'Extreme' Finance Blogs

m741 · Post by **m741** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:22 am

This morning I was reading one of my favorite personal finance blogs (Mr Money Mustache, highly recommended) and he pointed to an article he had written on a different blog (Frugal Dad).
The gist of the article was basically to follow the ERE method. But some of the comments blew me away.
"So my advice is to keep working until you no longer can, because there may no social security or medicare for you."
"A specific breakdown on how you lived on “$15 to $25 grand of take-home pay per year” would be insightful. Hard to imagine that you didn’t live somewhere with bars on the windows, had no running water, and was frequently visited by rodents."
"Our investments and assets are approaching the million dollar mark but we would feel totally insecure and frightened without an income because we are raising children."
These are people self-selecting as frugal!
Over the past few months I've noticed that the personal finance blogs I was reading for a while (Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar) were more and more irrelevant. 50% of their articles concern getting out of debt, and another 25% are about how, if you save 15% of your income, you're in good shape, and it's ok to 'reward yourself'. Perusing other personal finance/frugality blogs, this seems common. Compare with the ERE forums, where average savings rates range from 40-80%.
The only truly useful extreme frugality/early retirement blogs I've seen are the ERE blog and Mr Money Mustache. Am I missing any?

Post by **jacob** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:34 am

Look at my blogroll

sree · Post by **sree** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:45 am

m741 - I am also steering away from generic PF blogs such as GRS and TSD because a lot of its stale content. We all know how to get out of debt.
Maybe try some simple living/ minimalist blogs to get a fresh perspective. They have some bearing on early retirement, in regards to consuming less and becoming satisfied with less. I recommend zenhabits.net
Just for some sarcasm I check financialsamurai.com occasionally.

sree · Post by **sree** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:59 am

Cool. My name just turned from bright green to bright blue... When do I get to turn red?

spider1204 · Post by **spider1204** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:07 am

Yeah, I'd have to agree, whenever I check out one of those other blogs like GRS I usually just read the title and then move on to ERE. Reading the ERE forums is usually more enlightening to me than the main content of most of the other PF blogs.

Post by **jacob** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:07 am

@Sree - At your current rate of posting... around 2017

m741 · Post by **m741** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:11 am

@Jacob - I've been mining that. That's how I found MMM; I also read MikeBOS' blog and enjoy that.
@Sree - It's based on how many comments you've made. I think blue @ 30, dark blue @ 100, red @ 500, dark red @ Jacob? Any recommendations on specific simple/minimalist blogs? I found ZenHabits to be a little too repetitive for me.

ICouldBeTheWalrus · Post by **ICouldBeTheWalrus** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:13 am

The problem with most personal-finance blogs seems roughly analogous to the problem with most self-help books. They cover the same territory as most of the others and they lack depth.
The blogroll listed on Jacob's blog has some pretty unusual and interesting folks.

Post by **jacob** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:13 am

@m741 - red@300, dark red@1000
missminimalist.com

EMJ · Post by **EMJ** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:08 am

More or less on topic:

Moneyless World - Free World - Priceless World

http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/
Sailing, Simplicity, and the Pursuit of Happiness

http://sailingsimplicity.com/
"The relentlessly doomerish boss of ClubOrlov.com has become famous in peak oil circles for presiding over a kind of comedy club from hell where a rabid fan base celebrates the coming fall of the American Empire under the load of peak debt while devouring posts on such subjects as the future of sailing ships and ways for dead people to send text messages. The site’s sidebar lists topic tags including cannibalism, ruins and Siberia."

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/

bluepearl · Post by **bluepearl** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:22 am

well, since emj mentioned cluborlov first...
I actually like surviving in argentina by ferfal

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/
and chris martenson

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
both talked about survival under currency collapse situation and chris martenson also thinks about peak oil.
These TEOTWAWKI blogs focus on self sufficiency (grow your food, some energy dependence...), building network, having skills etc. which I think are very relevant in ERE situation, and go beyond the get out of debt blogs.

jzt83 · Post by **jzt83** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 7:20 am

I found out about ERE from the Get Rich Slowly blog. I unsubscribed to GRS because the subject matter of the posts were redundant; be frugal, here are the best ways to get good deals, pay off your debts, track expenses to the exact cent, spend less, focus on needs, create a budget, find a better job, find ways to increase you income, ad nauseum.

Chad · Post by **Chad** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:53 am

I gave up on Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar a long time ago. Those types of blogs aren't sophisticated enough for anyone with basic financial knowledge.
The Simple Dollar really turned me off. I demonstrated how his finance math was wrong, which made his advice in the post incorrect. However, he wouldn't change his advice. So, it turned out, he was a "believer" and not really a facts driven person.

momof4 · Post by **momof4** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:18 pm

First time poster here, long time 'lurker'. I wanted to add my 2c. I have been following a blog written by a mom whose husband has had some economic challenges since this recession began. She details how her family of 8 are managing to live on 70% of what they used to make. She is an avid and creative gardener, homemaker and very much a modern 'make it do' kind of mom. It is strongly tied to their religion (Mormons), but not so much that it interrupts the basic tenet of the blog.
http://theprudenthomemaker.com

Chris L · Post by **Chris L** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:35 pm

Most people find true ERE repulsive and impossible. Those represent the middle frugal ground. Hence "extreme." ERE is like pulling off the bandage quickly. Some prefer to spread the pain out indefinitely.

Dragline · Post by **Dragline** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:39 pm

@momof4. There is much about living with fewer things than has almost been forgotten by many, but is beginning to be rediscovered.
I have over 50 cousins on my mother's side of the family, who grew up in families of 14, 12, 8 children, etc (we only had 5 kids and were the "small" family). Their parents were working-class people from the GI generation who were electricians, auto workers, etc. But they always found ways to make things work -- a lot of it DIY, raising chickens etc. One of the things that has happened with smaller families is that more resources are spent per child and there is less ingrained sharing. So people are having to learn these things as adults for the first time.

tuixiuren · Post by **tuixiuren** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 4:24 pm

I like @rachels blog. http://peanutbutterdiet.blogspot.com/

JohnnyH · Post by **JohnnyH** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:30 am

There is a quote that goes something like, "Don't expect a pat on the back for doing unconventional things." I think it was by Thoreau.
Anyway, it applies to this thread and I would be grateful if someone could give me the actual quote!

___

Also, I just TM'd "Early Retirement Moderation."

Roark · Post by **Roark** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:38 am

http://mnmlist.com/
I like the blog at Tynan.com too. Guy lives an RV rather cheaply, although he spends the extra money traveling the world and doing awesome things rather than saving for early retirement and growing lettuce.
As far as living cheaply being rare, 90% of the world lives on what you're living on (or less) and they don't consider it special.

m741 · Post by **m741** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:05 am

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I subscribed to Sailing Simplicity, Mnmlist, Miss Minimalist, tynan.com and Peanut Butter Diet. I'm most excited about Sailing Simplicity and Tynan - seems like some unusual content.
Parenthetically I've subscribed to minimalist blogs in the past but couldn't really get into them. After all, simplicity is fairly simple... buy less crap.