If I didn’t need a roof over my head, I could live on $400 per month during the winter for utilities, food, and the occasional used book.

But, a studio apartment near my work is still 900 a month. My mortgage is only a few hundred over that (and I can grow my food to cut that budget line item)

The Extreme Savings articles were fascinating, but I had one problem with them. All of the articles assume you make 50k+ per year. It is very possible to live on 12k per year – I managed it in my university days. But for the person who is in the first 5-10 years of their career – I don’t see how it would be feasible to live on 6k-8k per year and keep a job that pays $27-33k per year. Even entry level jobs expect you to be well groomed.

I’m definitely in the camp that says “I don’t want to retire. I want to find things I love that sustain me financially and do them forever.”

thanks for the update & great time on the 5k!

Thanks for highlighting Jacob’s article…as a long time ERE reader it’s nice to see him get some recognition. You should really review his book sometime!

I also want to echo the support for fitness and travel updates periodically (and garden project!)- it makes your blog personal and keeps us aware that there’s a human behind the stories – which is what a blog is all about.

Speaking of CrossFit. GRS was the reason why I tried it. When I read “It works” here, I was thinking to myself: “Just how good it supposed to work, that it justifies $200/mo expense from a guy, who do personal finances blog”.

Sure enough – it really work _that_ good. Thanks for the tip.

And hasn’t Crossfit taught you to stop worrying about your weight? I think if you focus on figuring out how to make your body perform the best it can, you’ll end up at your “ideal” weight naturally.

Often the limiting factor for such individuals is not money but time. Having to spend most of one’s effective waking time making widgets and filing forms for WhoCares, Inc. is thus an extreme sacrifice. Sacrifice is all relative to one’s values.
It may be that they love their job. I used to love my job but after 4 years in grad school and 5 years as a researcher I just couldn’t see myself doing it for the next 40 years as well. I wanted to do other things too. On the other hand some manage to love the same vocation all their life. Good for them.

The key to getting this time—for those who want it—is simply to ruthlessly apply the Pareto principle to one’s budget. Often the huge money wasters are big houses and big cars. We’ve therefore been frugal, not by clipping coupons or skimping on toilet paper or whatever the frugal tip of the day is but by eliminating cars and downsizing our living quarters. The big stuff. For us, cars are not status symbols. They’re just a tool to get around in. Houses are not signs of accomplishments. They’re just a place to sleep when we’re not out doing things.

So don’t see it as retirement. See it as financial independence with enough “walk-away”-money so as to never have to sacrifice 2000 hours a year anymore just to make a living. This is full-time living having chosen something to do something else than show up in an office from 9-5 every day. This may involve running one’s own company or enjoying a senior/emeritus position in some company or organization—the key point here is financial independence and the freedom of choice; not “retirement”.

I also acknowledge that “retiring” in this sense makes one fully responsible for one’s happiness and schedule. One will succeed or fail according to one’s ability to be self-driven. This is certainly not for everybody and I don’t want to present it as such. It is as hard as being an entrepreneur; when most probably just want a job. This is also one of the reasons why so few succeed as mentioned in the article.

I actually share your sentiments (more or less) and wrote an entire post on the subject called the “Early Retirement Mistake”. I don’t want to link to it here because that would self-promote.

Instead, I just wanted to clarify the purpose of the article J.D. mentioned – it explains a specific strategy to achieve the objective for the many people who share that goal. It does not extol the virtues of the goal.

That is a different subject entirely.

Hope that helps.

The extreme sacrifice would bring me unhappiness, and apparently,retiring early would bring me unhappiness. So I don’t really enjoy posts on the theme of “you’re not willing to do what it takes to retire eaarly!” when it’s not a goal of mine.

To enjoy my life, including the things I do to earn money, is a good goal. And right now, I love my job. My boss loves her job, and when she retired I get her job (CFO). However, she doesn’t want to retire, she loves working. Her older husband retired once, then hated retirement and went back to work. My grandfather is 79 and still working full time. He loves it (owns his own real estate company).

So, perhaps 2 of the 4 articles extolling the virtues of early retirement is overkill. Just my opinion.

And now I have a time to beat!

I just committed to run a half marathon in Feb. of 2012. It will take me forever to finish but I am committed to finishing.

Don’t sell yourself short…you did fantastic.

And congrats on the run.