Early Retirement Extreme

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

Living in a garbage truck

Published in July 23rd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in cost of living, household

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Someone turned a garbage truck into a small apartment. While this looks nice and expensive in a involuntarily ironic kind of way much like a $7000 track bike turned commuter, check out the cabinets in the kitchen. Genius!
I have [...]

Good housekeeping

Published in April 29th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in cost of living, household

2 Comments

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 [...]

Why this early retirement blog continuously talks about cycling and cooking?

Published in April 28th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in budgeting, cost of living, financial independence

14 Comments

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, [...]

Living aboard

Published in April 3rd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in DIY, cost of living, culture, household, planning, rat race, standard of living

13 Comments

As mentioned in last Saturday’s roundup, I had some ideas regarding the future last week, specifically how to spend retirement and how to live. I’m the type that sees life itself as an adventure. I left my home country almost 10 years to go to grad school in another country. When I finished, I left [...]

What people ought to know about the different kinds of personal finance blogs

Published in February 28th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in blogging, cost of living

15 Comments

Personal finance blogs primarily fall in three major categories. First, there are the “getting out of debt” blogs. Second, there are the “just got out of college” personal finance blogs. Third, there are the “career track” personal finance blogs. Of course there are more categories such as retirement blogs or I-won-the-lottery blogs, but these are [...]

No need to save millions - here’s a quicker way to financial independence

Published in February 18th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in budgeting, cost of living, financial independence, standard of living

22 Comments

With a name like early retirement (extreme) I get a lot of inquires about how many millions one needs to become financially independent. A brief search in the personal finance blogging world reveals several bloggers that are aiming for the millions. Not this guy.
The idea that you need to be a millionaire is predicated on [...]

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 [...]

This weeks round up - heating costs are down

Published in January 26th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in announcements, carnival, cost of living

No Comments

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 [...]

If I retire with a million dollars how well can I live?

Published in January 22nd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in assets, budgeting, cost of living, financial security, personal finance, standard of living

5 Comments

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 [...]

How I became financially independent in 5 years - Part III

Published in January 17th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in cost of living, financial independence, household, motivation, personal finance, recycling, voluntary simplicity

13 Comments

I posit that most people can attain financial independence in less than 10 years and in less than 5 if they are truly determined. I also submit that many people are not willing to make the necessary changes.
Read part I here
Read part II here
Having just graduated with a PhD and paired everything [...]

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