Early Retirement ExtremeEarly Retirement ExtremeThe self-sufficient, environmentally friendly, frugal, and capitalistic fast track to financial independence and a simpler lifestyle. Articles
My list of 25 money saving tips
2008-02-05 16:37:00 Frugal for Life recently posted a big list of tips to save money and The Family CEO posted list of 25 things I do to save money, so I figured I would make my own list as well. These suggestions range from rookie to expert. Get netflix or blockbuster instead of going to the movies. Watch ... More About: Money , Tips , List , Saving
Are you prepared for stagflation?
2008-02-04 15:43:00 A few days ago I heard the recession word used for the first time as in “we are now in a recession”. The real question is whether this is going to be a short one (like they usually are) or whether the double whammy of an inflated stockmarket followed by an inflated housing market followed ... More About: Stagflation
Ecological capitalism and consumer capitalism
2008-02-03 16:38:00 The Master said: “Ci, do you regard me as someone who learns much and commits it all to memory?” Zi-gong replied: “Yes, are you not?” The Master said: “No, I use one string to tie it all together.” — from the Analects of Confusius Have you ever noticed that what used to be referred to as citizens or ... More About: Consumer , Capitalism
This week?s roundup - the ?How to keep warm when the thermostat is set at 5
2008-02-02 20:00:00 This week it finally stopped raining for long enough to play the second hockey game of the year. This was a pickup game which unlike a league game is not optimal for a center-forward since pickup games are more disorganized with less of a team factor. Anyway, what has this to do with lowering the ... More About: Roundup , Week
The problem with the economic stimulus package and what to do about it
2008-02-02 16:07:00 Economically speaking, the government is a zero-sum game that takes money from one group and distributes it to another group with the intention to somehow improve the world. For instance, when the government engages in war, it gets money from taxpayers (through the IRS) and savers (by issuing and selling bonds) and gives it to ... More About: Problem , Economic , Package
My favorite writings of January 2008
2008-02-01 16:12:00 On Friday December 28th 2007 I decided to move from blogspot to my own domain after having blogged for about 3 weeks. During the following month subscribers increased from 27 to 176 and I reached 10,000 unique visitors. As this is much more than I expected I have stopped setting small intermediate goals. Instead I’m ... More About: January , Writings , Favorite , January 2008 , 2008
How to downsize your kitchen
2008-01-31 15:46:00 Step one: Figure out what you need When I was single, I eventually figured out exactly what I needed (see my minimalist kitchen post for details) to cook my food). Since getting married it is clear that those needs have changed. Without an inventory analysis (*) it is impossible to know what needed and what is ... More About: Kitchen , Downsize
How to be happy in the long run
2008-01-30 16:20:00 The following is a list of the things I’ve learned during my first 30 years about how to live a good life. Take it for what it’s worth. 1) Decide what your priorities are Your main priorities are your health, food, shelter, and who/if you marry in that order. Your other priorities are your children, your friends and your ... More About: Happy , Long
Optimizing blogging with S-curves
2008-01-29 15:40:00 Blogging has no threshold to get started. There is no need for a degree to apply, nor is advancement determined by “unionized” seniority. This means that there is little initial investment needed to get started in terms of time and money. In fact, it is possible to start a new blog right here right now ... More About: Blogging , Curves
My emergency fund (transfer) in action
2008-01-29 04:14:00 Today I went to my new dentist for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised since they did not seem to have a ton of fancy gadgets in their clinic. This generally means that they don’t have huge debts to pay off which should make customers pay less. Not me though, apparently a filling that ... More About: Action , Transfer , Fund , Emergency
Is your stuff holding you back?
2008-01-28 15:56:00 “Are your sofa and TV your best friends? You could change that. … . You can break free from the clutches of society and live well on a very modest amount of money if you simply give up most of the junk most of us cart around.” A quote from How to ... More About: Stuff , Back , Holding
The inexpensive home gym - part 2
2008-01-27 16:43:00 First a note on safety! When ordinary people starts telling me that what I’m doing looks “unsafe”, I just know that I am doing the right thing . Forsooth, something is only unsafe if you don’t know what you are doing. Actually, from a risk management perspective, I think it is less safe to ... More About: Home , Part
This weeks round up - heating costs are down
2008-01-27 03:22:00 The heating strategy we recently implemented decreased the utility bill by $30 compared to last month. This is promising. Not only did we not use this strategy for the full month. It has also been significantly colder this month outside - as well as inside . I was half fearing that the space heater ... More About: Round Up , Round , Costs , Heating , Weeks
Cash flow diagrams for the poor, the middle class, and the investor class
2008-01-26 16:30:00 Being poor or unable to get credit 100% of the expenses must be covered with wage income. Schematically the cash flow looks like this Thus you put your time into your work which gives you a wage income that is used to pay for stuff that goes back to you.People with a credit score can go ... More About: Investor , Middle , Cash , Class , Middle Class
Better goal setting with S-curves
2008-01-25 16:11:00 One popular psychological strategy is to set small goals or start slowly. This strategy usually fails from the lack of meaningful progress despite having achieved several small goals(*). There is a good reason for this. The S-curve or logistic function is a useful model for understanding why this strategy rarely brings the intended results. DW was ... More About: Goal , Curves
Wealth is not about the money
2008-01-24 15:59:00 In the past few weeks I have written a lot about about wealth and how I became financially independent (part I, part II, part III, part IV). One of my posts, Stranger in a Strange Land, elicited a response from Lily over at The Honest Dollar. Of course I had to write my own response ... More About: Wealth , Money
How I invest when the markets are bleeding
2008-01-23 16:39:00 It is times like this when the markets are falling almost on a daily basis that I remind myself of why I invest. I invest for the following reasons. The main reason is to provide an income stream; usually in the form of dividends. I also tried covered call writing, but this is too much of ... More About: Markets , Invest
If I retire with a million dollars how well can I live?
2008-01-22 17:01:00 Financial planners universally use a rule of thumb that you can deduct about 4% of your retirement account annually without compromising your principal(*). With a retirement account of $1,000,000 you can therefore spend $40,000 a year. As for how well you can live on $40,000 a year that is another question entirely. If you live in New ... More About: Live , Million , Dollars , Retire , Tire
So you say my blog is worth $15000 already?
2008-01-21 16:48:00 I came across this tool for calculating the worth of your blog. I got $15000 which is not bad for 6 weeks of writing. I’m not sure exactly how this is calculated though. Is this a pure play estimate of what similar blogs have sold for. Quite possibly it is just a measure of some ... More About: Blog , Worth
Am I cheap?!?
2008-01-20 16:17:00 Sometimes I’m accused of being cheap or living in squalor because I prefer to ride a bike, eat at home, and because I generally don’t buy very many things. This does not sit well with the prevailing consumerist attitude in this ownership society. I suspect ownership society means that people are owned (pwned!) by their ... More About: Cheap
Comments on my favorite posts from this week?s carnivals
2008-01-20 01:43:00 Plonkee presents the carnival of personal finance: photo quiz edition. For me the most useful contribution was A Frugal Person’s Guide to Fair Tax. Fair tax is a 28% consumption or sales tax with credits an deductions being designed to make people that live at the poverty level pay zero taxes. For those of ... More About: Carnivals , Comments , Week , Posts , Favorite
Eliminating heating bills and cutting down on heating costs
2008-01-19 16:59:00 With the thermostat currently sitting at 55F(*), we hope to save a pretty penny this winter on heating - in fact, it’s been several days since the AC last switched on. Wearing layered loose clothing and getting up and lifting some weights from time to time, 55F is no big deal. Of course for those ... More About: Costs , Heating , Bills , Cutting
Dollar cost averaging at the pump for cheaper gas
More articles from this author:2008-01-18 16:15:00 This may be taking it to extremes, but try dollar cost averaging at the pump for cheaper gas. Obviously this does not work if you have to detour to get gas, but if the gas station is on your route and you merely have to pull over, do this. Instead of filling the tank up, ... More About: Dollar , Cost , Pump 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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