Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Reading this article reminded me of the Wheaton level discussions
https://scripbox.com/blog/the-nine-leve ... d-aim-for/

Level 1 is getting to decide how you spend/ invest your salary. Priorities of family members can be different than yours and they may not understand why you don't think the way they do and vise versa. Perhaps they are in a later stage of life and you might eventually get there or it may just be a difference in values. Either way it is important to set boundaries so that their decisions don't adversely affect your spending/investing.

Level 2 is an emergency fund.

Level 3 is afford a career change.

Level 4 is a mini-retirement.

Level 5 is being debt-free.

Level 6 is calculating the target amount, setting a date by when you'll have saved as much.

Level 7 is letting investments cover your spending until conventional retirement. Mental preparedness to taking up a lower paying job for lower stress, better work-life balance.

Level 8 is pulling the trigger and living on investments perpetually.

Level 9 is 'cup runneth over' or having more than what could be spent in one lifetime.

Level 7 is

That's interesting, has some parallels with Ramsey's baby steps.

Life is kind of messy and in my case the order was different. Level 6 came first. Until my mid-40s and I was divorced Level 1 was never fully achieved and Level 2 only dubiously. Levels 3, 4, and 7 were omitted.

Interesting that the act of long-term saving/investing does not have an explicit step.