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The concept of calculating your true hourly wage (after figuring in all the expenses, taxes, etc), and then expressing the price of goods not in dollars but in hours worked to buy it, was truly a revolutionary concept to me. So was figuring out my net worth in comparison to all the income I ever earned as based on the social security statement. Both of those concepts are so logical and simple, but they opened my eyes.

Joe and Vicky, thanks for writing the book. You changed the lives of many for the better, even if you didn't change the world. Bitter or not, the interview was an interesting spotlight on the authors. So, thanks Brandon for interviewing Vicky!

@jacob: The "1 Vicki" expenses level is mentioned at 23:00. I heard it as 7-8k/year and not 17k.

Vicki wrote:I'm making the world safe for frugality. I'm standing up here, I'm healthy, I don't look bad, I'm well-dressed. And I spend about 7, 8 thousand dollars a year.

@Above comments about Vicki's feelings toward Joe: I listened to the segment about authorship and promotion several times. I didn't sense resentment, rather she was using blunt language to set the record straight and claim rightful credit for writing YMOYL(*) and doing the bulk of the promotion. Joe was diagnosed with cancer shortly after the book was released. I'm sure Vicki understood why he didn't want to spend even more energy on promotion after over a decade of seminars.

(*)Which I suspected all along.

I came away from the interview with a new respect for Vicki as a person and FIRE thinker in her own right. The part about redefining FI from "set for life" to "having options and being able to devote time to what's most important" really resonated with me.

Overall, the interview cemented YMOYL's place in my imaginary FIRE pantheon as the next step beyond MMM. She's beyond SWR or "income for life" and asking readers to find security in skills, relationships and the abundance in the natural world. Of course I think this only because I'm partial to/ready for her message.

RealPerson wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:27 am

The concept of calculating your true hourly wage (after figuring in all the expenses, taxes, etc), and then expressing the price of goods not in dollars but in hours worked to buy it, was truly a revolutionary concept to me.

I think it was Thoreau who said the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it....

Fish wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:34 am

@jacob: The "1 Vicki" expenses level is mentioned at 23:00. I heard it as 7-8k/year and not 17k.

23:10 ... now I'm hearing it as "about seventy thousand dollars a year"? This doesn't make any sense, but I detect a sound between "seven" ?? and "thousand dollars a year". Can someone with good ears provide some verification?

Add: Okay, now I also hear it as "seven [to] eight thousand..."

@jacob Transcript of the interview is now available at Dragline's link.

Vicki wrote:And I live on about $7000 or $8000 a year.

Now that I have read a book written by Vicki Robin alone, I am able to subtract her voice from "YMOYL." That allows me to come to the realization that Joe Dominguez, Jim Buckmaster (who lived in the same hippie-dippie student co-op as me in the 80s) and Jacob are the same character, which makes more sense of the universe to me, which makes me happy like BRUTE.

Also, it is becoming clear to me that the reason why some people don't care for the MBTI system is that they just don't get it. Otherwise, they would know that Olaz is the character who is the same as Portlandia Aliki. If you don't believe me, just read his most recent journal entry #1.

7Wannabe5 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:16 am

Otherwise, they would know that Olaz is the character who is the same as Portlandia Aliki. If you don't believe me, just read his most recent journal entry #1.

Nah, you're confusing Olaz with someone else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGWWkEJzWeI

@Ego: Agree. Olaz is not Aliki, and I apologize. I was likely projecting annoyance due to being just this morning compelled to write curt, dismissive note to my very conventionally attractive, well-mannered ex-polyamour who was formerly a minister ( and thus in possession of soft-handling people skills), making it clear that I have zero interest in becoming friends with his wife in order to make it possible for us to see each other again. He's not Aliki either, but...

While we're scrutinizing the least significant part of this interview, that bit about $7-8k expenses and making the world safe for frugality was prefaced with "I used to say...", meaning it could have been 1980, 1992, and/or 2017 expenses. Who knows. We should ask Vicki to clarify because this has serious implications for our mapping of the personal finance mountain!

Does voluntary simplicity, when mastered, result in spending efficiency that rivals systems theory? Or is Vicki's spending efficiency attributed to being a systems thinker?

Fish wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:34 pm

Does voluntary simplicity, when mastered, result in spending efficiency that rivals systems theory?

I don't think so. Voluntary simplicity means deliberately cutting away expenses. It's "doing without by choice" (internal constraint) --- something which is very different from "doing without by force" (external constraint = poverty). For example, one may choose not to own a TV and thus not have the expenses of the TV and the cable bill. Or one may decide not to own a fridge. I see voluntary simplicity as the original minimalism cf. modern minimalism which sometimes seems more about traveling, counting your items, and keeping everything in white and beige. VS is not so much about money as it is about removing the inessentials from life in order to focus more on the essentials and reduce stress. Thoreau would be an excellent example of voluntary simplicity. Point being, VS spends less because it gets less.

The focus in systems theory would not be in essentials or non-essentials but in how everything is arranged/fit together to maximize yield and minimize loss.

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:54 pm

I see voluntary simplicity as the original minimalism cf.

'cf' ?

The abbreviation cf. (short for the Latin: confer, meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed.

Shame on you :p (2 seconds using google)
Anyway, for me it was also another new word which I learnt during reading ERE community.

Improper usage! (if that's what he meant)

I think it was used as I would use it. I just see it as meaning "in contrast to" or "contrast with". In that case the reader was invited to contrast original minimalism with modern minimalism.