NEW DOMAIN - I WILL NO LONGER BE POSTING TO THIS BLOG 

Chi-Town for a day - The Jetsetter’s Guide to Chicago 

Flying in from NY is a short flight of a mere hour or so. Keep in mind that O’Hare Airport is about 40 minutes away from the main loop of Chicago. I usually always Uber/Lyft into the city - In Chicago, it’s generally the same price to take a taxi over Uber. I say, pick the ride that will come get you the fastest. I feel that more often, airports have adapted to designate a special spot that Uber drivers can only drive into. I had this same issue when I flew in to Seattle last year. 

Michelin Restaurants 

Chicago is well known for the best Michelin grade restaurants on offered in the Eastern coast, besides New York City of course. If you’re looking to book a table, book it as soon as you book your flights. Restaurants fill up quickly. I made a reservation at Boka http://www.bokachicago.com/ for 2 and the soonest time slot was 9:30… at night. In my case, it was perfectly fine by me since I just had flown in earlier that afternoon. The food was fantastic as well as the service for a price that didn’t break the wallet too badly. Michelin restaurants are hard for picky eaters because they tend to be a set entree. For foodies, it was a dream. 

The Bean! 

The Bean, aka the Cloud Gate park is Chicago’s most well known tourist attractions. My tip is to go EARLY. I left my hotel and headed over at 8am. And there were still a couple of people lingering trying to get their Instagram photo. After coaching my mother to take a good photo and a couple test shots later… I finally got my Insta-worthy photo. 

 Architectural Boat Tour  

I normally am not a fan of extreme tourist attractions but this is something I definitely highly recommend! I did the sunset tour which was about an hour and a half. I went on a Wendella Boat https://www.wendellaboats.com/ with the most amazing tour guides. I think I wouldn’t have enjoyed the boat ride as much if it were a regular tour during the daylight. Watching the city light up slowly as the night falls was something you just have to see yourself. Plus, I got the sickest time lapse as we sailed from Lake Michigan into the river. 

Photo-Ops 

We all know that cafes and cute little brunch spots are the easiest way to get a good photo-op. Anywhere I travel to, I always look for cafes (mainly because of my disgusting addiction to espresso). When searching for a cute cafe, I came across what was called Asado Coffee. What I didn’t realize is that it just recently shut down and reopened as Pickwick Coffee Roasters… and then that previous Monday actually shut down and reopened as Hero Coffee Bar. Whatever it ends up being next, here’s the address for you guys so you don’t have to force your Uber driver to go searching for this place: 22 E Jackson Ave Chicago, IL 60604. I just saved you 20 minutes of nonsense. 

Chicago is the perfect weekend getaway for first-time solo travelers for the East-coasters. I did meet my mom on this trip because she recently moved to Illinois for a couple of weeks. For some reason I thought it was a brilliant idea to only pack heels for my weekend in Chicago. Don’t do it. I honestly give myself some kudos because I didn’t cave until 5pm the next day and had to stop at Forever21 to buy some flats. This is what I get for trying to be cute city-chic. 

Back in my naive days, I thought I was too good for community college and college in general. I moved into my first apartment, feeling like a badass young kid and dropped out of community college just to apply back into what I believed was a “better” college. I was so blinded about what “good” this school could do for me. I didn’t realize that this school has almost no credibility. 

I attended this school for 1.5 years just to, yes, drop out again. When I decided to go back to my first community college the next year, NONE of my credits transferred. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Ziltch. It was like I never went to this stupid school at all. Now, 1.5 years doesn’t seem long. Until you have felt what it’s like to wake up early every day for 1.5 years and work hard, for absolutely nothing. “Frustrating” is an understatement. I felt so broken, where I almost felt like I didn’t even want to finish school. 

The silver-lining in all of this was that I had enough scholarships and grants to pay for most of this stupid school. But I still had to take out a loan for over $5,000. I understand that there is most of America who have over $100k in school loans. But I literally just spent $5,000+ on nothing. Believe it or not, it actually feels worse than if I were to give $5k away to some random person. 

I sucked it up and took my fate as it was. Yeah, I was upset and disappointed. But I knew that dwelling on feeling bad for myself wouldn’t do me any good. So I paid off $20 here and there when I could until I was able to afford to pay a couple hundred dollars at a time. The great thing about this loan was that I didn’t have to officially start making re-payments on it until I was done with school in general. I paid off the unsubsidized loan first because it accrues interest from the minute you take the loan out. The subsidized loan accrues interest once I’m out of school and repayment beings. There was no way in hell I was giving another cent more to this loan. 

After this naive mistake, today is officially the day I have repaid the entire loan completely. I didn’t have to make payments on this loan until 2019, which would’ve estimated my repayment date to end in 2025. And every single penny is paid off before any payments were due. It’s done and over with. It’s officially in the past, in the books, and never to be worried about again. 

Disciplining yourself to do something you just do not want to do, is all mental. Because you’re not doing it for anyone else except yourself. I could’ve waited until 2019 but I was looking out for my future self. You wouldn’t want to put any burden on your family/friends, so don’t do it yourself. You owe it to yourself to pay yourself first!! 

Ok so you’re probably somewhere in your 20′s. Time to think about retiring! lol but seriously. It’s tedious to prepare and put money aside for something that will not happen for 20 plus years. The future you will THANK you, trust me. I’m a planner personality. I need a plan to start planning - yeah, that kind of gal. I just like the reassurance. I have this long end goal to retire by the time I am 45 years old. And it will happen. Personally I think we all should be able to retire at an earlier age. Retire doesn’t necessarily mean “stop working and sit on the the porch eating pastries off your Mackenzie Child china every day.” To me, Retirement means I am able to stop working for strictly the means of surviving. After my “retirement,” I plan on fulfilling my lifelong dream of building homes and taking on some bogus corporate job with a ton of benefits. Because ya know, I can’t JUST have one job. lol This is what I call “double dipping” in life. Where I have had already worked hard; blood, sweat, tears, and worries to maintain and build a life. And now in my later years, am able to take the reins on my life in almost every aspect. (excluding the acts of God, of course :) 
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What the heck is a 401(k) ?!?!? 

Having money sitting aside is one way of saving for retirement. But that’s the evil of it - it’s just “sitting.” Wouldn’t you rather have it DO something? For a while I couldn’t get my mind to fathom this amount of money I’ve saved up to just disappear. Visually, that is. The fact that this money is no longer visible in my account where I can see and know that it’s there. But if this money was set aside to begin with, then you do not need it to survive. This is the money that you set aside and are still able to pay your expenses and yourself every month. 

So let’s start with a 401(k) - This is employer based. Where you take a percentage of your pay every period and invest it into your 401(k) account your employer has set up for you. I highly recommend, if you can, contributing the maximum amount your employer is willing to match you. Usually, you’ll want to contribute 5% yourself. Your employer will match the max, of 4%. 

Example:
Say your paycheck is $1000/week. 
5% = $50/week
4% Employer match = $40
_________
401(k) = $90/week for as long as you’re employed with them

The great thing about this is you don’t have to do anything else. This deduction is automatically taken out every pay period. AND! There are no taxes until you withdraw from your 401(k). (This is a great thing, trust me) 

Along with a 401(k), I personally have another type of retirement investment as well. For some of us who have not begun a career just yet that offers a retirement contribution, you can still start investing. For me, the best product was mutual funds. Everyone is different depending on how much you can invest into your retirement at this time. You should talk to a financial advisor to see which financial products are best for your budget. Start educating yourself on the market and trying to accumulate steady gains. Because remember, sitting money is doing nothing. You want to make your dollar work for you. 

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Okay so what if you live paycheck by paycheck and are just not able to set aside any extra cash you may have? That’s okay! Don’t ever feel like you’re behind because you are not at that point in your life just yet. Everyone has their own pace of life. Start little as $1 a day. Yes, you have a dollar to spare. Mindlessly this all adds up. I have a blog post on how I budget my finances. I know exactly what comes in and out.
And if you just “don’t wanna” start saving yet, then honestly, you are not mature enough to even begin thinking about retirement. There is no age limit, just mind set. Mentally if you’re not there, don’t do it. Don’t force yourself because you feel you are “supposed” to. The only right time to start saving for retirement, is as soon as YOU can. 

Link to my budget post: http://thebrightyellowoffice.tumblr.com/post/138160062249/budgeting

Getting a passport stolen in Greece?!?!

My big trip of this year was going to Greece. 9 hours later from Newark to Athens, (Jetsetter tip: Try to fly out of a bigger airport if you can. This saved me $700!!) We’ve finally arrived in Greece! First impressions - Athens is dirty. I really hate saying that and I tried to find the beauty in the polluted buildings but it was pretty bad. From my experience, Athens is a good place to get all of your “touristy” things done. My cousin and I were able to quickly learn the subway system (much easier than NYC) and went to explore Plaka. 

Plaka
Plaka is super cute! Right below the Acropolis. They have little shops and restaurants. This is also where we did the famous fish pedicure. (weirdest feeling EVER) If you walk far enough past Plaka, you eventually hit Syntagma Square which is like their huge outlet mall. 

Monastiraki Square
Athens nightlife here is amazing. Every roof top bar has a view of the Acropolis glowing in the background. In the early mornings, the flea market here has fresh fruits and veggies. There are a ton of little shops here but the real shopping center is in Syntagma square.

Acropolis
This is THE tourist spot. I recommend purchasing an all day pass to all the excursions in Acropolis with a student discount. Our first full day in Greece and we had a foreigner’s nightmare - my cousin’s wallet was stolen, including her passport. 

So what do you do when your passport is stolen in a foreign country?! You need to stay there forever. Just kidding - it’s actually a very tedious process but do-able. Bright and early we were in line at the US embassy. And then waited in another line. and then waited in chairs. and 4 hours later we had a new passport! It’s like waiting at the DMV except 5x worse. Luckily, she only had a few Euro bills in the wallet and credit cards. Even luckier, one of us still had our wallet.
My tips on losing your passport/wallet in another country:

1. Panic 
2. Ask if anyone has seen it (most likely they have not but doesn’t hurt to ask)
3. Call and cancel all of your credit cards
4. Go to the tourist police department. Yes, there is a separate police station for tourist. File a police report.
5. Go to the US embassy and wait a long long long time. 
6. Pay a million dollars about $135 for a new passport/picture.
7. Try not to make this mistake again. 

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Mykonos
The next way we hopped on a plane to Mykonos! Such a cute and beautiful island. It takes maybe 45 mins to get from one side to the other. I recommend renting ATV’s which only cost like $25/day. We drove into the town and to Super Paradise beach. I consider this the “Miami” of Greece. Lots of bars and beaches it was very relaxing. The sunset here, was unreal. 

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Santorini
Ah, Santorini. This island is the definition of Greece. We took a ferry from Mykonos to the Fira Port and hauled up the caldera to Oia. It was about a 4 hour ride with beautiful views of the Greek islands and glistening Aegean Sea. Oh and a very much needed nap. Let me tell you, this city is breathtaking. It felt like a dream the entire time I was there. This is where the cave houses, white buildings with blue tops and the donkeys are. Everything you’ve ever heard about Greece. This island is meant for relaxing. There’s not really a night life (which I was perfectly ok with). I spent most of the day laying out soaking up the wonderful sun for hours on the rooftop pool. Forecast said it was supposed to be 70 and sunny all day. Felt like 110 degrees. It was hot! And I feel like for some reason, the white buildings made it hotter. Remember how I said the sunset in Mykonos was unreal? - The sunset in Santorini is indescribable. No wonder this is a place is a destination wedding spot. I climbed on ALOT of buildings here. And got yelled at even more. Anything for that perfect Instagram shot right?

Overall Greece was definitely one of my favorite trips. I’m not too crazy about Greek food. I think it’s all the same honestly lol - different variations of a gyro. Slovaki is just a deconstructed gyro. And who doesn’t like tzatziki? 
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I’m including my costs because everyone seems to always ask me how I afford to travel (I’ll try to include this in future travel posts too) -

Round trip flight from Newark to Athens: $600 (Disclaimer: I’m an Emirates member)
Flight from Athens to Mykonos:               $70
Ferry from Mykonos to Santorini:            $80
Flight from Santorini to Athens:               $80

Our total trip with major transportation and 4 hotels/Airbnbs: $1300/per person
We were here for 7 days. Not including additional spending costs on food and shopping.