TL;DR
Did you miss Build in Motion? I’m back! The last month was hectic with visiting friends, showing my family around Spain, and visiting more friends. Plus some big work projects.
If you count Scotland as a separate/new country (which I do), I’m up to 31 lifetime countries visited now!
In classic go-with-the-flow fashion, I haven’t started planning my November or December trip, lol
CURRENTLY
Documenting my journey
If you want to see more pics and city ratings, click above.
It’s a whirlwind to visit friends / family, build multiple companies, visit a new country every week, and try to post consistent content as well. This month was a slower content month for me - but not a slower month on life experiences.
A great example is our weekend trip to the Scottish Highlands this past weekend. I’ve got some great pictures, but it’s also hard to film when it’s cold and rainy 🙃 - still wouldn’t trade camping for the world.
TRAVEL GALLERY
Ratings and Highlights
I thought it would be fun to rate the cities I visit on this trip and share a few highlights from each of them. The new cities since last edition are:
🇩🇪 Munich, Germany: 9/10.
Munich shocked me with its fairy-tale-like buildings, amazing outdoor activities, and gorgeous weather and flowers. I don’t like beer so I kinda figured I wouldn’t like it here, and boy was I wrong.
Unreal weather and views here
🇦🇹 Salzburg, Austria: 8/10
Gorgeous city full of meadows and mountains with beautiful bike paths, sightseeing, coffee shops, and really kind people. Really enjoyed this stop. The saunas here were stunning as well.
View from the castle
🇦🇹 Vienna, Austria: 6/10
There’s some beautiful parts of this city, and there’s also other parts. I think the history here doesn’t appeal to me as much, and I also got unlucky with the weather. I did go on a couple fun dates here, but I don’t know if that’s enough to boost the rating of the city for me 🤷♂️
So historic
🇦🇹 Bratislava, Slovakia: 7/10
Cute little old town, with some really interesting architecture. Never seen a church like this before! My favorite color too!
Stunning fr
🇪🇸 Barcelona, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Cordoba: 10/10
I’ve visited many these cities before, and I love them all. No notes. It was such a cool experience to show my family around as a tour guide over here!
Fun trip with my family 🥰
🏴 Edinburgh, Scotland: 9/10
I didn’t know anything about Edinburgh going into this visit, and it helped that I was visiting friends from college who are basically locals at this point! The city was unbelievably stunning with fantastic food, coffee shops, and bars, super walkable, and fun - I’m only deducting one point for the crazy wind here.
The Highlands were fantastic too - we camped for two nights in Cairngorms National Park - the largest NP in the UK!
Castle on the hill, if you will
Fun little campsite
BUSINESS PULSE
We’re live with six new websites for Carolina Trimlight, and they’re already seeing an uptick in AI search results.
Next project is six new websites for a private equity firm’s entire portfolio.
We are thrilled to bring on Lucid Bots as a client - they make window washing flying drones (among other products) and it will be a blast to manage their ad campaigns.
Next week, I’ll travel to Denver, Colorado for our Trailmix Wealth team retreat. I’m excited to lead a session on AI and operations for our team and spend some time hiking with everyone! The team has grown to five now 👀
FINANCES
Money and Investing Updates
5. The number of currencies I’ve used this trip. I only withdrew cash in Euros - thank God for Apple Pay, honestly, it’s so easy.
18% (my 2025 tax rate) vs. 19% (my 2024 tax rate) - Luckily, I was able to offset some of the extra costs of self-employment with some of the deductions and expenses available to entrepreneurs.
More breakdowns on spending by-country coming soon!
WHAT I’M LEARNING
Alternative investing strategies and advice - I’ve gotten a lot of great stuff recently out of the Cash Flow Ranger community, especially from our Sherpa calls.
WHAT I’M CONSUMING
Content and Candy
Content: the TV show Adults is absolutely hilarious. Shoutout to my brother for the rec.
Candy: Squashies, Haribo, and more fantastic European and British candies!
DESK OF THE WEEK
📍 Bilbao, Spain
Such great espresso (and tapas, duh) in Spain!
WHAT’S NEXT?
Raleigh for one day, Charlotte for the weekend to watch the US Disc Golf Championships, Denver for a week for the Trailmix Wealth retreat, and then hopefully another international trip!
Adventure is out there!
✌️ Matthew
SUPPORT
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You can check them out below, and find other (totally free) ways to support me via affiliate links here. Cheers!
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Not financial advice. Just a guy sharing his journey. Thanks for being here!
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