A Slower Pace of Life

I hope all of you Canadians had a lovely Thanksgiving and you were reminded truly why we’re grateful.

This weekend was busy - we had three dinners and it made me realize how blessed we are for family near and far, for food on our table, a roof over our heads and freedom.

I wanted to pop on today to share something that I announced on my Instagram in August. I’ve been hesitant to share it here as I know there are people who might not understand our decision, but that’s totally okay. It’s our life and our decision.

In September 2020 we will be uprooting our little family and moving to Hawaii. It won’t be glamorous, we won’t have a lot ( we’re actually looking at a 700 SQFT 2 bedroom place. ) But I think the memories that will be made will be far beyond anything we can ever give our kids.

Some choose to put their kids in sport and activities. Maybe buy them fun things like quads and expensive things.. we choose to give our kids adventure and memories. Neither of these things are wrong, but we are just choosing a different path.

So much research and planning has already gone into this move. Us being Canadians, we can only go for 180 days before we have to apply for working Visas. Also, if we stay longer then six months, we would also be required to pay taxes in both Canada and the US. So at this time, we’re only planning on a six month stay. If we decide after that time that we love it, we will apply for a longer stay.

I fell into an amazing job of marketing for brands and I can do that anywhere in the world, so my work will come with me.

A lot of people have asked why we’re moving to Hawaii, why not just go for a vacation?

Well, vacations cost a lot of money. When going for a vacation, you spend a ton of money in a short period of time and you’re still paying for the cost of living in your other home.

We plan to put all of our belongings into storage and completely move over to Hawaii, so we aren’t paying rent, insurance, Hydro, Gas etc. Where we are from, these things add up to quite a bit of money, so for us, it’s worth it.

Also, instead of looking into hotels which cost an arm and a leg, we will be living in a long term VRBO. The cost is a quarter of what you would pay for a hotel and it comes with everything included. A lot have asked why we wouldn’t just rent a rental. Well because we would have to completely furnish it, which would cost a TON and then we would have to turn around and sell everything six months later. So a VRBO is the cheapest and most economical option for us.

Many have simple asked why.

We have chosen to do this because we’ve had a really hard and yucky last five years. We went from owning a very busy business where we worked 80+ hours a week, to filing bankruptcy. Although it has been two years since we filed bankruptcy, we’ve decided we want a change of pace before we hopefully someday buy a Tiny Home and start investing into life. Right now our kids are young and we want to give them a year of experience.

This choice might not be right for a lot of families. But for us, we’ve realized that experiences and memories trump things.

I know many who often take vacations to hot destinations, but we simply cannot afford to. So we’re taking what we would spend on a 1-2 week vacation and spreading it out over six months. The good thing is, we won’t be paying to live in Canada too, so we will only be paying for the cost of living in Hawaii.

This makes the most logical sense to us.

I’m excited to take you along with us in 10.5 months.. but until then, I’ll keep decorating and designing!