Comments on: Day 1: Finding a place to live

By: tonkasman

tonkasman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:11:02 +0000

nearing 60.Have two properties that i will rent out.Small savings under 100 k. Have the urge to travel but still require income .Plan is to buy a used large Rv which are real cheap nowadays. Since i work on construction projects . I intend to travel the country going from job to job which i hope will satisfiy my travel needs . Rv parks are expensive so i hope to stay on construction sites as a night security person. also seek out low cost or free parking . Now i will have two rental incomes ,Myself and wife incomes with little or no rent . My five year plan maybe more?

By: cgreg2000

cgreg2000 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:17:19 +0000

I’m relatively new here as only discovered this blog about a week ago. I have wanted to work for not more than 10years and be FI by then, hence I’ve always been relatively frugal ( with short bursts of consumerism every now and again). I am now in my 3rd year of working, and hope I will make it to FI within my 10year timeline, or sooner. I’m very happy that I am already in a situation where I live within 3 minutes walking distance to work, 10 minutes walking distance to town, and bike or walk everywhere I need to go. Housing budget is quite high though, $130/week (we have weekly rent in Australia). I will sit this one out for now, but may move to somewhere with lower rent within the same distance from work and town, if I find such a place. What I need to work on is the food budget: spending about $100/week lately, which is way too much for me anyway. I hope to get it way down to $75 per month. It seems feasible since I like beans too, and not really a fancy eater.

By: eu_us

eu_us — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:41:52 +0000

I’ve always been impressed by how many people believe that renting in Europe is cheaper than in the US. IT IS NOT. Not even in the former eastern block. Like Sofia Bugaria, can be EUR 800 per month for a small apartment. It’s cheaper in smaller cities, but in the capital or large cities.Don’t be fooled by those companies that advertise low rentals. And I don’t know why all of them are established in UK.
Just my EUR .02

By: Go Green: Minimalism, How Low Can You Go? | Yes, I Am Cheap

Go Green: Minimalism, How Low Can You Go? | Yes, I Am Cheap — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:22:42 +0000

[...] Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob. There is a 21 Day Makeover to the left on the blog [...]

By: retirebyforty

retirebyforty — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:26:36 +0000

I just started following the ERE site and will go through the 21 days post one by one. Early Retirement Extreme is a little too extreme for me. My goal is Early Retirement Moderate.
We moved from a 2000 sq ft house to a 1000 sq ft condo in a medium size downtown.
Unfortunately our condo does not meet your 3 criteria.
work location – close for my wife, far for me. We both can take public transport to work though. We share one car.
grocery location – nearby grocery stores are expensive so we drive to the burb once every two weeks or so.
cost – somewhat expensive…. what can I say? We love living here and for now is willing to pay.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:41:15 +0000

I worked like crazy for 5 years, only to have a house that I had time to “visit” a few hours a day, then 60 miles back to work again the next morning. What did I accomplish? After years of this I looked at my paperwork only to discover I paid down the mortgage by a couple hundred bucks. NEVER AGAIN. We are in an RV now, and much happier. Further we can survive on one income, one car, one cell phone instead of two.

By: Be frugal, be green {er} | Move to Portugal

Be frugal, be green {er} | Move to Portugal — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:28:28 +0000

[...] the future, when we move abroad, we will downsize and live within walking distance of work and food stores as we want to be car free. We will live [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:23:04 +0000

Good discussion points from the financial side of where to live upon retirement. But as important as being able to afford your retirement home is enjoying where you live – the “want” versus “need that you mention. You touch on nearness to grocery store and climate for example. In addition, the variables that we consider important for our happy retirement location include: must have one awesome burrito place; tip top martini joint; good, spicy Thai restaurant; locale for that perfect cup of morning java (Starbucks/Peets are “okay”, but a neighborhood brewery would be ideal); along that note, local brewery with just-right-suds; corner grocery store with a bit of everything; bakery for that fresh morning or afternoon pastry; and a wine shop with a nice diversity to satisfy our love of good vino. Keep on posting!

By: Jacob

Jacob — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:38:46 +0000

@Anne – Nice vehicle you got going there. We bought ours ready made, but I like the creativity involved in building it from scratch. You might find quite a bit of posts pertaining to living in efficient spaces on this blog.

By: mobile condo

mobile condo — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:27:47 +0000

Hi Jacob,

I just found your blog and wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your 21 day makeover posts. I’m already scheduled to move into an RV of sorts in the next few months and have very low monthly costs so I didn’t think I could gain much from your blog. However, now I’m starting to rethink a few expenses that I considered permanent and unavoidable such as our $95/month cell phone bill.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Anne Bentham

By: Bankruptcy Ben

Bankruptcy Ben — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:44:40 +0000

I earn $1000/week and pay a mortgage of $560/week, unsustainable. I’m getting working on getting rid of it and buying something smaller, unfortunately iI need a house for the dogs or I would be in a small appartment again.

By: Wanting Out « Medicinesux

Wanting Out « Medicinesux — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:02:47 +0000

[...] soon to be up. Two months later, I moved two blocks over to a tiny walk up studio which effectively cut my rent in half for the remaining two years of my residency. I hired some guy with a van on craigslist to move my [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:53:47 +0000

For prodigious savers, living in a high cost of living area can be a boon. You get paid as if you were spending all your money, but instead you’re saving most of it. More money goes into savings. Then when you reach the financial independence number, you can move somewhere with a low cost of living. Doing it this way could easily shave years off the working part of your life.

By: Muji

Muji — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:12:27 +0000

Housing is killer; the biggest bite out of the pie for most people. It’s no wonder you address this topic first. Something I recommend is to try to find a situation where your housing is covered – teachers living overseas, caretakers, military personnel, nurses, etc. I know a nurse who “temps” at various locations with housing always included. Of course, it isn’t so easy to swap a career, but just a thought.

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:22:37 +0000

We are currently living in a bungalow where we rent out the basement and live in the top. Our rental income is greater than our mortgage. Once the mortgage is paid off, we could manage by living off the rental income. That could be four years out with our current savings rate of 75%. Thanks for the posts Jacob. I think we’ll look into one more property for late retirement expenses, but that would only add one more year to our retirement plan. 5 years is definitely feasible.

By: Oasis

Oasis — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:56:13 +0000

I am so glad I found this site and thread. I have held to a lot of principals of the Forum as far as debt goes. Have not had any since 1998. I still drive the VW beetle I got in 2000 with an interest free car loan from my Company.(dont think that can classified as debt as no interest was involved) I paid cash for a condo in Dubai at a rock bottom price. I then decided to save for a home in Sonoma County for my retirement. My Home savings fund hit 450k, but I was looking at 650k houses…but do I need 4 bedrooms ?(hell no). Do I need a useless vaulted living room? No, a dining room ,no. This site really save me from throwing away a lot of money on useless space.

I am rethinking my “space needs” and even the location. My Dad gifted me a nice 2 bedroom condo in Santa Rosa within walking distance of a mall, but I wanted more space so literally forgot about it until I started reading here.

So with my “house fund”. might as well just rent in an urban area somewhere in this big world (NY, London, Berkeley, Bangkok,Rio, Paris, Amsterdam, all cities I have been many times to so could adjust easily enough),and when I need to visit the Family go and stay in my condo in Santa Rosa. I am thinking out of the suburban box. Thanks for changing my paradigm to far more interesting possibilities.

By: Lise

Lise — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:48:46 +0000

You know, I have no intention of moving (I’m in a situation where I think we need to downsize, but my husband disagrees), but I just wanted to note that with 5 minutes searching on Craigslist I found a $600 apartment (bedroom, bath, and living room) within 2.5 miles of my place of employment. (Admittedly, it’s about 50 minutes from my husband’s place of employment, so a car would still be necessary).

*sigh* I really wish sometimes I could return to that life… owning a house, especially one that’s mortgaged to the hilt, is indeed the biggest enemy of freedom.

By: Retirement Homes Bulgaria

Retirement Homes Bulgaria — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:41:20 +0000

Why don’t you consider retiring in Bulgaria?

There are many reasons for this and the first consideration is a very low cost of living: Bulgaria is known to have the lowest cost of living almost anywhere in Europe.

British people moving to Bulgaria report that they feel much happier and safer on the streets than they did at home. Many Brits have come to Bulgaria for the summer and end up staying for much longer.

By: Racetoendtheratrace

Racetoendtheratrace — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:26:16 +0000

Jacob,

We live overseas. My rent is $300/mo yet utilities are about $200/mo (internet included.) But the home is 2500 ft2 brand new with marble flooring in the downstairs. We had to make some improvements like AC units, screens etc… But over all we are about $600/ mo for housing total with 5 people living here. We could live at $300/ mo but it does help my wife’s pleasure to live in a place like this.

After reading your blog I have been working more on keeping expenses down. Before I only looked at making more income. But the two work in tandum. Currently we have 48% of our income going towards savings/ investments. We have chosen real estate as our mode for generating income and storing wealth. I have been at it since we had kids 7 years ago. We have 3 single family homes, a duplex, and 8 townhouses. We did this on a slim salary. We are out of the box investors who have found that a financial IQ is imperative to get ahead.

I like the 80% savings rate = retirement in 5 years. Likely for us when we come back to the USA we will have costs that will shock the budget. So we are trying to make hay while we can. Your blog has motivated me to move as fast as we can. Thanks for being a voice of sanity amongst so much garbage.
Race to end the rat race

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:27:54 +0000

@Patrick – How about I make a page on the top bar that lists them instead?