Amen brother. 🙂

I think it’s quite funny when people complain about how difficult it is to lose weight. I simply tell them that it’s in fact quite simple (but not necessarily easy I guess). Just eat less calories than you burn. That’s it. Doing just that I lost 30 pounds last year and I haven’t gained a single bit of it back (in fact I think I lost a tiny bit more weight).

Losing weight can be a challenge but the hard part is keeping it off. Each time you go on a diet and lose a lot of weight and then put it back on you making it more difficult in the future to lose.

I don’t own a car, but that’s because I can’t afford one right now, still in graduate school. I probably could have bought one by now (and I’d still be making payments unless it was superused), but I’ve put all my “extra” money into dividend stocks. Let’s hope that works in my favor in the long run!

I think rule #3 needs to be more flexible, too. What about seasonal items such as an air conditioner or winter clothing?

At the risk of starting a small firestorm, rule #3 for me also includes having children.

>> Humans have this wonderful capacity
>> for making a simple thing wonderfully
>> complicated (and typically charging
>> for the process)
Aaahh! I wanted to laugh. I really did. But this is so true, I was moved to tears! Well that would be typical of an Idealist to feel sad at non-authenticity. I know that one can’t change the world, one can only chage oneself…. But how do you cope as a Rational in the face of such inconsistency of behaviour?

—

@elindbe2 – What’s important to note is that physics (or accounting) whether that be spherical chickens or energy conservation puts absolute limits on the messier stuff. It’s not that—like in the joke—it’s some kind of oversimplification around which the correct answer lies, rather it’s typically a statement about in which domain of parameters the answer can be found and in which domain it can’t.

I took me a while to figure out rule number 1 of ERE. That’s because I had the advice of “experts”.

Early on when I was working, the boys from my employers contracted deferred compensation plan would occasionally stop in to corral the newbies into setting aside a portion of their paycheck for retirement. Back then you could max out at like $5500 a year or something. It was a 403b so no employer match. We would each sheepishly step forward and sign the auto withdrawal forms and pinch out a low three figure monthly amount for our future.

Not knowing anything about personal finance, I happened across some PF magazines and picked up a couple. Common wisdom preached back then was to shoot for 12 to 15 percent savings rate. I figured I wasn’t in the publishers target demographic because I would get nowhere in retirement with that rate, even if I waited to age 65.

Rule 1. Save way less than you earn= Worked for me.

Now why didn’t the “experts” pound that one home and how could a finance magazine throw out a percentage with no regard to income earned? Crazy. Thanks Jacob for putting rule 1 first. It will save a lot of people some heartache.

Stevo

Las Vegas.

Retiring early and losing weight are very similar, I agree that things have been over-complicated buy as you said the more you save the better you’ll end up. I definitely agree with living in a smaller house and not having a car, these two actions alone have saved me thousands of pounds which is now tucked away in a healthy savings account generating passive income for me. Great article. Keep them coming Jacob!

Have you read Good calories, bad calories. Or Why we get fat by Gary Taubes.
Or watched Fathead by Tom Naugton. Mark’s Daily Apple blog.

It’s about Carbs not calories.

Blood sugar, insulin, stored fat.