Is Lying Such a BAD Thing?

So do you know how we said we would never have a mortgage again? Yeah, well, I guess we lied. Just over two years since we short sold our house in Phoenix, we read the tea leaves and determined that a mortgage is just exactly what we should get our hands on. Can I get a woot woot for debt?!

Why? Why in the world would we consider going into debt again? The boring reasons are the extremely robust rental market in Fort Collins (the rental vacancy rate is 3%), boring old math (it is currently cheaper to own than rent) and the fact that we love-love-love it here and have no plans to ever leave. But really, we just want to paint the damn walls a different color. Do we need another reason?

So we are buying a foreclosure (oh, the irony), close enough to bike to town but in a rural part of Fort Collins (we are on a quarter acre and are zoned as a farm). We can't wait to be surrounded by silence and Republicans.

Here is our new mountain chalet in all of its glory. We have some work to do.

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Why Are We Here?

There are three ways to answer this question: Why are we here? (What are you two up to?) For the past few years we have been watching our budget closely, paying off our debt, and saving as much as we can. This has given us the freedom to pursue a dream. What dream, you ask? A random one! While we do not have a definite goal or specific plan, we have developed some guiding principles: Let life rule instead of work. Explore the country and the world. Trade "stuff" for genuine experiences. Create rather than consume. Develop a spirit of volunteerism. Take odd jobs in unfamiliar disciplines to see if there is something we love, but don't yet know we love. Live in the moment. Work for ourselves as much as possible. Dance outside our comfort zones in order to grow. Find a way to stretch the money we have saved for as long as possible. Identify properties of cities that we like should we choose to "settle down" again. ("You kids back there bet...

I spy...

I was looking for directions on Google Maps today when I realized that Google had just added "birds-eye" views for Fort Collins. So, of course, I went to see what our home looks like. Much to my surprise, I found that Google just happened to catch us on the morning of March 29, 2012. Our moving day! So, you better think twice before deciding to run around naked in your back yard. You never know when the aerial photography plane is going to fly by!

Money, Money, Money!

I am a huge fan of talking about money, or at least talking about it in a way that opens up discourse and de-tabbooifies 1 it. Now that we are transitioning from making money and saving it to living off of what we've saved, I want to share our monthly travel budget with you (developed in Mvelopes ). Here is our working budget for the US portion of our trip. Some details: 1. The State Farm category covers auto insurance for the van (~$70) and life insurance (~$40). 2. As you can see, the Lodging category is not very high. We are planning on staying with friends and family, sleeping in the van (in KOA's , state parks and Wal-mart parking lots ) and couchsurfing 2 . 3. The Auto category covers gas and any needed repairs (knock on wood). We will be driving approximately 10,000 miles in the next three to four months and expect to get around 15 miles per gallon. Sorry about the car emissions, planet Earth. We promise to balance it out by not driving a car for the following three ...

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