http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/108380/10-reasons-you-shouldnt-retire?mod=fidelity-readytoretire

As discussed before, I don’t feel deprived. I have everything I need. I would probably have a regret, if I had been moderate in everything I did. What’s the point of doing it then?

This makes me think of the expression “everything in moderation”. Your lifestyle is not moderate! As diets don’t work, do you ever wonder if in the long term your lifestyle won’t work? Forced deprivation leads to binging, which leads to forced deprivation, which leads to binging…

without giving a nod to every response, individually, Thanks.

Now, the points of spouses and children do make for an ERE drawback or “con”.. I think even jacob wants to make a single site just for ERE’rs.

Altough I live half a world away in a totally diferent culture, you still are an inspiration.

Even if I don’t live in any way like you do I sort of try to follow my own path in a country where everyone else moves in herds.

The US are quite a cultural influence here but the standard of living is impossibly different.

I may not be going for ER but certainly I will get there with some savings.

I think I’ll be sad not having the thrills of work when I retire. The world of finance is very turbulent, and very exciting actually.

Work makes play that much more exciting, so I don’t take anything for granted.

Kids are not anywhere near the top of the list of what would increase my quality of life, so none are planned.
I have briefly covered the subject of children before, but most of the material probably reside in comments to other posts.

Now I’m trying to live in a more balanced way. Funny how hard it is to find such a balance — at least, it’s taken me about a decade to discover that it was possible, while living in a HCOL city, surrounded by people doing HCOL things.

Concojones, I might hypothesize that someone who is ERE-bound (or has arrived) has the self-discipline and organization skills to be able to structure their days wisely. If you have the awareness to have made extremely careful financial choices, I’m sure that practice will eventually translate to making careful and efficient / productive time choices, too. It’s all interrelated.

Back to topic, my question to Jacob would be how he deals with the (unstructured) sea of time. Looking back to the 3 months of holidays I used to have as a student (which is just a few years ago), I have to admit I wasted a great deal of that time with meaningless time fillers.

I also really enjoyed the discussion about feeling obligated to help others. I guess I do feel obligated to help others–it’s a feeling though, not necessarily a rational and examined belief. But I think that one way in which we can all help each other and humanity is to stop running in circles on a treadmill of overwork and consumption while sacrificing our own mental, physical and psychological health as well as our relationships with others and the children we’re raising in our society. And simply by not consuming in a more responsible and sustainable way, we at least refrain from actively hurting others.

I myself find that I’m much more able (and willing) to help other people in all manner of ways when I’m not worked to the bone. Besides, could we not say that Jacob is helping with this blog because he presents a responsible and sustainable lifestyle to an interested audience?

For instance, I have the capital & talents to purchase a few acres, erect a few teepees and outhouse, raise some goats/chickens/rabbits, and pay the property taxes. With that setup, I could easily provide for 3-4 people (family members or friends or whoever wandered by). That would not involve any wage slavery or consumerism, yet I’d be helping my fellow man and have similar free time to Jacob’s thesis.

I can’t imagine the millions of people with second mortgages on McMansions, shiny new vehicles (leased), and lots of bling and toys, who are scared out of their mind for fear of losing their jobs and losing it all. To them, everything is a threat. To me, that is seriously living under a guillotine.

And I can’t imagine what its like to be in your position and be so free and free from threat!!

If you need to work, freelance is definitely the way to go!

I saw this picture and it reminded me of this blog and is similarly inspiring. It would make a nice image for one of those motivational style posters accompanied by a caption summarizing the ERE philosophy: http://alltelleringet.deviantart.com/art/Go-your-own-road-111657665

I also see it as a psychological issue. When someone poses a threat to your survival, people are programmed to be in a state of psychological emergency/protective mode because we are still living beings with physiological needs. This constant threat hanging over our heads actively or subliminally dampens our ability to grow and flourish as human beings. Which is why measuring quality of life from a “lifestyle” perspective(i.e. middle class, etc.) is stupid because _true_ quality of life is about freedom from threats. I see it like this: no one can pose a threat to the financially independent individual, because they cannot take anything of necessity away.

My mini-philosophy is that the leftmost part of the humanity bell curve is comprised of bullies and predators. It is essentially Rousseau’s the man with the stick. They have an unceasing and unrestricted access to the left extreme of the assets curve (homelessness/poverty renders target stationary with no alternatives: unsafe/temporary homeless shelter in Skid Row environment; sleeping in outside areas where the occurrence of a physical attack is highly likely) and an active but restricted access to the leftmost part of the assets bell curve (e.g. workplace supervisor/co-worker: employee can change jobs but its risky; landlady/housemate: renter can move but its inconvenient; both are time consuming). After even a bare bones financial independence is reached, it is still a rather momentous paradigm shift: they are officially no longer a threat to your actual survival. You are “free” to focus on the other aspects of being human and being alive. You have effectively removed yourself from the man with the stick, or just plain “the man.”

I tip my hat to someone who is trying to minimize his impact on the earth by consuming fewer resources, having a smaller footprint, not adding to the human population, and resisting societal pressures to confirm to the default (destructive, wasteful) lifestyle.

-Jacob, this pride is apparent in all of your writing. This is your motivation for ERE, this is your motivation to start all of this. This is your hobby and blog so I give you my respect. Still, your quote is not a good example of what you may be as a person.