Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@chris
Thank you, this is a great suggestion! I will defintiely pursue this

Considering marrying for healthcare. My bf works as a part time contrator at several diff places and so he does not have health insurance through any of his employers. His premiums are around $250 / m now bc he makes too much /yr. The company I work for was bought by another company 6 months ago ...

Your pigeon updates reminded me of a strange museum in LA, Museum of Jurassic Technology, which has a very peaceful rooftop aviary with doves (not pigeons, but similar poetry)

TOTALS
Checking (~6 months spending) $5725
House Savings $43,000
ER Savings $12,524 (31% of 2021 Savings Goal $40,000, 3.91% of FI Goal 320K by 2029)


Been thinking about these totals. I'm still very uncomfortable with allocating 78% of my NW in a house, esp after looking at these threads ...

but if you have something better than ynab thar works for free, that's ok too. i'm just trying to say it's not the app's fault :)

(i love ynab, hate spreadsheets, lol)


Lol that's fair!! I've used and loved YNAB for years and years, and honestly would keep recommending it to others, esp all my ...

In December, I started to notice that my budgeting app, YNAB, was no longer serving me. The apps focus on the minutiae / category balancing had lead to a lifestyle creep that I hadn't noticed before. When I overspent in one category, I would simple move money around to cover for it. There were no ...

What are you growing in the cold frame? So far mine is working, with spinach, lettuce, etc. looking much better inside than out. I'd like to do more next year.


@gilberto I am growing arugula and prize choy (asian greens similar to bok choy), and I stuck some pots of parsley and peppermint in ...

@etryu - I always appreciate your goal oriented questions! I made a similar goal last month and thought i could achieve it by buying less meat, choosing recipes with cheaper ingredients, and opening a discussion about eating out cheaper with my partner. I'm tempted to name these same things as the ...

Goal update: When I started this journal I set a very open-ended goal to "lower my monthly spending" and when pressed I identified groceries and eating out as two areas to curb. So, historically I spend in those categories:

Groceries - $200 to $350 (I budget $200 each, but lately we always go over ...

Glad you are well and safe, I am in a similar position and feel very lucky.

How are things with the DIY conservatory? It's looks beautiful in your last post, I'd love to try something like this some day. I made a (very) small coldframe this summer and it's already done wonders extending our ...

Is there anyone you could ask to visit properties for you, and facetime so you could see what's happening? Hopefully that would weed out the worst places, and lower the amount of actual viewings you'd have to go to. Some landlords would probably be happy to do this too considering the circumstances

The other benefit to making your own spreadsheets is that you can change them up. For instance, you could track daily happiness level vs spending. This is kind of like the super-nerd equivalent of a gratitude journal.

This is such a beautiful thought ^^^

Agreed with @jacob 's point about DIY ...

I work in the manufacturing industry (like most people in Metro Detroit area) for a company located 1 mile from my home. I started at the literal bottom of this place as a machine operator making $12/hr. The only plus of that position was the active lifestyle - I was constantly running around a ...

@DutchGirl - thank you!! I will check out this site

@wolf - I figured this would be at least one of the answers - maybe I deal too much with templates during my current day job, I never like to start from scratch.

I'll post something here once I have it, we can build one together!

@7w5

So true... Have you read Middlesex? Your stories about Detroit remind me of that book (without the intersex parts). I read it before moving here and it helped me to understand the different neighborhoods. I've lived in a few big cities, but somehow this one is the most historically and ...

I've done some digging in the forums and couldn't find an answer (hopefully I didnt miss it!) but I'm wondering if anyone has any ERE spreadsheet templates that they would like to share with others. Any FI trackers? ERE type budgeting sheets? Estimated annual expenditure sheets? This stuff can be ...

Out of curiosity, can anyone give me an eyeball estimate on the value of the coins and the ring?


Just eyeballing - the ring looks like $250 in gold, if its not super thin. A simple band in 18k is about $100. If you know someone with a scale in oz or dwt you could weigh them - also yes a jeweler ...

On the subject of moving: my bf and I had a scare with our "landlord" last month (it's since been smoothed over) and started looking at houses a little more seriously than before. Dearborn is not as cheap as Detroit (median cost in Dearborn is 163k vs Detroit's 42k). I've got about 48k total, and my ...

You need to visit the western coast of Lake Huron. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive. You can canoe on the Rifle or Au Sable river, or hike literally hundreds of miles of trails. There is free primitive camping available in the National Forest if you want to keep it cheap. There are bears, but they are ...

I think Detroit is one of the world's most exciting cities. But not from a conventional view. Mark Binelli says it well...

I see a lot of opportunity for ERE-minded individuals. Do you think you'll move further into the city at any point? Or do you see yourself staying in Dearborn?


Thank you ...