Early Retirement Extreme

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

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

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

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 [...]

Spring Holiday

Published in March 25th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in household, rat race

3 Comments

I had today (Monday) off. Last week I noticed that Monday was marked as “spring holiday” on the calendar. It took me a few moments to figure out that this probably meant Easter. Ah, the separation of church and state when taken to the point of confusion.
Thus today was spent much like I imagine retirement [...]

A typical weekday of my life - spring 2008

Published in March 10th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in blogging, fitness, household, job, standard of living

10 Comments

Recently Trent at The Simple Dollar posted his schedule. I think it’s quite interesting to see what goes on behind the curtains because even when everybody mostly live in the same types of houses, drive the same kinds of cars, buy the same stuff and have jobs, we are all quite different when it [...]

The Early Retirement Path

Published in March 3rd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in financial independence, frugal, household, standard of living

6 Comments

In this guest post Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 shares his path to early retirement at 45. If you like to read more about the road to early retirement you can subscribe to his RSS Feed here.
I like to think of myself as fairly ordinary. To outsiders I seem to [...]

Who else is giving things away?

Published in February 21st, 2008

Posted by Jacob in charity, household, recycling

6 Comments

I few days ago I started filling a donation bag (the pink one in the picture below) with my old roller skates, a chocolate maker, a book, and a vest. After I wrote a post about it, a few people got inspired (see the comments in the aforementioned post) and donated something too. DW might [...]

Downsizing by giving to charity

Published in February 14th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in charity, household, voluntary simplicity

10 Comments

Sometimes when my brain is busted from the triple whammy of work, studying, and writing, and I can’t find the motivation to go stick handling in the garage, I start pacing the room restlessly. My next step is to dash (yes, I run indoors because it gets the dog hyper) into a random room and [...]

How to downsize your kitchen

Published in January 31st, 2008

Posted by Jacob in cooking, ecological footprint, household, standard of living

3 Comments

Step one: Figure out what you need
When I was single, I eventually figured out exactly what I needed (see my minimalist kitchen post for details) to cook my food). Since getting married it is clear that those needs have changed. Without an inventory analysis (*) it is impossible to know what needed and what is [...]

How to be happy in the long run

Published in January 30th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in financial security, household, investments, job, motivation, personal finance, standard of living

18 Comments

The following is a list of the things I’ve learned during my first 30 years about how to live a good life.
Take it for what it’s worth.
1) Decide what your priorities are
Your main priorities are your health, food, shelter, and who/if you marry in that order.
Your other priorities are your children, your friends and your [...]

Eliminating heating bills and cutting down on heating costs

Published in January 19th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in expenses, freebies, household

7 Comments

With the thermostat currently sitting at 55F(*), we hope to save a pretty penny this winter on heating - in fact, it’s been several days since the AC last switched on. Wearing layered loose clothing and getting up and lifting some weights from time to time, 55F is no big deal. Of course for those [...]

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