Womens March

The day after President Trump was sworn in I, and 500,000 of my closest friends, marched on Washington D.C.  It was an interesting event to be a part of.  Young and old, multicultural, and a wide swath of concerns on display. 

Next Rental Property

We just bought our next rental property!  This one is a little different because it is in Memphis Tennessee!

We are very happy with our properties in Florida but the market there was heating up and our realtor said it was a difficult time to find good investments, in addition to that our property insurance company caps us at four homes insured in the state of Florida. If our insurance company thinks we should diversity to lower our risk then I thought it would be wise to start looking at other states as well.  I believe in the long run this will have the benefit of diversifying our portfolio and our tenant mix.  After researching and speaking to multiple companies we have found two companies that we felt confident in and comfortable with to expand our real estate investment portfolio into other states.    

This rental is a simple 3 bedroom 1 bathroom home in east Memphis.  We have tenants set to move in at the end of the month and hopefully this will be a nice little cash flow machine for us for years to come.  

In June we are going to add another property to our portfolio - this time we are looking at some duplexes in Philadelphia.  Our family's goal is to own 20 rental units by the time Dan retires from the Air Force.  

If you are interested in investing with us I have made up a business plan detailing our current investments and our plan moving forward which I can email to you.

If you are interested in learning more about real estate in general I have been writing real estate articles for Listen Money Matters talking about our journey into real estate and I am active on Bigger Pockets.

Marine Corps Marathon!

Sunday Ali ran the 26.2 mile Marine Corps Marathon.  It was an awesome race, the weather was perfect, the crowds were energetic over the entire course and most importantly Ali finished the race with a solid 10:50/mile pace!   The course was like a tour of DC - The Kennedy Center, Washington monument, Jefferson memorial, Lincoln memorial, running along the Potomac river, the National Mall, various Smithsonian museums, the Capital building, etc - if there was a monument Ali ran past it!  At one point Marine One (the president's helicopter) few over our heads.  The whole event was great!  One more race in 3 weeks and then winter hibernation can begin!

Gina, Trish and Ali

Ali and the awesome finisher medal

Various official race pictures

Patriot Triathlon

Today I did my 4th triathlon. It was my best race yet so I am pretty happy about that. My swim (400m) was done in 7:30, the bike (15.5 miles) was just around 60 minutes and the run (3.2 miles) was about 34 minutes. Total time 1:46 The swim was held in a pool. The bike was in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains so it seemed I was always going up or down, rarely flat. The run was also hilly and the middle mile of the run was on a "trail" - I thought it would be hard packed dirt but it was very loose and deep sand very similar to running on the beach. It was a challenging course and I tried to push myself a bit more - felt good!

The picture is one of my fellow nurses, Jean and then me and Dexter after the race. It was her first triathlon :)

Olympic Triathlon

I kicked it up a notch this weekend and did a Olympic distance triathlon. My goal was to finish between 3hours 30min and 4 hours - well I did just that with a time of 3:45:54 The race conditions were pretty perfect for New Mexico - it was hot in the 90s but amazingly there were clouds out (usually there are hardly any clouds here) so it was a bit of a break from the intense heat. The race elevation varied from 5200-5700 feet above sea level.

My breakdown times were:
0.9 mile(1500meter) swim: 38:56
25 mile bike: 1:44:01
6.4 mile run: 1:16:59

Each leg was about 10-15minutes longer than if I only did that single event in training but I was trying to pace myself and just finish more than anything else. The swim was definatly the hardest part for me. Swimming in a lake with waves and other people is kinda overwhelming, the first 500 meters took a lot out of me and I found myself just flipping over to my back several times to just relax and breathe easier.

My next race is back to a sprint distance (400meter pool swim, 15 mile bike, 3.2 mile run) and is in 2 months. Although it is a shorter distance this one is in the foothills of the Sandia mountains so it is going to be very hilly for both the bike and run. Also part of the run is on trails so it will be a different type of challenge!

The picture is of my friend Kim and me right before the race. Kim kicked my butt and finished in 3:28:45!!