With the new year right around the corner I’ve been reflecting on some of my happiest and best growth moments from last year. I think if you ponder your 3 happiest memories from the last year it’s an easy start for how you can be more intentional with your time in 2023. I wanted to highlight some changes in made in 2022 that made a big impact for me in case they are things that can help you going forward. I shared my 3 happiest memories from 2022 in this reel.
1. I hired an in home chef
I mentioned this recently in a blog post about giving “the gift of health”, but finding an in home chef was a dream of mine. It was also much more reasonably priced that I expected. Between doing the shopping, meal planning, and the meal prep this saves me a LOT of time and gives me quick access to healthy meals for about a week after Amber stops by for a morning. Time is our most valuable currency! I still love to cook but it doesn’t feel like such a chore by having someone else handle the cooking every few weeks.
2. I changed my skincare
In January I decided to switch all but my peel pads to Dime Skincare. It was more affordable than the Drunk Elephant products I was using and I’d heard such great reviews. My skin was fine a year ago but it looks better now, a year older. I have tried a lot of skincare and DIME made more of a difference in my skin than any other brand. I do still use these peel pads (cut in half because they are so big, I can double the quantity) after I wash my face each night. If you are looking for quick results, I think the peel pads have the most immediate effect. You can read my whole skincare routine here. I have a discount code for Dime’s website – Rachelm20.
3. I got my real estate license
Chris had gotten his real estate license a few years ago to save $$ on our personal real estate transactions. Occasionally people who saw us investing along 30A would ask us for realtor recommendations. Until 2021 we were referring buyers to other realtors but several requested to work with us because they had watched us buy and sell several homes and wanted to work with an agent who was also an investor.
I was doing a lot behind the scenes to help Chris as his “licensed assistant” but in 2022 I broke down and took the exam so I could legally work alongside him with more tasks related to real estate sales. Chris does all of the contracts and the majority of the showings. I am very enthusiastic about living here and the wealth building strategies of real estate investing so my main role is lead generation and content creation for our social media. Looking ahead to January Chris has several closings scheduled so I expect 2023 will be a busy year!
4. We opened a school
Technology has certainly accelerated the pace of change in our world. Chris and I felt like schools were a bit slower to adjust to the pace so we decided to OPEN A SCHOOL! As an entrepreneur I loved the concepts Acton Academy builds upon in their model of learner driven education. No desks, no homework, mastery of all the core skills through gamification just to name a few. Acton Academy of 30a had a very soft opening this year but we are looking to expand in 2023.
5. We rented a house
A lot of y’all were shocked when we moved out of our “dream house” but that was the plan all along. It was an investment and we were so fortunate to have bought it new construction so we got to stay there while we furnished it to get it rental ready. I have talked a lot on our @stayon30a page about cost segregation studies – it is a huge tax benefit we get to utilize by renting out that home. I won’t bore you with the details but we moved from there into one of our short term rentals that needed a facelift. In that 2 bedroom townhouse we took about a month to replace the backsplash, remove carpet, and refurnish the place to get it in better shape for renters (find the rental listing here). From there we RENTED a home in the neighborhood we are currently building.
So many people tell me renting is throwing money away but I don’t think that’s always the case. We considered buying the home we are renting and then turning it into a long term rental. Pricing was so high in the spring, rents did not support the market value.
While I don’t think I can time the market, I can underwrite a deal and buying the house we are in did not make sense for us. It would have already lost about $150K of equity as high interest rates in the last half of 2022 have pushed prices down. This is not the end of the world if you’re a buy and hold investor but we have been wanting to invest in commercial real estate next (for the school), not another single family home. So freeing up capital by renting for a year while our home is being built allows us flexibility to make some investment moves that we’d been dreaming up this year!
If you are like me you are dreaming up ideas for how 2023 will be your best year yet! Last year I did a goal setting workshop with my personal coach and we will be doing that again this year! You can sign up to join us on this page. If you have never done a breathwork meditation I highly recommend adding that to your package. I have found breathwork meditations to be one of the most transformational experiences I’ve been apart of. If you have trouble getting out of your own head, in my opinion, breathwork is the quickest way to clear blocks and get clarity.
Wishing you all a wonderful NEW YEAR!!! I’m so grateful you are here.
