Early Retirement Extreme

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

Downsizing for an RV

Published in July 8th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in household, motivation

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!This Saturday we almost bought an RV. We have been prospecting for the past few weeks and visiting various local RV dealers. At our third RV dealer, we got double teamed by a couple of manager+trainee (I believe). After [...]

Which morals are most useful for personal finance?

Published in June 26th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in culture, motivation

4 Comments

There are, as far as I know, two sets of morals which have dominated thought for the past century.

Postmodernistic interpersonal value acceptance. Basically, the widely spread “I’m okay, you’re okay” approach to interpersonal acceptance. Followers believe that it is impossible to establish an optimal best set of ethics. Moral behavior then becomes a question of [...]

Retire Early: The Importance of Getting Out of Debt

Published in June 24th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in debt, financial independence, motivation, planning

4 Comments

This is a guest post from Miranda Marquit. Miranda Marquit is freelance writer and personal finance blogger. She also edits information on debt consolidation for DestroyDebt.com.

My husband and I have discussed retiring by the time we’re 50, and one of the major requirements that always comes up is how we want to be completely debt [...]

You are not irreplaceable

Published in May 27th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in blogging, culture, motivation

4 Comments

According to google I am now the second highest ranked authority on extreme early retirement. I suppose this comes about because I have a “google ranking” of 4 which again comes about because I have yet to bother with monetizing this site as it would require advertising it in the local paper for 4 weeks [...]

The psychological requirements for going the distance

Published in April 27th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in fitness, motivation

1 Comment

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 [...]

Making changes

Published in April 10th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in motivation

No Comments

Changes that depend more on a lack of a particular attitude(*) than a lack of skills or opportunities, will generally progress through the following stages.
(*) Health goals, diet goals, debt and savings goals generally fall within this category.

Precontemplation. The person does not see a need for change although others often do see a problem. If [...]

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) [...]

Big on methods, poor on fundamentals.

Published in March 24th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in anticonsumerism, culture, motivation

4 Comments

There is an abundant swath of personal finance tools, 10 step programs, weight loss programs, etc. that are all intended to fix our problems. This country is HUGE on methods but poor on fundamentals.
To beat obesity, you’ve got to consume less and burn more. There is no alternative. And to do that, you’ve [...]

Fit Dad Fat Dad

Published in March 6th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in fitness, motivation

15 Comments

The title of this post is “Fit Dad Fat Dad” partially in honor of Rich Dad Poor Dad and partially to stir up some controversy in exactly the same way as RDPD does.
RDPD has a fairly poor reputation amongst pf bloggers. I think the reason is that it questions widely held beliefs on personal [...]

Programmers, ultra-marathons, and voluntary simplicity

Published in February 22nd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in motivation, rat race, standard of living, voluntary simplicity

11 Comments

I just rediscovered the simple living network thanks to a blog by Fred Ecks(*). As far as I have been able to understand he decided to quit his job as a programmer at age 35 and adopt a simple lifestyle. He now spends time renovating a sail boat and doing ultra-marathons.
Sounds eerily familiar. Here’s [...]

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