Save 75-80% for five years and then quit your work and do something else. I’m not the only, nor the first one to do this.

I recently found a couple who also saved 75% for 5 years and now use their financial independence to do just that. They have been biking around the world for the past 8 years.

Here are some budget suggestions for bicycle touring.

While I do feel the urge to relocate every 3-4 years, tourism/permatravel has never really appealed to me (just send me a postcard). However, I know that it appeals to many of you. You can certainly travel with a location-independent business or by working along the way, but I’d feel safer and more relaxed about it if I was financial independent.

Thus, rather than spend 5 years of my twenties to travel around before I got started on the middle class life, I’d rather work the middle class life for 5 years while saving for FI and THEN set out to travel. That way, I’d know for sure that I wouldn’t have to come back unless I wanted to.

Originally posted 2010-10-06 12:32:10.

In this new series of posts I give popular personal finance advise in an easily digestible list format of tips, reasons, things, and so on. I will tell you how you too can be rich, good-looking, or perhaps just plain awesome by adopting these amazing insights which have been developed by a real PhD. Also watch out of link bait posts with titles ending with a question mark e.g. “Can you really afford not to have a car?” (You know you want to click on them so you can disagree right?) and if I can afford it, there will even be free stock photos in the top corner at some point with some mild relevance to the topic.

In recent years so-called progressive cities have started increasing the development of sidewalks and bike paths thus rendering us even less safe as if we did not have enough things to worry about? Here are the top 5 reasons why sidewalks are unsafe.

1) A sidewalk allows poor people, who otherwise can not afford to buy a car,
to more easily get around when they are out stealing our stuff. Eliminating sidewalks has been proven to keep people, who can not afford to drive, off the streets and away from our developments. How can anyone enjoy living in Tranquil Pines if we constantly have to be fearful of looters who could use a sidewalk to walk right up to our homes?

2) Sidewalks and, worse, bike paths take up precious parking space. Not only is it inconvenient to park further away, it is also unsafe. I’m not talking about the other people on the sidewalk who are clearly poor and criminal. I am talking about engaging in the intense labor of walking without consulting with your physician before you engaging in such an exercise regime(*). With health care costs being where they are today, who can afford your doctor’s co-pay for a medical check up? Besides, there probably sidewalks instead of parking spaces around the doctor’s office too, leaving you in a terrible catch-22.

(*) We know from TV that “regimes” are evil. Exercise regimes are, therefore, also evil.

3) Walking is dangerous. Driving a small car widely believed to be less safe than driving an SUV and thus it must be true. Obviously, then driving no car at all is the unsafest of all. We can all do our part to enhance our safety by driving the biggest SUV we can afford. I want something like this one. Since there are more head injuries from falling while walking than from cycling, it is best to keep a walking helmet handy in the car in case you do need to exit the car, for instance, to fill up the tank.

4) Sidewalks often have lines where the slabs come together. Now I have it on good authority (a friend of mine back in kindergarten) that stepping on these lines can be deadly or at least bring all sorts of bad luck. For safety reasons, I have never tested this theory myself, but I heard of a guy who wasn’t very careful and later he got his arm ripped off in a centrifuge. Q.E.D.

5) Sidewalks encourage graffiti. Soon you will find young gang members using their chalk all over the sidewalk to play hopscotch. We all know that hopscotch is just a gateway to more organized activities. Preventing our children from getting involved in these activities are just further reason to turn our sidewalks into parking spaces.

As always, stay safe and worried.

Any information shared within this post is provided for entertainment purposes only. The author is not a professional walker and has never been licensed to walk. No specific advice is intended (so this post is pretty much useless). You are advised to discuss you shoe size with your shoemaker and your sidewalks with your urban planner.

Originally posted 2009-12-21 14:51:39.

I like to fix bikes, because it gives me a chance to work with my hands and occasionally work on “something real”. Thus I sometimes get to talk to people and check out their bikes.

Now, to be honest, the bikes (and their riders) are often in a terrible state. The bike may not be entirely—what bicycle shops call—tuned. The bike is very very often poorly adjusted to the rider. And sometimes the rider expects too much of himself.

This triad can be quite detrimental to using the bike. (In fact I come across a lot of neglected bikes.)

Hence, here are a few things, you can do to change your bicycle experience from sucky to nice.

• The most common problem I see is that the saddle is at the wrong height. A new rider buys a bike and starts riding. One week later, there are complaints about knee issues. This is because the saddle is too low. This puts a lot of stress on the tendons. To set the saddle at the right height, get on the bike and put the ball of your foot on the pedal. At the bottom of the stroke (when the crank arms are vertical), your heel should be BELOW the ball of your foot, but no more than 1″.) as your leg locks out and you sit normally on the saddle. If you can’t do that without blowing your Achilles tendon, your saddle is too low. Of course you will never lock out your knees when actually riding. This is why the heel should be below. Under normal riding conditions, your foot stays more of less parallel to the ground. This will set your saddle position at approximately the correct height. You an try to adjust it by a few millimeters up or down to find something that works better for you.
  
• Once you got that fixed, lets look at simple riding technique. Many only apply force on the down stroke. This may apply even to folks with fancy clipless pedals. Doing so means that the pushing leg not only acts to push the pedal down and the bike forward, which is good, it also must work to lift the “lazy” leg, which is bad! You will find you can increase your speed with little effort if you “take some weight off” the pedal on the pedal which is going up.
  
• Most modern bikes comes with tons of gears because tons of gears sell. You got to be aware of “cross-gearing”. Cross-gearing happens when the chain is not running straight. You may think you have 21 gears if you have 3 rings in front and 7 cogs in the rear, but effectively you don’t. The gear run and shift best if the chain runs more or less straight. In fact a single-speed bike will have a perfect straight chain line which is completely silent and close to 100% efficient. For multiple gears, this means that if you use the lare chain ring in front, you should be on the smaller cogs in the rear. For the middle chain ring in front, you should be on the middle cogs. And for the small chain ring, you should be on the largest cogs. Effectively, you have far fewer gears than 3×7=21.
  
• Few people maintain their bikes. As a result the chain starts squeaking after a few months. Now, some people just spray it with WD40… Do not under any circumstance use WD40 on your bike! (There’s only one place on a bike where you can do that: Removing handlebars!). You need to get a cyclone chain cleaner, some citrus cleaner and some chain oil. (Link to amazon for the one I use. Note, I use Park Tools because a) They have a wonderful book which tells you exactly which tools to get; and b) Because of their reputation, you can easily buy and sell the tools used.) You can get the citrus cleaner and the chain oil at your local bike shop. Go with Park Tool’s generic lube or get some triflow. First clean the chain with a solution of water and citrus cleaner using the cyclone (or a similar gadget from another tool supplier). If you’re used to using a brush to clean the chain, you’ll be amazed how well the chain cleaner works. Wipe the chain off with a rag. Now, put 1 drop of chain oil at the pin on each side for each link. Yeah, I know; takes 10 minutes or so, but just do it. It may be easy to squirt oil all over the chain, but that just means it’ll collect too much dirt and you’ll have to clean it again next week. Clean the chain once a month. [Experts may wish to use different chain oils depending on whether they ride in a dry or a wet environment. I haven't really gotten to that stage yet.]

• Also, just like keeping your tires properly inflated will save gasoline, keeping the tires properly inflated will save energy. On a bicycle, running underinflated will be felt directly. It is perhaps no surprise that running underinflated on your bike will wear down the tires faster as well. The good news is that new tires will be substantially cheaper. Maybe $25 instead of $250-$500.

The post script concerns the rider. Frankly, most modern people are in a terrible physical shape. Yet many expect to be able to get on a bike and start a daily 6 mile commute immediately. Or they figure they can easily ride 20 miles. This is true to a point. You can do that to a point similar to how most recreational 5k runners can run a marathon without preparation. Except! They will be in (tendon/joint) pain for days after.

A good gauge for what you can expect on a bicycle is to multiply the distance you are able to run by 4. If you can run two miles a day, you have the cardiovascular work capacity to bike 8 miles a day without overtraining (you get tired and cranky). If you can do a 4 mile run without complications, it will not be a big deal to ride 20 miles.

Of course this is not a direct translation since different muscles and tendons are involved. What I’m getting at is the fitness level. Most people have a good idea of their fitness level when it comes to running. Few seem to have the same intuitive understanding when it comes to riding. Besides, endurance and stamina are not the same thing!

Hence: Start slow! Don’t add more than 10% to your last longest ride when going longer. Don’t add more than 10% to your weekly mileage. If you follow this simply rule, you’ll be fine.

Originally posted 2010-07-20 00:39:16.

I like change. I like moving to a new place every once in a while just to change things up and learn new things. I don’t like fast change which “travel” is usually associated with. Travel is for the experiences, but I like learning things more than experiencing things and learning takes time.

One problem is that the world is divided into nation states which makes it a genuine hassle to live anywhere else than the place one was born in. Free market alright, but what about the movement of free people?

One solution may be the 5 flag theory of setting up semi-permanent living arrangements in 5 different countries. Most countries allow visitors to stay for 3 months on a tourist visa. With 5 places, you would simply move around between them on a permanent rotation. I imagine returning to a familiar place would not be that big a deal as there is little time wasted trying to find out where all the good venues are.

Now, having a semi-permanent residence in 5 countries presumably costs a lot of money to arrange, but I could imagine doing it by forming a partnership which could be facilitated by a website. This website would be similar to couchsurfing.org, but the deal would be that you got a whole residence rather than a couch. In other words, the website would focus on swaps that had a duration of about 10-11 weeks. This could be 2-way swaps, where A and B simply exchange places, or 3-way swaps, where A gets B’s, who gets C’s, who gets A’s, or even 4-way and 5-way swaps. It does not really matter(*). The important thing would be to keep the system going.

(*) Although finding a core group of 5 people and just rotate between each other would probably be ideal because that would allow one to return to exactly the same place.

Obviously, this would require one to be able to fund oneself without working as working is also regulated through visa’s etc., so it is only viable for location independent work or work which does not require one to be salaried and tied to a specific place. Various trades would work as would programming and writing. Heavily regulated vocations like law, medicine, and engineering would probably not work.

I could see myself doing something like this. Could you?

Originally posted 2010-02-03 13:12:17.

Maybe when oil reaches $200 in a few years as predicted by the same Goldman-Sachs analyst that predicted $105 dollar oil by 2009, part of the freeway system, which is now overpopulated by cars and SUVs(*), will be converted into bicycle paths. One can dream, right?

(*) I can’t help but compute (with a certain schadenfreude) that it should cost about $250 to fill up an Excursion or an H2 at that time.

Meanwhile in preparation or perhaps just prove a point take a look at the video below that I found on bicycle commuters.

Speaking of rush hour – have you ever tried the car pool line. It’s a total rush going 60 in the outer lane and passing cars in the other lanes. It is also somewhat depressing to realize that there is only one occupant in each of those 2500 pound steel hulls. Perhaps there is a business opportunity here – volunteer to sit on the backseat so that people in a hurry can use the pool lane and get there faster. OTOH I notice that people in a hurry just tend to break the law.

Originally posted 2008-05-12 19:42:43.

The short answer is: No, you don’t but it’s fun and it does have its advantages compared to an apartment or a house.

My housing story is as follows. During grad school I lived in dorm with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. This is not a big deal when you sleep from 3am to 10am. I usually had everything for myself. The cost of this was ~$270/month (I’m trying to remember past exchange rates) for a small but really well designed room with a table, a bed, a sink, and lots of storage. This was 10 minutes of walking from my job.

I then moved to the US and got the entire top floor of a duplex. This was my first experience of “supersized American”. It was possible to do sprints in the living room without running into a wall. It was furnished with garden furniture. I met DW shortly thereafter and we started living in each others homes. The cost was $400/month and this was 20 minutes of walking from my job.

Since this was a waste, we rented a 1000sqft house half a year later. We lived there for the next 2.5 years. This cost $660/month divided by 2. It was an old house which had been standing empty for a couple of years before we moved in, so pretty much everything in that house broke while we lived there but the landlord was quick to fix it. It was 25 minutes of walking from my job.

Anyone noticing a commonality? (Price and distance).

Then I got a job in CA. We now had a 1500sqft (maybe larger) with 2 bdrms and 1 bthrm and an attached garage. In CA style, we parked the car outside and played hockey in the garage. This also had a landscaped garden which cost a fortune (several hundred dollars per month in water) to keep alive in the dry climate. It was $1400/month plus significant utilities. It was also 100 minutes of walking from my job. I got a bike.

The trend was broken.

I did not really feel I was getting my money’s worth and the landscaped garden was really hitting me in a sore spot (tons of work, finite CA water supplies,…). Vacuuming took an hour, etc. Man, almost every room took an hour to clean by itself. There was simply too much maintenance and too little adventure. And I was paying a premium for that?!? After this experience/experiment, I decided that I would never want a McMansion or a house in suburbia within the constrictions of a home owner association.

I started thinking about living aboard a boat. It sounded exciting, but DW wasn’t buying it. I was a little bit worried too. What if the head (toilet) was operated wrongly in the middle of the night—then we would wake up with screaming bilge pumps and step into knee high water? No, clearly I did not know enough about boats.

Tiny houses (tumbleweed) sounded exciting. Small housing and the possibility of home ownership while maintaining the flexibility to move around in our professional careers (moving every 2-3 years gets old as soon as you hit 30 at which point, I guess, you’re old too ). DW wasn’t buying it.

Instead we bought an RV after some initial preparations and this is where we are now and where we have been for the past year. It is or was 50 minutes of walking (15 minutes by bike) from my job and it cost ~$280/month/person (rent+utils).

Lately, we have been thinking about buying land in New England (Maine or New Hampshire). As shelter is calculated the same way as a latte(*) in terms of how to calculate the true cost of recurring expenses, we could replace our current situation with real estate costing up to $150000 or so. If we buy something (in cash of course) less than this amount we would come out ahead.

(*) I drink coffee, but I would never buy coffee “out” unless in dire circumstances. The last time I bought coffee was in Denver airport at 6am in the morning after a 6 hour night flight.

In conclusion: If you want to retire extremely early, you do not have to live in an RV like we do, currently, but you should make paying only $200-400/month/person for shelter+utilities your highest priority. As you can see above there are many ways to do that (and also one way to not do it).

Originally posted 2009-11-13 08:53:47.

I usually start my “program” with a relocation closer to work and shopping. This allows one to shed at least one car. The rest is just variations and polishing that theme. Extreme early retirement can thus be reached through a frugal antisuburan lifestyle without car dependence, hour long commutes, and big houses.

Note that this is fairly similar to the college lifestyle without the room mates and eventually with better stuff. Being a graduate student, which is an excellent study in enlightened poverty, I was ready to dive right into this, but for the more “established” with societal expectations and a developing appreciation for bling, I realize it is not so easy.

The steps to get ready are very similar to going cruising by which I mean serious cruising as it moving aboard and sailing around for many months (not a short charter in the Caribbean). The primary requirements are as follows:

• Obviously the right mindset is the most important. You have to want the “destination” more than you want the other things in your life. If you do not think about it constantly, it is not likely to happen. This has nothing to do with magical thinking about attracting things into your life. Reality doesn’t work that way. However, thinking abut something constantly means having made it a top priority. I have thought of various things along the way: Not being mortgaged, anticonsumerism, capitalism, environmentalism, etc. These are all compatible so it worked for me.
  
• Second, I did not have a huge weight dragging me down. I had moved often and so I did not have a lot of accumulated junk. In other words, I was not owned by my stuff. However, a lot of people are really owned by their stuff. If they can’t move because it would mean that they would have to give up their sofa set, then they are owned by their sofa set. Here, possessions need to be substituted for anything that is less or not tangible: Hobbies, missions, dreams, relations, etc.
  
• Third, I could walk. Not only could I walk 6 miles on a daily basis, I did not mind it. For someone going cruising, walking almost merits its own chapter, for how else are you going to get around without a car or a bicycle. Sure, a bicycle is convenient, but you don’t always get to park it and so it is not always available. Walking is a prerequisite; specifically the concept of walking is. I see many wives and couples around the housing developments in their sweats our walking swinging their arms around with ipods strapped to their shoulders. This is walking for exercise. If you walk to get somewhere and isn’t dressed in neon, please don’t swing your arms like that, okay?

It may take as much as a year, maybe two, to get comfortable with this new mindset. For changing your mindset, you can either talk to people (this is tricky, since there are very few of them) or read blogs or books. For downsizing, start selling or giving away or using the regular tricks. Most importantly, stop buying. For walking, just go out and do it.

Originally posted 2010-03-06 09:18:41.

Cee Aar is a Canadian in his late twenties who is on his early retirement journey. He has resisted (or plans to) convention in some ways and stops by to share his story of bucking the trend.

Going by Jacob’s list of common things that are classified as essential by most people, I live without a few or plan to avoid some in the future. However, one or two from my list below are bound to change and link me to the conventional kind in those aspects.

Television

A few years back, when I was doing my post graduation, I shared an apartment and we had a television in the living room. I remember watching late night movies, shows like Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, etc. After graduation, I landed a job and moved out. Initially, I was looking for atleast a used TV to watch the news (yeah, since we live in the 1960s that there is no other avenue to get information). I put the word out to my friends but never looked at online or newspaper classifieds myself. As time passed, I started to question why needed a TV. The first few months without one did not seem to affect my life in a negative way. I still had access to many shows online if I wanted to watch them and I found other interests to keep me occupied. I couldn’t care less about a TV anymore!

Microwave Oven

A microwave oven would be handy to warm items and cook but again, after a few months without one, I found that I could heat the same on a stove. I would use it because I bought one and not the other way around. So, that has been out of my life for a while though it is bound to make a comeback!

Landline Phone

Elimination of the landline is very much a common sense change – I’m awake for 5-6 hours at home and spend 9-10 hours outside. It made more sense to carry my prepaid cell phone – not that I receive calls every hour but it is more convenient to have it close for emergencies and respond swiftly to those that need the attention. I plan to never buy a smart phone.

Eating Out

I am not a food connoisseur and don’t crave for new cuisine to satiate my taste buds. I do indulge in the occasional restaurant dinner but it is not a weekly chore! I buy some pleasing-to-the-eye treats (cheesecakes come to mind) but have the self-control to not let them supplant fruits as my dessert on a daily basis.

Car

I drive a car that is ten years old (but a solid one at that) and for a person in his twenties whose friends and peers pride on driving nothing less than a 2-3 year old car, if not new, I think I’ve said a big “NO” to this one despite being the butt of jokes.

Mortgage

Almost all my friends have committed themselves to one of the few things that most people are expected to do in life. I’ve had suggestions and advice about how I could rent my big house out (since I prefer a small house for myself and don’t want to live in a big one) and let someone else pay my mortgage and give me back my house, paid for and all! I’ve also had inputs about taking advantage of the low interest rates in Canada. As on date, it looks likely that I’ll buy a house in a few years’ time though the longer it takes, the higher my downpayment. I have yearly milestones to meet my early retirement goal and I’ve waited until I reached certain short-term goals before starting to save for a downpayment. This year will be the first one when I have surplus to put aside for a house. Of course, that amount could also be used for retiring early but I do need a roof of my own at some point. So, I plan to save for that from this year.

Procreation

This is probably the biggest move away from the mainstream. As I reach an age when people generally have kids or plan when they should have one, I thought about it too. Again, I could not see why I needed one. I’ve had people say various things: that the experience will enrich my life to questioning how I will spend time in my thirties and after without a kid to take care of? It seems that life will be boring and friends will drift away, since I will be the odd one out as they become a family with kids while I remain childless (I’d prefer free!). I have enough pursuits in mind that I’d do than be tied to a job for salary’s sake (whether all materialize is another story) and being an introvert (ISTJ, if you are curious), I don’t exactly covet company. My mind is set and as long as my significant other is on board, I don’t see why I should bite the bullet and follow the crowd!

All the above are based on viewing the “tried and tested” path with a critical eye and picking the best way for my life. There is a choice most times that I did not realize earlier (atleast it’s not too late)! Jacob’s writing has definitely played its part by planting seeds and reinforcing those things that I had been doing already.

Originally posted 2010-05-14 00:08:43.

For short distances, speeding simply doesn’t make sense. Going 20% faster might feel like a big deal, but arriving 20% early on a trip that takes 15 minutes; that’s only three minutes.

Consider these times to reach my dojo, which is about 3 miles away

• Walking: 45 minutes
• Running: 25 minutes
• Biking: 15 minutes
• Driving: 10 minute

One reason is that the faster methods are so similar is that a surprisingly large amount of time is spent waiting for traffic lights to turn — even for the running, it’s probably 3-4 minutes

I think one has to put down a fairly convincing argument to use a car rather than a bicycle just to save 5 minutes. I can even make the argument for running and walking rather than using a bicycle. After all what’s the hurry?

Of course, here I’m not considering the time spent on paying for and maintaining the cars, bikes, and shoes respectively.

Suppose we make 10 such trips weekly, 50 weeks a year, that’s 500 trips a year. This will take

• Walking: 22500 minutes
• Running: 12500 minutes
• Biking: 7500 minutes
• Driving: 5000 minutes

According to government statistics, the average person spends 20% of his income on transportation which for all intents and purposes is driving. The average person also works 2000 hours or 120000 minutes a year. 20% of that is 24000 minutes. A bike can be had for $50 and up, so that’s about 300 minutes, but let’s say 1000 minutes a year — I think that’s quite conservative considering how long a bicycle lasts. With daily rides you’ll have a flat every third month or so and those will take 15 minutes to fix, so that’s an hour a year. That makes it 1060 minutes. Shoe soles are about $40 a year if walking and twice for running, maybe 250 or 500 minutes to pay for that. Hence we get the following numbers

• Walking: 22750 minutes
• Running: 13000 minutes
• Biking: 8560 minutes
• Driving: 29000 minutes

Hence, I will keep riding my bike and otherwise run or walk if I feel too tired to run. It is interesting to note that driving a car is almost as economically efficient (time is money) as just putting your shoes on and starting to walk.

Originally posted 2009-04-05 12:41:00.

Upon request, I post a picture of the handlebar map holder I just made for my touring bicycle.

It’s a thin piece of plywood (or whatever you have, other wood, plastic, metal) cut out to fit standard AAA road maps. It’s attached to a mountain bike handlebar with a quill stem. I drilled some holes and used two [white, see picture for positioning] zip ties to attach it to the stem. I made a cut out at the top to make room for the bolts where the handlebar attaches to the stem so the map holder rests flat against the handlebar with very little flex.

The map will be held to the wood with the four rubber bands. Obviously it doesn’t work in the rain but it will be easy to fashion a plastic cover for that eventuality.If it rains, just put the map in a ziploc bag.

If this seems like too much work (it really wasn’t… two cuts with a saw, four holes, and some sandpaper) you can buy a similar map holder at REI for $20. This one only costs a few cents to make.

PS: If you want to subscribe to the blog, click on the RSS feed and your software will probably take it from there. If not, google for an “RSS reader” (I like shrook for Mac OS X), install it, and you’ll be on your way.

On labor day I went sailing on D_’s 21 foot two masted sailboat on the local reservoir. Having been reading cruising and sailing books for a couple of years by now, this was the first time ever I have actually stepped onto a boat that is bigger than a rowboat but smaller than a ferry. It was nice to connect some of the words from the books to reality and I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly—it’s much like flying or gliding—and I even got to be the skipper for a while.

Based on one four hour sail where we were beating against the wind for three hours or so and then running with the wind wing-on-wing going back for an hour over a distance that would take 5-6 hours to run by foot in total, I think I could absolutely get used to this form of travel if the activity translates well into a ~30 foot cruiser. Also, if I could mount some ship’s cannons?

First, there’s a level of skill involved, much like the difference between being a passenger and a driver. Second, there is ultimate responsibility: No time-outs. Third, and much more importantly, unlike flying or even driving, which I find much like riding an elevator or using a transporter (what, you don’t have a transporter?), there is an actual feeling of moving than I can relate to my human size and human sense of speed. I think driving and particularly flying is so fast that it is impossible to get a feeling of true distance. Hence places become merely a network of connected airports and the world becomes a large place not due to its actual size but due to the large number of different destinations one can punch into expedia or orbitz.

To compare, the nearest next city is about a 7 hours march away.

It is said that out of every ten thousand that want to go cruising, only one do so. This sounds like reasonable odds to me It certainly holds a sense of wonder to me to be able to go to Hawaii or cross the Atlantic by boat rather than sitting in a tin can like tuna fish 40,000 feet up, not like tuna fish. Imagine the freedom.

Having just passed an investment milestone, I’m now richer than ever (not very rich compared to some of you, I know), but on an absolute scale I would have the money to complete this: $50,000 for the boat, and the rest to draw $500 a month for supplies for two people. Maybe $50,000 will not be enough for a true blue water cruiser, but lets start with the Caribbean, eh? After all, it should take 5-10 years, at least, to get the required experience.

I think this also solves the problem of not having long term goals. How about this (each project taking about 10 years)

1. Get PhD and publish a paper in an international journal (actually, I went to 25). [Done!]
2. Become financially independent and retire early. [Done!]
3. Sail around the world: circumnavigation.
4. …?

Too farfetched?

Originally posted 2009-09-11 13:46:07.

I like this guest post from MoneyCrush for the following reasons. First, it is a big step outside convention. When I grew up I was told that cars should be replaced every two years (it doesn’t really make much sense to me now) and so keeping a car running for that long is impressive; particularly so because modern cars are clearly not built to last that long. Second, it’s a big step … oh did I already mention that? … because getting the idea not to pick the default option is unusual and so it usually works to an advantage. Third, our RV also happens to be that old (it’s a ’91 model) although it only has fifty thousand miles on it.

Back in 1990, the first Mazda Miatas were all the rage. The base models were selling for premiums of up to $8000 over their sticker price of about $13,900. There was no way I could afford one, although I wanted to buy one so badly I could taste it. A year later though, the frenzy had worn off a little. I bought a used lease-return Miata from an Acura dealer for about $12,000. (Which was $3000-$5000 less than most of them were selling for in the area.)

Buying a used car at all felt risky to me. Most people I knew bought a brand new car whenever they finished paying off their old one. Despite that, I went into the deal planning to drive the car into the ground, which I assumed would be around 100,000 miles.

By 1999, it had more than 100,000 miles on it. People kept asking me when I was going to get a new car. When I’d visit people I hadn’t seen in a while, they’d start out conversations with “Oh you still have that car?”. At the time I’d never known anyone who had a car with more than 100,000 miles on it. (Now I know plenty of people who have cars like that.)

I started to get worried, and began to think that maybe they were right: I should buy a new car.

Ok, let’s face it.

The real truth was that I’d just gotten a new job making $40,000 a year — almost double what I’d ever made before in my life, and the idea of a new car was attractive. But what I told myself was that the car was getting really old and would probably start falling apart soon, so I should get a new car. I checked out the 6cylinder BMW Z3, which seemed to be what I was looking for. You know, a sporty looking convertible.

But then I got to thinking. What if something happened and I lost my job? Did I really want to pay a higher insurance premium to have essentially the same type of car I already had? The only visible differences between the Z3 and my current car were the price (about $40,000) and the fancy name plate on the back. Did I really want to go into even more debt? Also I loved my current car. It’d be stupid to buy a new one.

A year later, my husband and I started divorce proceedings. And I blew out the engine on my car because of a dumb mistake.

Once again, I considered buying a replacement car. After all, who replaces their engine? That’s a pretty critical part.

My situation was too risky to buy a new car, and the used cars I could afford were about the same price as a new engine. But they weren’t cars that I loved, so I bought the engine instead.

Then there was the dot com bust, and I lost my job. (Did I mention that I worked for an dot com?)

That’s when I decided that hanging on to my old car was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Still, for years and years afterward, people I knew urged me to buy a new car every time they saw me.

I have yet to figure out why. Maybe it was the dent in the door that I didn’t bother fixing. Or the faded paint. Or the shredded top that I finally replaced when too much duct tape limited my visibility (having the roof slashed by a vandal may have contributed to the decision to replace that.)

My car turned 20 this year, and I celebrated its birthday by making a wish that I’ll get at least another 10 years out of it. It has about 215,000 miles on it. The only other major part I’ve replaced has been the drive train. Otherwise, there’s been nothing but the occasional new radiator, power steering pump, and timing belt. I do need to go put a little duct tape on the seat, because I’ve worn a hole in it. Mazda has stopped making some of its parts, so if I can’t get non-manufacturer parts for it when it needs repairs, I’ll have to start hitting up junkyards soon, but that’s ok. I’ve always wanted to take a car apart…

I haven’t added this figure up in a couple of years, but the last time I calculated it I’d spent about $28,000 total on my car over the 17 years I had owned it to that point. That figure includes the $12,000 purchase price, but does not include gas or insurance. Since then I’ve probably spent another $2000 on it.

I found data (from 2006) on the FTC site that says, “According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, the average price of a new car sold in the United States is $28,400.” Finance that whole amount over 72 months and you get a monthly payment of $499.57.

If I’d bought a new car every time my car needed a $1000, $2000, or $3500 repair or batch of maintenance, I’d have bought about 7 new cars by now. Even if I’d only bought a new car every 7 years, I’d have bought two additional new cars by now. A total of 3 “average” new cars is a whole lot more than $30,000.

Plus, none of them would have been as much fun. Saying “no” to a new car has definitely been worthwhile.

Originally posted 2010-05-05 14:36:23.

When I first came to the US about five years ago, someone asked me if I rode bikes, as in bicycles. I replied in the affirmative, and then I was asked whether I liked to ride for fun. “For fun?”, yes, you see in the US, people mainly ride bikes recreationally, whereas in Europe, people mainly ride bikes as a form of transportation from point A to B.

This orientation is extremely ingrained. Having no longer a need to go from A to B, I find myself rarely riding my bike.

Now, in the US, walking is something you do inside the mall (also Segways are gaining popularity) and in Europe walking is something you do to get to the bus stop. Again different.

However, when it comes to running, both Europe and the US are similar in that running is a recreational activity in both places.

Hence, despite having lived in both places, it has never occurred to me to think of running as a way of getting from A to B. Until now.

Last week, I ran home from training three times. As a form of transportation it is as simple as walking, you only need a pair of shoes, but 2-3 times faster. For short distances up to three miles, it is almost as fast as slow biking, because it takes a few minutes on each end to get the bike out and ready.
It is possible to run with small loads in a tight backpack. I have one like this.

It would thus be possible to literally run small errands, like picking up small items from the supermarket, and anyone who does on a regular basis is bound to end up with sustained low-intensity endurance.

Also, if you managed to arrange your residence to be less than 3 miles from anything, you would not even need a bicycle. In that case, I would walk to work, which would take 60 minutes which could be used for meditation, brainstorming or calculating your passive income from your savings in as many ways as you can think of, and then run home which would take about 20 minutes. When shopping, I would run with an empty backpack and then walk a full backpack home. It is a more minimalist approach than the bicycle option.

Originally posted 2009-08-17 00:19:41.

For those who do want a car but would prefer to keep costs as minimal as possible, I suggest (not based on personal experience at all, incidentally) buying a used car without too much electronics and doing as much maintenance on it yourself as possible. This is subject area where I am at stage 0 knowledgewise. Actually, stage -1 is more accurate, because I probably know even less about cars than the average person.

Of course such ignorance has a huge price because it means going to the mechanic and saying yes to every suggestion he makes. Presumably it does not take long for a mechanic to catch on to the fact that he is talking to a sucker and so he’ll make out like a bandit.

Conversely, when I visit the bike store, I typically get what I want with a couple of bucks worth of spare parts instead of paying $15 to have my tire changed or $100 for a tune up.

I am well aware that the challenge is all in the mind, because after all, a car is but a bunch of spare parts held together with nuts and bolts. Of course the question is exactly where in the mind that challenge sits.

I have been searching for information on the net. I know for bicycles, you can get very far with Park Tool’s Big Blue Book and bicycletutor.com. I have yet to find the equivalent for our car. There are the Haynes and Chilton manuals, but they both get very poor reviews for our model. Beyond that, I know little. Supposedly one should get the workshop manuals directly from the manufacturer(?). Another nice thing would be a central site using the prescription: Job or problem, which tools needed for this job, step 1, step 2, … for a 5 minute video, preferably with a “car map” or at least an inventory so you can just click on the general area. It is possibly that these already exist, but as I said, I’m at stage -1, so even the mention of, say, a jack stand leads me to analysis-paralysis (which one, how big, how small, the red one or the blue one? ).

Update: I have bought the workshop manuals (used) and found a good website.

Originally posted 2010-03-07 09:31:01.

Disclaimer: I hate writing book reviews just a tad more than I hate reading them, but I figured it would be helpful if nothing else to at least mention a few a the typically 2-3 books I plow through during a week if I deem they could be helpful. I only expect to mention the top 5% of what I read. Update: You can follow my reading by friending me on goodreads.com.

After Steve mentioned the book, Effective Cycling by John Forester, I decided to check it on from the (inter)library. I would say this is easily the most all encompassing book about anything bike related I have ever read.

I did know about riding in traffic in terms of proper road positioning — I see many people on bikes who do not — but there were also parts about how to avoid accidents where Forester suggested maneuvers which I would not intuitively have chosen. The most interesting part to me was the detailed description of the various energy systems, oxygen transport, etc, and how to improve. Turns out that the most efficient cadence is 90-110, whereas I have been cycling at 77 rpm. My cyclocomputer (that’s what speedometers are called these days) measures this, so I know the number exactly.

Beyond this, what is most relevant to this blog, are descriptions on how to commute and deal with the clothing issues, rain, snow, night, etc. even advocating if you want to go this way.

The writing style is complete in the sense that it gives you the understanding of the principles rather than just a list of tips. In short, I’m biased to like it.

Originally posted 2009-01-19 17:58:28.

Carpooling has been suggested as a solution to alleviate increasing gas prices. The problem is that finding someone to carpool with is a difficult task requiring much research into whether the driver is dependable, etc. Except for major cities it is even to time-consuming/costly to get a cab. Thus today it is highly convenient to own your own car.

A much better system would be if all car owners had an easy way of turning into part time cabbies. If people could expect a large fraction of drivers to be willing to take one for a ride at a price, this would significantly reduce the individual need for private cars. In general this would be a more efficient economic system as [unemployed] car owners would derive an income and car-non owners would save on car ownership.

It might surprise you to learn that such a system once existed. The semi-cabs were called jitneys (jitney=slang for nickel) where the expectation was that a ride cost a nickel. They were killed off by government subsidizing streetcars. Later the streetcars were bought out by the big automakers and the need for private car ownership was created.

Originally posted 2008-06-09 18:47:46.

This may be taking it to extremes, but try dollar cost averaging at the pump for cheaper gas. Obviously this does not work if you have to detour to get gas, but if the gas station is on your route and you merely have to pull over, do this. Instead of filling the tank up, spend a fixed amount like $20, $40, $60 or $80 depending on the gross tonnage of your vehicle. With a fixed amount, you get more of the cheap gas when prices are down. Conversely when gas prices are up, you get less of the expensive gas. On average, gas will be cheaper. Of course, riding a bike, or just getting a smaller car will be much more effective at reducing gas costs than this little trick.

Alternatively you might want to try the hypermiling technique.

Originally posted 2008-01-18 07:15:33.

Note: Technically I don’t have a commute anymore, but I’m posting this anyway to illustrate how living in the right location can turn the commute into a fun activity and eliminate the need for a car.

I have the best commute in the world. I travel at top speed and I am rarely bothered by slower people in front of me since I always pass them without considering oncoming traffic in the other lane. Some times there are faster people on the road. This is fun as we can start racing or tailgaiting. Fortunately I live in an area where the local law enforcement isn’t bothered by my driving. As long as I don’t run any red lights or stop signs (rolling stops are semi-okay) I don’t get harassed. Also other drivers do not try to run me off the road and they don’t seem to mind me smiling as I pass them one by one in the side lane as they’re idling along in the 15mph stop-and-go fashion of the morning commute.

It’s a good thing that I drive a bicycle.

If I drove a car there would always be another car in front of me and a car behind me limiting the speed to 1/3 of what the car could do without obstacles. It would annoy me to sit in a fine piece of machinery that could easily go 100mph and yet only go at an average 35mph due to congestion. I would be pissed having to waste $3/gallon gas on a continuous cycle of acceleration and braking to follow Californian traffic; slowing down to coast or ride the green wave doesn’t help as other drivers just pull in in front of you. Better pray that you don’t find yourself going in the wrong direction since you can’t just turn the car around and go the other way lest other drivers get annoyed. Instead a wrong turn can turn into quite an adventure or subsequent right turns due to one-way streets and “no U-turn” signs. Also finding a place to park can be a major hassle when you can’t simply park on the sideway.

It’s a good thing that I don’t drive a car.

Originally posted 2008-02-24 07:24:58.

Up until now, I have visited 14 countries and I have lived in 3, and in most cases I have never paid a dime to get around. I must admit that more travel is not (no more) a high ranking priority in my case, but I would be happy to give you some tips on how to combine traveling would with into extreme retirement plans (thanks for the question Brad!). I think those who like to travel have basically been stuck in the same place for a large part of their life and now they yearn for new experiences just to bring back some balance. That’s just my theory, though.

As I understand there are four different ways of traveling.

1. Tourism. Tourism usually involves paying a company to arrange the trip for you. It typically lasts 7-10 hectic days where the family is dragged around to stare at various buildings and have their picture taken in front of them. Later they return exhausted. Insofar that I can understand a 13 hour plane trip is better than a 5 hour plane trip, because the destination is more “exotic”, but other than that and the price level there is little difference other than fewer people can afford the exotic vacation. Maybe that is where the attraction lies. More advanced tourists book their own flights and arrange their own hotels. There’s really nothing to it. I usually use expedia, google, and the airport homepage (to see about the shuttle services) to map out my destination. In my experience, you can solve any problem if a) you can carry all your luggage and b) you got cash. I have met more than one traveller who was stuck somewhere because they could not afford a ticket due to some unforeseen circumstance. Regardless, I am like the worst tourist ever to the point where I prefer to stay in the hotel room reading a book rather than having my picture taken in front of some building. I’m probably missing the point.
2. Career travel. This is how most of my traveling has been done either during my research career or as a member of the swim team. I have a theory that most scientific/business conferences are so boring that they have to be placed on the other side of the world to attract people. Personally I prefer it if they could be held at a Motel 6 down the street. Then again, I’m no fun when it comes to these things. What you need to do for this to work is of course to be in a career that involves travel. Working for the airline industry is a sure hit. I like to travel slowly though, so if this was my goal and depending on which you like most – containers or rich people – I would consider joining a cargo ship crew or a yacht (a yacht captain can easily swing six figures, think about it!). Being financially independent, this should be doable.
3. Volunteering. There are many places that needs your help. Typically they will pay for your stay along with a stipend and sometimes they will also pay for your plane ticket. Some people almost make a career out of this. Volunteering in one place after another, they become rich in experiences but not money (which would you rather have?). In a way I envy these people. As they are always able to pick up a job practically anywhere in the world, they are truly financially independent.
4. Living. Sadly, while the world is all about free trade, it is not so happy about the free movement of people. Of course there are ways around this Most countries will permit you to stay 90-180 days. What some people do is to find a source of income that is not location dependent (like blogging) and then they start traveling around (like this guy). For citizens of some countries (not the US), this means that you don’t pay taxes anymore (you’re just visiting on a tourist visa and you are not a resident of your home country, see!). As far as I know, the US is one of the few countries that taxes its citizens even if they don’t live in their country and use its services. MyCountry does not You could also combine this with a career like I have done. There is simply no comparison between actually living in a country and just visiting it if you want to understand the culture.

So with either financial independence (=plenty of opportunities) or some planning or even by making some hard choices, traveling is fairly easy to do, so if that is what you want, it is doable. Like all other things, I guess.

Originally posted 2008-08-25 07:15:15.

From the mailbag (actually from the comments on a post):

Jacob Can you tell me what kind of bike you own/price range? I am shoppng for a bike which I hope to use for errands and at least 3 days/ week to work. I’m 45 female and in fair/good physical condition The dealers i spoke to all recommend different brands. They were not helpful. thanks JL

Although I already gave an answer, I have thought a bit more about it, so here is an expanded answer. It depends on several things. For instance, I ride a road bike and I like to go fast. I practically treat my commute as a race (all within the laws of traffic — yes, I’m the guy who will stand and wait at a red light at 3am when nobody is around). When I stop at intersections, I race the cars to the other side (and typically win) and when I see another cyclist, I’m thinking “his/her ass is mine” rather than “Aw, that is nice, a fellow cyclist out enjoying a ride/a commuter saving gas/…” . I also do interval training on the bike and since I started I have added an inch to my legs, lost 5 pounds, and lower my resting heart rate from 55 to 45. My bike has no room for fenders and no braze-ons for racks.

I bought it new from the local bike shop and paid $1300+taxes. They spent 1 hour fitting it to me adjusting the height, length and angle of the saddle, handlebars. When I got a loose crank somewhat later, they tightened it for free.

Now, you may think this is a lot of money for a bicycle, but just how much did you spend for your car? Considering this is my primary transport I thought I could pay a little extra for quality. The good thing about bikes is that it is much easier to buy relatively high-end equipment(*). So while I would never pay $25,000 for a mid-range car as I don’t derive any pleasure from driving, I will certainly pay $1,300 for a mid-range bicycle.

(*) There are several other areas, where it is possible to buy the best of the best (or nearly so) without being stupendously rich. You just have to change your aim a bit. Instead of buying high-end sports cars, you buy high-end “sports” bikes. Instead of collecting rare paintings, you collect hand-made custom knives. Instead of buying store brand soda, you buy Coca Cola, incidentally, I prefer Sam’s Cola (the Walmart brand) over Coca Cola.

I got my previous commuter bike for $35. That was a $70 Walmart mountain bike bought used from a professor that was leaving campus. Was that a cheap or a frugal purchase? Well, it was certainly cheap, and the bike also sucked. The front brake was broken so eventually I had to time stops in advance since my braking length was about 20 yards (my ride was mostly off road and flat so it was not a big hazard). I got a gel-saddle for 25c at a yard sale. That saddle later got stolen. Realizing that I was surrounded by seemingly upstanding young students (I was at a rather well known university well known for its moral values), I figured I could ditch the bike by parking it unlocked when the crank finally failed. Sure enough, less than a day later somebody stole it. Good riddance and problem solved. Was it frugal? Consider this. It took 30 minutes to walk and walking was previously my main mode of transportation. Riding the bike took 10 minutes, but I could run the distance in 15 minutes. Since the bike had no fenders, riding was not an option when it rained (which it did often). From that perspective the bike was frugal as well as it saved me 10-40 minutes a day from time to time and the only use for the bike was the off road commute since the drivers in that area apparently got points for hitting cyclists.

Therefore picking the right bike depends very much on the conditions you are going to use it for. Are you going to use it daily? Will there be exceptions such as rain or snow? Are you ever going off road? Do you need to carry anything like clothes or groceries? How fast do you like to go? How far do you need to go? And do you ever plan on doing something else with the bike?

Now being older, wiser, and also uh.. better looking, eh.. would I buy a road bike again? No. I would sacrifice a few pounds (my bike weighs 18-19lbs, just a few pounds more than $15,000 Tour de France bikes, a cheap steel bike probably weighs around 25-30lbs) for more braze-ons, the ability to use fatter tires and take it off road (my current bike has a spoke count of 16 front 24 read.. if I hit a big rock or drive off a curb, the wheel would go out of alignment). Today I would get a touring bike because it is almost as fast as a road bike (for me), but it comes with the ability to mount cargo and it has added resilience (higher spoke counts, less fancy gearing, and more bosses for more water bottles). It would work about as well for my commute and better for my long distance events. I’m thinking something like the Surly Long Haul Trucker (about $1000 with cheap components, I’d probably upgrade them to at least 105, because Tiagra shifters just annoy me) or the Rivendell A Homer Hilsen (about $3000).

Another thing you have to consider when you buy a bike is that riding will probably change you. An untrained individual will be quite uncomfortable on a road bike. The saddle is too hard, the handlebars are too far down so the butt and neck hurts, etc. After several months, this will change. If you buy a more “comfortable” bike, then unless you are a “comfortable” rider, the slow shifting, low gearing (spin-outs), and lack of aerodynamics will begin to annoy you as you get more fit.

Maybe one idea is to look at which car you prefer to drive. If you could drive whatever you wanted to (remember price is not so much an objection for a bicycle as it is for a car), what kind would you be driving? The sports car? The SUV? The Jeep? A van? A sedan? Consider the distance for your commute and multiply by 7. This is the comfort level. For instance, if your commute is 5 miles, imagine driving 35 miles in a Jeep with knobby wheels(mountain bike), would that be fun? Probably not, unless you love Jeeps. To derive the price level, take the price level of your imaginary car and divide by 25. That’s would much you would spend on a similar level bike, thereabouts.

Originally posted 2008-09-17 00:27:47.