It’s time to come clean: We’ve done a lot of unnecessary spending in the past year. It started last August, when we moved out of our perfectly good, paid-off condo in Gainesville, Florida, and bought ourselves a fancy beach home for $204,000 instead. Sure, we…
Today marks the two-year anniversary of our first blog post here, and it’s been both a lot of fun and a lot of work. Our goal in starting this website was simple: to share the knowledge that changed our lives for the better — for…
We don’t own cryptocurrency. We have no immediate plans to buy cryptocurrency. And we believe that cryptocurrency is unsuitable as a long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building investment. Simultaneously, the technology, mathematics, and philosophy behind cryptocurrency is super cool. It has lots of practical applications. And I would…
There’s nothing like a stretch of empty highway, the perfect soundtrack, and grand views along the way to make a long drive worth it. Each tick of the odometer rolling over marks another new memory to look back on. If it isn’t obvious, we absolutely…
I have an addiction to Starbucks cold brew iced coffee. If you’re not familiar with cold brew, it’s prepared through a slow extraction process that’s kept cool or room temperature from start to finish — the coffee never gets heated up. This results in a…
We’re not full-time vanlifers, and our Nissan NV200 was mostly designed around getting a good night’s sleep. The travel philosophy behind our own camper was to simply use public spaces and resources for everything not included in our van build. But Eric and Ashley of…
Ever since college, I’ve done physics tutoring as a side hustle — a way to make a little extra cash here and there. But in 2016, after returning from a travel sabbatical in Hawaii, I found myself jobless, and I decided to try turning my…
It’s time to let you in on a secret: All of my blog posts have been written on a laptop that’s a decade old. Amazingly, this computer still runs as well as — if not better than — the day I first bought it. Oh,…
Anyone can write an investing book and seem smart in the moment. A “hot” stock-picking strategy might even get lucky and succeed for a few months or a year, as more people jump on the bandwagon — enough time to make the author rich. But…
For years, we made the uneventful, 2.5-hour drive from Gainesville to Tampa. And for years, about an hour into that drive, we’ve been stumped by a curious overpass just south of Ocala on Interstate 75. If you’ve ever looked up as you’ve neared exit 341,…
Whenever we travel, we’re always meeting lots of cool new people we can learn from and make friends with. They all have unique perspectives and different things to share. But usually, the start of each conversation is the same: Them: Where are you two from?Us:…
A stock market crash is coming. Is it because interest rates are at an all-time low? Is it because there’s a pandemic sweeping the globe? Is it because nearly 20% of all US Dollars in existence were created out of thin air in the last…
If you’re into the whole #vanlife thing, you’ve probably seen some awesome DIY builds out there. We admit that the way we slapped a bed in the back of our Nissan NV200 isn’t all that impressive by comparison. Maybe you’re the type of person who…
It’s that time of year — you know, the beautiful, magical, spendy holiday season. When you’re trying to save money or pay down debt, holiday gift-giving can really throw a wrench in your plans. You want to give meaningful gifts that show you care about…
Wyoming is best known for Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, and Devil's Tower, but there are a few other outdoor attractions that offer some pretty unique experiences off the beaten path. On a recent drive through north central Wyoming, we discovered three of them…
We've avoided the subject of debt payoff on this site for a long time because we've never had any debt ourselves. Somehow it felt less than genuine to talk about how to do something that we've never actually done personally. Up to this point, our…
Imagine that you walk into a bank to open a savings account, and you’re offered a bizarre opportunity instead. Here’s how it works: You make an initial deposit, and each month it sits, the balance gets multiplied by a random number between 0.9 and 1.12.…
Just southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, lies a unique combination of outdoor splendor. Looking for massive herds of bison? Active prairie dog colonies? Rock-studded lakes? Jagged hills reaching toward the heavens? We experienced all this and more during our trip to Custer State Park.…
Before this week, we'd barely done any autumn traveling at all. With Steven's history as a high school teacher and private tutor, fall semester has always been a time that we've focused on buckling down, working hard, and banking money. But all that past saving…
When looking for the cheapest place to book a hotel room, the commonsense approach is just to compare prices on different sites. Go to Expedia, Trivago, Kayak, Priceline, etc., and pick whichever one has the best deal. If you try this obvious strategy, you’ll run…
I recently saw a pretty sneaky TV commercial for an insurance product that I’d never heard of before. It’s called "return of premium life insurance." It’s a form of term life insurance, and here’s how it works: You pay a monthly premium for a fixed…
I'm happy to share a nugget of success with you today: This little blog is now getting enough traffic that credit card companies have started to take an interest in us. We recently had a call with one, and the prospects of turning this site…
A few months ago, we got really addicted to driving out to the beach. There was no rhyme or reason to the days or times we would go. We'd just head out whenever the mood struck us and take a long walk. Consistently, we had…
It’s a beautiful day — perfect weather, ready to enjoy. You decide to go on a hike, and as you approach the trailhead, you spot that familiar brown sign. "Falls Overlook, 6.5 miles one way." Your heart sinks a little. A thirteen-mile trip? Seems like…
