Greetings From Florida

[Miser]

Hello. 51 year old Floridian, no children, divorced five years ago, lost everything. 10 years worth of student loan debt left to pay and and paying off a serious credit card bill ($13k). I picked up Early Retirement Extreme earlier this year and read its page. Very impressed by the author and the thought he has put into the book. I even keep a copy on my Kindle.
Currently apartment living and getting my life organized as I want to retire in 2030 (should i live that long) in as simple and stress free a manner as possible. To this end, I have minimized my physical possessions and learned to stop buying things I don't need (or books I will never read: my biggest offense). I am building up my cash reserves and will soon be moving my credit card debt to a small loan through my credit union where the interest will be much lower.
Looking forward to contributing to the discussion and learning from others here.
Cash is king. Always.

[Jason]

Divorcesectomy: From the latin word meaning to have a man's wallet ripped out through his genitals.

Robin Williams

[Stahlmann]

like... what happened

if you haven't had children together, why would your ex-wife receive more than 50% of the stuff?
(because extra money should give her back time spend on kids)

or is it like... if wife took care of the home and this makes eligible for other 50% of stuff? (but it's probably interesting who stayed overtime to earn money for it... )

or simply she took kids and you don't care anymore, but in exchange you're broke?

for a moment I thought I misclicked the tabs

[Jason]

Divorce is like economic cancer. Or maybe its not. I've never been through either. But it's fucked up and never seems to completely go away. You have lawyers and you have to move and you have to sell stuff and then buy stuff and start over. You fight over everything, even things you don't want just so the other person doesn't get it. All this ancillary bullshit. Its a complete disruption. I know someone going through it now and he's high net worth in business yet now broke personally. And either you risk it all again or you find strippers looking for over time. He seems to have settled on the latter. I probably would as well. Actually, I know I would.

I know the climatic discrepancy is significant in comparison to Florida, but I read somewhere Norway is looking for people. Might be a good place to start over.

[davtheram12]

@ Miser

Welcome Miser! Sorry to hear about the rough waters but as I'm sure you'll learn through the blog and forums, ERE is a great way to not only redirect your financial endeavors but it will also greatly enhance the things you cherish in life.

I hope you enjoy with the new lifestyle! Looking forward to reading about your pursuits.

Cheers

[Jason]

I'm not a historian on this topic, but as I understood things, at least through the initial post-war period, people got married in order to get laid, and stayed married because divorce was not generally acceptable not to mention being financially ruinous. So in nutshell, people got married in order to fuck and remained married in order not go get fucked.

Then Hollywood with its Liz Taylors and the like not only starting getting divorced but began flaunting it. Then the sexual revolution and blah blah. But what everyday people forgot to realize is that Hollywood people were rich and they could afford to get divorced. They had no financial repercussions. Johnny Carson made it a part of his opening monologue. Sure, TV Johnny was a funny down to earth guy, but real life Johnny was nothing but a hard drinking, carousing, rich asshole. He could afford all of it. So these no fault divorces and the like are great if your spouse is out blowing the neighborhood while you work all day, but its the worse thing for your financial life.

Anyways, good luck Miser.