Allagash wrote:
I also have not yet reached the "black belt" level of ERE that many on this forum have.
I'm still blown away at how some people spend $7k a year on living expenses...
33k a year is high, but make sure you are comparing apples to apples when evaluating expenses against that $7k number. Comparisons get fuzzy with stuff like home ownership, asset depreciation, insurance through a spouse, tax strategies, etc.
The very nature of a multifaceted approach means that boiling down to a single number does not work well.
I would recommend getting the weekly letter/email for and visiting realinvestmentadvice.com
its the site of the local Houston financial talk host, lance Roberts; who also manages money. he's a contraiarian and I believe he bases his market allocations by moving averages, although I cannot conform that and I do not expect he's going to tell me; but in addition to his technical analysis on the market and sub-markets(i.e. oil, gold), many of his site posts cover all sorts of macro and mirco economic issues.
If you churn credit cards for rewards points (and you probably should, why not?) you can get the Wall Street Journal really cheap in terms of miles / points. So for example you can get a flyer miles credit card, get the 30k bonus miles by putting your rent on the CC, and then you can buy WSJ for 1 year for like 3k miles. The full price without a deal is about $450 a year for print edition.
The Wall Street Journal is for decision-makers--not just those in business, but all decision-makers throughout a society that is dominated by business. Unlike the New York Times and other newspapers for wider audiences, and contrary to popular mythology, the Journal does not push the establishment's side in its reporting. It serves the establishment in a different way: by informing its members from an above-the-fray perspective, trusting them to come to their own conclusions. One of its most important functions is to give top managers the comprehensive social intelligence they must have if they are to boss their employees effectively and market to the public successfully. Thus the Journal keeps its subscribers up to date on contemporary sociology and popular culture, giving the bosses the intimate details of the lives and aspirations of individuals at each and every level of society, from skid row on up, while always quickly reporting on anyone who is doing something out of the ordinary. The fact that the Journal does not use photographs, together with the widespread but incorrect belief that it contains only boring financial data and articles that praise the system, help keep the wrong eyes from seeing the big picture.
Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds
p.s. for us wrong-eyed, they've got pictures now and you can subscribe for one buck.
