… I made a video to discuss this in further detail and show what this process looks like. Watch the video on YouTube: The post Vlog: Getting rid of EVERYTHING we own & mov ..read more

When we began looking into short term vacation rental investing, we thought of it as “passive income.” But I laugh heartily at the thought of calling any of this “passive.” IT IS WORK. HARD WORK. I wanted to give you an honest description of what actively managing just two vacation rentals looks like in order to get the high return that you want.  In the first half of today’s episode, I give you a realistic idea of the time and expense involved in running one, but in the second half of the episode I talk numbers with you and go over why the “Return on Cash” is so fantastic with these type ..read more

We just wrapped up three months of early retirement on the 12th! I’m a few days late sitting down to write this update because I was so busy getting other content created on that day: A blog post about how Learning About Financial Freedom Can Save Your Life –it sounds click-baity, but it’s true; and sitting down to interview my husband Jeremy for episode 10 of the “Journey to Freedom” podcast. Jeremy’s audio update on FIRE Interviewing Jeremy was strangely a highlight of the month for me. Not even on a date have I ever sat down and just grilled my husband with a list of questions…so that was f ..read more