As part of our larger Greece trip we wanted to explore the Peloponnese and our first stop was to Stoupa, Greece for three nights. You may ask where is the Peloponnese? Or why we didn’t travel to the typical Greek islands like Mykonos, Santorini, or Crete? Well, I can’t tell you how the Greek islands are but I can say the Peloponnese and Stoupa, Greece were spectacular! It was honestly surprising how few tourists were in this part of Greece in the middle of summer. There are both historical and natural sites that would be crawling with people if it were anywhere else. Within the Peloponnese there is literally a whole ancient city from the 3^rd century BC with only 20 other people! Not to mention the amazing food that is also very affordable!

Financial independence is becoming a hot topic and something many people strive to achieve. But, what is financial independence?

Financial independence is having enough assets or income generating assets to not have to work.

That seems simple enough. However, there are many nuisances and strategies to become financially independent that can become overwhelming. Ultimately, it boils down to increasing your income, reducing your expenses, and investing. Becoming financial independent, or simply abbreviated to FI, gives you the freedom to pursue whatever passion or activities you would like to without having to worry about earning any money. To some people this may be continuing their career, traveling the world, volunteering, or just spending more time with friends and family.

Beth and I just finished up another busy summer with tons of travel to see friends and family but we also managed to escape to Europe for a long vacation in Greece with stops in Munich, Germany and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Despite being a trip halfway across the world we managed to have a luxurious trip on the cheap because we were able to use miles and points.

The main focus of our trip was visiting Peloponnese, Greece which did not disappoint. We did not do your typical Greek itinerary which usually includes an Athens stop and then bouncing around the most popular islands like Mykonos, Santorini, or Crete. Honestly, we can’t say we missed anything about visiting those major tourist spots based on what some of our friends have described. Peloponnese is relatively unknown especially for us Americans but features everything you need for a perfect Greek vacation including crystal clue blue waters, sandy feet, boats, private pools, incredible and cheap food, ancient sites, medieval sites, waterfalls, mountains, incredible hiking through natural wonders, deserted islands, and not to mention few other tourists!

To get to Greece we had a stop in Amsterdam, Netherlands and managed to explore much of the city in two full days. Despite being a city (we are usually not ones for large cities) we really enjoyed wandering the canals in Amsterdam. We only had one full day in Munich, Germany but we managed to make the most of it and Beth even finished her first full beer!

The Setup

Our first big trip for 2018 was off to Kauai! This was both Beth’s and I’s first time to anywhere in Hawaii and we had a great time. Now of course with us being frugal and into miles and points we were able to save a significant amount of cash by using miles and points for our flights, hotel, and even on the rental car. To summarize, these are all the options we used to get to Hawaii near free!

• 90,000 United miles for 2 nonstop economy flights from Denver to Lihue, Hawaii
• 360,000 Marriott points that gave us 7 nights at the Marriott Kauai plus 120,000 Southwest and the Southwest Companion Pass (more on this)
• 2,750 Hertz points for a 1 week rental car

2017 has come and gone already but it is time to revisit our travels from last year. We did travel much more in 2016, but 2017 was still full of many exciting adventures. We did pick up and move from Indianapolis to the Denver area which was both exciting and scary. We are now settled into our new home in Denver and are loving the easy access to the mountains for hiking, skiing, and snowboarding. Despite moving, we did manage to get in many weekend trips throughout the Midwest, Colorado, and some others thanks to work travel. We also had a big trip to Puerto Rico in June with Beth’s mom, dad, and sister. It was a huge trip for them as they hadn’t flown in a long time but they absolutely loved Puerto Rico. We were all saddened when Puerto Rico got hit by hurricane Maria as the people are so friendly and loving.

With the bulk of our year focused on moving, we didn’t hit too many of our travel goals (bucket list). Miles and points allowed us to travel to many of the destinations in 2017 that we could not have typically afforded otherwise. We were able to travel back to visit our family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas thanks to miles.

So without further ado!