Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

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Ledimir
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 16, 2019 11:22 am

Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by Ledimir »

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.

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by wolf »

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!

Frita
Posts: 942
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:43 pm

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by Frita »

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.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by classical_Liberal »

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.

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by thrifty++ »

How is your rent so low in NYC?

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by Stahlmann »

thrifty++ wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 2:58 pm
How is your rent so low in NYC?
good question, anyway congrats for nailing it.

also, are you Russian emigrant?

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by thrifty++ »

Stahlmann wrote:
Mon Jul 01, 2019 3:46 pm
good question, anyway congrats for nailing it.

also, are you Russian emigrant?
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.

FIRE 2018
Posts: 126
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:32 am
Location: Florida

Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by FIRE 2018 »

Don't get married or have kids is a good start to FIRE early.

soundboy22
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2019 8:05 pm
Location: New york
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Re: Early Retirement - Leaving the Start Line

Post by soundboy22 »

congratulations, as you said its a long journey but we're all in it together

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