Nestled in the heart of Florida’s beautiful Panhandle, Tallahassee offers a captivating blend of Southern charm, vibrant culture, and endless opportunities. This dynamic capital city is more than just a seat of government; it’s a place captivated by enchanting canopy roads, mouthwatering Southern cuisine, and the energy of college football. With its lush green landscapes, rich historical heritage, and thriving arts scene, Tallahassee paints a picture of a city that embraces its residents with open arms. However, living there has its disadvantages, including severe weather, limited public transportation, and a small airport.
So Whether you’re looking for Tallahassee apartments or are searching for homes for sale, this Redfin article is a great resource. It covers ten pros and cons of living in Tallahassee, helping you determine if this city is right for you.
Pros of living in Tallahassee
1. Affordable cost of living
This charming city offers an inviting atmosphere that won’t break the bank. Tallahassee shines as a beacon of affordability, offering a reasonable cost of living, from housing to daily expenses. Imagine a place where your hard-earned dollars stretch further, allowing you to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle; you’ll find that here.
The median sale price in Tallahassee is $250,000, well below the national average of $400,378. You’ll even notice how rent prices are just as affordable. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,197, making it an excellent destination for those on a budget. With reasonable housing prices, budget-friendly dining options, and cost-effective entertainment opportunities, Tallahassee invites you to savor life’s pleasures without sacrificing your financial peace of mind.
2. Rich cultural heritage and diverse arts scene
Tallahassee’s historical roots are deeply entwined with Native American, Spanish, and African-American influences, all contributing to a unique cultural blend that’s palpable in its architecture, food, music, and community festivals. Delve into the past as you wander through the historic districts in Tallahassee, such as Frenchtown and Smokey Hollow. There, you’ll notice heritage resonating through art, music, and storytelling. After, immerse yourself in the captivating world of the arts at the vibrant Railroad Square Art Park, where galleries, studios, and creative spaces showcase diverse artistic expressions.
3. Abundance of natural beauty and outdoor recreational opportunities
Tallahassee, a true haven for nature enthusiasts, awaits your arrival with its awe-inspiring natural beauty and thrilling outdoor adventures. Prepare to be enchanted by the city’s picturesque landscapes, where sprawling oak trees create beautiful canopies along scenic roads. Explore the wonders of Maclay Gardens State Park, where vibrant flowers and tranquil lakes beckon you to take strolls or embark on invigorating hikes. And imagine the thrill of kayaking down the pristine waters of Wakulla Springs, encountering graceful manatees and abundant bird species along the way. Tallahassee has something to love, whether you seek serenity in a peaceful park, the thrill of an adrenaline-pumping adventure, or simply the opportunity to connect with nature’s beauty.
4. Plenty of sunshine throughout the year
The Sunshine State’s hidden gem, Tallahassee, basks in the warm embrace of abundant sunshine throughout the year. With its enviable climate, this city radiates a cheerful and uplifting energy that invigorates residents and visitors. Imagine waking up to sunny skies and golden rays, a daily dose of natural positivity that fills your soul. Whether you’re strolling through the picturesque parks, basking in the glow of a vibrant sunset, or engaging in outdoor activities, Tallahassee’s year-round sunshine offers endless opportunities to soak up its invigorating warmth.
5. Numerous festivals, events, and entertainment options
Prepare to be swept away by a whirlwind of cultural celebrations that unite the community and ignite the spirit of joy in Tallahassee. Join in the revelry of the Tallahassee Downtown Market, where local artisans showcase their talents and offer a treasure trove of unique crafts and delicious treats. You’ll also find the lively Tallahassee Food Truck Festival, a culinary extravaganza where tantalizing aromas and delectable flavors take center stage. For sports enthusiasts, the Tallahassee Marathon and Springtime Tallahassee Parade offer opportunities to cheer on athletes and revel in the city’s vibrant spirit. No matter the time of year, Tallahassee’s calendar is brimming with festivals, events, and entertainment options.
Cons of living in Tallahassee
1. Limited public transportation options
The city’s public transit system primarily relies on buses, with a network that may not be as extensive as in larger metropolitan areas. The transit score for Tallahassee is 30 which falls into the car-dependent range, and while efforts have been made to improve transportation accessibility, it’s important to note that the system may have limitations in terms of coverage and frequency. This means that owning a car or relying on alternative modes of transportation becomes necessary for many residents to navigate the city efficiently.
2. Occasional impact from hurricanes and tropical storms
Given that Tallahassee is located in the central region of Florida, it occasionally experiences the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms. While the city is well-prepared to handle such weather events, it’s essential to be aware of the potential risks and take necessary precautions. Tallahassee’s location may occasionally face strong winds, heavy rainfall, and temporary disruptions to daily life.
3. Hot and humid summers
During the summer, residents and visitors can expect the temperatures to exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As temperatures rise and humidity levels soar, the summer heat can become intense and uncomfortable. The high levels of humidity can make outdoor activities challenging and can lead to feelings of fatigue and discomfort. Staying hydrated and seeking shade become essential during this time. Additionally, the hot and humid weather may limit particular outdoor pursuits and make it less enjoyable to spend time outdoors.
4. The small airport can be limiting
Tallahassee’s airport facility, while serving the city and its surrounding areas, is relatively small compared to major international airports. This can be seen as a con to living in Tallahassee, particularly for those who frequently travel long distances or require a wide range of flight options. The smaller airport size may result in limited direct flights and fewer airlines operating in the area, leading to higher airfare costs and potential inconveniences when planning trips. Additionally, connecting flights may be necessary for reaching certain destinations, which can add travel time and possible complications.
5. High annual precipitation
Tallahassee experiences relatively high annual precipitation, which can be seen as a con for some individuals considering living in the area. In fact, Tallahassee is ranked position 9 of the rainiest cities based on the average annual precipitation total. The city receives ample rainfall throughout the year, contributing to the lush greenery and vibrant landscapes that characterize the region. However, the higher precipitation levels may present challenges such as increased humidity, occasional flooding in low-lying areas, and the need for adequate drainage systems. Additionally, heavy rainfall can impact outdoor activities and limit the availability of certain recreational opportunities. Though rain enhances the city’s natural beauty and adds to its splendor, it’s crucial to anticipate the potential inconveniences caused by higher annual precipitation.
Is Tallahassee a good place to live? Final thoughts
When deciding whether or not to make Tallahassee your home, it is crucial to approach it with thoughtfulness. Consider your preferences and priorities, while recognizing the benefits and occasional obstacles that come with embracing this remarkable city.
Indianapolis can be a great place to live for those who value a vibrant downtown, a big small-town atmosphere, and a four-season climate. However, like any city, Indianapolis has its pros and cons that should be considered before making the decision to move there. Some of the pros of living in Indianapolis include a strong sports culture, easy transportation, and proximity to other major cities. On the other hand, some of the cons of living in Indianapolis include challenging winters, traffic, and a flat landscape. Ultimately, the decision to live in Indianapolis will depend on individual preferences. So, whether you’re looking on Redfin to rent an apartment in Indianapolis or purchase a home in the area, keep reading to see if Indianapolis is the right place for you.
Pros of living in Indianapolis
1. Vibrant downtown
Downtown Indianapolis is home to a variety of attractions, restaurants, and entertainment venues. The area is known for its vibrant nightlife, with numerous bars, clubs, and music venues that cater to a wide range of tastes. Additionally, downtown Indianapolis is home to a number of major sports and event venues, including Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and Victory Field. The area also boasts a number of popular tourist attractions, such as the Indianapolis Zoo, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, and the Indiana State Museum.
2. Sports culture
Indianapolis has a rich sports culture and is known for hosting several major sporting events throughout the year. The city is home to professional sports teams such as the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, the WNBAs Indiana Fever, and minor league baseball team the Indianapolis Indians. In addition to these teams, Indianapolis is also known for hosting the world-famous Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway each year. The city is also home to the NCAA headquarters and hosts the NCAA basketball tournament each year, drawing thousands of visitors from all over the country. With such a strong presence in the world of sports, Indianapolis is a great place for sports enthusiasts to call home.
3. Easy transportation
Indianapolis has a fairly well-developed public transportation system, with several options for getting around the city. The city has a bus system, known as IndyGo, which covers most major areas of the city and has over thirty different bus routes. Additionally, Indianapolis has a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, known as the IndyGo Red Line, which runs from Broad Ripple to the University of Indianapolis. With a bike score of 43, Indianapolis has an extensive network of bike lanes and trails throughout the city, making it easy to get around on two wheels. Finally, the city is also easily accessible by car, with several major highways and interstates running through the area.
4. Proximity to other major cities
One of the advantages of living in Indianapolis is its proximity to other major cities in the Midwest. Located in the heart of Indiana, Indianapolis is within easy driving distance of several other major cities, including Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville. Chicago is just about a three-hour drive away, Cincinnati is located around two hours south of Indianapolis, and Louisville is around a two hour drive southeast. Being located so close to these other major cities means that Indianapolis residents have easy access to a wide variety of cultural attractions, entertainment venues, and opportunities outside of their own city.
5. Big, small-town vibe
Despite being a major city, Indianapolis maintains a “big, small-town” atmosphere that many residents appreciate. The city is known for its friendly and welcoming community, with a strong sense of Midwestern hospitality. The downtown area is walkable and easy to navigate and many neighborhoods have a cozy, small-town feel. Additionally, the city is known for its tight-knit neighborhoods, with residents often organizing community events and festivals. Some festivals in Indianapolis to check out include the Feast of Lanterns, 500 Festival, and Talbot Street Art Fair.
6. All four seasons
Indianapolis experiences all four seasons, making it an ideal location for those who enjoy a variety of weather conditions throughout the year. In the summer months, temperatures can reach into the 90s F°, with high humidity levels, making it a great time to enjoy water activities. Fall brings cooler temperatures and beautiful foliage, with vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows covering the city’s trees. Winter in Indianapolis can be cold and snowy, with temperatures often dipping below freezing and several inches of snowfall each year lend for perfect winter sports. Finally, spring brings milder temperatures with blossoming flowers and greenery returning to the city’s parks and neighborhoods.
Cons of living in Indianapolis
7. Challenging winters
While Indianapolis experiences all four seasons, the winter months can be particularly challenging for residents. Temperatures often dip below freezing, with wind chills making it feel even colder. Snowfall can be significant, with several inches of accumulation common throughout the season, making driving and walking on sidewalks difficult. Despite these challenges, many residents of Indianapolis embrace the winter months and enjoy outdoor activities such as ice skating, sledding, and skiing.
8. Flat landscape
If you enjoy a varied or hilly landscape , Indianapolis may not be for you. The city is largely flat and lacks natural features of other cities, such as mountains or oceans. Additionally, the city’s architecture is largely utilitarian, with a focus on functionality over aesthetics. While there are certainly beautiful neighborhoods and buildings in Indianapolis, some may find the overall landscape to be less visually interesting than other cities.
9. Lack of outdoor recreational opportunities
While Indianapolis offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities, some may find that the city lacks the expansive natural areas found in other cities. The city’s parks are generally smaller and the surrounding area is largely agricultural, with few opportunities for hiking, camping, or rock climbing. However, the city does have several beautiful trails, including the Monon Trail and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Additionally, the city is within driving distance of several state and national parks, including the Hoosier National Forest and the Mammoth Cave National Park.
As landlords struggle to get people back into office buildings that emptied during the pandemic, some are turning to entertainment and other enticements such as yoga classes to woo wary workers.
At the Water Garden office complex in Santa Monica, a dance troupe has taken up residence and puts on free performances and classes for kids. Flower arranging classes are packed and the weekly tenants-only comedy show after work is a hot ticket. Musical performances by local artists are a lunchtime draw.
Farmers markets, concerts, art shows and other attractions for office tenants aren’t completely new, but they have taken on urgency as landlords and executives of companies occupying their buildings strive to get workers enthused about showing up.Some property owners are hiring “tenant experience managers.”
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In most commercial buildings, only about half the workers show up at their offices on weekdays, key-card swipes reveal. Office leasing is also weak: Space rentals declined again last quarter to bring the overall total of unleased space in Los Angeles County to nearly 20%, well above the 12% rate before the pandemic.
To get workers in the office, “you need to find new ways to engage people,” said Bess Wyrick, head of programming at the Water Garden for property manager CBRE.
With daily office attendance not mandatory at many companies, “It’s no longer about trying to create a work-lifestyle balance,” she said. “It’s about creating a hybrid workplace where people are excited to come.”
Hybrid work patterns have spread widely since the pandemic shutdown of 2020. As companies bring workers back together, many have reduced the number of days their employees are required to be in the office, creating flexible combinations of office days and remote work days.
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Cosmetic company L’Oréal Group demands that employees work in the office at least three times a week, on days of their choosing. L’Oréal sweetens the office experience with such comforts as a fitness center, restaurant, juice cafe and a cabana-like bar that serves coffee drinks and, depending on the occasion, alcohol.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger recently announced that employees working from home must return to the office Monday through Thursday starting March 1. Fridays are typically the least populated days for offices, research shows, and while most employees toil at home that day, a few companies are taking them off the business calendar altogether and working 32 hours a week.
Landlords are also keen to make offices appealing so tenants will keep renting space in their buildings.
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The campus-like Water Garden was a dreary place after being devoid of occupants during the worst of the pandemic, Wyrick said. While they were gone, nearby businesses and restaurants nearby failed or left for other reasons.
“The area was a ghost town,” she said.
Wyrick’s first move was to arrange live performances by local musicians and dancers in the courtyard. Among the complex’s biggest tenants are retailer Amazon and technology firm Oracle.
One of Wyrick’s goals was to make the Water Garden a place people wanted to visit, including neighbors who could walk over to take in a mid-day concert or see pieces by local artists displayed and for sale in the lobbies of the four office buildings. Getting a buzz of life into the campus could help address a common chicken-and-egg complaint about going back to the office — people don’t want to go there if other people aren’t around.
Paying performers to appear, serving free food to tenants at holiday soirees and other planned events are part of a marketing strategy to get the property occupied, she said.
“We will lose money in the beginning,” she said, “but it drives people to put roots in the space.”
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The key measure of success is leasing, and Water Garden has added tenants over the past 12 months. Its 1.4 million square feet of rental space is 86% leased, up from 72% leased a year ago, Wyrick said.
One of her leaps to enliven the place was to agree to an unusually short lease with a well-known dance company for an expansive first-floor space last occupied by a furniture showroom. In exchange, Jacob Jonas The Company agreed to engage with other tenants through free classes, performances and other events.
The nonprofit dance company has performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as with such musical artists as Rosalia, Sia, Elton John and Britney Spears.
For years, the company was based in the Wallace Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. The chance to dance in a working office complex built to the buttoned-down tastes of 1990s business executives holds special appeal to company founder Jacob Jonas, a Santa Monica native who got his start as a street performer on the Venice boardwalk at age 13.
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“Our neighbors are some of the leading corporations in our country. There’s something really validating about that and sharing our work,” he said. “When you have people working behind a desk from 9 to 5 and then being able to expose them to creativity and expose them to art in such a unique setting, that crossover is rather beautiful.”
Workers and visitors at the Water Garden can take workshops in floral design, see weekly comedy shows and attend movie nights.
Nearly a fifth of the L.A. County’s office space was unleased at the end of last year, according to CBRE, and more empty space may hit the market soon as tenants hoping to save money try to sublease unwanted space due to concerns of a constricting economy and potential layoffs. Some are reducing their space because their employees are working remotely.
“The general consensus among most economists is we’re heading into a recession,” said Bradford Ortlund, a research manager at CBRE. Many companies are declining to expand their offices or reducing space as they wait for the economic picture to come into focus.
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The nature of upmarket offices was already shifting before the pandemic as many landlords toned down the dramatic formality of their entrances originally intended to confer status and trustworthiness on the companies inside. As aloofness fell out of favor, owners set out to make their lobbies and courtyards places to linger and enjoy rather than simply pass through in awe.
Their desire to get people working remotely back into offices makes hotel-like hospitality freshly valuable, said the owners of U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest office building in Los Angeles at 72 stories.
It was built to be an imposing corporate cathedral in 1989, but landlord Silverstein Properties is close to completing a $60-million makeover intended to make it feel more like a laid-back hotel where tenants and visitors are invited to kick back. The lobby will include a cocktail and juice bar, a coffee bar, a grab-and-go market of packaged foods, communal tables, a large lounge with plush seating and cabanas to add a resort flair.
Staff will focus on hospitality, said tenant experience manager Melanie Navas. People’s names and birthdays are to be remembered. The 54th floor is a tenants-only lounge with a coffee bar and weekly breakfast spreads to help inspire a sense of community. There are yoga classes at the gym on the 57th floor with views of the city.
“The goal is to get people to feel like they want to come back to work and come back to the building,” she and, “and having them leave happy.”
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Art is a top priority for Brookfield Properties, the largest owner of office space in downtown Los Angeles, which has a longstanding program of engagement with tenants. Permanent and rotating art displays are pleasant — and good for occupancy, said Bert Dezzutti, head of the western region for Brookfield.
“Younger workers are more likely to return to the office if they are around art,” he said, citing a survey Brookfield commissioned in the United Kingdom last year that also found that art and cultural activities improve people’s sense of wellbeing and makes them more productive at the office.
“One positive that has emerged from the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic is a new focus on what makes a ‘happy’ workplace,” the survey report said. Findings suggest that workers want to work in spaces enriched by art, culture and wellness, which they believe promote creativity and contentment.
“The offices of the future must be more than machines for working in,” the report said, “they must cater to the rich inner life that we all possess.”
One youth-friendly program Brookfield puts on in L.A. is an annual music festival that follows the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Acts from the popular desert concert series appear after work on four August nights at a Brookfield office and retail complex near Crypto.com Arena.
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Musicians from the Colburn School perform acoustic sets at another Brookfield property. There are DJ concerts open to all and wellness events for tenants that include skin care classes and meditative sound baths.
“We’re creating opportunities for people to interact,” Dezzutti said. “It’s all about engagement.”
Long-term financial goals are an essential part of financial planning. They help you define your aspirations and create a roadmap for achieving them.
Long-term goals aren’t easy to achieve. But why?
Could it be that motivation wanes over time? Perhaps external circumstances change. Maybe it has to do with the feasibility of the goals.
Many people have trouble sticking to something over the course of a single year let alone several years or decades.
Perhaps that’s why long-term goals – like most financial goals – are so difficult to achieve.
How do we fight against whatever it is that holds us back from achieving these financial goals? Is it possible to win?
Yes. It is.
Today I’d like to share with you some ways you can achieve your long-term financial goals. I won’t claim it will be easy, but it will be worthwhile.
So whether you need to pay off debt, build an emergency fund, save for your kids’ college education, or invest for retirement, here are some ways you can make it hap’n, cap’n.
Why Long-Term Financial Goals Are Important
Long-term financial goals provide direction and motivation for your financial decisions. By defining your long-term goals, you will have a clear picture of what you want to achieve and what steps you need to take to get there. Setting long-term financial goals can help you:
Stay focused on your priorities: Setting long-term financial goals will help you prioritize your financial decisions and avoid getting distracted by short-term financial needs or impulses.
Achieve financial stability: Long-term financial goals can help you create a safety net, build wealth, and prepare for unexpected events such as medical emergencies or job loss.
Enjoy the benefits of compound interest: Investing in long-term goals, such as retirement or education, can help you take advantage of the power of compound interest and grow your wealth over time.
1. Capture your long-term goals in your to-do list.
Long-term goals of the financial sort are usually more like projects than individual tasks.
For example, if you want to pay off your debt, chances are that you don’t just have one credit card to pay off – you might have three credit cards, a vehicle loan, and a student loan to overcome (if not more).
“Pay off debt” would be the project. “Pay off Visa #1” would be the task.
The truth is that without writing down your projects and tasks within a task management system of some type, you’re much less likely to accomplish your long-term goals.
There’s just something about seeing your long-term goals on paper (or on a screen) that makes them real. The very act of writing them down is a type of commitment.
Give it a whirl. Write down your long-term financial goals and review them on a regular basis.
2. Don’t bury your long-term goals.
It’s not enough to write down your long-term financial goals. Additionally, you need to make them readily available to your eye.
One idea that I’ve found works well is to write down your goals on a whiteboard where you can’t help but see them. But that’s not for everybody.
The point is that you need to find a way to see your long-term goals in the context of all your other goals (namely, your short-term goals). If only your short-term, urgent goals are displayed for you to see, you’ll tend to focus on those instead of kicking butt on your long-term goals.
Don’t bury your long-term goals. They’re important too!
3. Dedicate certain days of the week to long-term goals.
One helpful tip I derived from Strategic Coach was to dedicate certain days of the week to certain goals. This has proved to be very helpful in my own life, and I believe it will in yours, too.
For example, you could dedicate a certain day of the week to managing your finances and brainstorming ways to improve your financial future. Perhaps you have a day off of work that would work best for you.
Now, I can hear you saying, “Oh Jeff, if I only had a day for such tasks – I’m way too busy with other stuff!” That’s fair.
But here’s the thing, you don’t just have to make this day about finances – you can make it about your other long-term goals too. Add in health, family, and other areas of responsibility. Consider this day (or these days) of the week to be all about bettering yourself and your life. Can’t you make time for that?
4. Prioritize your long-term goals properly.
When it comes to long-term financial goals, you need to properly prioritize them. There are some preliminary goals that should only take you less than a month, like setting up a budget and cutting expenses, but we’ll leave that for another article.
What are some common long-term financial goals and in which order should you complete them? Generally, I recommend you complete the following long-term financial goals in the order they are displayed below:
Build Your Emergency Fund
Think of your emergency fund as the foundation of your financial future. Without some liquid money, you’re going to be out of luck when financial disaster strikes. Believe me, they happen.
Your car engine might explode. Your kneecap might explode (ouch). Your water heater might explode. There are so many things that can explode . . . and it’s not easy to just walk away from those explosions while keeping your cool. It’s stressful!
But you know what would make those situations a little less stressful? You guessed it: an emergency fund baby!
Wipe Out Your Debt
Once you have your foundation in place, it’s time to knock out that debt. This can take several years or a few months – it depends on how much debt you have and how quickly you can shovel money at it.
Write down all of your debts and attack them one by one. It’s easier that way.
Start Investing for Retirement
Now it’s time to start investing for your latter years. Why? It’s possible that your earning potential can go down when you’re physically unable to work. Who knows, you might have a self-sustaining business upon reaching retirement age, but don’t count on it. Invest for the future!
Helping people retire well is what I do.
Start Saving for Other Long-Term Goals
This might include saving for your kids’ college education, purchasing a new vehicle, saving for a home renovation, or another goal that will take some time.
By prioritizing your long-term goals in the proper way, you can ensure that should you experience a slump in income, you aren’t wiped out due to a lack of financial planning.
5. Discover and focus on your motivations.
I’m convinced that one of the main reasons people don’t accomplish their long-term goals is because they really haven’t discovered their motivations.
For example, everyone knows it’s a good idea to pay off debt. It’s a financial goal that’s been embedded in our minds by countless financial advisors. But unless you discover your motivation for paying off debt, chances are you’ll give up before you achieve your goal.
In fact, if you’re paying off debt for the sake of paying off debt, you might as well give up now. You’re not going to be motivated enough to get the job done.
Instead, focus on some common motivations that can become your motivations. Here are some great reasons why people want to pay off debt:
To not have to pay interest on their purchases
To free up money for vacations
To free up money for investing for retirement
To not have to worry about those bills
To reduce the amount of stress in their lives
To free up the time it takes managing debt to focus on family
These are just a few of the motivations of others. What’s your motivation?
Assign a motivation for every long-term goal you have. Otherwise, you’re just trying to accomplish your long-term goals for the sake of accomplishing them – that’s not a real motivating factor if you ask me!
Long-Term Goal Examples
Long-term financial goals can take many forms, depending on your values, aspirations, and time horizon. Here are some examples of long-term financial goals in the SMART framework:
Example 1: Save for Retirement
Specific: Save $1 million by age 65 for retirement.
Measurable: Save $500 per month in a retirement account.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $500 per month for retirement.
Relevant: Retirement is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal by age 65.
Example 2: Pay off Debt
Specific: Pay off $30,000 in credit card debt.
Measurable: Pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Relevant: Paying off debt is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal within 5 years.
Example 3: Invest in Education
Specific: Save $50,000 for a child’s college education.
Measurable: Save $200 per month in a 529 college savings plan.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $200 per month for college education.
Relevant: Investing in education is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal in 18 years.
Example 4: Buy a House
Specific: Save $100,000 for a down payment on a house.
Measurable: Save $1,000 per month in a high-yield savings account.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $1,000 per month for a down payment.
Relevant: Buying a house is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal in 5 years.
Example 5: Start a Business
Specific: Launch a profitable business in the next 5 years.
Measurable: Develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Achievable: Based on current skills and experience, it is feasible to develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Relevant: Starting a business is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Launch the business within the next 5 years.
Long-Term Goal
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
Save for Retirement
Save $1 million by age 65 for retirement.
Save $500 per month in a retirement account.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $500 per month for retirement.
Retirement is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal by age 65.
Pay off Debt
Pay off $30,000 in credit card debt.
Pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Paying off debt is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal within 5 years.
Invest in Education
Save $50,000 for a child’s college education.
Save $200 per month in a 529 college savings plan.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $200 per month for college education.
Investing in education is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal in 18 years.
Buy a House
Save $100,000 for a down payment on a house.
Save $1,000 per month in a high-yield savings account.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $1,000 per month for a down payment.
Buying a house is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal in 5 years.
Start a Business
Launch a profitable business in the next 5 years.
Develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Based on current skills and experience, it is feasible to develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Starting a business is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Launch the business within the next 5 years.
Need More Long-Term Goal Examples?
Knowing I’m not the only goal-setting freak that exists in this world, I asked fans from the Good Financial Cents Facebook page what their long-term goals (big shout to the Fincon community for contributing, too!).
Fincon Community Long-Term Goals
Here’s a great list of examples of long-term goals:
Bob Lotich at SeedTime.com says:
[I want] to provide a comfortable life for my family, to have enough cash to maintain a flexible lifestyle, and to use everything else to financially support charities and organizations that are making a huge impact on the world.
Ryan Guina at TheMilitaryWallet.com says:
[I want] to become financially independent. What this means to me: to have no consumer or mortgage debt and have enough resources in savings and investments to cover my everyday living expenses without relying upon income from my job. This will provide more freedom in pursuing activities based on fulfillment vs. the need to generate revenue.
Larry Ludwig at InvestorJunkie.com says:
[I want] to be financially free. I define it specifically as to accumulate $10,000,000 in investment assets that can generate at minimum 4% per year of income.
Teresa Mears at LivingOnTheCheap.com says:
[I want] to support myself, both now and in retirement, and enjoy life. What else is there?
Steve Chou at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com says:
[I want] to generate enough income so that I can spend more time with my family and be there for the kids. Growing up, my parents worked their butts off so I could go to a good school but I didn’t see them very often during the week. With my kids, I’m going to send them to a good college and always be present.
Grayson Bell at DebtRoundup.com says:
[I want to] build a business and a financial stockpile to allow my family and I to travel when and where we want to. I don’t want to be stuck due to a job or financial situation. This will require scaling my business and looking for more opportunities to expand my passive income streams.
Robert Farrington at TheCollegeInvestor.com says:
[I want] to generate enough passive income to replace my current income. This will require a long-term strategy of earning more money (through my salary and side hustles) and investing the excess. The goal, of course, is to retire early while still being able to provide the quality of life I want.
My Lifetime Goals
Long-term goals can be difficult to articulate but deserve to be written down. I previously shared my lifetime goals on this post. Looking them over I recognize I would make a few tweaks, but; for the most part, they are still align with what I want to achieve in life. Here’s a look:
1. Spiritual leader of my household. I want my kids to see me first as a God-loving father who puts his faith first before success. I want to continually love and support my wife, and do so in an Godly manner.
2. Live a long and filling life with my wife and family. Raise my kids with the philosophies of: working hard, but not sacrificing “work” for what you love; love first; and treat people with respect (Golden Rule)
3. Have several multiple-system driven businesses that produce >$100,000 a month of passive income.
4. Live in multiple countries (5+) for an extended period of time (minimum 3 weeks) with entire family
5. Inspire over 1,000,000 people to invest in themselves. This can be through traditional investing (Roth IRA, 401k), obtaining a higher degree or certification, or investing in a small business.
6. Be a successful entrepreneur and best-selling author of numerous works. I want to be recognized as as a hard worker who put his family and faith first.
The Bottom Line – Long-Term Financial Goals
Setting long-term financial goals is an important step towards achieving financial stability and building wealth. By defining your values, aspirations, and time horizon, you can create a roadmap that aligns with your priorities and guides your financial decisions.
Remember to monitor your progress, stay motivated, and seek professional advice when needed. With discipline and perseverance, you can achieve your long-term financial goals and secure your financial future.
Here’s your homework
I want you to implement at least one of these strategies for reaching your long-term goals over the next year. When the year is over, write me. Tell me how well the strategy worked out for you. I want you to put your heart and soul into one or more of these strategies.
Why? I want you to see success.
Make it hap’n, cap’n!
FAQs – Long-Term Financial Goals
How do I balance saving for long-term goals with short-term needs?
It’s important to strike a balance between saving for your long-term financial goals and meeting your short-term needs. You can achieve this by creating a budget that allocates some of your income towards both short-term and long-term goals.
This way, you can address your immediate financial needs while also making progress towards your long-term goals.
How can I stay motivated to achieve my long-term financial goals?
Staying motivated to achieve your long-term financial goals can be challenging, especially if your goals are several years away.
One way to stay motivated is to break your long-term goals into smaller, manageable milestones. Celebrate each milestone as you reach it, and use the progress you’ve made as motivation to keep going.
How do I know if I’m on track to achieve my long-term financial goals?
Regularly monitoring your progress towards your long-term financial goals is essential to staying on track.
You can use financial planning tools and software to track your progress and adjust your plan as needed. You can also work with a financial advisor or planner to evaluate your progress and make any necessary adjustments to your plan.
Can I adjust my long-term financial goals as my situation changes?
Yes, it’s important to be flexible and adjust your long-term financial goals as your situation changes. Life is unpredictable, and unexpected events can impact your financial situation. Review your financial plan regularly and adjust it as needed to ensure that it aligns with your current situation and goals.
Need some more long-term goals? Check out The Top 10 Good Financial Goals That Everyone Should Have. If you’re a baby boomer, check out 5 Financial Goals for Baby Boomers.
Long-term financial goals are an essential part of financial planning. They help you define your aspirations and create a roadmap for achieving them.
Long-term goals aren’t easy to achieve. But why?
Could it be that motivation wanes over time? Perhaps external circumstances change. Maybe it has to do with the feasibility of the goals.
Many people have trouble sticking to something over the course of a single year let alone several years or decades.
Perhaps that’s why long-term goals – like most financial goals – are so difficult to achieve.
How do we fight against whatever it is that holds us back from achieving these financial goals? Is it possible to win?
Yes. It is.
Today I’d like to share with you some ways you can achieve your long-term financial goals. I won’t claim it will be easy, but it will be worthwhile.
So whether you need to pay off debt, build an emergency fund, save for your kids’ college education, or invest for retirement, here are some ways you can make it hap’n, cap’n.
Why Long-Term Financial Goals Are Important
Long-term financial goals provide direction and motivation for your financial decisions. By defining your long-term goals, you will have a clear picture of what you want to achieve and what steps you need to take to get there. Setting long-term financial goals can help you:
Stay focused on your priorities: Setting long-term financial goals will help you prioritize your financial decisions and avoid getting distracted by short-term financial needs or impulses.
Achieve financial stability: Long-term financial goals can help you create a safety net, build wealth, and prepare for unexpected events such as medical emergencies or job loss.
Enjoy the benefits of compound interest: Investing in long-term goals, such as retirement or education, can help you take advantage of the power of compound interest and grow your wealth over time.
1. Capture your long-term goals in your to-do list.
Long-term goals of the financial sort are usually more like projects than individual tasks.
For example, if you want to pay off your debt, chances are that you don’t just have one credit card to pay off – you might have three credit cards, a vehicle loan, and a student loan to overcome (if not more).
“Pay off debt” would be the project. “Pay off Visa #1” would be the task.
The truth is that without writing down your projects and tasks within a task management system of some type, you’re much less likely to accomplish your long-term goals.
There’s just something about seeing your long-term goals on paper (or on a screen) that makes them real. The very act of writing them down is a type of commitment.
Give it a whirl. Write down your long-term financial goals and review them on a regular basis.
2. Don’t bury your long-term goals.
It’s not enough to write down your long-term financial goals. Additionally, you need to make them readily available to your eye.
One idea that I’ve found works well is to write down your goals on a whiteboard where you can’t help but see them. But that’s not for everybody.
The point is that you need to find a way to see your long-term goals in the context of all your other goals (namely, your short-term goals). If only your short-term, urgent goals are displayed for you to see, you’ll tend to focus on those instead of kicking butt on your long-term goals.
Don’t bury your long-term goals. They’re important too!
3. Dedicate certain days of the week to long-term goals.
One helpful tip I derived from Strategic Coach was to dedicate certain days of the week to certain goals. This has proved to be very helpful in my own life, and I believe it will in yours, too.
For example, you could dedicate a certain day of the week to managing your finances and brainstorming ways to improve your financial future. Perhaps you have a day off of work that would work best for you.
Now, I can hear you saying, “Oh Jeff, if I only had a day for such tasks – I’m way too busy with other stuff!” That’s fair.
But here’s the thing, you don’t just have to make this day about finances – you can make it about your other long-term goals too. Add in health, family, and other areas of responsibility. Consider this day (or these days) of the week to be all about bettering yourself and your life. Can’t you make time for that?
4. Prioritize your long-term goals properly.
When it comes to long-term financial goals, you need to properly prioritize them. There are some preliminary goals that should only take you less than a month, like setting up a budget and cutting expenses, but we’ll leave that for another article.
What are some common long-term financial goals and in which order should you complete them? Generally, I recommend you complete the following long-term financial goals in the order they are displayed below:
Build Your Emergency Fund
Think of your emergency fund as the foundation of your financial future. Without some liquid money, you’re going to be out of luck when financial disaster strikes. Believe me, they happen.
Your car engine might explode. Your kneecap might explode (ouch). Your water heater might explode. There are so many things that can explode . . . and it’s not easy to just walk away from those explosions while keeping your cool. It’s stressful!
But you know what would make those situations a little less stressful? You guessed it: an emergency fund baby!
Wipe Out Your Debt
Once you have your foundation in place, it’s time to knock out that debt. This can take several years or a few months – it depends on how much debt you have and how quickly you can shovel money at it.
Write down all of your debts and attack them one by one. It’s easier that way.
Start Investing for Retirement
Now it’s time to start investing for your latter years. Why? It’s possible that your earning potential can go down when you’re physically unable to work. Who knows, you might have a self-sustaining business upon reaching retirement age, but don’t count on it. Invest for the future!
Helping people retire well is what I do.
Start Saving for Other Long-Term Goals
This might include saving for your kids’ college education, purchasing a new vehicle, saving for a home renovation, or another goal that will take some time.
By prioritizing your long-term goals in the proper way, you can ensure that should you experience a slump in income, you aren’t wiped out due to a lack of financial planning.
5. Discover and focus on your motivations.
I’m convinced that one of the main reasons people don’t accomplish their long-term goals is because they really haven’t discovered their motivations.
For example, everyone knows it’s a good idea to pay off debt. It’s a financial goal that’s been embedded in our minds by countless financial advisors. But unless you discover your motivation for paying off debt, chances are you’ll give up before you achieve your goal.
In fact, if you’re paying off debt for the sake of paying off debt, you might as well give up now. You’re not going to be motivated enough to get the job done.
Instead, focus on some common motivations that can become your motivations. Here are some great reasons why people want to pay off debt:
To not have to pay interest on their purchases
To free up money for vacations
To free up money for investing for retirement
To not have to worry about those bills
To reduce the amount of stress in their lives
To free up the time it takes managing debt to focus on family
These are just a few of the motivations of others. What’s your motivation?
Assign a motivation for every long-term goal you have. Otherwise, you’re just trying to accomplish your long-term goals for the sake of accomplishing them – that’s not a real motivating factor if you ask me!
Long-Term Goal Examples
Long-term financial goals can take many forms, depending on your values, aspirations, and time horizon. Here are some examples of long-term financial goals in the SMART framework:
Example 1: Save for Retirement
Specific: Save $1 million by age 65 for retirement.
Measurable: Save $500 per month in a retirement account.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $500 per month for retirement.
Relevant: Retirement is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal by age 65.
Example 2: Pay off Debt
Specific: Pay off $30,000 in credit card debt.
Measurable: Pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Relevant: Paying off debt is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal within 5 years.
Example 3: Invest in Education
Specific: Save $50,000 for a child’s college education.
Measurable: Save $200 per month in a 529 college savings plan.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $200 per month for college education.
Relevant: Investing in education is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal in 18 years.
Example 4: Buy a House
Specific: Save $100,000 for a down payment on a house.
Measurable: Save $1,000 per month in a high-yield savings account.
Achievable: Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $1,000 per month for a down payment.
Relevant: Buying a house is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Achieve this goal in 5 years.
Example 5: Start a Business
Specific: Launch a profitable business in the next 5 years.
Measurable: Develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Achievable: Based on current skills and experience, it is feasible to develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Relevant: Starting a business is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Time-bound: Launch the business within the next 5 years.
Long-Term Goal
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
Save for Retirement
Save $1 million by age 65 for retirement.
Save $500 per month in a retirement account.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $500 per month for retirement.
Retirement is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal by age 65.
Pay off Debt
Pay off $30,000 in credit card debt.
Pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to pay $500 per month towards credit card debt.
Paying off debt is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal within 5 years.
Invest in Education
Save $50,000 for a child’s college education.
Save $200 per month in a 529 college savings plan.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $200 per month for college education.
Investing in education is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal in 18 years.
Buy a House
Save $100,000 for a down payment on a house.
Save $1,000 per month in a high-yield savings account.
Based on current income and expenses, it is feasible to save $1,000 per month for a down payment.
Buying a house is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Achieve this goal in 5 years.
Start a Business
Launch a profitable business in the next 5 years.
Develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Based on current skills and experience, it is feasible to develop a business plan and secure funding within the next 12 months.
Starting a business is a long-term financial goal that aligns with personal values and aspirations.
Launch the business within the next 5 years.
Need More Long-Term Goal Examples?
Knowing I’m not the only goal-setting freak that exists in this world, I asked fans from the Good Financial Cents Facebook page what their long-term goals (big shout to the Fincon community for contributing, too!).
Fincon Community Long-Term Goals
Here’s a great list of examples of long-term goals:
Bob Lotich at SeedTime.com says:
[I want] to provide a comfortable life for my family, to have enough cash to maintain a flexible lifestyle, and to use everything else to financially support charities and organizations that are making a huge impact on the world.
Ryan Guina at TheMilitaryWallet.com says:
[I want] to become financially independent. What this means to me: to have no consumer or mortgage debt and have enough resources in savings and investments to cover my everyday living expenses without relying upon income from my job. This will provide more freedom in pursuing activities based on fulfillment vs. the need to generate revenue.
Larry Ludwig at InvestorJunkie.com says:
[I want] to be financially free. I define it specifically as to accumulate $10,000,000 in investment assets that can generate at minimum 4% per year of income.
Teresa Mears at LivingOnTheCheap.com says:
[I want] to support myself, both now and in retirement, and enjoy life. What else is there?
Steve Chou at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com says:
[I want] to generate enough income so that I can spend more time with my family and be there for the kids. Growing up, my parents worked their butts off so I could go to a good school but I didn’t see them very often during the week. With my kids, I’m going to send them to a good college and always be present.
Grayson Bell at DebtRoundup.com says:
[I want to] build a business and a financial stockpile to allow my family and I to travel when and where we want to. I don’t want to be stuck due to a job or financial situation. This will require scaling my business and looking for more opportunities to expand my passive income streams.
Robert Farrington at TheCollegeInvestor.com says:
[I want] to generate enough passive income to replace my current income. This will require a long-term strategy of earning more money (through my salary and side hustles) and investing the excess. The goal, of course, is to retire early while still being able to provide the quality of life I want.
My Lifetime Goals
Long-term goals can be difficult to articulate but deserve to be written down. I previously shared my lifetime goals on this post. Looking them over I recognize I would make a few tweaks, but; for the most part, they are still align with what I want to achieve in life. Here’s a look:
1. Spiritual leader of my household. I want my kids to see me first as a God-loving father who puts his faith first before success. I want to continually love and support my wife, and do so in an Godly manner.
2. Live a long and filling life with my wife and family. Raise my kids with the philosophies of: working hard, but not sacrificing “work” for what you love; love first; and treat people with respect (Golden Rule)
3. Have several multiple-system driven businesses that produce >$100,000 a month of passive income.
4. Live in multiple countries (5+) for an extended period of time (minimum 3 weeks) with entire family
5. Inspire over 1,000,000 people to invest in themselves. This can be through traditional investing (Roth IRA, 401k), obtaining a higher degree or certification, or investing in a small business.
6. Be a successful entrepreneur and best-selling author of numerous works. I want to be recognized as as a hard worker who put his family and faith first.
The Bottom Line – Long-Term Financial Goals
Setting long-term financial goals is an important step towards achieving financial stability and building wealth. By defining your values, aspirations, and time horizon, you can create a roadmap that aligns with your priorities and guides your financial decisions.
Remember to monitor your progress, stay motivated, and seek professional advice when needed. With discipline and perseverance, you can achieve your long-term financial goals and secure your financial future.
Here’s your homework
I want you to implement at least one of these strategies for reaching your long-term goals over the next year. When the year is over, write me. Tell me how well the strategy worked out for you. I want you to put your heart and soul into one or more of these strategies.
Why? I want you to see success.
Make it hap’n, cap’n!
FAQs – Long-Term Financial Goals
How do I balance saving for long-term goals with short-term needs?
It’s important to strike a balance between saving for your long-term financial goals and meeting your short-term needs. You can achieve this by creating a budget that allocates some of your income towards both short-term and long-term goals.
This way, you can address your immediate financial needs while also making progress towards your long-term goals.
How can I stay motivated to achieve my long-term financial goals?
Staying motivated to achieve your long-term financial goals can be challenging, especially if your goals are several years away.
One way to stay motivated is to break your long-term goals into smaller, manageable milestones. Celebrate each milestone as you reach it, and use the progress you’ve made as motivation to keep going.
How do I know if I’m on track to achieve my long-term financial goals?
Regularly monitoring your progress towards your long-term financial goals is essential to staying on track.
You can use financial planning tools and software to track your progress and adjust your plan as needed. You can also work with a financial advisor or planner to evaluate your progress and make any necessary adjustments to your plan.
Can I adjust my long-term financial goals as my situation changes?
Yes, it’s important to be flexible and adjust your long-term financial goals as your situation changes. Life is unpredictable, and unexpected events can impact your financial situation. Review your financial plan regularly and adjust it as needed to ensure that it aligns with your current situation and goals.
Need some more long-term goals? Check out The Top 10 Good Financial Goals That Everyone Should Have. If you’re a baby boomer, check out 5 Financial Goals for Baby Boomers.
2021 VA Home Loan Limit: $0 down up to $5,000,000* (Subject to lender limits) /2 open VA loans at one time $550,850* (Call 888-573-4496 for details).
How to Apply for a VA Home Loan?
This is a quick look at how to apply for a VA home loan in Solano County. For a more detailed overview of the VA home loan process, check out our complete guide on how to apply for a VA home loan. Here, we’ll go over the general steps to getting a VA home loan and point out some things to pay attention to in Solano County. If you have any questions, you can call us at VA HLC and we’ll help you get started.
Get your Certificate of Eligibility (COE)
Give us a call at (877) 432-5626 and we’ll get your COE for you.
Are you applying for a refinance loan? Check out our complete guide to VA Refinancing.
Get pre-approved, to get pre-approved for a loan, you’ll need:
Previous two years of W2s
Most recent 30 days paystubs or LES (active duty)
Most recent 60 days bank statements
Landlord and HR/Payroll Department contact info
Find a home
We can help you check whether the home is in one of the Solano County flood zones
Get the necessary inspections
Termite inspection: required
Well or septic inspections needed, if applicable
Get the home appraised
We can help you find a VA-Certified appraiser in Solano County and schedule the process
Construction loan note: Construction permit/appraisal info
Building permit
Elevation certificate
Lock in your interest rates
Wait until the appraisal lock in your loan rates. If it turns out you need to make repairs, it can push your closing back. Then you can get stuck paying rate extension fees.
Close the deal and get packing!
You’re ready to go.
What is the Median Home Price?
As of March 31st, 2021, the median home value for Solano County is $510,353. In addition, the median household income for residents of the county is $81,472.
How much are the VA Appraisal Fees?
Single-Family: $600.
Individual Condo: $600.
Manufactured Homes: $600.
2-4 Unit Multi-Family: $850.
Appraisal Turnaround Times: 7 days.
Do I need Flood Insurance?
The VA requires properties are required to have flood insurance if they are in a Special Flood Hazard Area.
In Solano County, there are several flood hazard areas, especially around the county’s many wetlands. One such flood hazard area is south of Suisun City which has considerable flood-prone areas south of Rio Vista Highway. In addition, low elevation areas around Carquinez Strait are also considered flood hazards.
How do I learn about Property Taxes?
Marc Tonnesen is the Solano county tax assessor. His office can be reached at 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700 Fairfield, CA 94533. In addition, his office can also be reached by calling (707) 784-6200.
The state of California offers various incentive programs that expand statewide for new, growing, and relocating businesses. Two of these programs are California Competes Tax Credit which offers qualifying businesses tax credit and the New employment Credit program which offers a tax credit for taxpayers who hire full-time employees. These and many other programs help in further diversifying the state’s economy.
What is the Population?
As of 2019, Solano County’s population is 447,643 which has seen an 8% increase in the last decade. Moreover, demographically speaking, 37% of the population is White, with 26% Hispanic, and 16% Asian.
Most county residents are between 18 and 65 years old, with 22% under 18 years old and 16% older than 65.
In total, the county has about 149,067 households, with an average of two people per household.
What are the major cities?
The county has seven cities, including the city of Fairfield which serves as the county seat. There are six other cities in the county which include Benicia, Dixon, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, and Vallejo.
About Solano County
Solano County, California is home to strong healthcare, retail trade, and construction employment industries. Hence, the most common types of employment in the county are in the office administrative, sales, management occupations.
When it comes to education, the county is home to eight school districts that offer education ranging from pre-K to senior year in high school. In addition, the county is also home to Solano Community College, Touro University California, and California State University Maritime Academy which provide higher education opportunities. Moreover, the most common concentrations for students in the county are in the Liberal Arts, Biological Sciences, and Business Administration.
In addition to its workforce and education, the county is also home to rich art and culture institutions like the A gallery, Arts Benicia, Fairfield Center of Creative Arts, and Vacaville Art gallery. Moreover, the county is also home to several museums like the Western Railway Museum and the Solano History Exploration Center.
Finally, outside of the city, there are also several recreational areas within the county like Lake Solano Park, Lynch Canyon Open Space Park, and Sandy Beach Park. All of which provides an escape from city life by providing opportunities for water activities, camping, and many other outdoor activities.
Veteran Information
The county is currently home to 32,811 veterans.
Bases Nearby:
Travis Air Force Base
Solano County is home to five VFW post:
Post-2333 Simmons-Sheldon – 427 Main Street, Suisun City, CA 94585.
Post 7244 Lt. Michael Libonati Jr. – 549 Merchant St. Vacaville, CA 95688.
Post 8151 Dixon – 231 N. First St. Dixon, CA 95620.
Post-1123 Carl H. Kreh – 420 Admiral Callaghan Ln. Vallejo, CA 94591.
Post 3928 Benicia – 1150 1st St. Benicia, CA 94510.
VA Medical Centers in the county:
Fairfield VA Clinic – 103 Bodin Circle, Building 778, Travis AFB, CA 94535.
RCS Pacific District Office – 420 Executive Court North Suite A, Fairfield, CA 94534.
Mare Island VA Clinic – 201 Walnut Avenue, Building 201, Mare Island, CA 94592.
County Veteran Assistance Information
Solano County Veteran Services Office – 675 Texas Street, Suite 4700, Fairfield, CA 94533.
Apply for a VA Home Loan
For more information about VA Home Loans and how to apply, click here.
If you meet the VA’s eligibility requirements, you will be able to enjoy some of the best government-guaranteed home loans available.
VA loans can finance the construction of a property. However, the property must be owned and prepared for construction as the VA cannot ensure vacant land loans.
VA Approved Condos
Name (ID): ALAMO CREEK (C00837) Address: AKA EDGEWATER
VACAVILLE CA 95688-0000 SOLANO Status: Accepted Without Conditions Request Received Date: 01/01/1983 Review Completion Date: 01/02/1983
Name (ID): BELVEDERE AT NORTHGATE (008331) Address: PHASE 1, 2, & 3
VALLEJO CA 94591 SOLANO Status: Accepted Without Conditions Request Received Date: 08/06/2009 Review Completion Date: 08/06/2009
Name (ID): COSTA DEL ORO III (000138) Address: SEAPORT DRIVE
VALLEJO CA 94590 SOLANO Status: Accepted Without Conditions Request Received Date: 11/09/1993 Review Completion Date: 11/09/1993
Name (ID): ELDORADO 1 & 2 (000058) Address:
VACAVILLE CA 94945 SOLANO Status: Accepted Without Conditions Request Received Date: 04/14/2004 Review Completion Date: 04/15/2006
Name (ID): FAIRFIELD’S CREEKSIDE MANOR (000326) Address: 1810 E. TABOR AVE
FAIRFIELD CA 94533 SOLANO Status: Accepted Without Conditions Request Received Date: 04/02/2018 Review Completion Date: 04/16/2018
In 2022, Keelin and his team closed $827 million in volume, with Keelin originating $322 million alone. He ranked 18th on Scotsman Guide‘s 2023 top LO list.
Competitive mortgage rates, products, services, and ultimately, being a servicing company are factors that appealed to Keelin when bringing his team to the Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered lender, he said.
“I wanted to take advantage of technology, systems to really provide like proficiency in our business, [and] the ultimate thing for me was to be able to scale the model, because we have a model that we go by, and we live by, which is the three C’s – cost-effective, communication, consistency,” Keelin said in an interview with HousingWire.
Being a consultant has helped Keelin retain and grow his client base, especially in his main markets of New Jersey and Florida.
For instance, if his client is putting 5% down as down payment and the property is under-appraised, Keelin would have a “fluid conversation” of all the possible scenarios.
“[If] the person is putting 20% down, we’re also having forward education with them that says, ‘As long as the house appraises within 15% of the purchase contract, then you’re at a 95% LTV, the negative is PMI, but we get you into the house are you comfortable,’” Keelin said.
Another strategy Keelin advises his team members is to have a diversified portfolio, targeting both first-time buyers and investors.
“They (investors) are not scared of interest rates. Interest rates are cyclical,” Keelin said. “So [they are]really focusing on getting that property at this time, because during recessionary periods, inflation periods, the price of goods goes up, which means values go up. So if you wait, what’s the cost of waiting?” Keelin noted.
“I’m always going to be hypersensitive to that first-time buyer, where every dollar makes sense. But there’s also the investor concentration… if you can meet all in the middle, you have a very fluid business model,” Keelin said.
Keelin closed $57 million in volume in the first quarter of 2023. This year, Keelin has a team goal to post $700 million in volume.
“If we continue to do those productive activities and stay in front of people, and are able to brand what we’ve been able to do in the past, as well as with what CrossCountry offers, there’s no reason that we can’t exceed those goals,” Keelin noted.
Do you want to learn how to sell educational printables?
Lisa Fink was a teacher for 15 years but left the classroom to work on her educational printables business.
After just two years, she hit a six figure income. She now earns over $400,000 per year with her business, and she has sold over $1,000,000 in printables altogether.
You can start creating educational printables to sell and make money all from your home – and never have to ship a thing.
Creating educational printables can be a great way to make extra money because you just need to create them once, and you can sell them an unlimited amount of times.
Today, I have a fun interview to share with you. I interviewed Lisa, on how to sell educational printables.
Are you wondering questions such as:
What is an educational printable?
Why do teachers and parents buy printables?
How much money can a person earn by selling educational printables?
Do you have to be a teacher in order to sell educational printables?
Can someone with no tech skills make a printable?
Today’s interview will help you get started and perhaps even introduce you to a new way to make extra income.
Related content:
How to sell educational printables
1. Please give us a little background on yourself and how you got started. How much have you earned from your educational printables business?
Selling printable educational escape rooms on ThinkTankTeacher.com sort of came by accident. My husband and I bought a new house in August of 2017 but just one month later, he lost his job of 21 years in the corporate world due to downsizing.
As the sole provider, I began to worry about what the future was going to look like. How could we afford to pay our bills solely on a teacher’s income? We ALL know teachers are undervalued and underpaid, so this was a relevant struggle.
It was during this turbulent time that I decided to create ThinkTankTeacher.com as well as open a storefront on an educational platform called Teachers Pay Teachers. I needed to bring in extra income to pay the bills and this side-hustle thing was just what we needed. Although I was putting in 20-30 hours of work per week ON TOP of my full-time teaching job, but the future was getting brighter. We had hope.
My goal was to simply make a few hundred dollars a month, which at the time, I thought was quite unrealistic. Everything changed when it was just three months in, and I was already pulling in four figure months. At just six months, I was consistently earning five figures per month.
The point of my story is that it seemed as if life sent me some gray clouds, but they came with a silver lining. I was able to get my educational printables in classrooms all over the world. I fell in love with creating products and I never looked back. My life has been drastically transformed in the best way possible.
To date, I have earned well over $1,000,000 with printables. (It honestly still blows my mind to say that!)
2. What is an educational printable?
An educational printable is a quick, no prep activity that teachers can download instantly to complement their lesson plans.
Far too often textbooks lack creativity, do not foster student-centered learning, and quite frankly are downright boring.
The mission of Think Tank Teacher is to provide no-prep, engagement-boosting classroom activities to re-fuel the energy in a classroom with creativity and collaboration.
3. Who buys your educational printables?
My printables have been downloaded over 250,000 times by teachers, homeschool parents, and party planners looking to add a twist of fun to their kid’s party.
Often times teachers are seeking a last-minute activity that goes beyond the textbook, enhances the learning experience, and adds an element of puzzle decoding.
4. Why do teachers buy printables?
Teachers are always seeking something to help them differentiate in the classroom or supplement boring textbooks.
A teacher’s planning time is precious (and hard to come by) so a quick print and go lesson can make an enormous difference in their curriculum. Teachers spend far too much time outside of school hours prepping and planning, taking time away from things they love to do or people they love to spend time with.
Access to a pre-made, ready to use printable allows teachers to stop working at the bell and spend more time with their family.
Here’s an example of an educational printable.
5. What are some examples of what you sell?
From printable escape rooms, color by number, and scavenger hunts to digital secret message activities and virtual tours, I have something that meets the needs of all learning styles.
By far, my best-seller is the United States Constitution printable escape room.
Each resource I create incorporates a twist of fun to engage even the most reluctant learners. The key to a successful lesson is to pass the teaching reins off to the students and let them develop their own questions to think critically about the topic at hand.
6. What do you like about selling educational printables?
It warms my heart to know that my resources are kid tested and teacher approved, by hundreds of thousands of teachers, making an impact one classroom at a time.
The best part? The income is passive.
Once I upload a resource, the internet does the rest of the work. One single lesson can sell over and over again. There are no boxes to pack or ship, no inventory to track, and incredibly low overhead spending.
I have also added a membership model to my website making lesson plans easily accessible and less expensive for teachers.
7. How much money can a person earn by selling educational printables?
I have had a remarkable journey selling over $1,000,000 in printables.
Is it easy? No!
You have to put in blood, sweat and tears, but like anything else, the effort pays off in the long run. Since my educational business was so successful, I decided to get my brother Ben involved in a new venture last year. By this time, I felt like I had a good grasp on what I was doing in the educational online space.
Together, we opened Think Tank Escape Rooms on Etsy and have already made over $60,000 dollars. We took a different route and decided to focus our Esty shop on printable party games to entertain the kids and transform the house into an unforgettable code-breaking adventure! There is a high demand right now for printables, educational or not.
Despite my success story, my goals are high because there are other teacher authors making three times more than me. It IS possible! Reading success stories of fellow teacher authors was all the motivation I needed to dive in headfirst. Their accomplishments fueled my desire to become an entrepreneur.
8. Is there enough room for teachers to get started selling educational printables? Or, is the market saturated?
Absolutely, there is enough room for everyone!
Anyone who goes into the experience thinking the market is oversaturated has the wrong mindset. You have to adjust your mindset and find creative ways to make your idea unique, and to make it stand out amongst the thousands of others.
9. Do you have to be a teacher in order to start doing this?
You do not have to be a teacher to sell printables!
Though my college degree and teaching experience played a vital role in my success, this is a journey that homeschool moms or even corporate individuals can take advantage of.
You just need one idea to get you started.
10. How does a teacher come up with new ideas for printables?
This is probably the toughest part. The key is to find something you are passionate about and jump in. You want your resource to stand out.
You want apathetic learners to actively take part in the learning experience.
My mind is always running rampant with innovative ideas, improvements, and business proposals for both my website and Etsy shop.
I keep a notebook on my nightstand and jot down quick ideas. Some of them come to fruition and some of them do not.
11. Can someone with no tech skills make a printable?
There is some tech involved, but no difficult programs to learn.
Most creators use PowerPoint or Canva to create their printables. Of course, you have to know or learn how to upload the product, make catchy covers and enticing thumbnails but it is all refined to a skill over time.
When my brother jumped on board, he had never used PowerPoint or Canva and year later he’s a pro!
12. What is Teachers Pay Teachers? How does it work?
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online educational marketplace with millions of pre-made lessons.
Teachers seeking an activity can quickly jump on the website, search the topic they are covering in class, purchase and download an activity to use the very same day.
It is a lifesaver to many teachers, covering all subject areas in grades K-12.
13. Can you list the steps needed to get started selling educational printables?
First, you would need to either start your own website, open an Etsy shop, or open a Teachers Pay Teachers seller account.
Next, create an engaging printable.
After you create the activity, the fun’s not over! You have to create a preview of the product to give people a sense of what’s included, a cover page that screams “click on me” as well as thumbnails that give an overview of the activity.
When all of that is complete, you’ll need a title and product description, rich in keywords for SEO purposes.
Then voila, press publish, and your activity is live and ready for purchase.
It may sound overwhelming, but once the process is completed your products sell in perpetuity. Then, the process gets easier and quicker the next time around.
14. What other tips do you have to share?
In a world of millions of digital downloads, the motto “if you build it, they will come” simply does not apply. There is so much to do to get eyes on your product.
My top organic traffic driver is email marketing. In fact, email marketing has the highest return on investment of any online marketing platform. The goal is to turn store browsers into loyal customers, and I have created a course just for TPT sellers to do exactly that.
Within my first few months, I grew my email list by the thousands, and the next year I quit my teaching job to run my businesses full time from home.
By year two of selling my printables, I was already making multi six-figures.
What is the number one thing that allowed me this amazing opportunity? My email list. Hands down, if you do email marketing correctly, you will turn your list into raving fans, maximize the exposure of your products, and see outstanding results at the push of the ‘send’ button.
Quick note from Making Sense of Cents: There is a resource coming out soon on how to create printable escape rooms to sell online. You can sign up for the waitlist here.
Are you interested in learning how to sell educational printables?
Going on an African safari can be the chance of a lifetime to see some of the world’s most iconic wildlife up close, experience Earth’s extraordinary untouched corners, learn about new cultures and reconnect with nature.
A safari trip can also be the opportunity to make sustainable, responsible choices about how and where you travel, and to maximize the impact your travel spending has on conservation, community and environmental programs in various destinations.
Many travelers decide where to go on safari in Africa based on their schedules and the seasonality in individual regions — both in terms of the weather and the animals they will most likely see. Others focus on sighting specific species, resulting in visits to places like Rwanda or Uganda to trek and see mountain gorillas or trips to destinations like Kenya to observe the endangered pachyderms at a rhino sanctuary.
Sustainability can be another excellent factor in determining where you should go on safari, though. Many of the most reputable safari outfitters and camps put sustainability front and center in their operations, combining environmental practices, conservation commitments and community outreach to create the ultimate holistic travel experience.
Doing a little research on the regions you are considering for a safari and the specific tour operators and lodges in your chosen location can make a huge difference in the effect your tourism dollars have on things like wildlife preservation campaigns, economic development in local villages and minimizing the overall environmental footprint of your individual journey.
Unlike some other forms of travel that let you book certain components — flights, hotels, cruises, etc. — a la carte by yourself, many safari companies require you to book the bulk of your trip (if not all of it) through them or a partner agency or operator. Because of this, you can ask these representatives about their sustainability track records and even specific programs while planning your trip. Any reliable operator should have materials on hand to send you to help you make your decision.
Here are some of the factors you can investigate to determine just how sustainable your safari can be, plus some of the safari companies undertaking meaningful measures in this sphere by weaving principles of environmental consciousness, wildlife protection and community development into their core ethos and operations.
Eco-sensitive camps
For North American and European travelers, going on an African safari typically necessitates carbon-intensive long-haul flights and sometimes additional bush flights to reach remote regions. In order to limit the rest of your carbon footprint while on safari, look into the eco-credentials of the camps or outfitters you are considering.
Many safari camps, for instance, now run mostly or even entirely on solar power. At both andBeyond Nxabega and andBeyond Xaranna in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, 80% of the camps’ total electricity consumption is supplied by solar photovoltaic plants and Tesla Powerpack battery energy storage systems.
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Nearby, Wilderness’ Chitabe and Mombo camps run on 100% solar (as do 17 of the company’s other camps), and Wilderness has plans to retrofit and invest in further solar power for all new camps and camp refurbishments. Not only is that great for the environment, but it’s also the best means of ensuring an uninterrupted power supply to guests in an area with little other infrastructure.
Cheetah Plains, an exclusive-use safari villa in South Africa’s Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, now uses Toyota Land Cruiser electric safari vehicles with Tesla batteries that are charged via solar power to whisk guests across the reserve’s thousands of acres, creating a zero-emission game drive.
In Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, Usangu Expedition Camp is steering a different path, developing safari vehicles that run on ethanol, which is derived from molasses produced in the southern part of the country, instead of diesel. The staff even calls the vehicles “Gongos,” a type of traditional Tanzanian gin, since the ethanol looks and smells like the spirit.
But alternative power and fuel are just the start. For its part, Chitabe recycled the wood from an old set of raised walkways to create a chic bar and lounge area for its current guests. What’s old is new again … and looking better than ever.
Many recently built and forthcoming safari camps are being constructed using both traditional materials and techniques, such as thatching and weaving completed by local artisans, and up-to-the-minute technologies like 3D printing and innovative recycling methods utilizing salvaged materials to limit their physical footprint.
Time + Tide Chinzombo in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park was designed to be completely dismantled if necessary so as to leave a minimal trace on the landscape, and Wilderness is currently constructing a new tented camp in Botswana’s Mbabe concession called Mokete that can be completely disassembled as if it had never been there.
Simple measures can have a large impact as well. Camps like Wilderness’ DumaTau and sister Little DumaTau in Botswana’s riverine Linyanti region provide guests with Healing Earth’s all-natural, biodegradable bath and body products during their stay to minimize harmful runoff from the camp’s water management system.
For its part, the Elewana Collection of lodges in Kenya and Tanzania launched its “Ban the bottle” initiative in 2018, giving guests reusable water bottles that they can fill up at stations in the camps. The outfitter estimates that doing so in just six of its Kenyan lodges saves around 160,000 plastic bottles from going into landfills each year.
Elewana also dropped plastic straws the following year. Even more fun for Elewana guests is the opportunity to toss out seed balls (little nutrient packs that encase seeds of Indigenous plants) during a walk or game drive somewhere along their journey so they’re doing their little part to help revegetate the wild places they are enjoying.
Wildlife conservation
It seems obvious, but without wildlife, there wouldn’t be safari camps. For that reason, many safari companies actively support and participate in wildlife conservation efforts, some of which are specific to individual regions while others are more widespread.
Guests at andBeyond’s Tengile River Lodge and Kirkman’s Kamp, which are near each other in South Africa’s Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, can certainly get a thrill sighting the area’s thriving lion and leopard populations on game drives. However, guests may not know that their guides are also logging those sightings and providing the information to Panthera, an organization dedicated to tracking and protecting big cat populations around the world.
Various other andBeyond camps, including Phinda Private Game Reserve and Ngala Safari Lodge, help fund rhinoceros anti-poaching units. Guests at Ngala can even observe researchers tagging rhinos’ ears with microchips to help monitor the highly endangered animals. These are individual initiatives, but they are all part of andBeyond’s overarching commitment to conservation and community projects that it supports through its Africa Foundation.
Likewise, Elewana Collection has a charitable arm called The Land & Life Foundation that underwrites various efforts such as the Wildlife Warrior Program, which has clubs in primary schools throughout Kenya and Tanzania. The children who join can take part in activities to learn more about environmental and animal conservation. The club currently counts around 2,200 members and even provides primary and secondary educational scholarships to many of them.
High-end safari company Singita, which has lodges in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Rwanda, established its Singita Conservation Foundation decades ago with a 100-year plan to protect Africa’s wildlife and wilderness for future generations. These days, it partners with other nonprofit trusts and funds on a plethora of projects, including rhino reintroduction and protection in the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve in Zimbabwe, land management and anti-poaching efforts in South Africa’s Kruger National Park and combating invasive vegetation as well as helping in the recovery of megafauna like elephants and buffaloes in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Community improvement projects
Without buy-in from local communities, conservation efforts would go nowhere. Those who live in or near game reserves and national parks need to benefit from the tourism revenue that these natural wonders generate. That’s why many safari companies’ conservation drives include community-based components.
One telltale sign that a safari company is supporting the communities where it operates in a meaningful way is simply through employment. Specifically, whether its camps employ people from the villages or regions that surround them in high proportions. Not only is this a boon for economic stability and growth in places that might otherwise be destitute, but it ensures that tourism dollars stay in the area and benefit the people who live there.
Many safari companies’ commitments to communities go beyond employment, though. Praveen Moman, who grew up in Uganda before his family had to emigrate to the United Kingdom, founded Volcanoes Safaris in 1997, pioneering the high-end safari experience in both Uganda and Rwanda.
While the Volcanoes Safaris’ lodges have become mainstays for both gorilla and chimpanzee trekking, it is perhaps the company’s nonprofit organization, the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust, that will be its most lasting legacy. The trust supports preservation efforts for the great apes of the region, but it also underwrites innovative, community-based programs that guests are encouraged to explore during their stays at the lodges.
“When I set up Volcanoes Safaris in 1997 in southern Uganda and then in 2000 in neighboring Rwanda, the area was just coming out of the Great Lakes conflict,” Moman told TPG via email. “This experience made me realize how important it was to not only focus on the lodges we were building and the gorilla and chimpanzee experience that we wanted our guests to enjoy, but also that local people need to get tangible economic benefits from conservation and ecotourism for them to support the great apes.”
“Therefore,” he continued, “I felt that it was important that the lodges should be connected to the communities around them. In each lodge, we have set up different community projects.”
At Volcanoes Safaris’ Virunga Lodge in Rwanda, for instance, guests can take a guided afternoon walk through several villages near Lake Bulera to see firsthand the impact of projects such as the “One sheep per family” program, which provides one sheep to each family in three nearby villages (more than 500 so far), thereby supplying them with sources of meat and milk along with natural fertilizer for their sustenance crops.
The lodge has also donated 250-plus water tanks to families in these villages, which help in the catchment of the region’s abundant rainfall and ensure that there is a steady supply of water for drinking and crop irrigation during the dry season.
In Livingstone, Zambia, near Victoria Falls, Tongabezi, which is an elegant lodge along the banks of a tranquil stretch of the Zambezi River, has underwritten the Tongabezi Trust School (also known as Tujatane) since 1996, providing education and meals to children who live within walking distance of the academy. There are currently nearly 300 children between the ages of 3 and 17 enrolled, all of whom can take advantage of the classes and curriculum, as well as the music, sports, arts and computer facilities. What’s more, the school provides funding to send some of the children on to secondary schools and even universities, ensuring a new generation of leaders and professionals with a commitment to the local community.
In Botswana, both andBeyond Nxabega and andBeyond Xaranna share several community-based projects, including the drilling of water boreholes for the communities of Gogomaga and Tsutsubega so that their inhabitants have steady sources of usable water; and funding a school in the rural farming village of Sexaxa near Maun (where the area’s main airport is) so children no longer need to walk three hours, some of it through dangerous terrain, to attend the nearest school.
Longer-term development
Ongoing outreach and individual community projects aside, several safari companies have established philanthropic organizations or arms with a broader purview of economic development and social services not just in the areas where they operate, but in entire countries or regions.
Micato Safaris is one of the best-known luxury safari operators, partnering with premier lodges from multiple companies in Africa and Asia to create bespoke itineraries for its guests. However, it also underwrites AmericaShare, which was founded by a Micato Safaris employee named Lorna Macleod more than 35 years ago to support both community development and access to education in Mukuru, one the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.
Today, the philanthropy operates the Harambee Community Centre, which has library and computer facilities as well as recreational grounds, in Mukuru itself. Residents can come for a quiet place to study or work, look for employment and take advantage of other services. AmericaShare also supplies fresh, drinkable water in the area via multiple distribution points.
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Students hard at work at AmericaShare’s Harambee Community Centre. ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY
Guests who go on safari with Micato in Kenya get to visit the community center to learn more about its efforts and meet students who have benefited from AmericaShare’s various educational undertakings during their stay. Those include supplying school uniforms to local children, sponsoring scholarships to primary and secondary schools, and sending some of the most vulnerable children to private boarding schools around Nairobi. In fact, for every safari the company sells, Micato provides the funds to send a child to primary school.
Micato also supports other efforts like Huru International, which supplies sanitary kits and reproductive health education materials to young women (more than 210,000 to date) throughout East Africa who might otherwise have to miss school or work due to the lack of reproductive health services in rural communities. By empowering women to take their health into their own hands, Huru helps them support their families and communities (not to mention cultivating their own careers) in ways that would not otherwise be possible.
For its part, one of the most targeted yet impactful ways Wilderness carries out its conservation mission beyond the day-to-day and lodge-specific measures it takes is through its Children in the Wilderness program, which was founded in 2001.
The program aims to cultivate new generations of homegrown conservation leaders in Africa’s rural communities by hosting student clubs at schools with activities that focus on environmental sustainability and wildlife education. Children in the Wilderness even brings kids to one of its camps on a yearly basis (7,800 to date) so they can learn firsthand about the importance of wildlife conservation. The program provides scholarships to high-achieving students, and some even return to become guides with Wilderness.
On a recent trip to Botswana, my guide at Little DumaTau, Segopotso Oja (See for short), was a former participant of Children in the Wilderness. “I was born and raised in a small village called Eretsha, located in the eastern Okavango Panhandle,” Oja told me later by email when I contacted him after my trip to ask more about his experience with Children in the Wilderness.
“Wilderness works closely with the community in this area, and when I was 10 years old, I was given the opportunity to join a Children in the Wilderness Eco-Camp,” Oja continued. “Here I grew to learn about and love the wild, and recognize the importance of protecting our wilderness, and this experience inspired me to pursue a career as a guide.”
Spending time in the bush helps combat some of the negative portrayals of wild animals that village children are typically taught, Oja told me. “Once they explore the wilderness, this opens their minds and changes their way of thinking to realize the value of conservation and that there are other career opportunities available to them in the conservation and hospitality space.”
That’s the path that Oja himself took. He has since worked as a guide not only at Little DumaTau, but also two other Wilderness camps, Vumbura Plains and Mombo.
Oja also views his continuing role as an ambassador for Children in the Wilderness as crucial to the work he does and the future of conservation. “It gives me a chance to meet with youngsters when we host them in our camps,” Oja said, “and pass over the love of being a conservationist to the younger generation.”
Minimize your footprint and maximize your impact
Aside from picking a safari company with sustainability efforts you want to support, there are a few things you can do as a traveler to make your safari adventure more sustainable.
Long flights produce a lot of carbon, so you could consider a carbon offsetting scheme to reduce the footprint from your journey to your safari destination.
Don’t overpack since bush flights on small planes mean your luggage will be restricted anyway. What’s more, many safari camps provide free daily laundry, so you don’t have to bring too many outfits along. Plus, by limiting your luggage, you’ll reduce the amount of fuel burned on the planes carrying you to your various camps.
Among those clothes, make sure you bring some made from fabric with sun protection factor. That will reduce the amount of plastic-packaged sunblock you need to bring along. Opt for mineral-based sunscreens (look for those labeled as “reef-safe”) rather than conventional ones since the latter have chemicals that might be harmful to the environment as well as your own body chemistry, according to an increasing body of scientific evidence.
You might also want to leave your usual shampoo and conditioner at home since safari camps tend to provide eco-friendly, biodegradable products that are easier to manage waste-wise in the fragile ecosystems where they operate.
Finally, while safaris tend to be expensive, think about whether you can factor in a charitable donation to your budget. After all, if you’ve done your homework and picked a company with sustainability efforts you support, you might want to do just a little bit more good during your trip by making an unrestricted donation to the measures the group has underway.
How does one take thousands of dollars each year, proverbially bury that money in the ground, and then assume that the money will multiply tenfold in the subsequent 30 years? The simple answer: long term investing takes faith.
Countless what ifs…
What if the economy falters? What if companies fail, your real estate market declines, or your investment advisor makes the wrong picks? There are countless scenarios that could spell ruin in your long term investing. Heck! Who says you’ll even live those 30 years to see the assumed investment profits?
Sell everything! Spend now!
Don’t do that. Tyler Socash (see his awesome TED talk here) recently told me the advice that his financial advisor gave him.
“There’s a balance,” he explained, “On one side, tomorrow is never promised. You should spend money today on the people and activities you love. But at the same time, you’ve got to consider the reality that you’ll likely live a long and healthy life, and that you’ll want to retire at some point.”
More articles on long term investing:
So that’s why you would want to invest. There’s a “likely reality” that you’ll end up wanting to retire, and you’ll want to have some money saved up.
But how to maintain faith that your long-term investing will actually appreciate, or increase, into more money than you have today? How do you combat the fear that your bets might backfire?
The Fulton Chain of Lakes
This genesis for this article popped into my head as I lay on a hammock on Fourth Lake, in New York’s Adirondack Park.
It was a beautiful sunny day. Loons called from the crystalline waters. My dog, Sadie, chased squirrels through the wooded undergrowth. The eastward winds pushed waves and sailboats alike.
Those wind-blown waves belied an interesting detail. The waves of Fourth Lake were clearly flowing eastward. Yet all hydrology data notes that Fourth Lake drains westward into Third Lake, and that the entire Fulton Chain of Lakes flows westward into Lake Ontario.
In the short term, winds and boats and thirsty dogs can push Fourth Lake’s waters in any number of directions. But over the long term, gravity will always win out. The lake will slowly drain westward through the Moose River, the Black River, and into Lake Ontario.
The long term trend is clear and obvious and unavoidable, despite what I witnessed from my comfy hammock. The short term “what ifs” I witnessed were small—and ultimately inconsequential—deviations from the clear trend.
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Markets Behave Like Those Lakes
At least up to this point in human history, investment markets have acted like my experience on Fourth Lake. While short term stimuli can push the markets in any number of directions, long term investment trends show clear upward tendencies.
For example, let’s look at this detailed examination of 100+ years of stock market returns. Here’s one of the many charts from that post. This one shows portfolio values assuming that an investor contributed $100 per week for 30 years (a total of $156K invested).
At worst, someone who invested from 1953 to 1983 would have turned their $156K investment into $500K. That’s the worst case. That’s why investors have faith that their long term investments will have positive returns.
The market will wax and wane. The westward-flowing Fourth Lake can temporarily flow east. The actual data will overshoot and undershoot the trend-line average.
I bet some investors were pretty worried about their “buried money” in 1957, and 1962, and 1966, and definitely in 1970 and 1974. But by the time this particular 30-year period ended, the S&P 500 was at a level 800% higher than where it started.
Long term investing is based on this idea. Eventually, the market “flows up.”
“But it can’t go up to infinity, right?!”
Right. The stock market cannot go up forever. Eventually, the slow heat-death of the universe will ensure that the stock market has a finite cap.
Sorry, that was facetious. Here’s a serious answer.
It’s easy to look at the past 100 years of economic growth and think, “How could this ever continue at this rate? Surely we’re plateauing, right?!” But many experts—and some non-expert blog authors—think there’s still plenty of room for useful economic growth.
For example, I would argue that poverty is still an issue, both in the U.S. and around the world. Efforts to raise the impoverished out of squalor would, by definition, involve economic growth.
Or take a look at the current “green revolution” that’s occurring in the energy sector. Solar and wind power are rapidly becoming cheaper alternatives to carbon-based energy. This is an example of the “creative destruction” that ultimately leads to economic growth. Good ideas get replaced by great ideas, and the society as a whole benefits (or should benefit).
These ideas play into my faith in long term investing. As long as humans remain curious enough to build better stuff, our economies will continue to grow. And thereby, our long term investments will grow.
(End Times of) Long Term Investing
Faithful readers, it’s time to say “Amen” on this article.
Investing, like a wave, is full of up-and-downs, back-and-forths. It takes a degree of faith to believe that your long term investing will pan out, especially amid the proverbial roil.
If (and certainly when) the tides turn, I hope this post gives you the credence and conviction to see the light and continue your long term investing plan.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this article, join 6000+ subscribers who read my 2-minute weekly email, where I send you links to the smartest financial content I find online every week.
-Jesse
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