Blog Archive: June 2022
An ex-pat living in Georgia since 2011, I trade stocks, take photographs, work out at the gym, and many more. Here I write about travel, finance, and other things that might interest me.
Latest articles
African Union GDP Per Capita 2022*
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU's future goals include a customs union, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency, thereby establishing an economic and monetary union. This morning I was talking to Rob, a friend from South Africa, we were talking economics, Georgia, and railways and suddenly I remembered a few years ago I did an article about…
Is it possible to buy a 3 bd apartment in European Union Member state for just EUR 350?
A few years ago I bought a property in rural Latvia (which is a member state of the European Union) for under EUR 4,000 - most of the time I thought this has been a bad investment. Since my original purchase I have additionally invested about EUR 14,000, making my total around EUR 18,000, and this Summer for the first time I feel I could actually realize this apartment for EUR 25,000 or at least EUR 20,000 without much hassle. See the latest…
Friends Hub village Guest house review in Vazisubani
Friends Hub village guesthouse is located in Vazisubani, near Gurjaani in the region of Kakheti, Georgia, some 2-hour drive from Tbilisi. Oskars, the host, invited me to visit his new place at the start of May 2022. After a few stops at McDonald's, Sighanghi, and Bodbe monastery we finally reached Vazisubani, where we were greeted with traditional Georgian supra and a lot of chacha. Here I made a short video from our trip: Sighnaghi &…
Top 10 Laptops with Backlit keyboard 2022
A neat feature a laptop can have is a backlit keyboard. In 2022 the chance of finding a laptop with a backlit keyboard is more possible when looking at HP, Dell, or Lenovo laptops Keep reading to learn more about top 10 best selling laptops with Backlit Keyboard on Amazon A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate…
How To Tile Kitchen / hallway floor
The time had finally come and I was ready to tile the kitchen and hallway floors at our Vilgale apartment. A year ago I would say - no way I'm going to do it myself, but here you go, I did it all on my own, with some research on Youtube and a lot of encouragement from friends who have done it. As it is in our Tbilisi apartment - I decided to go with large 60cmx60cm tiles, which I bought at the local DEPO store (in Liepaja) In total I…
Tbilisi Rent to Sublet on Airbnb - Part 1
This is the topic I first encountered many many years ago, well actually back in these days it was more about buying a property in Tbilisi and renting it out with the option of selling the property in a few years with profit. Throughout the years I've been contacted by investors from all around the world (literally from Italy to Australia and Brazil) interested in Tbilisi rental market. My simple question always has been - what is the return…
New Investment Project - Summer House with Garden in Latvia
Welcome to another interesting project in the home remodeling series. - summer house with a garden in SouthWest Latvia. It turns out this is already the third, ongoing home remodeling project featured on the blog. Exciting. This is the project my fiancee actually bought, without first seeing it - the price seemed very good, not to take this property. I was a bit skeptical at the start, as we still have another ongoing renovation project with…
Pearl of Tbilisi - Gardenia Shevardnadze Flower Garden
Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely flower garden in Tbilisi, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. The place is popular among photographers, tourists, gardeners, and enjoyers of life. After visiting this place so many times, while living in Georgia, I wouldn't hesitate to call this place a Pearl of Tbilisi and include it among the top 10 must-visit places in the Georgian capital. It was an early…
Top 7 Aluminum Chassis / Body laptops 2022
In today's article, I've listed the TOP 7 bestselling aluminum chassis laptops on Amazon in 2022 Most Aluminum chassis laptops come with the price attached and nowadays there are both traditional, touchscreen, and of course gaming laptops surrounded by metallic cases. Even some of the Chromebooks are available in aluminum chassis. Top 20 Aluminum Chassis Notebook / Laptop Computers A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon…
Hiking Likani, Sunday school Rustavi
Another awesome weekend in Georgia 🇬🇪- with some elements of offroad riding, hiking, camping, horseback riding near Likani station, and a few skulls at Green monastery Saturday. Back to Rustavi scout center for a lovely Sunday with fellow Latvians. Our last weekend trip with VW Touareg.
Minimum Wages in European Union 2022
In 2022 there were 21 out of 27 European Union member states with an official minimum wage set by the government. Turns out this is already the eighth (#9) article about minimum wages in European Union featured on the blog. To keep it up, here is the raw data for minimum wages across European Union in 2022. Please don't judge too hard, data are taken from this article on Wikipedia, and applied some basic calculations for yearly growth. The…
Buying a property in Georgia (Dedoplistskaro)
Dedoplistskaro is a small town in Kakheti, Georgia with a population of about 6,000. Distance to Tbilisi about 130 km, about 2 hour drive. I first had an idea of buying a house in Dedoplitskaro a few years ago, back then I was researching the whole of Georgia and Dedoplitskaro stayed the top of the list because the buying price seemed one of the lowest in the country. When speaking with locals (not from Dedoplitskaro) - I was told that the…
Latest Stock Buy: 40 shares AMS:INGA (ING Groep NV) at EUR 9.45
On June 13th, 2022 I bought 40 shares of AMS: INGA (ING Groep NV) paying EUR 9.45 per share. I'm now holding 140 shares with ING stock in my portfolio and my average buy price is EUR 10.16. The ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private banking, asset…
Top 7 Best Selling Gaming Laptops June 2022
An entry-level gaming laptop with Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 will cost you about $650-$750 in the month of June 2022. Better performing laptops will come with faster processors and more powerful graphics cards. Keep reading to learn more about best-selling gaming laptops this month. A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I will earn an…
Eagle canyon in Georgia
The bear went over the mountain .. or last weekend we went hiking at the Eagle Canyon near Dedoplistskaro, Shopping at the Dezerteer market in Tbilisi, and exercising at Lisi Lake... another fabulous weekend has been put on our tapes and post-processed. Enjoy the video and thumbs up!