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elizabethelakes

in travel

The Perfect Playa has Bicicletas

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June 2, 2018
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The Quest continues at Rosewood Mayakoba in the Mayan Riviera. I have a few characteristics to add to the ideal of the perfect beach. It has bicycles. The carefree simplicity of riding a bicycle calls back to a bygone age. Riding a bike is presumably the alternative to walking when you want to get somewhere faster. The irony about biking while on holiday is that by definition, you don’t need to be anywhere. And you definitely don’t need to be anywhere faster.  Which makes the riding of the bike completely and totally without motivation. Which is why it is my next characteristic for the perfect beach resort.
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in finance

Happiness Part Two: It’s Not What You Have

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May 16, 2018
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In the first post in the series, I started talking about budgeting and the impact it had on my life. In this post I’m going to talk about debt. As Daniel Kahneman says, “money does not buy you…happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery”. My grandmother always warned me against debt. For as long as I can remember, she spoke of it with the disdain you would expect when discussing murder or arson or high fructose corn syrup. So early in my adult life, I refused to get a credit card. I paid for everything with a debit card, straight from my bank account. That worked for awhile. But then there were bigger purchases to make. A car, tuition, a wedding, finally a house. And nobody pays for those things in cash right? Everyone has student loans. Everyone has a car payment. Everyone has a little bit of credit card debt.

And that’s how it got out of hand.
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in finance, home, life

Happiness Part One: It’s Not Where You Live

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April 9, 2018
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In the last two years I have gone from my 3200 sqft dream home, to a 1600 sqft townhome, to a 700 sqft single bedroom apartment. The original point of this post was to show our new shoebox apartment and what I’ve done to make it feel cozy and comfortable. But as I start writing, I realize that there is a more important topic here that trumps interior design.
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in travel

The London Tour Continues

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March 9, 2018
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For my readers, the dozens of you (Dozens!) that enjoyed my London Walking Tour post, this is the next chapter in that series. I anticipate it being a never-ending series as I can’t imagine a day where the pleasures of London have all been discovered. This time, my walk brought me along the North Bank of the Thames as I made my pilgrimage to Hyde Park. Let’s explore some of the sights along the way.
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