Unfortunately this will be the last post on this book for now. What a book! More personal thoughts will be in bold below in the outline. For those that want to listen to The Brothers on Books Podcast discussion with Jacob Lund Fisker I’m attaching the link directly below:
BOBP 17: Early Retirement Extreme
Chapter 6: A Renaissance Lifestyle
- Substantial improvements don’t happen incrementally by patching existing methods; They require a complete redesign
- Earn more or spend less
- This is not rocket science, you can do this! What I will say is cutting down your expenses can only get you so much more each month, so you may get more bang for your time by trying to increase your income or income sources. There is a limit to the amount one can spend. Even if your skills immensely improve so you don’t have to outsource many things there is a limit. At an extreme one could barter for everything and spend $0.
- Things
- The most expensive tool in the tool box is the one that never gets used
- Depreciation schedules
- Annual cost = (your cost – used price)/(years in service)
- Many people understand this for cars but it’s important to know market prices for all your things
- I recently sold the only NBA jersey I still had, a Miami Heat Lebron James jersey. I bought it for about $80 in 2014 and got $35 in 2021. Thus the annual cost for this jersey was (80-35)/(2021-2014) = 45/7 = ~ $6.43.
- One could view depreciation slightly differently by looking at cost per time used.
- Reframes how you purchase things. One item might have a much bigger price tag but may keep it’s value much better than a competing item, resulting in an annual cost that is actually less.
- Item A: $800 now, estimate still worth about $700 after 5 years, thus annual cost = (800-700)/5 = 20
- Item B: $400 now, estimate only worth about $100 after 5 years, thus annual cost = (400-100)/5 = 60
- Invest in great things!
- Get rid of your things! I’m going through the process of getting rid of unnecessary things and while I’m doing it I’ve been regretting many of the purchases I’ve made. Hopefully this feeling with stay with me when I think of making another impulse purchase.
- Health
- Form follows function
- supercook.com
- Lots of food can go without refrigeration, read books on boat provisioning
- This is something I literally would have never thought of
- Staples for cleaning: ammonia, baking soda, borax, chlorine, soap, and clear vinegar (never combine chlorine and ammonia)
- Transportation
- Touring bike, steel frame, is ideal for commuting
- don’t be afraid of spending 1,000’s, it’ll last a lifetime
- Touring bike, steel frame, is ideal for commuting