# Early Retirement Extreme (ERE)



## peterk (May 16, 2010)

I figured I may hit the best target audience in the Frugality section, although Retirement and Personal might be interested as well.
I know ERE has been mention on CMF before by someone, because I found it here - But I thought it was worthy of its own post for those who might have missed out.

Jacob's blog is one of the most influential reads I've come across on the topics of saving, frugality, and finding non-material happiness in a materialistic society. 
His story is that of a young man who spent years finishing his PhD only to work consecutively at a mid income job for 5 year and then retire at the age of 33. 

I cannot express how much reading his blog has altered my view of working and retirement mindsets. I find the spreadsheets that I've previously made which project my retirement savings to age 55 laughable now.
Obviously Jacob's saving mentality is too extreme for most of us, but I just find reading his daily posts to be a very convincing, reassuring nudge in the "I don't really need to buy this stuff to make me happy" direction.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

His wife still works. He sells books, and makes money off his blog, but refuses to say how much he makes off these enterprises.

And I bought his book and thought it was borderline incomprehensible... so yeah, the shine is off a bit for me. This coming from a guy who is trying my own version of Extreme Early Retirement.

I cannot express how dissapointed I was in his book.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Damn, good to know! I hadn't really thought too much about buying the book, but that just put the nail in the coffin for any inclination I had to do so..
Whether or not he is truely living the lifestyle he says he is, I find the message that is promoted to be genuine and eye opening. As far as making money from books and blogs, I can't think of a blogger who is more humble, honest, and non-profit seeking in their motivation to post, than Jacob.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I've paged through his blog a couple of times, but always left disappointed. I feel like I *should* like his blog more, given that I share a lot of his values; but I find his tone really sneering and condescending. 

The funny thing is, I even agree with him to some extent about much of what he says. But I find his arguments really unpersuasive. I think there are many, many valid choices and paths in life, and I don't want to read a blog that makes continual snide remarks about people who make different choices than he does.

An example is the bodybuilding post. I'm not a bodybuilder. In fact, I'm much closer to the "functional fitness" ideal he describes in the post. But I don't see anything "wrong" with the goal of getting big. It isn't for me, but so what? If people want to accumulate a lot, whether it is musculature or assets, what business of mine is that, if they are happy or content with their lot in life? 

Example quote:

_In the gym people sit down on comfy padded surfaces and pull levers back and forth in repetitive motions. Never do they get the chance to lift a real weight from the floor to lockout position over head. This is considered too dangerous. I tell you though, repeatedly ripping 100 pounds of pig iron from the floor to a lockout position feels much more manly than sitting in a padded seat and pushing a lever while wearing spandex shorts. _

Uh. He should come to my gym. I lift more than 100 lbs to lockout position many times in my workouts. 

I feel like his view is narrow, because his critiques are too broad. He sets up all kinds of straw men which he then burns down, but the straw men are not sufficiently representative of reality to make this a convincing argument or a good read for me. 

(end of more than you ever wanted to know about my thoughts about Jacob's blog)


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Interesting. I like the links on the left side. He is one of four people in this country who does not see the need for a cell phone. Glad I'm not alone in that. 10-15 years ago very few people had them and they managed just fine. The cell phone companies have everyone panicked into thinking we all need one for an "emergency" but the reality is that once people get hooked on these things they use them for a lot more than that. And there is technology creep that goes along with that. There are hundreds of millions of cell phones hitting the landfill each and every year. Environmental catastrophe aside, that says it all.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

MG's right, there is an attitude in the ere blog that's off-putting.

never saw this blog before, probably won't go back, whizzed thru maybe 12 entries, don't see how this differs much from the gigantic genre of back-to-the-land sustainability except for the attitude & the giant hook that it promises/guarantees an escape from The Job.

a question opened in my mind about where he's from. He got his doctorate in a country that subsidizes tuition. Says he grew up there. "There" looks like switzerland. But the Attitude is so quintessentially smart-*** american. How did he learn the Attitude so well if he only came to the US of A post-grad.

from a literary point of view, this blog in several ways evokes the early writings & diaries of US zionist youth who were preparing, during world war II & throughout the 1940s, to settle in the palestinian desert where they would create the radical new israeli farming collectives, the kibbutzim.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Jon_Snow said:


> His wife still works. He sells books, and makes money off his blog, but refuses to say how much he makes off these enterprises.


You mean this is another Derek Foster?


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Like Derek Foster, this guy sounds like a huckster whose retirement consists of flogging crappy books.


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

I think his blog and forum are excellent, and I'm also half way through his book and thoroughly enjoying it. I agree with points that he is sometimes arrogant, especially about fitness stuff, but that really has no impact on the message and content overall. Derek Foster seems like a tool, but I still got value from reading Stop Working.

It's been a great a inspiration for me, for sure. I used to think I needed $35-40k per year to retire, and would therefore need to work till at least 55 to save enough. Now I'm looking at leaving full time career work at 40 years old, and just doing 10-15 hours per week of work more of our choosing. We've cut out all the silly spending that wasn't adding any value to our lives (eating out weekly, cable, most meat eating, phone options, wasteful energy usage, etc), and cranked up our savings rate to 30%. We're redesigning some bigger changes in our lives as well that will get that rate up to 50%, like dropping to one car, possibly moving to a cheaper locale and smaller home, cutting our vehicle use in a major way. So far, we feel no pain from our changes, but we do feel empowered and in control of our own destiny more than ever. It feels great!

In other words, my mindset has changed from 'Financial independence through high net worth', to 'Financial independence through low income requirements'. If you engineer it properly, there is no reason you can't live a good life on $20-25k per year.

This is what I've learned and been inspired from ERE and similar sites (Mr Money Mustache is similar, though less extreme). To read about others doing it and living shows us we can also do it. It breaks the mindset we've grown up with that says you must always be aiming higher, moving up, in a materialistic sense. 

For those who want the quick summary of what these types of sites are about, here it is...cut your expenses until you are saving a high percentage of your income. Work until you have enough passive income from these investments to live on. If you don't already, learn to love the free and wonderful things in life, like walking in the woods, cycling, reading library books, pursuing hobbies that are both fulfilling and zero impact or net positive to your bank account. If you insource nearly everything, you need very little to live. Fix your own pipes, cook your own food from scratch, etc. Change your mindset to where you question every dollar leaving your pocket, and make it a personal challenge to see if you can find an alternative solution to the problem. ie. My kids basketball backboard broke. They love basketball, my immediate thought was to go on Kijiji and find another one. Then I thought some more, and realized I could make a new backboard out of wood fairly easily, and spend nothing. Change all your thinking that way, and you're on your way.


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## Assetologist (Apr 19, 2009)

The ERE idealism exemplifies the beauty of life in a wealthy democratic nation with established social safety nets. Within a very broad scope many of us have the opportunity to make personal choices regarding our lifestyle and interaction with consumer elements. In many other nations these 'higher level' choices just aren't in the cognitive reality of the majority of people.

I'd rather work hard at a job I enjoy (and help others in the process) while making a solid income. I spend lots of money expanding my personal and my family's life experiences and opportunities while saving and investing for a secure slower time after a productive working time.

I see tragedy and lives altered on a daily basis. From this I have learned to heed the message that life is precious and even fragile so I try to make sure it's filled to the fullest with novel experiences and exposures while maintaining a fierce attitude of independence.

Whatever floats one's boat and helps them achieve inner peace!


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

I've spent the past 15 years trying to find work that I enjoy more than I enjoy spending more time with family and friends, or even just on my own hiking or biking, with no success. Work can be satisfying, but it's more often drudgery, in most cases. I plan to volunteer plenty when semi-retired, so will still be engaged, just on my own terms. A full time job is not a requirement to a life full of novel experiences. 

I take exception with the implication that ERE means playing fast and loose with life, and falling back on social safety nets if it fails. ERE types are often Libertarian, independent minded types, almost surely more financially resilient than the borrow and spend crowd.


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## erejacob (Oct 31, 2011)

I'm the ERE guy.

I think I've been pretty open about blog income (it's even posted in the F.A.Q. on the blog) and book income (several discussions in the forums). It's certainly no secret. The blog makes about $200/month (this varies ... I have not spent a lot of time monetizing it because I don't care for the business side of blogging which can be quite unsavory) and I make $5-7 on most books I sell. I sell around 250 books per month. 

Regular readers generally have a fairly good idea about all these things including my net worth, safe withdrawal rate, how I made the money, why my wife works, how our finances work, etc. 

When I started the blog I never had any idea that it would eventually get so popular. I figured the information was helpful and that it provided an unmet need in the personal finance sphere. I'm clearly writing for a niche and I'm not out to please everybody in terms of tone and content. In general, if you write in a way that pleases one audience, there's always another audience who thinks you're too X and not enough Y. This is getting particularly noticeable now that ERE is getting out to a broader audience. I'm looking to quit writing it because the number of personal attacks is increasing substantially as a result and it's just not worth it to me.

In terms of intended audience, it's the same with the book. It's self-published and written in a way that's very atypical for its field or even any nonfiction book. It's written more like a textbook, very information dense and judged to be at the freshman college level, which is heavier than commercially published nonfiction which is aimed at maximizing sales straight down the center. According to reviews, about 10% simply find it too hard to read. On the other hand you have people who are happy to finally have something to read where the bar is set high (its ratings on goodreads.com are much higher than most other personal finance books). How does one satisfy both? You win some, you lose some. My hats off to any writer who can write in a way that both pleases the whole spectrum of humanity AND meets all levels of reading comprehension. I've contemplated writing a second book that's more geared towards beginners, but have so far decided against it. Let someone else do that. 

In terms of ERE or simply retiring extremely early, it's mostly pursued by people who strongly prefer autonomy, independence and who pursue competence as a way of self-actualizing. (Compare to people who pursue things like safety, status, fun experiences, authenticity, relationships,...)

In MBTI terms, it's heavily dominated by the INTJ type also we also have ISTJ, INFP and the occasional ENTP or ENTJ. 

It's often people who find working a 9-5/40 hours/40 years career boring and unsatisfying and not for lack of trying. They wish to spend their time on something which our society just doesn't happen to remunerate and so they pursue financial independence to liberate the time to do what they want instead.

It's generally people who feel short on time rather than money for the things they wish to do with their lives. The experiences they seek tend to be costly in time and cheap in money. An example might be touring the world on a bicycle, becoming a ranking sportsman, helping people with their finances (raises hand), writing a novel, developing open source programs, ... Contrast with experiences that are cheap in time and costly in money such as a trip to Disneyland, a new car, a fine restaurant meal, or season football tickets.

The interesting part about cognitive realities is that when they are changed, some people are happy (a minority---why I keep writing), some people don't care (a majority), and some can't deal with it and respond with personal attacks (another minority). Dealing with cognitive realities is polarizing and exposes both the best and the worst. 

ERE is not idealism as much as it is the realization that over the past several decades we have become far more productive despite not having gotten far happier or far healthier. We could work one day per week and still be well off in terms of health care, housing, food, ... But most have been convinced by advertising and peers that they need two full time incomes to have all the latest stuff. So ERE is essentially picking the vision that productivity enhancements should be used to generate spare time instead of more stuff. That vision is so far in the backseat that few consider it.


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## Assetologist (Apr 19, 2009)

erejacob,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts in a clear and enlightening manner!

I do appreciate alternate approaches and ideals as I/We can always learn much more and who knows, even make positive personal changes.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Now, I find *that* post very interesting. If the blog was more like that, I'd read it. 

Also, you should come to the gym with me sometime.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Nice I never heard of ERE but I really like it. I plan on taking at least a year or two off when I'm 30ish. Ideally I would work part time or on my own time because really I don't need more money if I don't have time to enjoy it. I've noticed that most people waste a lot of time at work just because they have to be there. Sometimes I'll even do things to help people out and they get made I'm taking their job lol

I also agree with Jacob's thoughts that body building culture reflects consumer culture. I never made the connection but I've always found both misguided. Growing up on a farm, you lifted things that actually needed to be lifted and then you ate a steak for supper. I see people drinking protein shakes they probably don't even like or need and basically addicted to max muscle growth. It's funny to watch them play sports and they will pay someone to do anything resembling physical labour, complain all the time about being sore and hungry, and even skip going to the gym if their car is broken.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

ERE, thanks for a little more perspective.

I hope you stick around and enjoy this forum from time to time.

P.S. I still like going to the gym.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

While you're here on CMF Jacob, I have a question - If you're making 20k through the book and blog. And ~15-20k from investment income, what is the goal in spending <10k per year? I understand the desire to be self sufficient and spend less money on "consumer" items, and the mindset that you'd rather live simply in your trailer in an area you like than continue to work or live in a nicer house in a crappy place. But IF you have the income, which you seem to do, what is the rationale behind not upgrading to a house with a yard where you can expand your garden, hobbies, etc. or upgrading your material possessions that you do enjoy?
What I'm trying to get at is, what's your end game if you consistently spend less than your income, and where does that extra income go? If not to increasing your standard of living... do you donate it, or just accumulate it towards an unknown future goal?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Living below his means? This is something that has been mentioned here a few times. A number of us (myself included) do this. It happens at many different levels and is often not obvious on the surface. This is good. More people should live below or at least within their means.


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## erejacob (Oct 31, 2011)

peterk said:


> But IF you have the income, which you seem to do, what is the rationale behind not upgrading to a house with a yard where you can expand your garden, hobbies, etc. or upgrading your material possessions that you do enjoy?
> What I'm trying to get at is, what's your end game if you consistently spend less than your income, and where does that extra income go? If not to increasing your standard of living... do you donate it, or just accumulate it towards an unknown future goal?


The immediate goal is also to cover my wife in terms of FI. We're already there on a 4% SWR but would like to get there on a combined 3% SWR which should happen within a couple of years. Personally, I'm already under 2%. The smoother investment ride shouldn't be underestimated in terms of the feelings of well-being it generates to have the money come out of a conservative portfolio rather than an average (beta=1) portfolio. Ultimately, I'd prefer something like the Permanent Portfolio, but that has yields around 1-2% and so it requires more assets. 

After that I suspect the money will just be used as a way of "keeping score." Maybe I'll start buying up undeveloped land to prevent it from being paved over with strip-malls and condos. I haven't really thought deeply about this. It'll be at least 10 years, before I have "millionaire problems". 

We have talked about buying a house to expand "my shop space" as I'm currently working under a "blue ceiling". Ditto garden. Financially speaking this would actually cost less than our current arrangement. The downside would be more maintenance and getting stuck geographically.

My material possessions are already fully upgraded. I've been getting the "best" from the outset for years in order to avoid having to upgrade. By "best" I mean a combination of maximum quality/price and what matches my level of appreciation. To give an example using wine, I'll pay up to the amount where I can't tell the difference anymore. Wine is a bad example for me (because my taste in that is not very refined to say the least) and perhaps tools is a better one. What this means is that I buy $300 hand planes built to optimal tolerances with A2 blades ... but not collectors' planes for $6,000 with inlaid silver decorations. $300 is the point where it doesn't get any better, functionally speaking. 

The overall goal is not to increase standard-of-living as much as it is to increase quality-of-living. In my experience, my quality suffers if there's "too much standard". A bigger home requires more time to clean and maintain. Buying more stuff means less time spent using it. A car is no end of trouble compared to a pair of shoes. A major concern for many of my purchases is whether I can get rid of the thing again responsibly once it no longer interests me. This is environmentally motivated. Same with experiences. I can go and watch a hockey game, but my appreciation of this will not be very "competent". Appreciation will be increased if I know how to play as well. However, learning to play takes time. It's the same with travel. In my professional career I traveled to 14-something countries, but I didn't get much out of it because it was all 1 week or less.

Time (and energy) is really the limiting factor and unfortunately it's impossible to buy time with money. If I could add one year of youth to my lifespan every time I paid $30,000, I'd still be out there working a job and buying time with the aim of living forever. However, I can't and we're all dying at the same rate regardless; therefore I no longer do 9-5. 

ERE is the time-optimization problem, solved. Everybody have different solutions. Some tell me they wouldn't know what to do with their time if they didn't have a job. These guys should certainly stick with their job!

What I'm saying is that there's very little that I want that money can buy. If McMansions, Maybachs, and G6s were on the wish list, it would be easy, because one can buy those. But, I have things like "learning subject X", "building Y", and "doing Z". However, nobody can sell you the experience of building a wood bench with your own hands, topshelving a hockey puck, or achieving a black belt in karate. If that was possible, I'd be a consumer too!


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

edit: posted this before reading Jacob's response.

Well, living below your means while you're gainfully employed is one thing - living below your means when you're retired is another.

Once you've determined what your safe withdrawl rate is 3,4,5% or whatever.. have at it I'd say! I think, "saving" in retirement is indicative of the person's inability to let go of their old ways and habits (good habits) they employed while working towards retirement.
It doesn't seem to me like this is Jacob's attitute, so I'm trying to figure out his motivation for this seemingly unnecessary saving..


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

peterk said:


> Well, living below your means while you're gainfully employed is one thing - living below your means when you're retired is another.
> 
> Once you've determined what your safe withdrawl rate is 3,4,5% or whatever.. have at it I'd say! I think, "saving" in retirement is indicative of the person's inability to let go of their old ways and habits (good habits) they employed while working towards retirement.
> It doesn't seem to me like this is Jacob's attitute, so I'm trying to figure out his motivation for this seemingly unnecessary saving..


My guess is that he expects that the revenue from his book has a limited lifetime, and that once it hits the remainder bin in the bookstores (say, in three years time), that revenue will go away.


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## erejacob (Oct 31, 2011)

steve41 said:


> My guess is that he expects that the revenue from his book has a limited lifetime, and that once it hits the remainder bin in the bookstores (say, in three years time), that revenue will go away.


It's self-published and not "timely", so maybe it'll keep selling. Currently sales are pretty stable month over month.

However, it's more a case of me lacking the imagination/desire to spend more money. I already pull in more than 50% more investment income than I actually use. 

I suppose it's similar to how some people when they win the lottery prefer to keep living in the way they already do. I'm not sacrificing for some future spending. It's more that the things I want can't be bought for money and that some of the things I do are mainly rewarded with money (presumably for lack of something better ... like karma points, sea shells, fan mail, ...). Consequentially I end up with more money than I can use. 

Alternatively, consider Warren Buffett. With his billions, he could live like a king and yet he still lives in the first house he bought. Why? I suppose the answer in both cases is the same. You can also find examples of other people (Mark Zuckerberg) whose lifestyles are quite modest relative to their income or net worth.

PS: My replies are seemingly still held in the moderator queue for a few hours.

EDIT: No, apparently now they go right through.


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## erejacob (Oct 31, 2011)

Short answer: I prefer unnecessary saving to unnecessary spending.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Thanks for joining us Jacob.

Back to the OP - I like Jacob's site, because he is an independent thinker. Whether it's an early retirement issue or something completely unrelated - he does his own analysis and doesn't worry about what other people think.

I haven't read his book yet, mainly because Jacob is too damn cheap to send a review copy across the border and my book doesn't sell enough to allow me the luxury of buying his book. However, I just checked and the T.O. library has it so now I can read it.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

erejacob said:


> short answer: I prefer unnecessary saving to unnecessary spending.


*brilliant!*


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

While Jacob's definition of early retirement doesn't resemble mine, I can appreciate his tips on frugal living.


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi:

I read some of Jacob's musings. Looking past the fact that I am 15 years older, we could have been separated at birth. Ham radio, handplanes, bicycles, physics ... OK, the last one is a stretch, my Dad is the PhD in physics.

hboy43


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Self imposed austerity has never appealed to me, so we ensured our retirement income matched our lifestyle expectations.

Vacations......laying on a warm wooden deck on a cruise ship........oh yea.

Having a second, third, or fourth car as toys to run around town......oh, baby.

New leather furniture and an 80 inch LCD................now I am sweating.

To me, life is too short to spend it frugally. In the end, most of us will end up in a nursing home having our lives dictated by the schedule on the wall.

There should be a thread devoted to the Joys of Conspicuous Consumption


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

erejacob said:


> Short answer: I prefer unnecessary saving to unnecessary spending.


Love this.

While our definition of unnecessary may differ, seeing the amount of excess spending people do is an eye opener. Although maybe it's simply their definition of unnecessary being narrower than ours....


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

sags said:


> To me, life is too short to spend it frugally.


To me, life is too short to spend it working 40+ hours per week for 40+ years. I prefer to trade off luxuries that don't improve my quality of life in exchange for more free time to do what I want. Totally personal preference. If you are willing to trade your free time for trinkets and baubles, more power to you. Different paths towards the same goal of best quality of life possible.

It's interesting to hear from people in the twilight of their lives who have chosen either of these paths, what they thought of their choice. I know my grandfather was extremely frugal to the point of becoming rich, but never had any hobbies or positive outlook on life, and is miserable. My grandmother (other side) was dirt poor, always lived frugally, and now lives on a small CPP, OAS and GIS, $12k/year. She is always happy and bubbly, and doesn't feel lacking in anything. When she sold her Vancouver shack (bulldozed next day), she gave the money away.

On the other side, the president of my company is a multimillionaire, but his last of three kids just left home, and he spent their entire childhoods building his business, working 80 hours a week. He has regrets now about it.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I started a website blog called Conspicuous Consumption, just for the fun of it. It doesn't cost anything and I can have some humour with it.

http://conspicuousconsumption-rds.blogspot.com/


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

sags said:


> I started a website blog called Conspicuous Consumption, just for the fun of it. It doesn't cost anything and I can have some humour with it.
> 
> http://conspicuousconsumption-rds.blogspot.com/


I laughed! That must have taken some time, though, you even have AdWords set up on it?? Do you plan to develop further, to fund your luxurious lifestyle?


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

sags said:


> I started a website blog called Conspicuous Consumption, just for the fun of it. It doesn't cost anything and I can have some humour with it.
> 
> http://conspicuousconsumption-rds.blogspot.com/


Lol - excellent.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Glad you like it..........still have to add some links, which I find fascinating research. I had no idea there is an exclusive golf club with only 2 members...Redtail in Ontario, or the price of a bottle of some perfumes.

Blogspot makes it easy and free. Google owns them, so you set up an account with them and they supply the ads and you can make some revenue if people click on the ads.

Have to register some .ca domain names in the future, for the 30 websites I have developed so far. 

That will cost 300 a year, so maybe soon I will give it a shot.

Edit.....interesting how good Google is these days. The obscure website is up one day and they already have been running banner ads for exclusive American Express Gold Business Cards. Those boys have it down to a science.


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

He is going back to work! He is now going into quantitative trading! 

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

I guess living on 7k a year, in an RV, got a bit old... 

Never understood the fascination with Jacob's "experiment". Not a very sustainable lifestyle for the long term - but why not do it for a couple of years to hype a blog and sell a book!? Spare me... people fell for his act, hook, line and sinker.


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## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

I tried an early retirement stint in my mid-forties that lasted a little over a year and now in my early 50s I find myself in that position again after the company I worked for outsourced our jobs to India. 

One thing that a job provides that is not always easily replicable otherwise, is to keep us interacting with people in a variety of age groups and interests. For example, a fellow in his mid-forties may have colleagues in their early 20s who are heavy into the dating scene, some in their 30s who are starting their family, and perhaps some close to 60 who are looking at retirement options and share investment ideas. He may hear about one colleague's trip to the Portugal and another's experience with white-water rafting. 

However, without work, we tend to interact with people in similar age groups and with similar views and interests. And sometimes even those interactions are limited if one is early retired as many of your friends are still working and following a different trajectory. 

Some of the things to consider and prepare for, for anyone contemplating an early-retirement life-style.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Living in a camper fulltime isn't for everyone. Doing it for a limited time on vacation is one thing, doing it fulltime is quite another.

Early retirement is only possible if you are willing to forego all the iphones, tablets, new cars every 5 years, $640K houses, 1.2 kids, commuting to downtown office towers and the like. If you want the toys and the luxurious lifestyle with all the best things for you and your kids, then better have stable jobs with DB pensions as otherwise you'll be working a long time.

The blog being discussed here highlights this beautifully. If you want to stop working and do what you want then you will need to sacrifice in other areas. It really comes down to deciding what is really important in your life, prioritizing, dropping things and managing the money you have.

Most people would have a very difficult time downsizing their lifestyle in this manner.


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