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How I live on $7,000 per year

earlyretirementextreme.com

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Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#51

Post by tryitnow »

munin wrote: post #38
potatolicious wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What rorrr said, but not in quite such an inflammatory tone. I think it's great that you've found a lifestyle you enjoy that also allows you to get by with very little money. What I take issue with is your judgmental tone in the article - as if there's something wrong with everyone else for not wanting to live in an RV. This country faces a dire economic crisis, and there is no doubt that the income of the middle cla…

especially when your lifestyle was enabled (albeit, in this specific instance), apparently, by public spending (grad school, postdoc, and subsidized higher education in his country of origin) you're effectively a net neutral on the system, however, when you factor in all that society has invested in you, you're very much a net negative.

"you're very much a net negative"

Not at all. I can vouch that he's certainly has had a positive impact on my life and on the lives of those I have recommended read and follow his advice.

The nice thing about retirement is you can engage in "charitable" endeavors (which really is what his blog is basically, I see no way he can make a lot of money off of it and that's not his intention).

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#52

Post by Abundnce10 »

At some point during my college career I learned about the Rat Race and was propelled to discard my desire to climb the corporate ladder and decided to live a life similar to jfoucher (How I live on $7000 per year). However, after living frugally for a couple years I saved up enough money and decided to travel the world. Fast forward to today - after witnessing first hand the lives of those less fortunate while traveling in SE Asia I realized how self-centered I was to sit out of the "Rat Race" and meander along the road of my meager existence while there were other people wishing they had the knowledge, opportunity, and capacity to live and succeed in our society. There are people all over this planet that don't possess the means necessary to make impactful changes in others' lives, let alone their own, and so I asked myself: What if I took my determination and drive (clearly demonstrated in my previously frugal lifestyle habits) and applied those characteristics to actions that might benefit other people? Would those actions then be better, or more worthy, than the actions of squeaking out a living on $7,000? Personally, I decided they would be and have since then devoted myself to helping bring about change in this world.

I'm not saying everyone should view their life this way, but I understand what the author is describing and I have went through the internal struggle of trying to decide what to do with my life. Recently, I decided to go back into the world of the Rat Race and try to make the lives of those around me and myself better (building interesting software, spreading joy and wisdom, raising awareness of certain issues, etc.). I don't unconsciously spend money on things I don't need but I do if it deems fit. More over, I don't think you need to have a garden or be a homebody to live frugally.

I hope other smart, determined people don't take the route of sitting idly by the side as hoards of unaware, materialistic consumers perpetuate a system of greed and excess.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#53

Post by shareme »

The article is miss-titled, it should be:

Leveraged Retirement....

not in the Donald Trump way but the concept is similar...now for the bonus question what is he leveraging and what benefits does he get in return for that leveraging? He did somewhat obtusely answer it..and no the previously earned and saved Six figures is not what he is leveraging..

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#54

Post by dgallagher »

rorrr wrote: post #25

Sorry, but this story is garbage. Rent/mortgage, retirement completely ignored. Plus he has the shittiest $82 health insurance plan he could find, and he doesn't calculate the costs of what will happen if he gets sick. On average people after 65 spend $2,920 per year on medical out of pocket expenses (Source: http://www.newretirement.com/Planning101/Rising_Medical_Cost... ) Then his food comes from his garden, which…

Plus he has the shittiest $82 health insurance plan he could find, and he doesn't calculate the costs of what will happen if he gets sick.

A bigger issue with the cheap health plans is they tend to have a very high deductible, usually in the $2000 - $3000 range (his is $3500! http://earlyretirementextreme.com/my-hdhp-hsa-and-some-comme...). If you end up in the E.R. once for anything, like a fever, you have to pay that entire deductible. For some, a single blood test will trigger it too.

Granted you typically only have to pay it once per year max (meaning you won't pay it for subsequent E.R. visits in the current coverage period), but it's a heavy penalty none-the-less.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#55

Post by rorrr »

tryitnow wrote: post #45
rorrr wrote: post #25

Sorry, but this story is garbage. Rent/mortgage, retirement completely ignored. Plus he has the shittiest $82 health insurance plan he could find, and he doesn't calculate the costs of what will happen if he gets sick. On average people after 65 spend $2,920 per year on medical out of pocket expenses (Source: http://www.newretirement.com/Planning101/Rising_Medical_Cost... ) Then his food comes from his garden, which…

It disappoints me, but I have to agree with you (at least in part, I wouldn't call his story garbage). I say it's disappointing because his blog really inspired me to make some changes and I agree with the overall thrust of what he's saying. But the problem I have is figuring out how he accumulated his wealth. Of course, being a former physicist you'd think spelling that out in a simple spreadsheet would be a trivial…

It's not that hard to accumulate $100K if you're in IT. Just working for $100-150K a year and investing $20-30K annually should do it very quickly.

Now accumulating $1M in a span of 5-10 years is much more challenging. I'm yet to solve that problem.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#56

Post by gergles »

ctdonath wrote: post #40

The article comes from the same reason I'm running the A Buck A Plate blog http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com - doing it because so many think living well for cheap can't be done.

Living in an RV is not "living well". Flush toilets are generally a minimum standard for that.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#57

Post by ahsanhilal »

leot wrote: post #44
ahsanhilal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let's all save money and try to be entrepreneurs, is that what you are advocating? Lets see, in your economy we are going to have a lot of producers, but who is going to consume these products if people are saving. Now if you say China does it, then I would answer back that China does it because it has the US and Europe as huge consumption bases for its produced goods. You are trying to give me an economics lesson…

I'm intrigued by your comment that you have an advanced degree in economics. I don't, but it seems obvious to me that you're missing something (I'm happy to be corrected here!): the problem isn't the lack of consumers so much as a lack of incentive to produce. If everyone becomes an entrepreneur, compelled to be stingy and just do productive things for the fun of it, then they're still being productive, and the world…

Actually that is NOT at all what my argument is. My argument is that people can produce as much as they want, but you still need someone to consume your product. Just being productive gives you only the supply side, but what about demand, why make would make something when people do not demand it.

Remember PG's rule: Make something that people want. Want is demand.

You cannot make things without taken into contention who would consume them and by how much. A business is based on how many people actually USE what it makes, and are ready to pay for it.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#58

Post by mahyarm »

illumin8 wrote: post #19
Sodaware wrote: post #9

The title of the article is slightly misleading in that it's $7,000 per person, so it's actually $14K in this case. I know that's a little nit-picky, but things like rent would eat a good chunk of that $7k. Living on $14k is certainly possible, and the usual suspects can be cut to save some cash: * Drop cable TV * Same for cell phone - keep one pre-pay for emergency and use Skype for business/personal * Stick to one…

He lives in a trailer at an RV park also... that right there cuts your rent significantly. Hey, if you want to live in a trailer at an RV park for $400 a month, barbecue with charcoal because it costs less than propane, and grow a few vegetables by the side of your trailer in a makeshift garden, more power to you. Unfortunately, I prefer living in a solid structure made of wood and bricks that doesn't wash away in a…

Permanent structures do wash away in floods and blow away in storms. And if you have a storm warning, you can actually move your house out of the way of the storm.

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#59

Post by rick888 »

dgallagher wrote: post #54
rorrr wrote: post #25

Sorry, but this story is garbage. Rent/mortgage, retirement completely ignored. Plus he has the shittiest $82 health insurance plan he could find, and he doesn't calculate the costs of what will happen if he gets sick. On average people after 65 spend $2,920 per year on medical out of pocket expenses (Source: http://www.newretirement.com/Planning101/Rising_Medical_Cost... ) Then his food comes from his garden, which…

Plus he has the shittiest $82 health insurance plan he could find, and he doesn't calculate the costs of what will happen if he gets sick. A bigger issue with the cheap health plans is they tend to have a very high deductible, usually in the $2000 - $3000 range (his is $3500! http://earlyretirementextreme.com/my-hdhp-hsa-and-some-comme... ). If you end up in the E.R. once for anything, like a fever, you have to pay t…

Yes, but you won't go bankrupt like so many people claim you will without health insurance. Why don't more people get this $80 plan?

Re: How I live on $7,000 per year

#60

Post by ahsanhilal »

jwallaceparker wrote: post #49
ahsanhilal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let's all save money and try to be entrepreneurs, is that what you are advocating? Lets see, in your economy we are going to have a lot of producers, but who is going to consume these products if people are saving. Now if you say China does it, then I would answer back that China does it because it has the US and Europe as huge consumption bases for its produced goods. You are trying to give me an economics lesson…

> Next time you want to argue regarding economics, please argue with actual theoretical knowledge rather than some flimsy theoretical base that you have created in your own mind. I can't imagine a better base for economics knowledge than Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson." > I know every economics model there is in and out. Then you should be familiar with Austrian economics. Though that is probably not covere…

Well of course there is that other Austrian Economist, you know the one produced the Chicago School of Thought with Milton Friedman: Friedrich Von Hayek, who is one of the biggest reason that monetary economics came to the fore. And with all due respect Henry Hazlitt, as brilliant as he was as a public intellectual, he is not an economist that is often taught in curricula. Economics is highly quantified and Hazlitt's contribution was economic philosophy.

And here is a concise history of Austrian School of thought, most of which came from London School of Economics post-1930, Nowhere does anyone mention Hazlitt:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics...

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