MMM has an excellent philosophy, however following his methods and working toward early retirement does require a salary level that is a considerable amount above the minimum basic cost of living for where you are. By minimum cost of living I'm not talking about the average cost of a restaurant meal in one area/country vs another or the average cost of a cable tv package in one country vs another (if you consider tho…
TV licensing have a page for declaring you have no TV. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/no-licence-needed/ I've never had (or needed) a TV license, and I've never been fined.
The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
181–190 of 246 posts
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#182That's a mighty assumptious assumption to make. The rest of this article is a no-brainer, I think :)
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Savings accounts are not abstractions for loading up on cans of pork and beans. If everyone simultaneously did that, then stopped working, everyone could still eat. If everyone put money into a savings account, then stopped working, they'd all starve. I think this is a deeply meaningful distinction. "Saving for retirement" in the modern financial sense is really more akin to having your kids take care of you when you…
If everyone simultaneously did that But, they won't. Not everyone is of the same age, for one. So, it's an abstraction that usually works . Instead of accumulating pork bellies, you can accumulate pork belly futures. This is another abstraction. Not everyone can do this at once, either, but the price of pork belly futures will rise in response, telling people to stop accumulating so much of that good. It feels like y…
That isn't to say that savings isn't an abstraction for something. Saving money in financial instruments isn't a "savings" game. It's a growth game. By saving, you make available capital. That capital goes towards growing the economy. Ideally, the growth in future production resulting from your capital offsets the share of production you take out in retirement. It's this element of growth that distinguishes financial savings from "savings" in the pork and beans sense.
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone who spends $5 on a latte everyday, that would make you no happier than coffee from the break room, is likely not in a stable equilibrium of spending. If better tasting drinks really did make you happy--something I don't believe--the rational thing would to be to brew your own coffee or tea. This has the added bonus of being a learning experience. The $5 latte drinker, at most income levels, is someone who has…
Some people feel stylish with their $5 coffee. It's not all about the taste.
I could understand someone that tells me his 5$ coffee tastes "better". But if you drink your 5$ coffee just because you are feeling stylish ...
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. 10 years later you can go screw it all, and still have 35k in passive income a year and a huge nest egg. You're also probably think 35k in an expensive place, where he lives in a random suburb of boulder I think.
Or you could be dead in 10 years.
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yours is a very pessimistic view. You have no faith in your fellow human beings. There are a lot of smart enough people out there with sufficient will power to make these changes in their life if only they have the education and awareness of the opportunities. Sometimes all it takes is seeing the impact these changes have. One of the best quotes I have seen about finances is this: Poor people spend what they have and…
Where can you buy a house for $5000 that pays out $500/month in rent?
These types of returns are certainly possible. I bought my share of $10k to $50k townhouses with $800 to $1500 / mo rent. With sub $100k houses, typically it will be difficult to get conventional financing, so most people buy these properties with cash or money from a HELOC or something along those lines.
There is certainly money to be made when you are purchasing property for less than its construction costs. However, you have to ask yourself what the tenant profile is of someone who can not afford $5k to buy a house.
The government program the commenter is referring to is usually called Section 8. People in financial straits can get on a waiting list to get accepted into the Section 8 program. Participants end up living in better neighborhoods than they could otherwise, and give landlords typically higher than market rate rents. The typical Section 8 profile is single mother with 2-3 kids and on welfare.
Buying properties through tax lien certificates or auction has its own set of problems because you are buying 'as is'. Let's just say you need to do a bunch of research before you go into it, and mistakes can be costly. One of my friends found out he had a leaking underground oil tank in one of the properties, which costed $85k to clean up.
Landlording is a very bimodal process. If you have very clean, responsible tenants, anyone can manage that property. The real issue is when you get one of these trouble tenants. One that knows all the ins and outs of the law and knows how to string out the eviction process (depending on your state laws) for years. You significantly increase your chance of encountering trouble tenants when your properties are in lower income, lower rental areas or dealing with tenants with government subsidized programs.
The commenter linked to Tulsa, OK which has cheaper properties. This is great if you live close by, or have someone trusted to watch your properties. Property managers can be viable, but you really need to vet them throughly.
I am currently out of the property game, but if I were to start over again, I would not touch slums. I'd buy in the cheapest neighborhood that I would feel safe living in. One with a lot of blue collar immigrants where there are signs of gentrification. Look for the type of cars, people caring about their landscaping and house, new construction, new retail / service stores opening. Buying in the right neighborhood drastically limits my exposure to trouble tenants, and buying in cheaper neighborhoods increases the upside opportunity. The reason you might want to value appreciation more than cashflow is because appreciation can be tax deferred. If I were to buy a property now, it would probably be a 4-plex, and renting or airbnb'ing the other spots. This optimizes for acceptable returns with low/no maintenance.
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you serious you don't have a cellphone? Just curious, what do you work in, and how much do you manage to save each month?
Yep. No TV, No cell phone, a 25 year old car and I've never been happier. I'm a Software Engineer, and I save towards 70% of my paycheck. I still bought a new laptop, DSLR, rifle and other toys all in the last 6 months. I don't earn tons for a SE, if that's what you're thinking. It lets me do things like Drive from Alaska to Argentina for two years, simply because I wanted to[1] [1] theroadchoseme.com
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#188MMM has a philosophy that is mathematically sound, and might even work for some people. Unfortunately, it's proven to fail for just about everyone (the spend less, save more advice has been around since the industrial revolution, and it isn't working to well: the average American has $16k in credit card debt). The reason it fails is because it ignores basic psychology. The key quote in this article is: >>But simply c…
Not to mention that if everyone stopped spending money tomorrow, then the economy would crash, millions of people would lose their job - meaning both personal savings and government resources are crippled. Which means the chances of you having enough money and a state pension you can live off by retirement age is significantly reduced. While I'm not trying to argue that saving is a bad thing (clearly it's important t…
This is a poor argument promoted by the media in the last 50 or 60 years.
There is no way in which everyone will stop spending money tomorrow.
If something like this will ever happen (people spending less) it will happen gradually and the economy will have time to change.
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#189 * By definition, you have to keep working to keep getting it
* Taxes go up
* It may come with some implicit strings that
require you to work more or carry more stress
* arguably reduces your freedom
In our field, getting a pay raise might be the easiest way to improve your savings rate, but we should just keep in mind that reducing consumption has some important advantages.And it's a good idea to practice reducing consumption now. If your income goes down or surprise expenses come up for any reason (not just retirement), it will help you get through it comfortably. It's a lot harder to increase your income in a pinch than reduce your consumption.
Re: The Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
#190Am I the only one that feels like I'd rather be making money and enjoying myself at the same time, rather than stressing out about putting 50% of my income towards retirement?
If you set up automatic 401k deposits and direct deposit a percentage of your paycheck to Vanguard, you won't stress out about it at all. You'll just see a different number on your take-home paycheck, get used it it quickly, and go on enjoying yourself without stressing out. Or at least that's my theory - I'm setting up that direct deposit situation today, and I'm planning on setting the percentage a lot higher than…