Simplification in action …

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone & GO PATS!!!

I don’t think there are many people reading this since it’s anonymous and I haven’t advertised it. If you are reading this then I hope you’re having a nice Sunday 🙂  It’s extremely cold here (cold for us at least) … about 24 and very windy but at least the sun is out. We’ve been having a very grey and rainy winter but February starts today which means it’s more than half over! Just five weeks until the clocks spring ahead. If all goes well there will only be one more winter in our future. Oh how nice it will be to never need a jacket, gloves or hat again!

I know last time I promised a post on our current top pick but exciting things have transpired that have taken precedence. I’ll reveal our top pick soon.

One of our major goals for 2015 is to simplify our finances and remove variables. The biggest part of that was to sell our two rental properties. They are our biggest wild card and need to be removed from the equation. There’s no way we can go where it’s warm on a tight and limited budget with any financial risks still in play. Don’t get me wrong, rental properties can be a great option for some people. They provide a steady cash flow, tax breaks & provide leverage but they also come with costs. Vacancies, property management fees & repairs add up quickly and we’d need to keep a good amount of money ear marked for these types of events and that just isn’t feasible for us.

We listed them both in September to test the waters and to our surprise one went under contract very quickly and closed in December. One down, one to go. Two weeks ago we decided to take the second one off the market and re-list it in April when the market picks up a bit. Right as our agent was going to remove the listing, a call came in from an interested agent saying we should expect an offer within the week and now it’s under contract! Fingers crossed the process goes smoothly and 5 weeks from now we’ll be one step closer to living in the tropics. That will just leave us with our primary residence to sell but we won’t list that until the spring of 2016. We love our house and want to spend as much of our remaining time living here as possible.

On a warmer note, we’re off to Saba in a couple of weeks. We’ve wanted to go to Saba since we gazed at it everyday from the balcony of our condo on St. Marten. What a majestic little island with the peak of Mount Scenery often covered by clouds. The island is surrounded by dive sites with unique underwater topography. We just got red filters, a macro lens and a stability tray for our GoPro so hopefully we’ll come back with some great dive pics. They’ve been seeing a seahorse recently on one of the mooring lines, I’d love to see it and get a pic of it with the new macro lens. We’re looking forward to a week of sun, warmth, relaxation, diving, hiking & exploring the island. We’ll also be doing some research while we’re there about living there, rentals, having dogs, visas, etc. We haven’t committed to a location yet & many places are still contenders. We could definitely get into small island life for a few years, especially with St. Marten so accessible by plane or ferry.

Look for a post about Saba coming soon.

Warm thoughts to all!