This summer time had me working extra hours back to back, one week to the next. It was the most hours I have ever worked in such a small period of time, but it entirely paid off. I managed to triple our small savings account during the first month alone, & then I invested some of it in the stock market immediately. With some cagey investing, I managed to amass $20,000 by early September. Back when I was in our early 20s this would have seemed crazy or at least inadequate, but I still managed it. When I reached this stage there was motivation at first to dip our toes into the real estate market, but thankfully I caught word of the housing shortage & high prices before I pulled the trigger on a foreclosure sale. Instead, I invested most of the money into long term CDs while using the rest to make improvements to the house. After buying a new and modern roof, I turned our attention to our heating & cooling system. I have heard people in past years tell me that I could save a lot of money on heating & cooling year-round by having 1 easy machine: a heat pump. It’s taking a split style a/c & reversing the process. Normally you would use an evaporator coil inside that absorbs heat from your indoor air & expels it outside through a compressor. That air is tepid & warms the metal enclosure which houses the entire condenser unit. If you took the same unit but put the compressor inside, you’d be heating the beach house with ambient heat in the outdoor air. That’s why these heat pumps are both economically smart & environmentally friendly, as you’re using a fraction of the energy to simply transport heat from one spot to another.