Follow the spark, not the script ✨

Issue 18: 7 minute read

📚 Life Lessons: Where I Keep My Money to Avoid Risk in a Bank Failure: Sponsored by CDIC

🙋🏽‍♀️ Dani’s Doings: Closing off our time in Spain 😭, but getting ready for an exciting new 2.5 month adventure in a new continent…👀

💸 Money Matters: People are struggling to make ends meet financially amidst economic turbulence, some recommendations for high interest savings accounts, and more

✈️ Travel Tings: Canadians are boycotting travel to the U.S., the new season of The White Lotus is causing a tourism boom in Thailand, and more!

🫶🏽 Community Corner: I have new press features in The Globe & Mail AND The Toronto Star, and also a new podcast feature on burnout/lifestyle design/moving abroad

Where I Keep My Money to Avoid Risk in a Bank Failure 🏦🛡️ | Sponsored by: CDIC

I keep my hard-earned money in banks that are CDIC members because if my bank were to fail, CDIC would automatically cover my eligible deposits up to $100,000 per insured category. Since 1967, CDIC has handled 43 failures affecting 2M+ depositors!

Ensuring your bank is CDIC-protected is an easy step towards financial peace of mind.

Officially leaving Spain in 3 weeks 😢🇪🇸

It still hasn’t sunk in yet that my time in Spain has almost come to an end. I will do a full reflection video on the entire experience before I leave, but for now, all I can say is…wow. What an incredible journey. I will forever be grateful to Malaga for welcoming my partner and I with open arms. I’m also so thankful I found out about the Youth Mobility Visa so that we could make this move happen so easily. I HIGHLY recommend this program to anyone that’s eligible and thinking about spending a year abroad.

We’ll need some time to thoroughly reflect before making a decision on what our relationship with Spain will look like in the future, but my immediate thought is that I’d like to spend half the year here (January to June) and half of the year at home in Toronto (July to December) likely on the Digital Nomad Visa. We’ll see how it goes, but I do currently feel in my soul that this was only the beginning of our lives in this incredible city 💚🤍💚

Onto the next. We’re heading to…Asia 🇹🇭🇻🇳🇹🇼🇭🇰

Remember when I told you a few months ago that we were going to Panama City after Malaga? Welp, we changed our minds 😅. We had an honest talk and realized that neither of us were particularly excited about this destination. There’s nothing wrong with it… but we absolutely light up when talking about visiting Asia again. So, that’s what we’re doing! We follow the spark, not the script. ✨

Here’s the plan: 

🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand for 2 Weeks

 🇻🇳 Hoi An, Vietnam for 1 Week (FUN FACT: This is one of the best places in the world to have custom clothing made. I will be getting several linen and cotton pieces made, and I’ll make a video documenting the experience on YouTube!

 🇻🇳 Da Nang, Vietnam for 3 Weeks 

🇹🇭 Chiang Mai, Thailand for 1 Month

🇹🇼 Taipei, Taiwan for 1 Week

And we realllyyy wanted to fit in 🇭🇰 Hong Kong (but it’s a pricey city to stay in for too long) so I managed to find us a flight home that’ll give us a nice 16 hour stopover there on the way home! We’ll be back in Toronto for early June. Exciting right? It’s definitely going to be exhausting hopping around so frequently, but I’m always down for an adventure in Asia. I’ll also be taking YouTube more seriously during this time, so make sure to subscribe to my channel to get full-length vlogs of all the exciting things we get up to!

Our short Istanbul trip was a success! 🇹🇷

My boyfriend and I visited Istanbul for Valentine’s Day and had THE BEST time! I made my first-ever YouTube vlog about it, and you can go watch it right now! Please make sure to like & comment on the video because if it flops, there’s a good chance I’m never YouTube vlogging again 😂 I APPRECIATE YOU!

• A recent study shows that 55% of Canadians are struggling financially to make ends meet. 48% believe they’ll never get ahead financially. Read the whole report here. 

• Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods looks like it’s actually happening as of next week (March 4th). Everything you need to know is here. Also, check out this video I made to help you keep your finances in check during this crazy time.

• Now’s a great time to be really focusing on building an emergency fund. If you’re looking for the best High Interest Savings Accounts available right now, I got you! Here’s a whole list of them for Canada🇨🇦, and here’s a list for those in the U.S.🇺🇸.

• The price of gold is on the rise! It has hit record prices recently, and demand is expected to continue to increase as investors turn to it as a safe haven during this ~turbulent~ economic period. Details here. Do you hold any gold in your portfolio? Reply and let me know—I’m super curious! I have a very small amount myself buuuut I’m considering buying more 🤔

• Companies are so desperate to get workers back in office that they’re willing to provide a $10k raise to make it happen! Cameo just started this movement (which you can read about here), and I wouldn’t be surprised if more companies follow….

• Leaving North America to move abroad (in countries like Spain or Portugal) is a very popular decision right now as people look to escape political leadership policies that don’t align with their values. Check out this CNBC article by my girl Cepee (who currently lives in Malaga!) about the steps to take to “make the leap” to move abroad ASAP.

• Canadians have already began to scale back travel to the United States because of the tariffs/trade war (and the weak CAD). This article lists the states that are most impacted by the boycott, and this article breaks down the survey that on why Canadians are putting a pause on venturing into the United States for the time being.

• Season 3 of The White Lotus (one of my fave shows) is officially out and it’s shot in one of my fave places ever (Thailand, duh!). It’s already causing people to gain new interest in visiting Thailand, and this article tells you exactly what beautiful properties the show was shot at. Maybe use it for future trip planning? 👀

• Speaking of Thailand: This may be common knowledge to some Canadians but it’s news TO ME, so I’m sharing it here! Did you know Canadians can now visit Thailand for 60 days on a tourist visa (up from 30 days)? All of the details are here.

• It may soon be possible to buy U.S. citizenship for a whopping $5 million USD thanks to Trump’s new “Golden Card” proposal. Details here. You buying? 😅

• 📰 My baby (Liberty Leave) and I were featured in not one but TWO new press articles recently! Check them out:

  • Toronto Star: How to plan your “micro-retirement” if you’ve hit burnout

  • Globe & Mail: Young Canadians taking ‘mini-retirements’ for travel and hobbies – no matter the cost

• ⏰ The Liberty Leave course and community is currently being built! I can’t wait for it to launch so I can help burnt-out women navigate the challenging process of taking a career break. Join the waitlist to be notified when it’s ready 👀

• 🎙️ New podcast feature! I sat down with Sophie from Dreamers Club Malaga (in-person!) for the first episode of the Dreamers Unplugged Podcast and we talked about all things lifestyle design, career breaks, moving abroad, and navigating burnout. Listen here on Spotify.

• I’m going to be home (in Toronto) between June and October, and I’d love to attend some IRL (in real life) events in Canada while I’m home. If you’d like to invite me to speak at your event or partner in some other way, let’s chat! Reach out at [email protected] or simply reply to this email 🫶🏽

Psssst: Did you know that the Liberty Letter is part of the Liberty Leave brand? Visit the website to learn more! | Wanna work together? Reach out here.