Early Retirement Extreme Forums (est. 2010)

Savings rate for March: 18.6%. Books read: A Voyage to Abyssinia (Lobo) – Really fascinating, but perhaps just because I’m living in the region. Also fascinating for the fact that it was originally written in Portuguese in the 17th century, and was then translated into French, then English, and yet ...

Yeah, it's an interesting situation. I heard for a while that there were serious fears that Egypt would actually try to bomb the site. I don't know how serious those fears were - my guess is that the Ethiopian military seriously considered it, the Egyptians, I couldn't guess. A while back the lead e...

As the forum's resident Adelaidean I have to say the sign's a mystery to me too.

Before judging the people of Adelaide, though, perhaps be mindful that a lot of people passing through the airport are actually not from the city, and maybe the sign's there for their benefit?

Hey. Can I just chime in to say, and I have thought this in other threads but not outright said it, thanks to Sclass for sharing so much of his experience. I feel like I've learnt a lot. For what it's worth, I know my mother is vocal frequently about not wanting extensive medical support towards the...

Well I'd not necessarily say it's a huge risk, but in today's febrile political environment governments are becoming more prone to 'removing' people's citizenship. But they tend (at the moment) to only consider doing this to those whom they are assured will not end up stateless. So, if you have two ...

Savings rate for February: 40.1%. Books read: The Rosie Project (Simsion) – a good read, quite funny. I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to recommend it, necessarily: while highly enjoyable I don’t think it necessarily has much to teach the reader. Years of expenditure saved is now at around 14.3,...

So… no journal entries for a while. I think I ought to try to keep up the habit. Rather than report the savings rates for all the months I’ve missed, let me just say that my savings rate for 2018 overall was a shade under 40%. Could be better, could be a lot worse… I suspect 2019 will be lower. At t...

@jean

Yeah, that sounds like an amazing location/job combo right there. Do you think it could satisfy in the longer term, though?

And yeah, of all the things that are expensive in Switzerland, beer from the supermarket is not one of them.

@Kriegsspiel
Ummm, ok? Not sure that's really an interesting quote. Depending on the absolute quantities involved, a doubling of yields with a 25 times increase in research investment could be a brilliant payoff, depending in starting values.

So I read somewhere, maybe FAO or UNDP, that there's probably still a lot of productivity gains to be had out of lesser known African crops. I don't know how accurate it is, of course, but it sounds plausible. Maybe someone more scientifically or agriculturally minded wants to comment. The reasoning...

Well saying different places feel the same might be going too far, but I do think a great many places are 'converging' in their feel. They might not be all the same (yet), but I do think they're getting closer. And I think tourism and cheap flights/more extensive flight networks are contributing to ...

@jacob Regarding the Catholic counseling prior to marriage: I knew one Catholic who said to me that his overall impression of his going through that process was that it was basically an excuse for the priest to give them a lecture about their moral responsibility to create more Catholics :o I'm sure...

I had both a blender and a food processor at one point, and barely ever used either. The food processor was goid for hummus and falafel. The blender... Can't think of anything I made regularly with it.

My immersion blender, though? I love it. Use it probably twice a week or more.

Can I say I'm enjoying this thread just for ideas, and suggestions getting shot down? For THF, whenever this kind of topic comes up (and it comes up a lot) I always end up feeling like the best solution is not looking for serious part-time work. It's looking for 6-12 month, full time contracts in a ...

if only there was a way to increase the wealth of humans from $10,000/year to $40,000/year over the span of 100 years. oh wait, the free market! lucky humans. Brute talks as though economic development is a solved problem. I assure Brute that it is not, although if you live in the west it's easy to...

On 4, which you didn't elaborate a lot on... Remember, comparison is the thief of joy. Even if it's only in your head. If you have a million choices, you're always comparing your outcomes to what may have happened if you'd chosen something else... Locking yourself in to fewer choices means you do le...

RealPerson wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 9:01 am

...dipping their fresh baked perfectly flaky croissants in their cup of coffee with the right amount of crema, there is not going to be a revolution.

French coffee certainly makes me desire revolution.

niemand wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:41 am

I think we all agree that Marx’s vision of communism has never been put into practice

Yes, but this is a silly thing to say because there is no realistic set of global circumstances that would be a precursor to communism as Marx described.

Pretty sure WB's PovcalNet fits your needs.

Edit: not sure why I can't get the link to work...

Well I feel like it's largely cultural. Until I started mixing in a more international environment I didn't really know any blokes who used cologne regularly. Of course I can't speak with authority on the female side of things, but I never got the feeling that perfume was a large expense for my sist...