Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Early Retirement Extreme Forums » Miscellaneous

1. 

   livinlite
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Feb '12
   Posts: 108

   http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2017513111_pacificpmiddleclass26.html?cmpid=2628

   Seems like a pretty bold lifestyle piece for a section of the paper that's usually reserved for $1M houses and fancy-pants remodels.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   JohnnyH
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 1,366

   "racked up a combined $120,000 worth of college debt while studying for their technology degrees" ... too bad they didn't think about that before they committed.

   Why are people so in love with these specific urban areas they'll slave for an extra decade or so?

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   livinlite
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Feb '12
   Posts: 108

   Yeah, the whole thing definitely doesn't pull together all the ERE aspects, but still..a good article compared to what you usually see in the mainstream media..

   Why am I in love with an urban area?

   Well, that's where my job is. And that job is the way I'm working on building my assets enough to have something to invest. I hope to live in a vibrant small town some day down the road, but trying to jump there immediately is a recipe for disaster..from my experience.

   I think my higher salary in the urban area will more than offset the higher rents in the near term..

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   ffj
   

   Master
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 342

   Little bit of a rant here(sorry). Does it annoy anybody else that articles like this keep comparing our current recession to the Great Depression? And that by being frugal, which wasn't a conscientious choice for almost everybody not that long ago, is a peculiar hardship on the road to the American Dream? I just see a huge disconnect with reality with these articles. I do appreciate the spirit of the article however.

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   JohnnyH
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 1,366

   @livin: That's a good plan... But I am confused why people seem willing to work an extra 10 years, just to ER in a specific, expensive urban area (Seattle, SF, NYC) when they could live so much less expensively elsewhere.

   @jeff: It is beyond annoying... People starved to death in the depression. Anyone who thinks this is anywhere near similar has no comprehension of real hardship.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   livinlite
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Feb '12
   Posts: 108

   @JohnnyH RE GreatDepression: Yeah, the people in the article are not experience Tom Joad-esque hardship..but other people certainly are; and I find it a bit insulting that they say people living a "semi-below-middle-class" existence are facing real hardship.. I think Jacob has discussed that in the difference between being poor w/ no education assets vs being poor w/ the education to navigate things w/o falling into catastrophe.

   And yeah, I don't think we'll be sticking around Seattle post ERE..maybe a community within 2 hrs though.

   Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.