Early Retirement Extreme

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

Retire Early: The Importance of Getting Out of Debt

Published in June 24th, 2008

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

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

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 [...]

Early Retirement Portfolios

Published in May 22nd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in inflation, investments, planning

16 Comments

As I have mentioned before extreme early retirement (<35) does not happen due to a prudent investment plan. It happens either by following an extreme savings plan or by being lucky (rich uncle, lottery, penny stocks, real estate, …). These reason is that the time it takes to reach financial independence, around 5 years, is [...]

The Gamesmen

Published in May 11th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in culture, economy, planning

1 Comment

I was inspired to post the following by a recent mail from T. and some earlier writings on the ecology of society. I would like to draw your attention to The Gamesman by Michael Maccoby. In this book, which I have not read yet but I got a summary from Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter [...]

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 [...]

The opportunity cost of early retirement

Published in May 3rd, 2008

Posted by Jacob in planning

11 Comments

Adolescents have a sense of die-hard immortality that comes from having given no thought to their future. I realized that I wasn’t immortal when I was 21-22. This implied the full realization that my life span was finite although I hadn’t yet reached the sense of time that I have not that “old” people frequently [...]

Food Rationing

Published in April 25th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in cooking, ecological footprint, economy, planning

6 Comments

Food rationing has returned to the US for the first time since World War II. Along with the ongoing bet of which will reach $5/gallon first — gas or milk (I say gas)– this is one of an emerging list of symptoms that the idea of exponential growth of the economy and people on a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]