Oh, and:
“People work hard, they grunt, sweat, and bleed. They are lean and mean and they eat champions for breakfast. THEY DO NOT WEAR SPANDEX(*). These gyms are hard to find and sometimes admission is by invitation only, possibly literally, but mostly they are very welcoming if you can find them and you show enough “heart”.”

First rule of Fight Club, you do not talk about Fight Club. Haha.

I think the default reaction you will get from people will always be negative. I think this quote (from the link you gave) is pretty spot-on:

“His standard of living, as described, was very, very low. Lentil soup and tuna for dinner, every night? And it goes downhill from there. You have to be something of a XXX to live like that.”

Which is kind of what I thought the first time I visited (“too extreme”). And that means something, because I’m a 3, not a 2 or a 1. It took a me second visit (that darn FrugalBachelor kept crediting you!) to see thru the façade of lentil soup and realize what your blog is really about: how much do we need to be happy? Not very much, I always thought, but now I know it’s even less than that. Thank you for widening my perspective.

I also love the fact that you’re no longer anonymous, that we can track you down in real life should we feel so inclined

In conclusion, I think people’s spontaneous reaction to your blog will ALWAYS be negative (they think you advocate lentil soup, whereas you’re probably not even eating it anymore). The positive side of becoming more famous is that like-minded people will find you, and it will benefit your non-profit cause.

ROFL @ “2 can not understand why 3 eats raw eggs because frankly they taste like snot, and besides, who else is eating raw eggs, not very reassuring.”

BTW — Kirchoff, the WW CEO, is a “pithikos” (Greek for monkey). His lack of trust is irrelevant to those he denigrates.

I grew up admiring the concepts of discipline, stoicism and spiritually meaningful life. Later on, I became a little more realistic and added the ideas of simple pleasures to the vision. I come from a post-Soviet country so my understanding of space and comfort differs a lot from North Americans. Even though my family was quite affluent for a period of time and I had a decent taste of luxury in my teenage years, I came to understand that ultimately it doesn’t matter to me.

My focus and perspective are in the right place. But somehow it just doesn’t translate into action as much… I keep thinking I can just to everything at once instead of committing to step-by-step building of will-power.

So while I often do choose to walk and even regularly take the stairs to the 9th floor instead of an elevator, I still don’t exercise and can’t resist the expensive food treats, etc. It constantly feels like two steps forward, one side-ways and one back.

Great post.

If you calculate out the amount of time it takes you to accumulate your nest egg, you’ll see the advantage very clearly. For example, if one starts with no savings, and saves 70% of his take home pay, it will take around 10.75 years to accumulate a nest egg of 300x monthly expenses, by simply saving and keeping pace with inflation(i.e. not including any real gains due to interest, investing, etc…). If you bump up to 78%, you’ll reach 300x monthly expenses in about 7 years.

So, that 8% change gets you 3.75 more years with your family.

Also, there’s no reason to think it will actually take YOU 7 full years– since you probably already have some savings, and since you’re working and earning well you probably have some option to contribute to some form of tax deferred account, and your current wages will likely entitle you to a larger soc security payment in the future.

Though you’re not extreme, if you’re a family of 4+, then you’re likely spending less than median.

I think I am a 2 who likes to think he is a 3. On one hand, when you look at savings ratio, I feel like I can justify 3. Recent one-time medical charge set-back aside, I save about 70% of my take home. But then thats only because I’ve been able to increase my income threefold over the years and not increase my expenses to the point now where I spend $42K of my $135K (take home). Last year I finished paying off my house. So being from a middle class background, its not like I’m doing what I (or most people) consider sacrificing ($3500/month with no house payment seems like a lot of spending to me, though our family has grown quite a bit and a significant part of that does go to healthcare for everyone).

What I have realized is that even though reducing expenses may only seem to change my savings rate slightly and therefore not worth it (cutting $1K would change the rate from 70% to 78%), it actually would reduce the amount of nest egg I need to cover my expenses by $300K assuming a 4% withdraw rate.

I’m sacrificing a lot of time from my family to maintain this income, so though I like my job and my peers, I’d prefer to have the freeedom to just say no to the travel and work much fewer hours than is required of me. The years it would take to make that extra $300K to support that last $1K month of spending couldn’t possibly be worth it. But the expenses still are what they are, which means I must be a 2 and not a 3. Its time for me to get serious.

The English only bit seems to be a bit odd considering your sacrifices in other areas, though I can understand the preference, my wife and I would prefer the same way.

Luckily, as the world shrinks and shrinks with the wonders of the Internet etc, more and more countries have English as practically mandatory 2nd language.

I just read somewhere too that if you put down 50k or so into a special RETIRMENT VISA program for Malyasia, you are allowed to stay for as long as you want.

What about living/retiring overseas? Say Mexico for example, wouldn’t your savings EXPLODE down there with the simple conversion rate of 13 Peso to one American dollar?

I am pretty naive to most financial dealings, so please enlighten me.

My wife and I had kicked the idea around ourselves, and especially for retiring makes most sense, as living overseas and making an income might prove difficult. Then you factor in saftey issues, environmental health etc…

But honestly, I am no patriot, and about the only thing holding me to the States is family nearby and the cost/visa/job of overseas living.

Maybe Denmark…lol.

Is there a Slim Dad, Poor Dad book I don’t know about?