Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Specifically, the rule of thumb is that the value of your home (regardless of whether you're renting or owning) should generally be less than 15% of your NW. Hypothetical example: Retired single man with 400,000 net worth. Value of home should be 15% or 60,000. Assuming price-to-rent ratio of 20, a...

Something I'm curious about, especially for those who have already retired. Out of your monthly expenses, what percent goes to housing/rent? I have heard a rule of thumb that one third of income for working people should go to rent/mortgage. I expect most of my coworkers are paying at least half of ...

I stopped posting here last year because I didn't feel it was a good use of my time to write publicly about possible investments and my job frustrations. Maybe I'll try again, to document milestones. My life as a caregiver had been crazy the past six months. There were several ambulance rides to the...

As you may know I'm a live-in caretaker for my mother. Her ability to manage living in the house has declined rapidly over the last month, eventually reaching a point where she was unable to walk. Even with a walker and me physically holding her upright. We had to call for an ambulance one day becau...

I don't know what it's like to have 2-4 weeks off. Most I have had away from the regular job since I started it has been 1 week. But then I still have job#2 (caretaking) which never ends. I have felt this "healing" you wrote about. Taking a week off and traveling a bit leads me to start fe...

Right now I have 33% of my pre-tax job income going into my 401K. The account value is about 160K now. The employer matches 75% of the first 6% that I contribute. My percentage contribution is so high because 1) I don't need it to pay bills, and 2) I wanted to make up for lost time as I didn't start...

What is OMY? I am probably within 0-2 years of FI depending on how I run the numbers. I am still working full time. I think sometimes about what I would do after I stop working. I have hobbies now that I would spend more time on. I have a big stack of books I never have time for that I would read. I...

sky, I figure I'll need to add at least 37,000 (after tax) to my principal before I'm done. At a 65% savings rate that's another two years. Does it make sense to start a new career and then quit after two years? Noided, I'm a live-in caretaker as job#2, so moving means my housing cost will go way up...

Hello Angela, We have some things in common, I'm a caregiver for my mother. I'm back to living in her house where I grew up, so I understand the difficulty in parting with property that has a family history. In the event of her passing, I'd have to sell this place. I know a bit about internet market...

I have been with same company for 13 years, starting in a data entry/clerical job at $20K and progressing to where now I'm in customer service, on the phone all day. Salary in the neighborhood of $34K. The job is fast-paced and stressful, which doesn't suit me. I'm a quiet guy who prefers working on...

A few things I want to document in my journal. And I am thirsty for feedback. 1. Moved another expired bank certificate into Vanguard. I try to do this when the market dips a bit. 2. Had an idea to plan a sabbatical from work. Sort of a trial period retirement. I would call it a "gap year"...

I just did my taxes. I had about 10% of my savings invested for 2.5 months last year. I earned $295 in dividends. So if I extrapolate that out to 12 months it's $1416, and if all of it was invested instead of 10%, that would have been $14,160 per year. Not guaranteed of course but it's in the ballpa...

I have a work shirt that's starting to fray around the collar. Whenever I put it on before going to the gray cubicle, I think about whether or not to buy a new one. I say "it just has to last until I stop working". I do have a minimal job wardrobe anyway. One pair of dark pants, and one sp...

That is a good question George I'm living in her house now, and as long as I'm here I will want my own car. I'm driving her car to work this week while I look for another one. Giving up a personal car would mean moving to a bike/walk friendly location, and moving is not an option in our situation. U...

Hi bradley I would also eliminate the personal debt asap, then focus on the credit card before the student loan. The credit card interest will rise at some point, and it should be gone by then. Sounds like you have a good start. You're starting this at a much lower age than I did, so as long as you ...

Another thing that concerns me about retiring on 300K invested, is that there is a narrow margin for error. There will likely be unexpected expenses that I can't plan for. For example, earlier in the year my mother had to be taken via ambulance to a hospital ER because of sudden extreme pain in her ...

In 2014 I did read Your Money or Your Life and A Random Walk Down Wallstreet. I also went through the Stock Series by jlcollinsnh. I started to move bank CD money into Vanguard index funds. I plan to continue this as the certificates expire this year. Index funds fit my criteria of being simple, rel...

Just some observations on the numbers you wrote: Gross income is $60,000 / year. 6% goes to 401K ($3,600) leaving $56,400. I don't know how you file, but let's say 20% goes to taxes (11,280). This leaves $45,120 to work with. The expenses you listed are about $1500/month, or $18,000 per year. 45120 ...

One of the reasons I chose the Cherokee was the reputation for long term reliability, and ready availability of cheap parts. I had most of the hoses on the engine and the serpentine belt replaced about 2 years ago. I will probably keep on driving it for the forseeable future, unless a problem develo...

Here is my car situation. My vehicle is a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Classic, that I bought in August 2004 for $6000. It had about 101,000 miles on the odometer when I bought it. There was no car loan, I paid cash. Now ten years later, the Jeep has 172,500 miles on it, and according to Edmunds it's worth $1...