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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:26 pm
by secretwealth
It's about halfway through, but the whole thing is worth reading: http://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane ... -decision/


Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 4:08 pm
by jacob
If you take the 1955 and CPI scale them ...
His 127k networth would be 1M today.

The 12k annual living would be 80k today.

The 175 rent would be 1450 today.
So these are typical non-ERE retirement numbers. He just had that money at 25 though(*). What's interesting is that "doing what you want" after you have enough money to support yourself forever was a driving point AND he has not later scaled up his expenses to match the increased income.
(*) My understanding of ERE is that it has more to do with the extreme part than the early part. Everybody can do extreme (if they want) but not everybody makes the same amount of money.


Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:01 pm
by dot_com_vet
Amazing story!


Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 1:56 am
by secretwealth
Jacob, you make a great point. I was struck at how $120k could feasibly be enough for ERE today for one person (maybe not a family), if you're willing to tolerate a high withdrawal rate and little protection against inflation.


Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:13 am
by ICouldBeTheWalrus
I'm currently reading the biography of Buffett, _The Snowball_. It's a good read, and I've never been a big Buffett fanboy (though, I find investment interesting.)


Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:04 pm
by Dragline
Read a bio of Charlie Munger -- his silent partner. Much more interesting IMO, because he's a much deeper thinker. And he doesn't have a need to be liked by the public like Buffett does.


Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 11:28 pm
by C40
I'd still call that ERE. His savings rate was very high and he was FI at 25. It's just that his extreme side was the income rather than spending (and being the uncommon person who's spending does not increase with income)


Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:53 am
by Obadobadope
Buffett is the very definition of early and extreme. He began investing before he began highschool. And he grew up a few hundred miles from the heart of the dust bowl. Until he was 10 years old he lived in an economic depression none of us can fathom. Yes, he was a congressman's son. But he also worked extremely hard in his teens, and has been extremely frugal his entire life. He fully understood the value of maximum savings rate during the early years, and growing up in the great depression, I'm guessing his sacrifices to frugality would match most or all of ours. He just did it while he was 12-25 instead of 22-35.