Clotheslines

Published in December 26th, 2007

Posted by Jacob in clothing, frugal, voluntary simplicity

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!A clothesline is not just a wrestling move on WWE Monday Night Raw, it also used to be a place where people hung their wet clothes out to dry. The concept is uniquely simple. When the washing cycle is [...]

How I became financially independent in 5 years - Part I

Published in December 26th, 2007

Posted by Jacob in compound interest, cost of living, expenses, financial independence, financial security, frugal, inflation, job, liabilities, motivation, personal finance, standard of living, voluntary simplicity

8 Comments

If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing to the blog. You can subscribe by using one of the options in the upper right corner. Personally, I prefer readers, email and google in that order. Simply click on the links and things should happen automatically.

I posit that most people can attain financial independence in less [...]

Forget about net worth, consider the bottom line

Published in December 25th, 2007

Posted by Jacob in assets, cost of living, financial independence, financial security, inflation, investments, liabilities, net worth, personal finance, saving

1 Comment

I think the income or p&l statement which catalogues earnings and expenses is more telling about a person’s financial situation on a day to day basis than the balance sheet which is where you calculate your net worth. The balance sheet is more useful when you are considering buying or selling assets. So for example, [...]

Gift wrapping paper and ribbons

Published in December 24th, 2007

Posted by Jacob in frugal, xmas

2 Comments

What do you do with the gift wrapping paper and the ribbons after you unwrap the gifts? When I was a kid, my mother taught us to carefully unwrap the presents and avoid crumbling or ripping the paper apart. This was often a challenge, especially if the gift giver had used a lot of tape. [...]

My money lending experiences on Prosper

Published in December 24th, 2007

Posted by Jacob in investments, peer-to-peer lending, sub-prime

13 Comments

Disclaimer: I have been a prosper lender since July 2006. I have had close to $10000 invested in prosper and at one point I was in the top 1000 lenders in terms of portfolio sizes. However, I have stopped lending money on prosper. If there was a way to sell loans, I would do so [...]

Pandora and the box of unknown wants

Published in December 23rd, 2007

Posted by Jacob in entertainment, freebies

1 Comment

If you have a high speed (DSL or faster) internet connection and you like music but find yourself frustrated with radio stations playing the same music over and over again head over to Pandora.
Pandora has a team of musicians analyzing songs for tone, sound, tonality, etc. I believe they call it the DNA of [...]

Modern "Fitness"

Published in December 23rd, 2007

Posted by Jacob in net worth, personal finance, rat race, standard of living

2 Comments

What’s with the quotation marks? Let me begin with a story …
This week DW is in New York. This means the car is parked at the airport. Also, it’s raining heavily which means that I’m not riding my bike. I have made a solemn promise that this bike shall never touch water (grit). If it [...]

Can you wait, think, and fast?

Published in December 22nd, 2007

Posted by Jacob in financial independence, motivation

2 Comments

A quote that is entirely relevant to financial independence:
“His goal attracts him, because he doesn’t let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and of which they think it would be effected by means of the [...]

Wear a wide brimmed hat and retire extremely early

Published in December 22nd, 2007

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, assets, budgeting, cost of living, expenses, investments, liabilities, net worth, personal finance, recipe, spending, standard of living, voluntary simplicity

4 Comments

And here’s the extreme version of Wear sunscreen and retire early. I promise this will be the last blog on sunscreen for a while
Spoken to the tune of “Wear Sunscreen”.
If I could give you a single piece of advice. This would be it: Be wealthy. The long term effect of accumulating wealth has [...]

Don’t wear sunscreen

Published in December 21st, 2007

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, rat race, spending, standard of living

2 Comments

… a tongue in cheek follow up to yesterday’s Wear sunscreen and retire early.
Spoken to the tune of “Wear Sunscreen”.
If I could give you a single piece of advice. This would be it: Live beyond your means. The long term consequences of living beyond your means have been demonstrated to lead to bankruptcy whereas the [...]

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