Here are the results, in a graph, showing which budget categories, responders have the biggest problems reducing. A few days after posting the survey, I realized that the question was a bit ambiguously phrased. For example, housing costs may be hard to reduce further because they have already been significantly reduced (why athletes will lose any fitness contest based on relative weight loss) or they may be hard to reduce because of some inherent quality, e.g. the unavailability of inexpensive housing.

The results are given below. I was not surprised that housing cost came in as #1. In the past, especially in the past decade, housing has been promoted as a sure-fire speculation. Real estate prices never go down. Buy as much house as you can afford. Over the past 4 decades, housing sizes have gone up radically. It is not surprising that people then a) find themselves with too much space and b) unable to find smaller places. It is not impossible though as this exercise shows. I urge you to go through it even if you have no intention of moving; just to prove a point.

One thing that did surprise me is that people have their stuff under control. We have no conspicuous consumption of gadgets and consumer junk. Does that mean that people are not living in large spaces because they need space to store everything? I used to think this was a primary problem: “I can’t move into something smaller, because my footprint is too large” or “I need to move into something bigger, because I’m running out of space”.

The biggest surprise to me was the eating out category. Wow! This is a bigger problem than car payments and health insurance which I had guessed would be on third and second respectively. I hate eating out, so I have no problem controlling it. It is interesting how eating out generally means eating less healthy (a cheap way of making things taste good is loading them up with salt and fat/oil) which in turn drives up health insurance costs in the long run. It is interesting to note that some of the biggest companies in the US are drug companies and junk food companies. It is a good investment strategy: making people sick and then alleviating their symptoms. But please try not to be a victim of it. Then, of course, there is the social aspect of eating out. This is a cultural phenomena. I should probably reserve a blog post for alternatives to eating when hanging out with other people.

The biggest surprise was transportation coming in at #4. Either everybody walks and rides a bike or the expensive car, accounting for around 20% of the average budget or $1,000,000 extra in retirement for someone who works their entire life, is considered nonnegotiable. Or you all drive 15+ year old cars.

Originally posted 2010-06-09 10:10:25.

I see it this way. I need something to get me from A to B. Why own a crappy $1500 car that needs to be replaced in a few years, when I can own a pretty smooth $1500 bicycle that could potentially outlast me. Why the obsession with size and power over quality and longevity?

If you live in a small house, you can pave the floors with gold. If you live in a large home, this is not an option. If you drive a bicycle you can afford to drive the best. Few car drivers can afford to drive the best cars.

Now it may be that finely crafted bikes do nothing for you. In that case, just get a free bike on freecycle or get a cheap used bike on craigslist. If you want to indulge yourself, though, these are some very classy looking bikes.

• Velo Orange
• Rivendell
• Waterford
• Bruce Gordon
• Surly

I’m sure I forgot some here. Any others?

• Bikes are faster than cars

Originally posted 2008-12-19 17:09:12.

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.

I have visited 14 different countries out of the 30 or so developed countries in the world. From my superficial touristic view, I have noted that in all these countries, people earn money at day jobs, spend it on stuff, and generally lead predictable lives. The difference between countries is so much smaller than the difference between individuals. From this I have concluded that travel is not worth it, at least when it comes to going to other developed countries.

I have lived in three different countries, all some of the richest countries in the world. This has allowed me to gain a certain outside perspective on specific cultures, at least the wealthy ones, and traditions that can not be gained from tourism. Cultures ARE slightly different. Some are reserved. Some are civilized. Some are moral. Some are friendly. Some are lazy. Some are hamfisted. Some are hardworking. Just like people.

However, on the whole, national cultures are far more similar than people. If you are a carpenter, you will find you have more in common with other carpenters regardless of their nationality than you do with their neighbor. There, I just saved you a lot of travel time — however, perhaps this has to be experienced to be fully realized. I still run into people who should be smart enough to realize that their nation is not the best because its people are somehow chosen.

If you want to learn something about people, I suggest you talk to your neighbor rather than someone from another country.

Perhaps my perspective is clouded by being concentrated in developed countries. However, this is where most tourism go anywhere, so why are people going?

I know people that buy the tour guides and plan out which landmarks to see. I note that most locals never go to those landmarks. This suggests to me that the landmarks are irrelevant to the culture despite being promoted as being the essential part of the culture. Why do people go to see the views if they don’t care about the views where they live?

Sometimes it’s about the shopping, but seriously. Global trade means that you can now buy the same limited number of goods all over the world. Why go to Paris, when you can buy the same things down at the corner store. Similarly, sometimes, it’s about the food. But really, I don’t need to go to Greece to eat at a Greek restaurant. Yes, maybe it’s not the same, but it’s pretty damn close.

Sometimes people travel to get away from it all? My question then is, what are you running away from? And why are you running? I have never felt a need to get away from my normal life that could be cured by a one week getaway.

It used to be that travel meant something. Like an expedition you would work to go somewhere. Nowadays, you just hop into an airplane and 12 hours you are in another country on the other side of the world that is almost identical to your own. I suspect this is just “consumption of places” similar to consuming food or things. Is modern tourism just yet another consumer experience?

Have you ever considered traveling slowly? Moving from city to city until you get to the destination? I think sailing is an interesting way to travel slowly. I submit that you do not really know a place unless you have worked a job there, opened a bank account, and lived as a native rather than just briefly passed through while taking pictures. Living abroad makes for more personal growth than flying around in a tincan as a tourist. If you have some useful skills, you can even travel for free and get paid for it. (Until I quit my career, I have never paid for a plane ticket with my own money.)

That’s how I see it; I realize that I might be missing a few genes, so please enlighten me why travel is so popular?

Originally posted 2009-07-03 04:26:31.

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.