The Most Epic Babymoon
“Is this a good time? Are you sitting down?” I took a deep breath. I was sitting down, the bus ride was bumpy and long, and I had been expecting the call. In fact, I already knew what the news was going to be even before the nurse on the other end said a single word. “Shoot.” “Congratulations, it’s positive!” My brain couldn’t compute. “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble processing what you’re saying. Can you say that again?” “Your blood test result was positive. You’re pregnant!” If I’d been drinking coffee at that moment, I would have done a genuine […]
Full Circle
This has been a very difficult few years. At the beginning of 2020, while we were travelling in Bali, I got a call from my mom that nobody ever wants to hear. My dad had gone to see a doctor to check out some dizziness that didn’t seem to go away, and an MRI scan had found the worst possible explanation there could be: a mass in my dad’s head. It was brain cancer. The diagnosis completely upended our lives. In an instant, our days of living nomadically and travelling the globe without a care in the world came crashing […]
Let’s Go Exploring! Hobbiton and Auckland, New Zealand: Fangirling over the Lord of the Rings
“My PRECIOUSssss…” I whispered, clutching the Hobbiton map to my chest as our tour bus rolled through the lush green hills of New Zealand, straight to the Shire. Ever since watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy way back in my college days (its epic 3 hour length was perfect for procrastinating from exam studying), I dreamt of going to New Zealand. There were two things I lusted over back then: Legolas’s sexy flowing blond mane and the dramatic snow-covered mountain peaks of New Zealand, where the movie was filmed. What I wouldn’t have given to sit inside a hobbit […]
Are Millennials the New Boomers?
I never thought I’d say this, but are Millennials the new Boomers? 8 years ago when I started this blog, Boomers were the ones telling us that avocado toast was the reason we couldn’t afford to buy a house and that our lazy, entitled selfies and social media obsession were killing our work ethic and the reason our jobs were unstable. This led to viral trend of exasperated Millennials rolling our eyes and responding with “OK Boomer”. But now, it’s us who are complaining about Gen Z. Now that Millennials like me have reached our late 30s and early 40s, […]
Yield To Maturity Might Be Indicating a Bottom in the Bond Market
At the beginning of 2023, I moved the fixed income portion (25%) of our portfolio to a Preferred Share Index tracked by the BMO Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF (ZPR.TO), and this might have seemed like a puzzling move at the time given that ZPR’s been all over the place this year. All that criticism is valid, and for the record, I am not officially recommending everyone follow along with us. Remember, there are 2 phases of the FIRE journey: Accumulation (building your FIRE portfolio) and Withdrawal (living off your FIRE portfolio). We are in the 2nd category and care […]
