Really frugal? Read on...

[dvalley]

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Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan Seems now this thread has morphed into the real definition of "retirement" v.s. packing tuna fish. But more importantly, yesterday my wife told me to put the clothes in the dryer, and today to put clothes away in the drawer. Before I could say I was busy working now what is my excuse? Should I say "Hey woman, I can't do that! I am Retired!" But then she might want to retire too. So wives get to retire too? Next think you know she will want me to empty the dishwasher and put away the dishes. Wait, I already do that. What about that tuna fish? is it really good to eat? I hear it has mercury. Darn, the world is complicated.

I know what you mean. Just yesterday my gf came home from work and decided to vacuum the house while I was watching TV. Then after some time she said to me "can you lift your legs off the ground so I can vacuum here"...I told her can't she do anything without asking for my help

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan Seems now this thread has morphed into the real definition of "retirement" v.s. packing tuna fish. What about that tuna fish? is it really good to eat? I hear it has mercury. Darn, the world is complicated.

1. I suggest starting to eat cheap tuna out of cans as the economy may go south and you may just need to eat out of cans when your dollars get devalued into pennies.

2. There is little chance of finding mercury in tuna that is harvested and canned in the Atlantic region. Now tuna canned in Asian countries or China? Good luck!

3. This thread IS about cat food . Better stock up on it and buy the high priced brands.

[Moemg]

Fuego ! Great blog about cat food maybe you could expand into dog food .Their snacks always looked tasty !
This morning I woke up at 9am and after a leisurely breakfast . I read Early Retirement only to find out I am not retired because I make some money selling on ebay . So if you are making any money in retirement you are not retired . What if you won the lottery are you suddenly unretired ? What about inheritances do they disqualify you ? I guess Al is unretired since his books are selling . Seriously people get a grip ! If we are not plugging away at the same jobs and happen to occasionally make money we are retired .

[NW-Bound]

I seriously don't know how the myth about people eating cat food persists. Human food is not all that expensive. For example, I like to eat sardines for breakfast, and two of us have to share a can. Sardines do not live as long as larger predators such as tuna, hence have no accumulated mercury.

And we do like canned tuna too. A tuna salad sandwich often hits the spot for lunch. Yum!

[robnplunder]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 2. There is little chance of finding mercury in tuna that is harvested and canned in the Atlantic region. Now tuna canned in Asian countries or China? Good luck!

Asian countries > China. Last time I've checked, China is still a part of Asia. Let's turn this thread into a geography nitpik'ng one.

[thefinancebuff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg So if you are making any money in retirement you are not retired.

Nobody said that. It's about percentages. If your profit on eBay covers 100% of your expenses, are you living on your portfolio or are you living on eBay selling? Money is fungible.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefinancebuff Nobody said that. It's about percentages. If your profit on eBay covers 100% of your expenses, are you living on your portfolio or are you living on eBay selling? Money is fungible.

If I was living on my ebay selling I would be eating no name cat food !

[M Paquette]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound I seriously don't know how the myth about people eating cat food persists. Human food is not all that expensive.

Especially if you buy the larger sacks...

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by M Paquette Especially if you buy the larger sacks...

There we go!

Now, come to think of it, I wonder how people really live in those tiny homes that we often see on the Web. How do they cook and store their provisions? Do they eat out all the time? Or eat frozen dinner everyday, or just open a can of food? Ramen noodle? Where do they store gallon-size cans of tomato? Entire case of chicken broth? Room for two large refrigerators like we have?

Whenever we went on an RV trip, my wife would stock up supplies like we were going on an Arctic expedition. Never mind that we stopped at Costco all the time for gas, and also Walmart to overnight quite often when enroute. And then, when we saw something that was on sale there, my wife would buy a case to bring home!

This reminded me of our 1st trip ever to Seattle, decades ago. We stopped by a grocery store for something, saw that they had beer on sale. The price was too good to pass up, so we got a case or two to throw in the trunk of our hatchback car.

Later, when we were unpacking at a motel, a man walked by and saw our cases of beer through the open hatchback, whistled and said "Wow, what a party!". He really thought that we were going to party at that motel and going to trash the place.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I seriously don't know how the myth about people eating cat food persists. Human food is not all that expensive. For example, I like to eat sardines for breakfast, and two of us have to share a can. Sardines do not live as long as larger predators such as tuna, hence have no accumulated mercury. And we do like canned tuna too. A tuna salad sandwich often hits the spot for lunch. Yum!

I'm part of the problem. I help perpetuate the myth with irresponsible articles like the one in the OP's post.

But seriously, you're right. Canned tuna isn't much more expensive than canned cat food. We don't eat canned tuna a lot, but I definitely enjoy the occasional tuna salad.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Fuego ! Great blog about cat food maybe you could expand into dog food .Their snacks always looked tasty ! This morning I woke up at 9am and after a leisurely breakfast . I read Early Retirement only to find out I am not retired because I make some money selling on ebay . So if you are making any money in retirement you are not retired . What if you won the lottery are you suddenly unretired ? What about inheritances do they disqualify you ? I guess Al is unretired since his books are selling . Seriously people get a grip ! If we are not plugging away at the same jobs and happen to occasionally make money we are retired .

I'm still working out the rules of "early retirement orthodoxy" myself, so I'll defer to the experts.

I think you have to pick between making a few bucks on ebay and calling yourself retired.

In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and crack open an ice cold can of... cat food?

[aim-high]

Fuego, how much does Personal Capital pay per click-thru? Do they pay more if a click-thru registers for a PC account and more still if PC is able to convert them to a client?

Their affiliates are everywhere. They've raised $52.3M so far. I wonder when the IPO is.

One thing that bothered me about them is that after I put my information in, I immediately received an email selling their financial advisory services. I asked if the advisor had already viewed my account. He said their advisors have access to numbers only, no detail on investments.

[thefinancebuff]

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Originally Posted by FUEGO I'm still working out the rules of "early retirement orthodoxy" myself, so I'll defer to the experts. I think you have to pick between making a few bucks on ebay and calling yourself retired.

Making a few bucks on eBay is one thing. Having 100% of your living expenses covered by employment income (including self-employment income and employment income of a spouse) is quite another. Not knowing the difference or intentionally confusing the two is ... Sigh.

[Amethyst]

Having "plated up" quite a bit of cat and dog food in my time (for the intended consumers, I hasten to add) I'd vote against ever eating cat food, when dog food is to be had. Dog food smells like people food (e.g. beef stew). Cat food just smells nasty!

Amethyst

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Originally Posted by FUEGO T. What do you think about that image of cat food plated up next to some greens and apples? Or is it foie gras?

[FUEGO]

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Originally Posted by aim-high Fuego, how much does Personal Capital pay per click-thru? Do they pay more if a click-thru registers for a PC account and more still if PC is able to convert them to a client? Their affiliates are everywhere. They've raised $52.3M so far. I wonder when the IPO is. One thing that bothered me about them is that after I put my information in, I immediately received an email selling their financial advisory services. I asked if the advisor had already viewed my account. He said their advisors have access to numbers only, no detail on investments.

Here's a quick primer internet advertising. There are 3 types ads. PPC, PPM, and PPA. Pay per click, pay per thousand, and pay per action, respectively.

PPC pays a small fee for each click. Google adsense tends to be this type. I don't know what the industry standards are, but I get roughly $0.50 to $2.00 when someone clicks on a google ad at my site.

PPM - these pay a rate per 1000 impressions (times the ad appears on a web page displayed to a visitor). Google adsense runs some of these ads, and private advertisers can also pay based on CPM method. I don't know the rates, but probably a couple bucks per 1000 impressions (under a penny per individual ad).

PPA - these advertisements pay when a specific "action" occurs. It's called a "conversion" in the lingo. This could be signing up for a service, applying or getting approved for a credit card or mortgage, or other financial product or service.

Personal Capital falls in the last category - pay per action. Or at least that's the method I'm using. They may have other payments structures, but I'm not familiar enough with them to know what all they offer.

The ads here at ER forums look like google adsense ads, so they are PPC or PPM.

For Personal Capital, a "conversion" occurs when someone signs up for the free investment and expense tracking and they add accounts that total $100,000 or more to their online displays. I'm not sure what account types count toward the $100k.

They pay $100 per "conversion". It sounds like a lot, but the pay is $0 for all those mere clicks that don't sign up, or sign up with under $100k assets, or for some reason are disqualified as a "conversion".

They might have other types of advertising that pays differently based on CPC or CPM, or having different asset thresholds. Just speculation on my part.

At my site, I recommend products and services that I know, use, and like, or have plans to use. Personal Capital is one of those services (the free part). For brokerage firms, I recommend Fidelity and Vanguard. Sometimes there are affiliate links that get me a commission if someone clicks through (PC), other times there aren't (Vanguard and Fidelity, for example).

I did contact Vanguard to see if they wanted to advertise at my site or if they have some commission program. They don't, but I'll advertise for them for free because I like them so much, and they can literally save the average FI seeker tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

My philosophy on making money from my blog is that it needs to be easy and legitimate. PPA advertising for products/services I like fit the criteria. If I make a buck or two (hundred) every once in a while, sweet. If not, that's okay too. If I were blogging for the money, it would be a piss poor way to make a living versus competing uses of productive effort. And I would be recommending a lot of different products and services that I don't personally like or use.

As for Personal Capital, I think they just hit $500 million in assets under management (per an email they sent me). I have no clue about their long term capitalization plans or if an IPO is in the works.

As for the marketing emails about advisory services, I didn't mind them. I talked to them on the phone and did a video conference with an adviser. He basically confirmed the underlying philosophy of my investment portfolio. I've never received another email or phone call from their advisory services team since.

[Andre1969]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I seriously don't know how the myth about people eating cat food persists. Human food is not all that expensive. For example, I like to eat sardines for breakfast, and two of us have to share a can. Sardines do not live as long as larger predators such as tuna, hence have no accumulated mercury. And we do like canned tuna too. A tuna salad sandwich often hits the spot for lunch. Yum!

Dunno about cat food, but there was an episode of "Good Times" where one of the neighbors was living off of dog food. She cooked a meatloaf dinner for the Evans family, and they were afraid to touch it!

I'm sure it's been referenced other times on tv, and I keep hearing the cliche of people being afraid that they'll have to eat dog food when they're old.

Heck, some of the nicer stuff like Fancy Feast almost looks good enough to eat!

[jclarksnakes]

I "quit working" 4 years before my DW retired. I thought I was retired and even told people I was retired. DW's friends instead referred to me as her trophy husband. So according to the rules here I was wrong in calling myself retired and DW's friends were correct in calling me a trophy husband? Life is good, especially if you can make it seem that way in your head. Now that DW is retired I guess I can finally honestly describe myself as retired.

I love fresh tuna. Raw in sushi it is superb. When I do cook it my portion stays on the heat for at most 15 seconds to just barely sear the outside. Even some of the frozen tune filets available in the supermarket are good just barely seared that way. Sorry Charlie, but yuck, canned tuna seems like a total waste of good fish.

[FIREd]

I am not sure I even personally know any retired folks then. My grandparents worked the farm until they died (even though their SS and pensions easily covered their expenses). My dad (on SS and executive's pension) manages his rental properties and has a young working wife. My mom babysits for the neighbors a few hours a week to supplement her small SS and pension. MIL receives large alimony payments from her working ex-husband to supplement her SS and annuities. All my aunts and uncles have part time jobs (from ironing/tailoring clothes to managing rentals to making and selling firewood). They'd all tell you that they are retired, but I guess that's not good enough for this crowd's exacting standards.

[rodi]

We buy these honey peanut butter cookie treats for the dog from costco. We use them for training and for doggy rewards. The dog loves them and will sit, lie down, etc at the site of the treats.
http://www.costco.com/Pampered-Pet-P....11711683.html

When my inlaws were living in our granny flat we kept a small supply down there so that my MIL could reward the dog for behaving well when we'd bring the dog with us for a visit. They supply that should have lasted several weeks was gone in 2 days.

She'd fed them to FIL and he loved them. Thought they were little cookies.

(Fortunately, the ingredients are pretty much the same as human cookies.)

So, yeah - I have family members that feed their loved ones dog food. LOL.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO I think you have to pick between making a few bucks on ebay and calling yourself retired. In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and crack open an ice cold can of... cat food?

Just to be clear I make a lot more than a few bucks on ebay . More like 5 figures a year .It does not support me but does pay for my spoiling my grandsons, contributing to their college fund and a little left over for my JJill habit .