If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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