In January of 2016, we were headed back home from the high of a 6-month honeymoon in Hawaii. Ready to buckle down and get full-time jobs again, we figured it’d be a good idea to buy a house, so at ages 25 (me) and 26…
You know the feeling when your alarm goes off and you dread what’s coming next? Whatever your responsibilities are today, you know the feeling. You’ve felt it before an exam, before a review at the office, maybe even every day before you go into work.…
Travel is fun, but it can get lonely sometimes, especially if you’re doing it by yourself. Even if you have a companion, it’s normal to want a fresh social scene and some new faces once in a while. That’s especially true when you prefer to…
Transportation might not be your number one expense, but if you’re a typical middle-class American, it’s probably the single biggest thing you could change to become way richer, way faster. Saving money on even bigger expenses like housing can pay off too, but shifting your…
We spent most of 2019 living out of a tiny camper van in order to visit and photograph every National Park in the United States before turning 30. As we traveled, we evaluated each park against all the previous ones, forming this master list one…
Growing up, it was expected of me to go to college. I had the grades and the drive, just not the money. To be fair, money was always pretty tight in my family’s house, and my baby brother didn’t make that any easier when he…
Whether you're at home or on the road, the best way to save money on food is to cook it yourself. But when you're traveling, you're not always going to have a kitchen in your hotel room or want to bust out a propane camp…
Life is ever-changing. We’ve always engineered our living expenses to be ultra-low, and when you combine super low expenses with full-time, middle-class jobs, an explosion of wealth is inevitable. But as we close in on the finish line of financial independence, spending large amounts of…
When we achieved our goal to visit every National Park in the United States in 2019, there were 61 of them. But just last month, long after we’d already arrived back home, a 62nd was added to the list. This would have irked us a…
Recurring costs eat away at your wealth stealthily, in bite-sized chunks that you don’t always notice. A cable and streaming TV bill of $100 a month could add up to around $130,000 across 25 years if it were invested in the stock market instead. “Cutting…
When a major decision needs to be made, and you’re no expert on the issue at hand, you probably do the same thing most people do: ask around. Like, if you don’t know the first thing about what investments to pick in your 401(k), it’s…
It was late. Really late. Like, well-after-midnight late. But the summer sun was just starting to set in the northern latitudes of Watson Lake, Yukon. After driving for hours, we were happy to see civilization again. The only problem was our timing. In this small…
When we set out on a 7-month trip to visit every National Park in the United States, we knew there was only one way to make it affordable: avoiding hotel costs by sleeping in a camper. After considering all the options, we decided to convert…
We were rounding the third base of our trip as we made our way through Canada to Maine, and we were excited to visit the eastern part of the country we left behind six months before. Our plan seemed perfect — we had plenty of…
If you make a decent living, and you’ve found ways to slash some of life’s biggest expenses, you’re naturally left with a surplus of cash every month. The next step is to get that money working for you ASAP by investing it. But this whole…
When we moved back to Florida following our honeymoon in 2015, I felt rejuvenated and ready to get back into the workforce. I spent about two months interviewing for different positions around town before landing a pretty good gig at a local web marketing startup.…
Our drive from Lassen Volcanic National Park to Yellowstone would be at least 14 hours without including any stops, and it would take us right through the heart of Nevada. That sounds pretty exciting until you realize that “the heart of Nevada” is a dusty…
Let’s be real — spending money on parking always feels bad. I mean, you’re basically just paying for your car to exist. When we go to the airport, we usually just have a friend (or an Uber) drop us off at the front gate and…
In 2012, a year before taking my first "real job" as a public school teacher, my heart and mind were focused on earning a Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of California, Irvine. As I worked toward that goal, I found that the most…
Wanna know how you’re doing in life financially? You might look at how much money is in your savings account, how much you have invested, or how much debt you have left to pay off. You could also look at your income or your credit…
I was both nervous and excited as we packed ourselves into the smallest plane I’d ever seen. It would be the first of many flights we’d have to take to visit the eight National Parks in Alaska. But we felt confident that if we could…
We’re a bit extreme about saving money around here. In fact, we recommend saving so much money that you never have to work a job again if you don’t want to, preferably as early in life as possible. This is usually achieved by optimizing your…
On the way to financial independence, reducing your expenses is the most powerful thing you can do. Whether you rent or own, housing is probably one of your largest bills. While it's fun to claim small victories like eking out a 44% discount at Taco…
As you know, we’re not really fans of short, expensive vacations. Our preferred method of recharging is to disappear from home into fantastic, faraway places for months at a time, exercising our minds and keeping our wallets full with an enjoyable amount of freelance work…
