Early Retirement Extreme Forums (est. 2010)

The PRoC has warned its citizens about traveling in America(street crime etc). This is likely partly a response to that/part of the trade war as well as a genuine concern. I think there’s been a gradual tightening of security for years, even going back to when I left in -12 but it certainly has esca...

The emergence of the unskilled poor is quite a big deal. If you're low on financial resources, skills are more important. Unfortunately a lot of skills seem to decrease with lower income, at least below a certain threshold. This leaves some people with below average skills and below average resource...

Obviously not a complete list, but a few I'd like to highlight: - Jin+Guice and his relentless advocacy for part-time work of various kinds. Also discussed by classical_Liberal and 2Birds1Stone(and others of course). Thanks for making another "script"/strategy part of the discussion. Not for everyon...

I think the biggest nugget for me is actively managing your career. I don’t see much value in their strive to maximize compensation/consumption* taken to the extremes they are going to, but I think everyone should strive towards their personal optimum of compensation/free time/skill acquisition/etc....

I'm happy I spent some time(and money... with my current skills I could have been way more efficient) traveling. I also took a roundabout way in getting my degree, which allowed me some time to really think and to read some great books. I think young people(young men at least) have a desire to explo...

I think that's a wise view on personality - traits, containing good and bad aspects both. Personally I try to round off my worst edges, basically trying to not suck at anything. My introversion brings a lot of good with it which I embrace, but I've also worked at being able to make small talk and ma...

I'm now 100% cash since all of my chosen asset classes(global large cap, global small cap, local mid cap, EM equity, PM) are all below their 200 SMA. Boring but safe. Interesting to see when I'll get in again and where.

I've sort of found "good enough" options for clothing that I look for when something needs replacing, so I pretty much don't spend time shopping anymore. I buy quality when possible(lasting 10+ years), but some things like underwear/socks/t-shirts/pants seem to wear out < 3 years, and when they do I...

Most gifts are now eliminated(to great mutual relief), but otherwise my go-to gifts are books, fancy treats(alcohol, chocolate, coffee, liquorice), for bigger gifts taking someone out to dinner(if really big accompanied by going to a show/the theater).

A peek at the new book at 53.40 -->
Couldn't make out any of the notes though

I always enjoy seeing other peoples homes(a middle-aged mid century housewife in a contemporary young mans body?) so the peeks into DLJs and Ericas home were really juicy(looks cozy!).

This also ties in with the thread about limiting your choices: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10321

I don't think that minimalists are necessarily one-dimensional. At least most of the major blogs seem to talk quite a bit about commitments, relationships, career, health, managing attention, even personal finance nowadays. I guess counting possessions gets most of the focus, just as counting financ...

It has always bugged me that people compare MMM's household budget with jacobs personal one(I guess because J/MMM choose to present them differently), leaving the impression that jacob is 4x as efficient(25k vs 6k). MMM spending 50% more/capita seems reasonable though - there's no doubt in my mind t...

I think FIRE getting accepted by the masses basically means another Nice Thing that you Should Do. Like exercising, reading books, volunteering or reducing your footprint. Making the analogy with exercise, what people should be doing is running/swimming/lifting weights. What people are doing is gett...

- Diminishing returns in everything makes it great value to strive for competence in many fields. Health, relationships, practical skills, the arts, finance, ecology. I think everyone will go deeper in some fields than others, but basic competence is likely achievable in most - A lot of human intera...

Big picture, nothing was solved after 08/09. Crisis was averted, but we're still in all the predicaments we found us in then(households/governments indebted, eurozone a mess, low growth, high inequality, asset bubbles). Some things are marginally bettter, sure, and the doomsday predictions proved to...

To me this cluster of partly overlapping movements(FIRE, permaculture, minimalism, zero waste etc) gives you different perspectives on the same issue, hopefully helping you integrate your web of goals(ERE integrating all of them into a higher level philosophy). I think its a good habit to keep in to...

To me, jacob and MMM represent different archetypes of FIRE, jacob being the Philosopher and MMM being the Entrepreneur, meaning that there is no comparison. It's like debating the respective merits of Richard Stallman and Steve Jobs and trying to decide who is more worthy(or Jesus vs St Paul) - com...

Isn't this fairly typical for social movements in general? You have the avant garde who are brilliant authors of systems but perhaps somewhat stark to the general population, and then there are popularizers. And then suddenly there are people who identify strongly with "the movement" who haven't eve...

FINANCIAL: I've adopted a MA200 strategy for my liquid investments. It's an even five way split between global large cap/domestic mid cap/global small cap/EM/PM. Each is traded based on the 200DMA, so currently EM and PM are in cash. I'm increasingly nervous about valuations so this is a way to hedg...