• Cancun, Mexico

    How We Met: The Courtship

    If you’re curious about how we met, it all began on a boring Wednesday afternoon in the middle of October 2013, I received a blinking instant communicator message on my work computer from someone named Rubilyn. (Yes, we work together at the same company) The message stated: “Hey, I have a vacation planned from Boxing Day to New Year’s in New York City.  Are you going to be in the office during that time? Just checking so we aren’t out at the same time.” And that, my friends, is how we met and began the courtship of Ruby by a guy named Peter Our first date was at St. John’s…

  • Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida

    Why Travel To Florida?

    First up in our Why Travel To series: our state, Florida! The Why Travel To series aims to give you a glimpse of why you should want to go to a destination. I’ve been living in Florida for the past 18 years of my life, and Ruby has been living here for a little over two years. The below tips are collective experiences we’ve had while traveling along the Panhandle, the North, The South, and Central Florida. It is a lovely place to visit, with many things to do. We’re also going to feature some of the places we’ve been throughout Florida on our blog, so stay tuned! Fun Fact:…

  • 2017 Budget Year in Review

    2017 Budget Year In Review

    It’s that time of year again.  No, I don’t mean Christmas. I mean dusting off the transaction history for this past year from Personal Capital (link) and sifting through…(checking total amount of transactions)…2,097 transactions! Boy, what fun it is to calculate net income…yeah. It has certainly been an interesting year.  The first half of the year was largely focused on travel, and mid-way through the year, Peter changed jobs and work locations.  Let’s take a look at the numbers and then we’ll provide a summary of the good, bad, and ugly.  Please note that we will publish only the percentages of our expenses compared to our after-tax income (or disposable…

  • Bohol Bee Farm, Philippines

    The Real Cost of Travel

    What is the first reaction you receive when you tell someone that you’re traveling? I ask this question, out of curiosity, because whenever me and Ruby go traveling during the year, people we talk to sometimes express surprise and often ask us how we can afford to travel so much. One of the most common questions we’ve received is, “Are your families rich or something?” (for the record, no!). Travel is classified as a “leisure” activity, but that leisure word really means “luxury” for most people in the United States, at least from my experience.  It’s as if there is a bit of a stigma attached to the word here,…