Early Retirement Extreme

Financial independence, frugality, self-sufficiency, ecology, capitalism, and voluntary simplicity

15 baby steps towards voluntary consumerism

Published in July 11th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, consumerism, voluntary simplicity

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Lately I has been made clear to me that a life without buying things can not possibly make me happy. For one, I also realized that people would have a hard time knowing what I stand for when I [...]

Retiring happy in the 21st century

Published in June 4th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in assets, consumerism, ecological footprint, financial security, inflation, planning

15 Comments

One must save to retire, because savings transfer purchasing power from the present to the future and in order to stop working one must have claims on future goods. That much is obvious (if not, read this post). Since such claims are dollar denominated, the purchasing power is set by the supply and demand of [...]

Letter from the establishment

Published in April 22nd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, consumerism

5 Comments

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 [...]

How I’m now getting books, CDs, and DVDs without paying for them

Published in April 12th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in books, clothing, consumerism, household

7 Comments

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 [...]

Why it is so hard for Americans to be healthy and not spend money

Published in March 12th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, culture, standard of living

9 Comments

The American health care system is broken. The reason is not that employer group plans makes insurance more expensive for those who don’t have an employer. No, the reason that the American health care system is broken is because Americans universally tend to believe that

Technology can solve all problems.
If you spend enough, you can get [...]

Why do so many people hoard so much?

Published in March 5th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, consumerism, culture, recycling

6 Comments

In a comment, Hannah wrote:
I have to wonder: Is the inability to value one’s time (rather than hyper-accumulating Things) simply an inability to accept one’s inevitable departure from this world? Do people who have an acquisitive mentality towards life have an inherent denial of death, and thus seek to “escape” into their goods, which are [...]

MBTI and societal behavioral patterns

Published in February 26th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, culture, ecological footprint, personal finance

9 Comments

I think the reason that many people have the need to spend so much money and save more than 1 million for retirement is that is that they feel that security is achieved through ownership of multi-bed/bathroom houses (castles) that are built around car garages that house full size cars or big SUVs sometimes in [...]

The secret of education

Published in February 17th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, culture, economy, education

18 Comments

Warning: this is a contrarian post and as such it may question some deeply held beliefs. If you keep going you might not like what you read.
The education industry has successfully installed the meme that not going to college (buying their product) putatively leads to a life in poverty. A common selling point is [...]

Now you can have a 7 year car loan. Outrageous!!

Published in February 16th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in budgeting, consumerism, debt, economy, sub-prime

4 Comments

In an effort to sell cars to debt laden consumers Toyota is now offering 84 month car loans(*). The immediate effect is to lower the monthly payments. In the long run this could have two effects.
The first long term effect is an increase in the price of new cars (relative to inventory) just like lower [...]

On minimizing depreciation expenses

Published in February 11th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, consumerism, cost of living, expenses

10 Comments

We don’t pay for our furniture. I haven’t paid for my watch. Also I haven’t paid for my HiFi system. If I was a little bit smarter, we wouldn’t be paying for our car either. On the other hand I have paid way too much for computers. That is not going to happen again.
How much [...]

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