Early Retirement ExtremeEarly Retirement ExtremeThe self-sufficient, environmentally friendly, frugal, and capitalistic fast track to financial independence and a simpler lifestyle. Articles
Bicycle riders on the freeway
2008-05-13 04:42:00 Maybe when oil reaches $200 in a few years as predicted by the same Goldman-Sachs analyst that predicted $105 dollar oil by 2009, part of the freeway system, which is now overpopulated by cars and SUVs(*), will be converted into bicycle paths. One can dream, right? (*) I can’t help but compute (with a certain schadenfreude) ...
The Gamesmen
2008-05-11 19:54:00 I was inspired to post the following by a recent mail from T. and some earlier writings on the ecology of society. I would like to draw your attention to The Gamesman by Michael Maccoby. In this book, which I have not read yet but I got a summary from Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter ...
Reinventing yourself
2008-05-10 18:05:00 I get a couple of mails a week from people in the same situation as me (enough money, what to do now?) and it strikes me that most people(*) pursue a “the grass is greener” strategy when it comes to free choice. For instance, the entrepreneurs don’t want to start yet another company, the computer ...
Endurance events
2008-05-06 06:29:00 One possible way of spending retirement is to enroll in marathons, ironmen (or is that ironmans?), ultracycling, etc. all over the country or planet depending on ambition. Last Sunday I completed my first century (actually it turned into 123 miles (197km) since I took a wrong turn at some point) which was quite fun ... More About: Events , Endurance
The opportunity cost of early retirement
2008-05-04 03:50:00 Adolescents have a sense of die-hard immortality that comes from having given no thought to their future. I realized that I wasn’t immortal when I was 21-22. This implied the full realization that my life span was finite although I hadn’t yet reached the sense of time that I have not that “old” people frequently ... More About: Retirement , Opportunity , Cost , Early , Early retirement
New schedule
2008-05-03 03:00:00 In order to keep the content interesting and novel, I’ll be moving from a 5+1 posts a week to a more or less random schedule. Ahh, the luxury of a noncommercial blog More About: Schedule
My favorite writings of April 2008 - including ecological budget
2008-05-01 16:10:00 A better way of “growing” in a limited world is to increase quality. Make things better fitting, smaller, and more efficient instead of just making them bigger and more powerful. With that in mind, here are the best posts of April 2008 . Making changes Row, row, row your boat ? On the law of comparative advantage Why ... More About: Writings , Budget , Favorite
Quo vadis?
2008-04-30 16:00:00 In many ways I consider the problem of early retirement solved. I [think I] have shown what kind of choices that must be made, how to make them, and what it takes to reach financial independence in a handful of years. Following that, anyone can either accept or reject the conditions. It was never my ... More About: Quo Vadis
Good housekeeping
2008-04-29 16:04:00 From a minimalist/financial independence extremist perspective ordinary books on good housekeeping (in case you need to learn it from a book ) just won’t cut it. Actually when it comes to financial independence, information targeted at “normals” is frequently useless(*). Hence, one must look elsewhere. I get my inspiration, not from run of the ... More About: Good , Housekeeping
Why this early retirement blog continuously talks about cycling and cooking
2008-04-28 16:37:00 Financial independence comes from the combination of having enough money and spending sufficiently little so that interest from the former covers the expenses of the later. The biggest sources of personal expenses are generally Children Housing Transport Food Taxes Reducing expenses in these areas will make a much larger impact that token efforts such as using CFLs, turning the thermostat down, ... More About: Cooking , Retirement , Cycling , Blog , Early
The psychological requirements for going the distance
2008-04-27 18:47:00 This blog is turning into a cycling blog. The past few weeks I have posted several times on the century (100 miles) I’m doing next Sunday. Although I have now been told that this have little or nothing to do with running a marathon, I think that the underlying requirements are the same. The requirements ... More About: Psychological
Saturday Roundup - One day late edition
2008-04-27 04:55:00 I can manipulate the date on posts, so this was actually written tomorrow. Similarly, most posts around here are not written on weekdays between 7 and 8 am but rather on day before between 5 and 7 pm. Sometimes (especially Sundays) I write several posts and space them out. Very many bloggers do that. This ... More About: Roundup , Saturday , Late , Edition , Late Edition
Food Rationing
2008-04-25 16:34:00 Food rationing has returned to the US for the first time since World War II. Along with the ongoing bet of which will reach $5/gallon first — gas or milk (I say gas)– this is one of an emerging list of symptoms that the idea of exponential growth of the economy and people on a ... More About: Food
Don?t wash your clothes every day
2008-04-24 16:18:00 When my mom was a kid, they had something called school clothes and play clothes. School clothes had to be kept clean and play clothes was something one changed into after school. The washing machine is sometimes said to be the factor of the 20th century that liberated women. I do think though, that the ... More About: Clothes , Wash
That was horrible!
2008-04-23 16:20:00 So yesterday I was out all afternoon training for the upcoming 100 miler. It’s the Sunday after the next one which leaves me two weeks to get ready for battle. During my lunch break, I rode up to the top of the local hill. Based on my rough estimate this is a 4-6% climb over ...
Letter from the establishment
2008-04-22 16:12:00 Jacob’s posts on how frugal living and only buying what one really needs allows one to save up to three quarters of one’s income to reach financial independence and early retirement seem to be irresponsible and unsafe according to our collective mind. We would like to stress the importance of a shopping and working as ... More About: Letter , Establishment
Maximize your 401k early in the year
2008-04-21 16:25:00 Compared to the IRA with its $5,000 limit, the 401k with its $15,500 limit possesses an unfair advantage. Everybody with a W-2 income can get an IRA, whereas not everybody is lucky enough to have access to a 401k with the higher limit. These tools are useful because they minimize taxable income. In this household I ... More About: Early , Year
My weekend
2008-04-20 06:13:00 Today I went riding on a 20M loop. I passed 10-12 riders heading in the opposite direction. First the was the sole riders in team wear, then a couple of riders well sucking following by other couples (husband & wife). These were followed by the hoi polloi, people riding three or four abreast chatting, a ... More About: Weekend
The frugal century
2008-04-18 16:01:00 First some nomenclature: A century is 100 miles on a bicycle. It is something serious cyclists would maybe call a long ride, but which weekend warriors have elevated to event status as a testament to the fact that in our culture doing things with other people somehow validates crazy behavior. In case you want to join ... More About: Frugal , Century
How we eat
2008-04-17 16:07:00 A reader asked me how I combine the warrior diet with extreme frugality. The simple answer is that I don’t. I don’t follow the warrior diet to the letter, nor am I nearly as frugal with the food budget as I used to be (less than $200 per month for two people in NorCal is ...
Cauliflower omelet - another sub-dollar meal.
2008-04-16 16:10:00 One cooked cauliflower for the elven kings under the sky, an equal volume of boiled potatoes for the dwarf lords, nine dashes of pepper for mortal men, doomed to die. One pan for the dark lord, also a lid, and enough eggs to rule them all and in darkness bind them together in the pan of Mordor - Served with ... More About: Dollar , Cauliflower , Meal
Why I won?t join the middle class
2008-04-15 16:12:00 Mrs Micah asked what’s wrong with being middle class focusing on not working enjoyable but not too stressful jobs and still having the time and money to live comfortably. Lazyman talked about the upper limit of trading time for money and made some comments about the poor choice of working overtime just to buy unsatisfying ... More About: Join , Middle , Class , Middle Class
Let?s play some hockey (my guilty pleasure)
2008-04-14 16:16:00 I first got introduced to hockey in phys ed. in elementary school. Our teacher handed out these yellow plastic sticks and put two mylec goals at each end and let us have at it. I saw a similar spectacle a couple of years ago. This time the kids were wearing gloves and full head gear ... More About: Hockey , Play , Pleasure , Guilty
How I?m now getting books, CDs, and DVDs without paying for them
2008-04-12 16:08:00 One measure of financial independence is not to have to worry about having money to pay for goods. This is usually accomplished by having lots of money, but with the internet a second method is emerging. I’m talking about swap sites, freebie sites, etc. where computers match up people who then trade their stuff for ... More About: Books , Dvds
The major risks of buy and hold index investing
2008-04-11 16:17:00 I see stock markets falling in three, possibly more, stages. The first stage is the golden age of capitalism, where owners run and have a stake in their own company. In the second stage operations and stakeholdership is taken over by professionals, that is, CEOs, who own less than 1% of the company, and (institutional) fund ... More About: Investing , Index , Hold , Major
Making changes
2008-04-10 16:19:00 Changes that depend more on a lack of a particular attitude(*) than a lack of skills or opportunities, will generally progress through the following stages. (*) Health goals, diet goals, debt and savings goals generally fall within this category. Precontemplation. The person does not see a need for change although others often do see a problem. If ...
Cavalcade of Risk #49
2008-04-09 16:39:00 In reality, what happens happens. However, once an observer or an agent is introduced, the agent will try to model, mold, or change reality. Any modeling or molding of reality has known-knowns, known-unknows, unknown-knowns, and unknown-unknowns (Read more here). Known-knowns follow from certitude. Unknown-knowns follow from incompetence. Risk deals with uncertainty in the form of ...
Row, row, row your boat ? On the law of comparative advantage
2008-04-08 16:26:00 According to the economic law of comparative advantage two parties are economically better off if they both focus on their advantage and trade for everything else. For instance, if Adam can make 4 widgets/hour or 3 gadgets/hour while Bob can make 1 widget/hour but 2 gadgets/hour, Adam should focus solely on making widgets, while Bob ... More About: Boat
Tap water
2008-04-07 16:17:00 I’m blown away when a person is able to spend more than $20k a year on living expenses. But then I realize that they have little appreciation of the value of money [relative to what the money is spent on]. It’s treated like water and it slips through their fingers. Turn on a pressurized faucet ... More About: Water
Saturday Roundup - More book swapping
More articles from this author:2008-04-05 16:24:00 Paperbackswap.com has turned out to be great for “upgrading” my personal library. I list books I haven’t read for a year and which I can not really imagine reading again. Since books are swapped one-to-one it has turned out to be less great for getting rid of books (and I have a lot of books ... More About: Roundup , Book , Saturday 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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