Early Retirement Extreme

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

Volunteer opportunity on ERE

Published in June 7th, 2008

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Some people have asked me what they can do to compensate me for all my rants on this site. Usually I tell them that while I won’t accept any tangibles — mostly because I got enough stuff as it [...]

Reinventing yourself

Published in May 10th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in job, planning

5 Comments

I get a couple of mails a week from people in the same situation as me (enough money, what to do now?) and it strikes me that most people(*) pursue a “the grass is greener” strategy when it comes to free choice. For instance, the entrepreneurs don’t want to start yet another company, the computer [...]

Maximize your 401k early in the year

Published in April 21st, 2008

Posted by Jacob in job, liabilities, personal finance, planning

6 Comments

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 [...]

A salary veils economic reality

Published in April 1st, 2008

Posted by Jacob in job, motivation, spending

6 Comments

I just sent my first invoice as a freelancer. It turns out that I have covered all my cost-of-living expenses (and then some) for March by working just a few hours every other day. What an amazing proof of concept.
Being paid an hourly rate and being able to work whenever (when there is work available) [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Better goal setting with S-curves

Published in January 25th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in compound interest, job, motivation, rat race

2 Comments

One popular psychological strategy is to set small goals or start slowly. This strategy usually fails from the lack of meaningful progress despite having achieved several small goals(*). There is a good reason for this. The S-curve or logistic function is a useful model for understanding why this strategy rarely brings the intended results.

DW was [...]

Stranger in a strange land

Published in January 12th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, debt, financial independence, job, mortgage, personal finance, rat race, standard of living

22 Comments

Get a student loan. Get a college education. Get a mortgage and become a home owner. Have a career. Put 15% of your income in a 401k/IRA for 35 years. Plan to retire at 60… any of this sound familiar?
That’s because it is the standard recipe for a “successful” life in middle class America. It [...]

What early retirement means when you’re too young to retire

Published in January 6th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in financial independence, job, rat race

11 Comments

What does early retirement mean for those who chose to save so intensely and early for retirement and essentially had enough money to stop working around age 30? This is a question I have been asking myself and for which there does not seem to be any conventional solutions.
In most cases, at least as far [...]

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

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

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