Robert Kiyosaki! Give me a break!


Go to this site for a better analysis. http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

Hmmmm ... interesting thread bump. Especially interesting since the subject line is so much like one just recently posted by the same OP.


Anyway, since it's here, I thought I'd give a little update to my comments on the Page 1.

-- I am now in my 4th and final year of my degree ... less than 5 months to go. So ... despite a number of challenges ... I've stuck to The Plan.

-- Still living frugally ... diligently resisting buying anything because as of this coming December I'm planning to go through all the stuff I've got in storage and weed out a whole bunch of it.

-- And I remarried since the original thread started. Rowan and I are planning to do a lot of travelling together ... well, we already have, we'll just continue to do so. :) :)

Interesting thread. I didn't have to make any sacrifices (knock on wood) b/c I occupy a very strange economic niche that is recession proof. I have given up some cases, though, to free up time to travel,

i wonder how this dudes going .... with all these 'investments' ?

What a thought provoking read.

My oldest son is preparing to move to the North East and my daughter will graduate high school this spring. Thoughts of "downsizing" have been discussed at length here.

I spent 10 years in the military. For six of those I owned only what could be loaded into the back of a small pick up and never thought twice about it. Inevitably, marriage, kids, a house, and a career came to be. I find myself looking forward to breaking the cycle.

I do wonder what to do with 8 bicycles though:innocent:

What did we do? Not so much looking back.

1. Made sure we had good jobs. Good jobs = good pay = a lot easier to save
2. Automatically overpaid everything over a 'running balance' in our bank account either into savings or as an extra payment on our mortgage so we wouldn't be tempted to spend it and so we made best use of it
3. Brought our own lunches to work, largely avoided restaurants and big nights out, although Andrew couldn't give up the evening with friends at the pub once or twice a week and I failed to break the buying a morning coffee habit. A small luxury is good to hold on to, I think.
4. Never bought clothes full price.
5. Cheap cell phones and few gadget/impulse purchases
6. Lived in a city so didn't need a car

It's interesting to see all the ways people have lived frugally. I've done what many of you have to save money, sometimes to the point where my sisters lecture me on how little I spend on myself; rarely eat out, have a 10 year old car that mainly gets used on weekends, and live happily with thrift store clothing because I'm small and can get a lot of good stuff that kids have outgrown. If all goes well, I'm hoping to start my second life when I'm eligible to retire less than 3 years from now at age 56. Always been physically active, and am looking forward to a rewarding mix of volunteer work, long bicycle tours, and periodic part-time work. There's always the chance of some disaster coming along and messing with the "plan", but will deal with it if it comes. In the meantime, it's fun to think about the sheer volume of options I'll have to enjoy life (even more) and contribute more to the community.

1. CAMP! Unless you're in the dead center of a city(and you can still do it) you can stealth camp anywhere.
2. Not sure how many people are going to flame me for this, but you can get a significant amount of your daily food requirement from dumpsters. I'm not talking about half-eaten hamburgers, I'm talking about perfectly good packaged food that's one day past it's expiry date. Or fruit and veggies. Again, it's in the trash simply because it was on the shelf for a predetermined amount of days.

Of course, the second one is going to be a lot different in other countries, but in this country it's rediculously easy. I can tour on less than 10$ a day in the US.

Try to be open minded about it...

I've always tried to live well within my means, and, generally, this has left me with enough cash to do what I want in my free time, which I admit has been modest up to this point. (I'm a teacher, so my free time varies immensely, from none whatsoever around this time of year to loads of it in the summer.) I don't deny myself at all- I get coffee from an espresso place every morning, I eat meat (though I'm uneasy about this one, given the environmental impact), I eat out a couple of times a week, I pay a mortgage, I have a sail boat, and I manage to go someplace a couple of times every summer. Next year, if the economy doesn't completely tank, I'm doing a four-week tour in Germany, Holland and France. (Or, if that fails, to the Mohave and back from Seattle.) However, I do the following to save/make money:

1. I don't own a car;
2. I buy all of my clothes at thrift stores (except underwear and socks, which I buy on sale);
3. I never buy prepared foods at the grocery store (except yogurt and bread);
4. I live in a pretty modest place (800 sq ft condo);
5. I never turn down an extra duty at work, especially if it involves a stipend or free food.

The life I've chosen for myself has been pretty satisfying, but it doesn't begin to make it possible for me to do other, more ambitious things with my time. Some of the other posts on this thread make me think that maybe I've been setting my sights a little too low...

The years that have passed since originally posting this message have been a wild ride.

As others have mentioned, it came as somewhat of a shock to discover that we could live on less money while cycle touring than while remaining at home.

Now that we are rooted once again our extreme frugality continues to morph into new ventures.

Days after touching down we serendipitously landed a job as the apartment managers of a small complex. Free rent, utilities, telephone, internet and ample storage have given us an the freedom to follow whims.

Frequent visits to the daily Goodwill bike auction at the border has filled the complex's storage shed with an unbelievable variety of bicycles which I've been fixing and selling on eBay. We've also opened an eBay store which has not been good for my eBay addiction but has proved to be a recession-proof source of surprisingly good income.

-Amanda has begun teaching Pilates and I'm teaching spin at the YMCA and 24 Hour Fitness which provides us free membership.

-We still have no television. The library has expanded it's collection of movies since we've been away and hulu fills the gap if we get the itch to watch something else.

-Somehow we've managed to avoid getting a mobile phone(s).

-Food is our largest expense and we joke about getting a job at our favorite local market, Henry's Farmer's Market, as that seems to be our way to eliminate expenses. Now that we have a real oven, stove, sink, refrigerator and stocked kitchen (rather than a campstove & panniers) we are enjoying experimenting with unusual, healthy meals. I am especially enjoying the Vita-Mixer and Champion Juicer I found at the swap meet near the border. I will sorely miss them (the appliances and the swap meet) when we tour again.

-The act of writing down and tracking every single expense continues to be the most enlightening element in our savings plan. It is remarkable to see how much we save by not having real jobs. Today we are saving more each month than we were when we both had regular corporate employment with all the trimmings. The expenses that go along with keeping up appearances have disappeared and we no longer feel the need to say, "I deserve it.", when making a purchase.

I toured the world while I spent most of my life in the Marines. Past few years I've tour the nation on a bike with plans to leave for Australia this December to tour there and visit some old comrades I served with in joint operations between them and us. I had plan to do Europe first before Australia but one of my Aussie friends was diagnoised with the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, so I've decided to see him (and the rest of the bunch) before he can't remember who I am or if I've ever visited him. The good news with this man is that it's progressing at a very slow rate like Reagan's did.

My time comes from being retired, my money comes from the retirement in the military, social security from working as a consultant for the government, and private investments. I've could not have had the time or money to bike tour prior to retirement.

most of the **** i do is illegal so i won't post about it here. but you can get food stamps, i lived in a open garage for $100 a month during the winter, unemployment whilst touring. i dunno. you can always think of new ideas.

No wife,no kids=LOTS OF MONEY & TIME.

i'm right there with you. I don't use or like most of the stuff I have. I am a part time college student and full time employee, with wife and 9 month old boy. Free time to watch tv or *gasp* a movie... How do some people watch so many movies?!? As it is, I get anxious for the baby to get put down every night so I can finally study or do chores or read for a little. But I must say that I am blessed.

UN-fortunately, my wife has little inclination to ride a bike, no matter how many I bring home and fix up, let alone go on a bike tour. I don't think she even enjoys the outdoors very much :/ I dunno. I gotta try to get her into it.

(as an aside: what's the youngest a baby can be and ride in one of those baby/child seats?)

great thread.....I hope more people will post and keep this a very active discussion. I can use all the helpful ideas possible. Just started a real downsizing and trimming phase, though I've always been an anti-clutter person, just recently, I feel the urge to get rid of just about everything. I do live in a house, though I stopped spending money on it, car is 10 years old...would love to get rid of it but not quite practical yet in the rural location I live in. I don't buy clothes, never eat out, am a vegetarian so no meat expense, don't have any jewelry, my "hobby" is growing my own food organically. I can't get over how much money we're "not" spending, yet we still seem to have more expenses than income. Where does the $$ go? We have a couple of dogs so there are vet bills, expenses w/ owning a home (like when the well pump breaks, and the septic backs up, and the furnace goes on the fritz all in the same week) -- it just all seems to add up.

...

After years of being self employed I took a government job which offered a "deferred salary leave" program. For the last couple of years I have been taking 3/4 salary which will result in receiving 3/4 salary while I am on tour for a year. After a year I will come back to my old job and start again. I will start my tour on March 1, 2009.