Hi there,
My name is Ledimir. I am new to the Early Retirement Extreme forum. I found the site and forum when I started reading Mr. Money Mustache’s site and learned that early retirement is possible by doing two things, increasing your income and decreasing your spending. Increasing your income requires skill, a bit of luck, but also patience. I wanted actionable steps that I could follow immediately, so I focused on the decreasing spending portion. What can I do today to make progress toward never having to sell my time for a couple of dollars? Because my time is finite, I’d rather do with it as I please. So let’s run more, let’s explore more, let’s be curious instead of managed, monitored, and limited.
And so, about me. I am 26 years old and 20 days. I am in a serious relationship with my girlfriend and living with my mother and sister in New York City. I am an INFJ. Thankfully, I have no student debt and no credit card debit. New York is very expensive, but I manage pretty well and am able to keep expenses under $800 per month. I don’t own a car, I use the train and metro service. I want to begin biking to work, a cool 2-7 miles depending on the station I’m at on a given day.
$400 - Rent
$45 - Phone and Internet Service
$140 - food
$200 - miscellaneous expenses [including metro cards, girlfriends gas, etc.]
The journey is long, but I am very excited. I can do so much better and get so much smarter financially. I will work to continually improve and cut expenses whenever possible. Joining this community will be so important because having people with similar goals suddenly makes this the normal and rational thing to do. No longer will I feel crazy for choosing to live cheaply and expensively in perhaps the most wasteful city in the world.
Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
Welcome Ledimir!
Have you already had a look at Jacob's "21 day makeover"? Living with under $800p.m. in NY is pretty frugal. That's a great start!
Have you already had a look at Jacob's "21 day makeover"? Living with under $800p.m. in NY is pretty frugal. That's a great start!
Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
Way to go keeping expenses low and finding ERE! Is anyone else in your household on a similar path? Are you in the closet with friends and co-workers?
@bigato
Do you think some of us group lots of small categories into the miscellaneous category? DS (ISFJ) and I (ENTP) see it differently. He likes lots of categories where I like the flexibility of a looser classification. I also lump eating out and alcohol with groceries. (Gasp, I know.) Over the years we each taken turns tracking the budget and done it out own way. Jacob’s average daily spend is terrific once habits are engrained.
@bigato
Do you think some of us group lots of small categories into the miscellaneous category? DS (ISFJ) and I (ENTP) see it differently. He likes lots of categories where I like the flexibility of a looser classification. I also lump eating out and alcohol with groceries. (Gasp, I know.) Over the years we each taken turns tracking the budget and done it out own way. Jacob’s average daily spend is terrific once habits are engrained.
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Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
Normally I'd agree with bigato. In this case, $800 a month in NYC is so unbelievably impressive, I don't think OP would have much to gain. S/he is well past the need for strict budgeting. Although it might help the rest of us learn from the awesomeness.
Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
How is your rent so low in NYC?
Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
No. Was this question for me or the OP? I am curious about the rent though. Not that I live in NYC. But live in an incredibly expensive city so wondering if a transferrable hack exists.
Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
Don't get married or have kids is a good start to FIRE early.
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Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line
congratulations, as you said its a long journey but we're all in it together