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I have several top Business credit cards, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the Chase Ink Unlimited Card. It comes with a 75k Chase points sign up bonus after spending $7500 in the first 3 months. It also comes with 0% APR for the first 12 months. This is nice if you need to carry business related expenses over a month, and the balance won’t show up on your credit report since it’s a business card.

You can earn 1.5 points per $1 spent on all purchases ongoing. And it comes with no annual fee, meaning I can hold this card forever. Unfortunately, it does come with a foreign transaction fee. So it wouldn’t be ideal to travel abroad with.

And in order to transfer the points to airlines and hotels, you would need to also hold another chase credit card with an annual fee such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserved, or the Chase Ink Preferred Business card. If not, the points would only be worth $750 cash value, versus as points they can easily be worth double that.

I love have chasing points because I use them often to fly on American Airlines (through the British Airways partner), and to transfer to Hyatt hotels at a great rate. Most recently, I cashed out some of my Chase points to stay in an Airbnb for a month in Europe. Chase had a promotion that depending on which cards you have, you can pay yourself back for Airbnb purchases at 1.25-1.5 points per $1.

If you are interested in this card, please click on the link on the top to apply for it and support this site!

I have just completed my first month living in Europe. I spent half the time living in Barcelona. I went exploring, relaxing, and met up with relatives and friends. I had been to Barcelona before but there is so much to do here that I still had a lot on my to visit. So far, the highlights have been going through Gaudi’s work at Casa Mila and of course seeing La Sagrada Familia from all parts of the city. I have enjoyed walking everywhere and access to public transportation. I walk at least 10 miles every day. The people have been friendly and sangria tasty. It’s been hot, so I did go to the beach here. The water was clear and refreshing. However, it doesn’t compare to the Florida beaches 😉

The second part of the month I spent traveling to Eastern Europe with one of my best friends from home. We started in Budapest which I instantly loved. There is so much to do there, plenty of history, and the people are so nice. My favorite part was going to the Fisherman’s Bastion with beautiful views of the city. I also loved the Szechenyi Thermal Baths. They have over 20 different public baths and pools of all different temperatures. 

We then took the train to Vienna. I really enjoyed the train experience. It was smooth, quick, and cheap. From all of the Eastern European countries we visited, Vienna probably had the best food. I liked the Wiener Schnitzel, which is breaded veal with a layer of cranberry sauce on top. Even the apple strudel was delicious, and I am normally not a fan of apple desserts. My favorite part was going to the Belvedere Museum to see the Klimt paintings and of course there was a surprise painting of Napoleon 😉

Next, we went to Prague. We heard a lot of good things about Prague. I now understand why. It’s a beautiful medieval town. There isn’t much to do there but is a nice place to walk around. Afterwards, we went to Krakow, Poland. The people there are a bit colder than the previous countries. I can’t blame them considering all they have gone through between World War II and being invaded by the Soviet Union soon after. 

We did a day trip to Auschwitz which was definitely eye opening. It was really sad and I felt weird being there. It was interesting to see the size of the camps – way bigger than I could have imagined. They still have tons of the prisoners hair there. Apparently, the Nazi’s kept it to sell to textile companies to make clothes. I didn’t take a picture because it’s gross. They still had thousands of people’s shoes, glasses, and suitcases. 

The Nazi’s decided to put the main concentration camp in Poland, because at that time they had the most amount of Jewish people (3 million). Nowadays, there is only 7,000 Jewish people in Poland which is mind boggling. Keep in mind, it wasn’t only Jewish people that were sent to these camps. Many erudites, politicians, and sympathetic Catholics were also sent to these camps.

I ended my travels in Lisbon, Portugal, meeting up with high school friends that live in Europe. I was very curious about Portugal since they have a lot of American expats. Now I know why many Americans choose to move there. The weather is great – low 70’s/high 60’s. It reminds me of California (meanwhile the rest of Europe has been really hot). It is very diverse – more so than most of Europe. We saw plenty of black people, Hispanics, Asians, etc. It is cheap for a western European country. For instance, a 15-minute taxi was only $5. Lisbon reminded me of San Francisco, with its abundance of hills, being on the coast, and trolley system. I hope to someday return to explore the coastal cities of Portugal. 

Now I am back in Barcelona to take a 2-week hiatus before my next travel adventures. Traveling can be exhausting so I am glad to take a break before my next visitors arrive. I’ll be sure to catch up on sleep and some alone time. 

My first week being here, I oddly missed work. Now that I have been here for almost 6 weeks, I no longer miss work. I think the longer you are away from it, the harder it is to go back to it. 

A mini retirement is when you take a sabbatical from work ranging from a month to a year. Instead of waiting to retire completely, you can do this when you have enough money saved up to take time off work. The benefit of mini retirements is that you can take a break from work while you or your kids are still young and able to do a variety of activities. Instead of waiting until you are 60 to retire, you can go ahead and take multiple mini retirements during the years leading up to full retirement age.

I decided I wanted to take a mini retirement in 2022 since last year. I have always wanted to live abroad temporarily and decided on Spain. I like Spain because it’s pretty affordable for a European country, the food is good, and the people are friendly. I also have the opportunity to practice my Spanish and learn more. Additionally, it’s pretty easy and cheap to travel to other European countries from there. I specifically chose Barcelona because it has more of a younger crowd. 

Originally, I wanted to spend 3-6 months in Europe. However, you can only be in most of Europe for up to 90 days on a tourist visa. I looked into getting a residential visa but it’s complicated because I would need to pay income taxes and real estate taxes to Spain (based on my income and properties in the USA), which is not ideal. Thus, I decided to just do a 3-month mini retirement there. 

I was planning on going when I finished in Bradenton, Florida from March-May. However, I ended up extending in Bradenton, so my mini retirement was postponed to June-August. Even though my job kept asking for me to stay longer, I told them I couldn’t postpone my trip to Europe anymore. The main reason (you would know this if you have been a reader of my blog for a long time) is that I hate the cold. So, the best time to go to Europe is during the summer. In fact, I am happy I extended my stay in Bradenton, because Europe during March would have been too cold for me. 

I decided to book my first two weeks in a hotel to test the waters. If I love it then I will go ahead a book an Airbnb for my stay. I just don’t want to overly commit in case I get homesick or want to move somewhere else. And most Airbnb’s are non-refundable. I am going by myself but I know a few people that live in Barcelona. Then I have several groups of friends and family that will meet up with me in other European countries throughout the summer to travel to together. 

The purpose of this mini retirement is to test the retirement waters. To see if I am content without work. I will still be preoccupied doing my favorite things which are traveling, spending time with family and friends, going for walks, and reading. I am just curious to see if I will miss work. I have over a dozen job offers for when I return to the USA after this mini retirement. I don’t want to commit to anything yet. Who knows, maybe I will want to stay in Europe forever. Or maybe I will want additional time off to spend at home in Miami, afterwards. 

The great thing about be a traveling nurse practitioner is I do not need to ask permission from my employer to take this sabbatical. I just simply told everyone I was unavailable for the summer. Also, no one seems to care that I will spend 3 months without work. Like I mentioned above, I still have many job options for when I return. I decided not to do the telehealth work while I am in Spain after all. As I noted in my previous post, the rates have significantly declined and are not worth it to me. 

Anyways, I am excited for my mini retirement! This post will likely go live while I am already in Europe so wish me luck!

Growing up, I always knew investing in real estate was a good idea. My parents invested in real estate and instilled in us that it was a path to wealth. My siblings and I enjoyed going with my parents to look at houses when we were young. My older sister enjoyed real estate so much that she obtained her real estate license even after she became a pharmacist. 

The year after I started working as a traveling nurse practitioner, there was an opportunity to purchase our first property. A family friend was liquidating assets in preparation of a terminal illness and offered to sell us their house for $25k less than it was worth. I ended up purchasing the house with my older sister. Her realtor background came in handy and made the transaction seamless. She was even able to use her commission as part of the closing costs. 

We got the mortgage only under my sister, so that it would be easier for me to get a loan on a future property. We are both on the deed of the house which is what matters most. We invested some money to fix up the property, nothing major – such as paint, hurricane impact windows, and landscaping. Then we have rented it for a monthly profit, which increases each year. It has been a great investment for the past 6 years.

Two and half years later my sister and I bought our second property. I applied for the mortgage loan under my name as a personal loan since we planned on living in it for at least a year. As a locum tenens provider, qualifying for the loan was a bit difficult because at that time I had a mixture of 1099 work and W2 income. The lender only wanted to use my W2 income because they said 1099 income is unreliable.  

I also qualify for a lot of tax deductions being a traveler, but this ended up bringing down my adjusted gross income to a number the lender was not comfortable with. Qualifying for the loan ended up being more challenging than I expected. Fortunately, I had an amazing loan officer that fought for me. She told them my job is in high demand and my income is almost guaranteed. In the end, I ended up being approved for the loan.

During covid, I refinanced the mortgage to a lower rate and decreased the term from 30 years to 20 years to save almost $100k in interest. 

Two years later, my sister got married and moved out to purchase a house with her husband. We ended up renting the current house easily. 

As everyone is aware of, the real estate market took off since the pandemic. I originally wasn’t planning on buying another property. Yet, since the interest rates were so low, it made sense to buy now even though the cost of real estate was high. I also had 2 years of consistent W2 income since I didn’t travel abroad much during the pandemic. I thought I’d better take advantage of this. 

I wanted to buy a personal home for myself, since I planned on cutting back on how much locum tenens work I do in the near future. Cutting down on how much I work would also affect me qualifying for a mortgage loan in the future, so I figured I should get something while I can. 

I had been scanning the market for the entire 2021. There were over 20 people making offers on the same houses with $20k+ over asking or just buying it all cash. This wasn’t a type of market I was comfortable competing in. I did make an offer on a Miami beach condo one time but was outbid by $35k. I took a break, and during the week of Christmas I decided to start my search again. I had learned that the best time to find a deal is around the holidays when less people are looking. 

This strategy worked out for me because I was able to buy my 3^rd property! I looked at it the day before Christmas eve and made a $5k above asking offer which was accepted (despite having multiple offers). It is in a newer area of Miami where there has literally been no inventory, so I definitely lucked out. In fact, my sisters broker asked her how I snapped up the property because he has been trying to get his client a house in that area since 2020. She told him I offered $5k over asking and he said “that’s it?!” It was definitely God looking out for me.

I ended up renting it out the first year since I left Miami to work in Bradenton, Florida and plan on spending 3 months abroad. Rent in Miami has increased by 40%, so even though the house was more expensive than I wanted, the profit each month renting it is higher than I expected. In fact, the profit it double than I was planning. 

Real estate is a great investment. The value of my first two properties have almost doubled from the purchase price. It produces “passive income” that can help cover expenses or serve as a future retirement buffer. It helps having my sister as my partner because she helps me manage the properties. 

When I officially move back to Miami, I have several houses to choose from to move into. Or I may decide just to rent something on the beach, since my rental income can help cover most of the cost of my rent. 

Check out this article I wrote for Comp Health’s blog about my experiences working in rural locum tenens:

Check out this article I wrote for NPSchools.com on what to know to open your own Nurse Practitioner practice:

https://www.npschools.com/blog/np-independent-practice

Check out an article I wrote for Comp Health’s blog about how working locum teens is a great option for my generation:

Wrapping up in Bradenton, FL was a smooth process because for the first time ever, I had 4 other providers I was transitioning my patients to. This allowed a warm handoff, so the patients weren’t as upset to get a new PCP when they realized I had provided their new PCP with their medical/personal background and nothing would really change. Thus, my schedule was pretty light my last 2 weeks. It was nice to still be there to answer questions about my previous patients if their new PCP had a question.

Some patients left me the nicest notes before I left. One of them told me she had never been honest about her health before with any PCP. And I was the first one she opened up to about her addiction. Another patient told me I was the best PCP she ever had and she needed everyone to know that. 

My last week, the Doctor’s took me out for lunch at a Hibachi restaurant. It was fun and super yummy. On my last day, my job had a little party for me after work which included food, drinks, and karaoke. This clinic is pretty big – with over 40 employees. It was a good experience getting to know most of them. I didn’t feel like I was saying bye to everyone – more like “see you later”. 

Unfortunately, on my last day, one of my patients passed away. He was on hospice so it wasn’t a surprise. It just sucked that is had to happen on my last day. I had been his PCP for 6 months and had known him a bit when I worked in Bradenton in 2020. He was so sick that some days he would come to the clinic daily because he refused to go to the hospital or rehab. I thought to myself I needed to call him on my last day to let him know I was leaving. He had told me in the past that he only stayed at that clinic because of me, so I didn’t want him to find out some other way. So it was disappointing to find out he passed away before I could talk to him one last time. It hit me hard, and I did need to take a moment to myself to grieve.

Good news is that the first quarter of this year we did really well as a clinic (patient outcomes). We actually did better than any previous quarter. This is great since I am getting almost a full bonus for that quarter ($4500). This is separate from the extension bonus I received. The permanent providers there get a quarterly performance bonus. Since I have been working with this company on and off over the past 6 years, I have negotiated getting the same bonus when I help out. 

Each provider gets a different bonus though, depending on how well they perform with their patient panel that quarter. Although the bonus was listed in my contract, I still don’t really plan on receiving them. This is because bonus amounts can always be changed by the discretion of the company at any time. It is a nice surprise to receive one though, since the stock market is doing poorly, it is the perfect time to buy. I made sure to treat my team to lunch before I left since obviously I wouldn’t have been able to be as successful without them.

Until next time Bradenton!

1.       Beach – Sarasota, Florida is known to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida. From white powder sand to seashells along the shore. The water is always aqua blue and clear. There is plenty of wildlife from crabs to dolphins to manatees. Popular beaches include Siesta Key and Anna Maria Island. 

2.       The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art – Art and circus museum established by one of the Ringling brothers from Ringling Bros circus. The setting is beautiful and often used for weddings. To visit John Ringling’s previous home, check out Ca’ d’Zan. 

3.       Salvador Dali Museum – Located 45 minutes north in St. Petersburg, is the beautiful Dali Museum. They have many pieces of the surrealist artists’ work. Currently, there is an exhibit with some Picasso pieces never before seen. 

4.       Day trip to Tampa – 1 hour away is Tampa, Florida. There is much to do there such as Busch Gardens theme park, Tampa Zoo, the Florida Aquarium, and the Manatee Viewing Center just to name a few. 

5.       Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ – Gorgeous outdoor museum with an archeological exhibit and gardens. Weddings often happen here too. 

I recently posted about working with a telemedicine company. I received a lot of interest after that post came live. Especially because I shared the hourly rate ranged from $60-100/h. After working with that telemedicine company for 4 months now, I wanted to provide an update. 

I have heard of many nurse practitioners quit their full-time jobs to pursue telemedicine. And then I heard them get stressed because they realized it is not reliable income. Often, the schedule was posted last minute so providers were frustrated because they couldn’t plan out their month in advance. If I want reliant on steady income, I would never quit a full time job to only work telemedicine. 

In fact, my telemedicine company shifted away from paying guaranteed hourly shifts to just paying per visit – like most other telemedicine companies. The volume of patients is low and they are only paying $15 per visit. This is relatively low compared to other telemedicine companies that pay over $20 per visit. When a patient becomes available, a text message is sent to all providers in that state so one of them can accept the visit and see the patient. 

Personally, the pay rate is too low for me to waste my time. Even though the visits are only a few minutes, I don’t want to have to stop what I am doing to make myself available to see patients. Also, I don’t like the concept of feeling like I am on call all day. I have been getting text notifications all day which is quite annoying. If the telemedicine was busier, I wouldn’t mind making myself available for a given hour to see as many patients as I can. However, the visits are sporadic so will likely only see one patient per hour. 

I am waiting to see how things go for the next month and will likely just quit completely in the near future. All good things come to an end. 

Update: The telemedicine company increased their rates to $30/visit due to many visits going unanswered as providers weren’t going out of their way to pick up a visit for the low pay.