Early Retirement Extreme Forums

We have a few of those Airport types, but probably not enough to make it worthwhile. I think effort has to be factored into the equation. I think we are Amazon worthy.

BTW just kidding about burning books or any paper. In the universe of recycling, paper products and aluminum are the most valuable because of the resources needed to produce them and the high yield of recycling them.

Don't airport reads have that return offer now if you actually buy them in an airport? IIRC it's only a 50% credit, but at least the book gets recirculated.

I heard about a read and return policy. I also read about TSA looking at your books, so you might want to consider finishing up "Shoebombing For Dummies" in the privacy of your own home.

I could never burn a book, although I am always tempted when I look at my copy of Fahrenheit 451.

This article has been making the rounds:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/emer ... index.html

It's very reminiscent of this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... me/476415/

When I saw the "Americans don't have $400" it brought me back to the Neil Gabler article and I realized my being here (in some sense of "here") is inextricably tied to that media moment. That was my wake up call. I had $400. But I didn't have as much $400 as I should have had. What I consider our emergency fund, now has two years of mortgage payments. Also, our net worth has increased close to $250K.

I didn't start a separate thread on this because its just anecdotal bullshit but it provides a reminder to be humble. Not only do I remember what it was like not to have $400 but what it was like not to know that I should be worried about not having $400. The irony is I'm probably staring at $400 of half read books on my floor which makes me like the LeBron James of fuck-ups.

When I read stuff like this my first reaction is instinctively “this shit can’t be true”.
I had $400 saved when I was, like, 15.

But then I think about that time with my neighbor.

When DW and I were living in Murray Hill* we had this neighbor that worked for one of the big ass banks downtown.
He was around 27-28 years old (edit: probably more like 24-25 now that I think of it)
He partied a lot, was always out, had multiple (as in: two per week) girlfriends.
On sundays, when I went downstairs to smoke a cigarette with my morning coffee (I was still smoking a bit at the time) I would often see him come back home.

My other neighbor who is now a VP for a bigger ass finance firm estimated at the time that this guy made somewhere around $100-140k plus potentially fat bonuses.

So one Sunday I was very surprised to see this guy in a white T-shirt and shorts taking out the trash at 8.30 in the morning.

I jokingly asked him: “did you default to only ONE girlfriend now? How come you didn’t go out?”
And the guy responds: “oh, I’m broke”
I start laughing and ask “no seriously”
Him: “yeah you know I dropped some coke** on the carpet and I had to bring it to the cleaner. That was a $700 expense I hadn’t planned so I didn’t have the money to go out yesterday”

My jaw dropped

*midtown east neighborhood in NYC mostly populated by rich young Jewish kids that party a lot. We moved after 2 years.

** I did not dare ask if what type of coke he was referring to.

Living in the suburbs of Manhattan and being in real estate, I do know that residential developers do not even consider building condos because of the fact that although many people make money few have money.

The veracity of the article? I do not know. It is always shocking but based on sample size, who can say. The Neil Gabler article touched a nerve. Based on general savings rates and debt service, it does seem to make sense.

** It was the carbonated kind as it was the other he would have spent all hours on the floor with a rolled up twenty crumb hunting.

(1) Health - We invested $275 in a Pilates machine. Based on our age, physical condition/issues, physical aspirations, comfort level, it seemed like the best investment. Initial response confirms, as already eclipses return of stupid rice maker.

(2) Wealth - Coin is at $425K. House approx $85. A couple of bad performing stocks I held onto seem to be recovering. OKTA which is new has given approx. 50%. NIKE, ATVI leading charge.

(3) Marie Kondo - We kind of went off message and did some clothing removal before paper/books were completed because we desperately needed closet space. Five bags going to salvation army. So now I got Marie Kondo joining the "you suck" choir singing in my head. It's like "We Are The World" but no one is famous and they are completely out of tune. But damn they love to sing.

(4) Mental Health - Therapy is productive. Crippling anxiety is still an issue. But hey, it will be over soon enough!!!

(5) Travel - We are planning a trip to Italy for next fall. I have never been to Europe. I know the Pope is going to want to meet with me, so I'm trying to get in tippy top Pontiff meeting shape.

If you have a cacophonic choir in your head, singing 'you suck'; how do you reckon you'll manage being FI once the background noise dies down and all your can hear is your own sulphurous -lentil tinted- farts and 'that choir'?

With a good rhythm section I can get up and dance.

I recently found out my primary MD was sentenced to 18 months in prison due to his involvement in a lab testing scam. Also had to pay $100k restitution and I'm assuming has seen his last patient. I liked him. But what can you do.

His financial benefit in the scam was surprisingly low - like 40K. But he got Fedded. It always amazes me how little money is often involved in these cases. A mayor of fairly large city lost his salary, his benefits, and his freedom when an old lady filmed him using government employees to add an extra coat of paint to his modest house. I get asked to take under the table money all the time but refuse not only because I will lose my credentials but because how little money I am being offered to lose my credentials. I don't think I would take a large sum because then I know I'll be caught. I mean I could be being videotaped for $500. Anyways, moral of the story, don't spend all that time and money becoming a doctor and lose it all because some douchebag offers you a five figure kickback to use his clinic.

I was wondering where I should address this topic as it most likely won't be interest to anyone on this board and then it occurred to me to just McLuhan it it right here in my Dear Diaryhea. This is for me. Not you. So if you don't like it, get the fuck out of my little corner of the universe. But if you do happen to like it, coffee and donuts will be available for those who stay for the break out sessions:

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/fea ... ge-w521671

Now, first of all, this "was" me on $650 million dollars as I used to be this on $65. So, actually, I would be worse. Now after ERE, I am happy to say, that if I was to stumble into this type of money, I would apply all my new found frugal skills and take this route:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XiA4U_XsE


The account of Johnny Depp is so dissolute, so self-indulgent, so futile, and so insane that the only alternative is the antithesis. It truly provides anecdotal justification of the "impossibility of the contrary" when taking an anti-consumerist stance - meaning there is no "healthy" consumerism as given its logical outworking, this is where it will end up if you pursue it according to availability of capital achieved through work. Which is probably ironic, for if the Malibu wind happens to blow left on Johnny Depp's pharmaceutical grade cocaine, I am guessing he can and will break out passages of Das Kapital from memory as auto-didactic one-percenters tend to do. Or at least that's my take on them.

A regular Timon of Athens.

If this can be tangentially related to recent conversations, I would say what is encouraging about this is that in a society filled with those as profligate with their (lesser compared to Depp) resources, there should be no shortage of opportunities for others to relieve them of their burdensome monies.

In this life, I have come to the conclusion that money is necessary for happiness. The shit it can buy is not.

Whoa. I didn't realize Johnny Depp was so far gone. I figured he was doing okay since I see him on bus stop billboards for cologne every day when I walk to work.

The article reminded me of a quote from an obesity researcher I heard recently. He was considering diet vs exercise as levers to pull in the battle against weight gain: "It's possible to outeat just about any amount of exercise."

I think stories like Johnny Depp are interesting on numerous levels, but on an economy of scale, they apply to anyone like myself fighting deeply ingrained consumerist impulses. The corollary to Johnny Depp's $30K a month in wine habit is my McDonald's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit habit. The corollary to his 45 rarely driven luxury cars is my stack of unread books. The corollary to Johnny Depp spending $5 million to ensure that Hunter S. Thompson's ashes were shot out of a canon at height eclipsing The Statue of Liberty is my, um. I'll have to get back to you on that one. Any ways, all analogies eventually break down. But I think I made my point.

The bottom line - if Johnny and Jason were previously more careful with their money, neither would still have to be working and each could be enjoying a life of retirement, albeit on a relative basis.

Oh man, that cannon anecdote was insane.

At least you can take solace in the fact that you'd cut back on your biscuit habit if the repo man started coming around. Johnny refuses to sell his private island to this day.

He also takes zero responsibility for his situation, which makes me think it's less that there is no "healthy" consumerism and moreso that some people have pathological disorders that make them incapable of good decision making.

I never liked Johnny Depp and his depressing movies. I am more an Al Pacino or Robert De Niro guy.

(@) Frugal

It's been documented that DeNiro has financial issues as well, but it is more prosaic - family - specifically having kids (again) late in life and subsidizing wife's business. Hence, arguably the greatest living actor having to take on embarrassing roles.

https://nypost.com/2016/01/31/having-ki ... os-career/

https://pagesix.com/2017/02/23/robert-d ... his-money/

Kids do not cost tens of millions of dollars, I am not buying that. So De Niro’s situation has to be attributable to ridiculous consumption, subsidizing a bad business, absurd alimony laws, or a cocktail of all three.