Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence

I discovered Jacob Fund Lisker by way of his website earlyretirementextreme.com. The website features a great archive section that includes several years of Jacob's blogs about personal finance, financial independence, and lifestyle design. I found the content on the website compelling, interesting, fun, and very well-written. As someone with a high degree of interest in achieving financial freedom, I found myself tearing through the blog archives and visiting the website frequently to check in on the growing forum community. I was excited to learn that Jacob was presenting his strategy and philosophy in book form, and I was one of the early buyers of the "ERE" book in late 2010.I found the book to be very read-able and helpful but also quirky. The idea that one could "retire" in his early 30s seemed a little far-fetched at first, but Jacob lays out his experiences and suggestions in a very simple and straightforward way. While he does not share much in the way of specific investment advice, he goes out of his way to explain his philosophy and outlines an approach to achieving financial freedom that anyone could adapt to their own circumstances.It has been over six months since I read the "ERE" book. I find myself thinking about it a lot and I have re-visited several sections since my original reading. One of the chapters that has stuck with me the most is the first one "A different frame of mind". The story of Plato's Cave, where slaves toil away in the shadows without having the perspective to understand that there is a broader world full of alternative lifestyle choices, is a perfect allegory for the corporate careerism that many people choose. I found the idea of looking at life as more of an adventure to be very compelling.The next two chapters, "The lock-in" and "Economic degrees of freedom" lay out, first, the costs and risks of pursuing the typical modern lifestyle approaches (college, career, status, possessions, etc), and, second, the degrees of freedom inherent in that system. The author outlines four economic classifications (salary man, businessman, working man, Renassaince man) which are easily relatable. He presents a model showing an alternative way of looking at lifestyle behaviors which should be taught to every high school student.The chapter on "Renaissance lifestyle" is a fun read. I never equated getting rid of my old junk, house cleaning, etc with the likes of da Vinci and Michelangelo, but after reading that chapter I clearly saw the link between becoming more financially self-reliant and having the time necessary to pursue a broader range of personal goals which could lead to a greater sense of self-fulfillment. I got a little lost in the latter part of that chapter when the author got caught up in specific approaches to wardrobe selection, eating, transportation, etc., but even that perspective is helpful as an example of one person's pursuit of the broader goals of independence and self-guidance.The author comes off as an extremely intelligent and unique-thinking person. At one point he goes into great detail about the merits of his trusty rain jacket. A little later, he devotes an entire section to complex financial ratios that are likely to confuse all but the most quantitative thinkers. That said, I think anyone who seeks financial independence as a goal - and is open to some fresh approaches that will help achieve that goal at a relative early age - would benefit from reading this book. The book does not take long to read, but it is packed with interesting information and perspectives, and you will find yourself coming back to it often as you begin to build your own plan to financial independence.

This book has many positive qualities, particularly as a refreshingly blunt stance against consumerism. I have read this book, the accompanying blog, and sought out some extra interviews and podcasts featuring Mr. Fisker -- to me he is fun to read and listen to, prods me out of my comfort zone at times, and he provides plenty of concrete logic for his sometimes extreme-sounding statements. As a comparatively math-challenged individual myself, I enjoy that he lays out some equations that I can follow along with for my own amusement and education. I have been a fan of frugality blogs and simple-living websites and I find Jacob's take on these topics to be very methodical. While in tune with commonly-encountered teachings of others in the frugality space, Mr. Fisker leans on his scientific and academic background to present equations and graphs to support his stances. If you are like me and find frugality a twisted type of "fun" in a sense, then you'll certainly enjoy Mr. Fisker's materials, including this book.I found Mr. Fisker's discussion of his "Renaissance Man" trope valuable and interesting, as well as how clearly he contrasts the dangers and risks of being a "Salary Man" (as he terms it in his model) who is tied to a single stream of income. Deep down many of us already know these risks and feel them intuitively, but have had trouble articulating why. His various analyses of the utility of a person's possessions, home size, and travel (foot vs. bike vs. car) are all equally worthwhile. I have made several lifestyle modifications based on the teachings in this book, and I know that they do work.As for weaknesses:Mr. Fisker admits (in blogs and elsewhere) to being a pessimist -- a "glass-half-empty" type of personality. This is to his credit, and only improves his credibility in my eyes. He is interested in "survivalist" topics and generally buys into various futurist dystopia scenarios (even though these have been proven false over and over again, a-la Malthusian catastrophes and similar). This inherent pessimism comes through in the book in certain parts which are devoted to heavy-handedly bashing of certain elements of society. It's almost as if he has a comedic and thinly-veiled hatred of specific things, like washing machines and even egg-cookers! Though I am confused by that last one, because although he states egg-cookers are a monumental menace, I'm not sure I've ever actually seen one in real life. In Mr. Fisker's world only basic objects with multiple modes of use would exist. A nice ideal, but useless to rant against.Take the washing machine as an example. Mr. Fisker goes to great lengths to examine, in every part of the book, the costs of labor, costs of purchases, costs of power, charts of depreciation and interest of investments . . . he even calculates the opportunity costs of the time spent driving a car as "time spent not exercising." Therefore it is curious he gives short shrift to the obvious positives that come with the ownership of things like washing machines and refrigerators.Like many people who lived in civilization and went to University, Mr. Fisker can tend to wax poetically about, and perhaps overly romanticize the pre-industrial lifestyles of our ancestors. Our grandmothers praised the washing machine because it freed them of hours of drudgery. Refrigerators mean that you are freed from the cost of say, your whole family getting food poisoning. A freezer allows you to buy in bulk and save money, too. But to him these objects simply "cost electricity" and are synonymous with "Waste" with a capital "W".I think Mr. Fisker's experiences, and his advice, are colored to suit single men, or perhaps single people with like-minded partners. Many parts are interesting thought experiments, but impractical if not impossible to implement for families. Kids have the darnedest way of destroying your plans for frugality, as any parent knows.My final critique of this book is that it has a large blind spot about financial leverage. In his zeal to promote small homes, few possessions, and quasi-nomadic lifestyles (one gets the feeling Mr. Fisker is planning to flee at any moment . . .) he ignores the very useful tool of financial leverage -- probably because it doesn't suit his personal risk tolerance. I would argue in fact that it is the tool of financial leverage itself that drives people to buy homes in the first place, and not some misguided and ingrained sense of learned consumer buffoonery. If people can leverage an investment that appreciates, can be sold later for a (sometimes) large profit, and get to live in relative luxury in the meantime? One could argue that form of investing beats the pants off of watching some numbers tick up and down in a brokerage account while you freeze in a shack.

This book probably changed my life. Lets use the principles and get out of the rat race now. Its pretty easy with this one in hand.

Como advierte el autor desde el principio, este no es un libro de "consejitos" para ahorrar. Y en el libro ciertamente hay muy pocos ejemplos concretos que uno pueda copiar. Es un libro argumentativo de principio a fin, y su finalidad es que el lector cambie su forma de ver las finanzas personales y se decida a aplicar su creatividad para vivir bien gastando menos y, eventualmente, no tener que trabajar. No me parece que sea un libro para todos, pues el estilo del autor es complejo y requiere mucha atención. Pero, ciertamente, creo que logra su objetivo de hacer que el lector cambie su forma de ver su dimensión económica. Lo recomiendo para todo aquel que disfrute de libros que realmente invitan a pensar y a desafiar ideas preconcebidas.

A must need for everyone. It changed my way of thinking and living! Recommend for everyone, this is a great book.

L'auteur, ancien astrophysicien, a pris sa retraite en 5 ans.Pour cela il a minimisé son train de vie au strict minimum, et développé ses compétences dans divers domaines pour réduire ses coûts au maximum, voir même gagner de l'argent grâce aux compétences en question, et cela lui permet de vivre sans travailler et faire absolument tout ce qu'il a envie.Il donne dans ce bouquin l'approche philosophique de son style de vie et en explique tous les tenants et aboutissants pour que l'on puisse faire pareil.

No hay que tomarse todo al pie de la letra ya que es un libro del ejemplo del "extremo", pero muy muy interesante la filosofóa de Jacob. Estoy empezando mi vida laboral y me ha ayudado a comprender mi relación con el dinero y la sociedad de consumo (ojo, no es un 10 ideas para el early retirement). Trata de finanzas personales sobre medir y reducir el consumo y aumentar la inversión (se puede ser capitalista anticonsumismo? sí! ). Toca de pasada muchos temas como work-life balance, vida laboral, alimentación y deporte , anticonsumismo y llevar una vida basada en ahorro e inversión para poder dedicarse a lo que uno realmente quiera, sin depender de si te remuneran o no.Para una visión menos extrema y menos seria pero igual de rigurosa, con consejos mucho más prácticos y detallados consultar el blog de MrMoneymustache!.Ojalá todo el mundo se leyese este libto, al igual que el de "La bolsa o la vida", "Los 7 hábitos de la gente altamente efectiva", "The next door millionare" , etc.Saludos!