Ever since our first experiment with AirBnB (where we snagged a New York City...
Recent Updates
Tax Loophole Reminder
This is something we intended to do later in the year but it seemed particularly appropriate given recent events.
Last April we wrote an article discussing a tax loophole available to middle-income earners who also happen to be sitting on some capital gains. You can read the details in the linked article but the basic idea is that it is possible to lock in a zero-percent tax rate by selectively harvesting some of your gains.
Ideally you’d do this in December when you have a clearer picture of what your 2013 income will look like. However, with equity prices just a few percentage points off their highs and with Congress potentially precipitating another financial crisis in just a few weeks by failing to raise the United States debt ceiling, now may not be such a bad time to harvest those gains.
Oahu, So Much More than Honolulu
We understand that not everyone loves cities. But the folks who skip the Hawaiian Island of Oahu miss so much more than just Honolulu and Waikiki. To see how much more, we spent several days wandering around the rest of the island.
Here’s what we found:
Do Republicans Hate Perpetual Travelers?
If the title of this post strikes you as an inflammatory detour into politics and away from our normal travel-related writing, that is only because politicians have inflamed us by forcing a detour of our travels. What’s worse is that their purpose for doing so threatens to undermine the kind of location independent lifestyle we routinely advocate here.
But before we get to that, we’ll start with the detour.
Cheap Eats in Hawaii and Elsewhere
Five strategies to cut your travel food bill.
Delicious handmade Japanese noodles from Marukame Udon in Waikiki for as little as $3.75 per bowl.
Hawaii is an expensive travel destination, or so we’ve been told. And before arriving we fully expected to shell out a ton of cash on food. Needing to buy three meals per day, every day, at high-priced restaurants and cafes in this island paradise can really dent your wallet. But it doesn’t have to.
Here are the strategies we used to survive three weeks on the island and a lifetime on the road while still eating well and saving a fortune.
Hawaiian Royalty
It’s good to be the king.
When David Kalakaua ordered a new palace built in 1879 in Honolulu, the Hawaiian kingdom’s capital and an increasingly important hub for international trading, the monarch mandated that no expense be spared. The building was intended to impress, lest overseas VIPs think his realm in the middle of the Pacific was a backwater.
Iolani Palace was decked out with cutting-edge amenities like indoor plumbing, a telephone, and electric lighting, which it had before the White House or Buckingham Palace. Constructed in a unique architectural style, the building melds European-inspired features with traditional Hawaiian elements such as wide, wrap-around lanais.
The only official state residence in the U.S. once occupied by royalty, Iolani Palce looks like the domain of an Italian duke rather than a dwelling in the tropics. While admiring the architecture and décor is reason to visit the residence, it’s more than just a pretty façade. Roaming its gilded rooms with a self-guided audio tour reveals intriguing stories about what played out within them, well before Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state.
Everywhere Once 