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  1. J

    Something new from Jacob at ERE...

    The current policy is to write an update whenever something "significant" happens. Kinda like an epilogue/"where are they now". I think that's somewhat useful to have without attracting too much publicity.
  2. J

    Something new from Jacob at ERE...

    Not sure how you fail to find it? Are you looking in another state? (Prices can vary a lot from state to state.) I just checked again. 62 y/o male, non-smoking, my current zip-code (60640). This gives 88 plans. Sort by price. I count 14 plans out of 88 that are over $750/month. The rest are...
  3. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    Well, it's my ultimate hope that eventually people will stop caring who I am and just consider the ideas and concepts objectively and critically for what they are and apply them to their own situations if they so desire and otherwise just let it be. I think this is a general problem with our...
  4. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    It's actually possible if you do a lot of the footwork. Google "epchan" and read his book. You'd have to take a Series7 exam, do your own accounting and tax reporting, and hire some software engineers (he suggests hiring two and having them work on independent parts of your code so they don't...
  5. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    I'm offering this more as a strategic concern/suggestion [for anyone who's public about something that goes against the mainstream culture]. There are some saying that bad PR is better than no PR; that it's better to ignore "smear" than to defend it actively. Actually, I've found that active...
  6. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    It's my strong impression that regular readers were fine with it. Some of them even guessed at it coming(*)---I had been [mostly] autopiloting the blog for over a year and apparently it showed that I was getting bored/frustrated with the blogging process. I think anyone on E-R will understand...
  7. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    You raise some good points. One of the problems with blogging, at least when a certain popularity/wide audience has been reached, is that one must deal with all kinds of different people. It is incredibly hard (I can't do it) to communicate a message using the same words and ensuring that it...
  8. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    Given that numbers is hard, I fear that adding one more might only increase the confusion ...
  9. J

    Book: Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker

    That's not really MY issue. That's an issue of not separating the message from the messenger and not looking at the ideas [in the book] objectively. I suspect it's also an issue of having different preconceived notions of what the word "retirement" means to different people, but lets rather...
  10. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    LOL you'd be surprised at what impresses people these days. One of my neighbors was quite taken with my mallet which is essentially a round of firewood with a hole drilled into it for a handle. All I'm saying about the handmade cableknit sweater is that if you had to buy a similar one, you'd...
  11. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    It should have been called "SELF-SUFFICIENCY DIY ETHICS PERSONAL FREEDOM LOW ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE" dot com or something. The word retirement has so many unfortunate connotations depending on who's using it. Very many can not see past their own definition. It's my...
  12. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    I guess those are cool, but ... How about working on "Wall Street"? Or building furniture good enough to get commissioned? Or selling 10,000 books? Or getting published in a professional journal? Or getting a PhD? Or flying rescue missions? Or designing airplanes or new economies? Can I buy...
  13. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    No it won't. To use a metaphor, you're comparing an efficient swimmer to a bad swimmer who's splashing around in the water. Both need to cover the same distance but they need different amounts of effort to accomplish this. I can get as far on a "shoestring" as others can using much more. I see...
  14. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    I agree. That was a large part of what motivated me to write. Now, start thinking about what you're going to do once you've shared everything you know and it's all out there in the form of a thousand or however many blog posts and a book. Do you keep repeating yourself? Do you deal well with...
  15. J

    Early Retirement TOO Extreme? Jacob Fisker unRetires

    I think "pimpmyretirement" captures my sentiments best. Some points 1a) A quick calculation shows that I have 45 times my annual spending saved up. I haven't increased my spending so far even though technically I could have increased it by 30% safely already. My withdrawal rate is 2.22% To me...
  16. J

    Nationwide Casting for Most Frugal Folks

    I could probably retrofit mine using the aluminum from a discarded storm frame. Wood teeth on one side, aluminum teeth on the other side.
  17. J

    Nationwide Casting for Most Frugal Folks

    Do I detect some rake-envy here? Yes, it took at long time to make, but fact is, I can make rake. I'm self-reliant. I can make stuff. I don't have to buy things whenever there's a problem. But I'm not doing this to save a buck, I'm doing it to prove a point. Next, I'm gonna make a bleedin'...
  18. J

    Should I buy a second car?

    Calculate the cost per mile. E.g. $18000 depreciated over 9 years (or however long it lasts) + $500/year in insurance/gas or $2500/year. Maybe add storage costs (extra cost of living in house with multiple garages). If driven 1000M/year, you're paying $2.5/mile (or more). Compare that to...
  19. J

    Less than a month to age 27, using my money shovel to save.

    Dude, forget about 40 years, a lot can happen in 4 years(!) When I was your age, I didn't even take weekends. I showed up to work Saturdays and Sundays voluntarily, no pay. I also didn't imagine me ever doing anything else---even if they kicked me out with a pension, I'd still be working on the...
  20. J

    Why Are People Dumb?

    Agreed. Quantity is not quality. Education is not getting better, it is merely getting longer. When I talk to 20-21 year old college students today, I'm surprised to learn they're taking classes in "calculus" that covers things like integration by parts and integration by substitution. I'm...
  21. J

    Why Are People Dumb?

    Who would need them?
  22. J

    Why Are People Dumb?

    You might find this interesting No Mo Po Mo
  23. J

    Get out now and beat the debt ceiling crash?

    Sure you can predict it. If you look above some of us did just that. This downturn was not the end of the world. Just some day to day responses of the Greek problem that would be resolved as soon as some resolution was passed. Timing is harder. However, using time as a variable in...
  24. J

    Nords' book ...

    I'd recommend registering it with novelrank.com too. It'll derive the sold quantity from all the amazons. Also put it on goodreads.com and shelfari. I'd also recommend everybody here hassle their local library to get a copy. Most libraries now have a simple online form you call fill out...
  25. J

    Another Study Challenging the 4% SWIP Rule

    Yikes! Giving a result like that with 3 digits of precision (2.52) shows that the authors may not quite understand the difference between precision and accuracy.
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