Owner: Early Retirement Extreme URL:http://earlyretirementextreme.com Join Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:04:39 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: The self-sufficient, environmentally friendly, frugal, and capitalistic fast track to financial independence and a simpler lifestyle. Site statistics:Click here
Why I hate eating out 2008-03-07 09:37:45 You may be surprised to know that paying $10 for a $2 meal is not my biggest problem with eating
out. Rather it’s the abundance of choices on the menu. I don’t like choices. Why do I have to spend time reading a 10 page booklet to decide what to eat? If I go out [...]
Fit Dad Fat Dad 2008-03-06 09:07:24 The title of this post is “Fit Dad Fat Dad” partially in honor of Rich Dad Poor Dad and partially to stir up some controversy in exactly the same way as RDPD does.
RDPD has a fairly poor reputation amongst pf bloggers. I think the reason is that it questions widely held beliefs on personal [...]
Why do so many people hoard so much? 2008-03-05 09:20:48 In a comment, Hannah wrote:
I have to wonder: Is the inability to value one’s time (rather than hyper-accumulating Things) simply an inability to accept one’s inevitable departure from this world? Do people
who have an acquisitive mentality towards life have an inherent denial of death, and thus seek to “escape” into their goods, which are [...]
Is “cheap” the new “green”? 2008-03-04 09:28:36 I just read an interesting post from Escape the cube asking whether we are part of a trend where “cheap” is the new “green”. My guess is a qualified yes. It is a co-opted kind of “cheap” that might be popular for a few years after which it will be replaced by another commercialized version [...]
The Early Retirement Path 2008-03-03 09:33:24 In this guest post Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 shares his path to early retirement at 45. If you like to read more about the road to early retirement you can subscribe to his RSS Feed here.
I like to think of myself as fairly ordinary. To outsiders I seem to [...] Read more:Early
My favorite writings of February 2008 2008-03-02 11:59:39 It is interesting how valuation is sometimes determined by things other than value. For instance, if a reader agrees with an author the reader will say that the post is well written and vice-a-versa (*). So with that in mind (given that I like myself), here are my favorite posts for February
2008, hmmm [...]
Saturday Roundup - This page intentionally left blank edition 2008-03-01 09:45:00 Currently I am in training as freelance editor for an academic publisher. In addition the spring season of the adult league is commencing, so now I play hockey three times a week. Therefore I need to reclaim some time over the weekends and thus there will no longer be any regular posts during the weekend [...] Read more:blank
, Saturday
When Good People Give Bad Financial Advice 2008-02-29 09:22:45 In this guest post Hunter Nuttall talks about the challenges of giving financial advice. Although well intended, some advice can be ill suited for the person or just plain wrong. It is something we should all be aware of whether we are giving advice or taking it. If you like this post and want to [...] Read more:Financial
What people ought to know about the different kinds of personal finance blogs 2008-02-28 09:18:59 Personal finance
blogs primarily fall in three major categories. First, there are the “getting out of debt” blogs. Second, there are the “just got out of college” personal finance
blogs. Third, there are the “career track” personal finance blogs. Of course there are more categories such as retirement blogs or I-won-the-lottery blogs, but these are [...] Read more:different
, people
Do you save to invest or to spend? 2008-02-27 09:33:52 Do you save for retirement, emergencies, or big purchases? Or do you save to invest
and obtain an income from your savings? One may say it does not really matter but there is a crucial difference in perspective between the two different approaches(*)
I used to be a saver. “Savers” ultimately save money to spend it [...]
Why it is so hard for Americans to be healthy and not spend money 2008-03-12 08:36:41 The American health care system is broken. The reason is not that employer group plans makes insurance more expensive for those who don’t have an employer. No, the reason that the American health care system is broken is because Americans
universally tend to believe that
Technology can solve all problems.
If you spend enough, you can get [...] Read more:healthy
TurboTax proved too difficult for me 2008-03-11 10:43:09 This year I figured I wanted to save the 30+ hours I spent last year doing my taxes. I have heard a lot of good things about various tax preparation programs that can fill out taxes and thus obviate the need for an accountant. After all if individuals need to hire experts merely to comply [...]
A typical weekday of my life - spring 2008 2008-03-10 10:26:23 Recently Trent at The Simple Dollar posted his schedule. I think it’s quite interesting to see what goes on behind the curtains because even when everybody mostly live in the same types of houses, drive the same kinds of cars, buy the same stuff and have jobs, we are all quite different when it [...]
Saturday Roundup - ecological freelance edition 2008-03-08 09:39:31 I’m off to another training session for my new job. I’m fairly excited about it because it’s a job that gives an immediate feeling of accomplishment and because of the time-control it offers. Now I discovered that it also offers significant control over our taxes. Woohoo!
In other news, check out this new supposedly green dream [...] Read more:ecological
, Saturday
Prosper taxes for debt sales and bankruptices 2008-03-14 09:02:43 I just did my tax returns for my prosper loans and here’s how I did it. It has been very difficult, nay, impossible to find complete instructions online other than the in principle complete but to me useless suggestion to “consult a tax professional”(*). It does not make a lot of sense to me [...]
Getting rid of books 2008-03-13 09:25:57 I have a problem with books. My problem is that I like to read books that are typically hard to get at your local library. I also like to occasionally be able to quickly reference something I read, because I usually remember where I read something (down to the location on the page), but I [...]
The ones we don’t know we don’t know or why specialization is the biggest problem in the world 2008-03-17 09:12:24 Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are “known knowns”; there are things we know we know. We also know there are “known unknowns”; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also “unknown unknowns” — [...]
Choosing a retirement plan for extremely early retirement 2008-03-19 09:26:27 Consumers are widely recommended to contribute around 15% of their paycheck to a retirement
plan. The question whether to pick a ROTH IRA or a traditional IRA does not have a definite answer. For instance, it depends on whether one’s future [retirement] income is expected to in a higher tax bracket (ROTH) or a lower [...]
The value of hobbies 2008-03-18 09:13:25 Coming from the mindset of an earlier post about passion, I am speaking of the values that optimizes the successful triad of health, wealth, and wisdom (all part of financial independence) rather than more typical choice of comfortable or exciting escapism (all part of the rat race?) which to me suggests a lack of fulfillment [...]
Diversification 2008-03-21 09:24:20 Diversification is a method of avoiding non-systemic risk. Non-systemic risk is the kind of risk that involves uncertainty of individual components. Systemic risk is the kind of risk that involves uncertainty of all the components taken together. Indexing for investing is a typical example. Diversifying avoids the risk of individual stocks but it does not [...] Read more:Diversification
The real reason it is so easy/hard to get ahead 2008-03-20 09:20:02 DW and I were talking about how personal finance can be easy in theory and hard in practice. I think the reason is that theory, like language, occurs in two steps. Passive and active. Understanding and speaking. Passively, yes, sure we understand that we should spend less than we earn, that we should save money. [...] Read more:ahead
Saturday Roundup - A safety moment (with taxes)! 2008-03-22 11:20:51 Today we’re going to one of the tax companies to get our state taxes done. Hopefully they will give us a discount since I already did the federal return myself. In 2007 we were apart time resident of two states. The tax consequences of that can be described in one word: PAIN! Mostly the problem [...] Read more:Saturday
Spring Holiday 2008-03-25 09:07:55 I had today (Monday) off. Last week I noticed that Monday was marked as “spring holiday” on the calendar. It took me a few moments to figure out that this probably meant Easter. Ah, the separation of church and state when taken to the point of confusion.
Thus today was spent much like I imagine retirement [...] Read more:Holiday
, Spring
Big on methods, poor on fundamentals. 2008-03-24 09:37:34 There is an abundant swath of personal finance tools, 10 step programs, weight loss programs, etc. that are all intended to fix our problems. This country is HUGE on methods but poor on fundamentals.
To beat obesity, you’ve got to consume less and burn more. There is no alternative. And to do that, you’ve [...]
A modest prediction for the next 20 years 2008-03-28 09:11:41 Predicting the future always provides an excellent opportunity to make a fool out of oneself. One is almost destined to be wrong on some part or the other. If nothing else, the timing might be off, or the details may not be exactly right.
I have noted that whereas pre-1980 predictions mostly envisioned the future as [...]
Minimalist inspirations 2008-03-27 09:17:52 I find great utility in being a minimalist. Having less stuff makes it easier to maintain, move, and store. This frees both precious time and money, which can be used to reach a higher standard of living(*) Forsooth, I can not rationalize the tendency to accumulate stuff for the sake off stuff at the expense [...]
How to do original research 2008-03-26 09:20:04 I have a confession to make. I write a personal finance blog, but I rarely read other personal finance blogs. There is a reason for that. Here is the reason. I find that once anyone get actively involved in any community, they will start to (subconsciously) adopt the thinking modes of the community almost like [...]
Marriage 2008-03-30 09:20:06 XGF sent this funny youtube movie. I’ll have to ask DW for comments. Me, I have no comments
Saturday Roundup - 500 subscribers in 4 months 2008-03-29 09:34:21 According to feedburner, there are now more than 500 people who regularly read my staggering thoughts of genius what I write. I don’t know exactly how feedburner counts, but in the past few days the subscriber number has really taken off adding over 100 new subscribers in a week. I don’t know why, because I’m [...] Read more:Saturday
Recommend Site To A Friend
