Do you have major anxiety when not at your vacation home? Are you anxious about whether everything is okay? Have your pipes burst? Has someone broken in? What about making it appear that someone is there even when you’re not?

The New York Times has an article on technology that can help ease that anxiety by allowing you to monitor and control different systems within your second home (they could also be used on your primary home while you’re at your second home to avoid the same types of anxiety and let you worry less and relax more).

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If you are planning a move, or want to transport some large objects to your vacation home without renting or driving a truck, you might want to consider becoming a POD-person. No, we’re not talking about Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we’re referring to the increasingly ubiquitous portable storage units being used all over the country. If you haven’t used one yet, or haven’t seen them in your neighborhood, it’s likely you might see one soon.

Last year, as part of a move from Connecticut to Vermont, I contacted a local company that offers portable storage units for rent. At first, I rented two 5’ x 7’ x 8’ weatherproof boxes, so that I could remove personal items and some furniture from the house, to prepare it for sale. After the sale of the property, I rented 4 more units, in order to pack the rest of my household goods and prepare them for shipment north. These storage units were a great help in moving. In previous moves, all of the packing and transporting of stuff needed to take place in a very short period of time, usually one or two days, driven by the high cost of long-term truck rental. And apart form the time factor, better yet, I didn’t need to drive the loaded truck when it came time to transport the storage units north, instead, the storage company trucked them to Vermont for me.

My good experience with having used portable storage units notwithstanding, there is some downside to the use of this method for moving your household. One of the primary problems, these units are not very pretty. They can clutter your yard or driveway, or worse, the street in front of your house, until they are loaded and moved. This could definitely hurt the curbside appeal of your property and could also offend your neighbors. I was lucky on this front. I had ample room behind my garage to tuck the units in out of sight of the street and my neighbor’s homes. This likely wouldn’t be possible in many cases.

If you want to know more about portable storage units, click here for an article that describes some of the pros and cons of using them from the Washington Post.

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Home Portfolio is a great free online service that allows you to create a design portfolio from their huge database of products when remodeling or building your second home. They cover everything from patio doors and outdoor grills to furniture and accessories for every room of your home. You can save any products you particularly like to your portfolio (and rate them as either “love it” or “like it”), as well as saving any products that you don’t particularly like (just rate them as “not my style”).

They also have tons of resources to inspire you. There’s the “Great American Homes” section that includes decorating and design ideas from homes across the US, as well as a Design Themes section that includes home designs spanning all sorts of different styles (like “Home & Hearth”, “Island Style”, “Cottage Living” and “Holiday Table”). They include products and product searches with each design inspiration to make it easier to find similar (or even the same) products.

You can also add team members to your portfolio, perfect for bringing in your spouse, kids, interior designer or architect. It’s a great way to collaborate on your design projects without having to physically meet.

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Filed under: Design, Products, Tools, Vacation Homes | 3 Comments »

I have to admit that when I first learned of The 4-Hour Workweek, I was very skeptical. Working only four hours a week? It must take a lot of money to get started, or you must have to have tons of experience. So, for awhile I didn’t bother to read the book (written by Timothy Ferriss).

But, I was browsing in my favorite bookstore last weekend and saw it sitting there on the shelf with a giant 20% off sticker attached (they were having a sale on select business books). So I bought it, and have proceeded to read it over the past few days. I was pleasantly surprised.

I know that a lot of baby boomers are looking at retiring within the next few years, and many are wondering how they’re ever going to afford the lifestyle that they’ve planned on having after they’ve reached that milestone. Some have lost pensions, others simply didn’t plan on the cost of living being as high as it is now, and others may have simply started saving for retirement too late.

While The 4-Hour Workweek seems to be aimed at mainly at 20- and 30-somethings, its principles stand for anyone who’s looking for financial and time freedom, including those approaching traditional retirement age. Unlike many books that talk about doing things to gain financial freedom, this book actually gives you a step-by-step plan for doing so, and offers resources for implementing your plan.

Everything from how to outsource (not just restricted to overseas outsourcing, it also covers outsourcing to people in the US and Canada) to exactly how to automate your life to exactly how to create the products that you’re going to sell for minimal time and financial investment.

For anyone who is wondering how they’re going to afford to retire, or who wants the benefits of retirement now, The 4-Hour Workweek is a must read.

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Do you want your vacation home to stay in the family? How can you keep this retreat in the family for generations to come? Your estate plan should include these goals and you have many options to accomplish them. Talking with your estate planning attorney about these considerations will open up the options for you.

Passing ownership of your vacation home to your children or grandchildren can take many forms. Deciding among the options requires taking into account a variety of considerations—ownership, management, gift taxes, estate taxes, and eventually capital gains tax.

For more on this important planning consideration click here for an article from the Spring issue of 2ndhome Journal.

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