Never connected the dots that begging looks just as good as sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.

Not quite. Renting out 3 units of a $700k quad should get you $42k+ in many big cities. Drawing down on the $300,000 is an additional $15k that should go for 40+ years at least. That gets you to $57k pre-tax, and I am not even counting the +EV hobbies you conveniently ignored. With any reasonable tax avoidance you can easily get $40k+ after tax. And it goes up with inflation.

Costco contains a lot of healthy stuff, and a lot of unhealthy stuff. Stay away from the unhealthy stuff.

Something wrong with having guests over, or a freezer? I'm sure if you have guests they would return the favor and invite you to their place on their dime.

Henry,

I lived far from a "baller" lifestyle. Cmon I used 500 bucks for a car in that estimate. $500 for a lease alone would be a min for a "baller car". More than like it'd just be a lol car.


PS: lol at Costco for produce.

I mostly agree. A lot of people in this thread forget about costs of maintenance of a car. Gas, tires, oil changes, car insurance, etc... are all part of keeping a car on the road. While I wouldn't call $500/month car a lol vehicle. A reasonable car can cost you that much. Whether you are leasing, paying a car loan or recognizing depreciation (if the car is paid for). Total costs for a car can really add up.

If you look for a "baller" vehicle that can get you laid. Then, expect to pay $900+/month. Cars are a lot more expensive than people realize. However, a lot of people in this thread who expect to live well/comfortably don't realize the cost of doing so. It's been mentioned by others before, just because you live a certain way in your 20's doesn't mean you will live that lifestyle when your 40 or older.

Burning up 6k a year on a car through expenses is ezpz. I'd say its quite "lol" for cost inclusive for all but the most miserly options and 100% not reasonable for a "baller" ride. You're looking at maybe a budget of $300 a month for a lease on $500 month car budget? Even a $500 lease gets you... 35k-40k of car? (I don't lease.) Not very many ballin options when your comparable are fully loaded minivans and mid-level full size trucks.

you are hilarious. keep posting.

I just checked for online quotes for a 25 year old single male driving at 3 year old Toyota Corolla and the insurance would be $197/month for the default coverage and with no driving blemishes having been an insured driver from the age of 16.

Figure at least $80-100/month for gas.

I have no idea what maintenance on a car is but just with gas and insurance you are at $300/month so $500 seems like not much.

LOL, what's so funny about what I was saying?

Ummm, no.

To summarize this thread:

If you are the 20 year old version of Ted Kaczinski or Jack Kerouac, you could do it.

Even though your muni-bond is tax free, you still have to cover inflation. CPI over the last 30 years is like 2.5-3%. You would be broke before you died.

To close this thread out, if you are willing to intelligently put your $1m to work, and do some work yourself, you could do it pretty comfortably. If you decide you want to stare at the walls, while on a spreadsheet it's possible to scrape by, you'd be below the poverty line.

lol at the math failure personal finance stupidity itt

This thread should really be about why the hell we allow American high school kids to graduate with 0 exposure to this stuff.

It should be M-A-N-D-A-T-O-R-Y and you could teach it pretty comfortably in a semester and cover credit cards, home loans, retirement planning, budget making, etc

Depends entirely upon how much money you need on what is thrown off. What if you only need $30k of the $40k? Does the rest just disappear?

A lot of assumptions ITT about how much money people have to spend on things by citing examples of their own life which doesn't really mean much other then your own ability to deal with $40k/year.

Freeganism. Don't need nothing. Stupid thread. Or maybe this line of thought is ****ing ******ed. You need money to live and 30k is very very little. And your example doesn't even adjust for purchasing power which is lol.

"Freeganism" - if thats what it takes.

I point to the threads title.

A couple of years old, and I'm not sure how sound the analysis is, but this study indicates that the net present value of a medical degree is less than one million dollars.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...on.aspx?page=2

edit: it used 1996 earnings, so it would clearly be greater nowadays.

Not necessarily. This guy is retired in his 30's and lives off $5k/year IN CALIFORNIA. His life is also much more fulfilling than mine will ever be even though I spend a lot more money than he does. I'm working on changing that. I estimate his nestegg to be ~$200k but that is just my best guess. Also, please don't be too quick to judge. His blog does have extreme views but is fascinating.

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

Sorry man. I can't feed myself on that budget. I'm not budging on my choice to eat an orange when I want.

I would like to know what you eat. But even if you allow yourself 10k/year on food, there is plenty of room left over (based on the topic of this thread).

Of course, if you consider all of your current expenses to be "necessities" and not evaluating which $$$ provide value to your life and which do not, you will just keep allowing your spending to spiral out of control.

Just to be clear, I am not saying spending money on anything is bad. Just that most of us spend A LOT of money on things that do not provide any actual value to our lives.

I'm referring to the 5k gai. $100 a week is a lol low amount to eat on.

I know you take health to an extreme, so it would be worth it for you to spend more on food. And while I could definitely criticize his diet, even on his low budget he eats way better than the average American does.

I'm not saying you are right and he is wrong or vice versa, just that people value different things differently.

Too say you cannot retire COMFORTABLY AND HAPPILY with $1M at any age is just a huge FAIL. (Also this sentence is not specified towards you even though I quoted you).

I'd say its easily impossible with a family. As a single man its doable, but the std of living could be quite low.

His ability to feed himself on that budget would be quite interesting to read. I have trouble even imagining what I'd end up eating. I mean... is he buying like a whole side of beef and storing it? I've considered that, and it'd be super sweet. But then I'd end up with a small farm in my freezer since I lurve all types of meat. And this would quickly spiral out of control.

Average Americans are ultra life fish. And they eat food that is mostly **** of doody 4. Like the comment above talking about Costco over going to your local farmer's market. GMAFB. Ignoring other aspects (free organic, greater knowledge of items, etc etc), and the fact its typically cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. The simple fact of being able to buy individual meal sized amounts of produce for the same price as a ginmorous bag of lettuce has a sizable amount of utility and value.

I semi-agree with this. The guy I posted about is married but has no intention of having kids.

However, even with kids I would argue that anyone could raise a family easily on $30k year assuming they were careful with their money and also had some "lifeskills" -- such as knowing how to fix things and/or raise crops or animals. Money is only a medium of exchange. If you are willing to put in the work yourself, all you need is land.

No, he lives in trailor with limited storage. And I agree with the rest of your post.

I don't really know what you're getting at as it's pretty clear there's a massive amount of financial ignorance in the US. I consider myself low-average in terms of financial knowledge and I look like a friggin' genius in these threads and amongst people I know, with very few exceptions.

I'd confidently wager that whatever extra money was pumped into this program would be returned to the public. Remember, we here in the US just spent a few trillion dollars of public funds bailing people out because they did not understand ARMs or even do the most basic amount of research on the most important purchase of their lives'.

The old saying holds true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

"I also have enough of a mind to remember to either bring water or drink a cup in advance so I am not surprised by thirst (seriously, how hard can this be?). This in turn means that I do not waste money on less than frugal expenses like vending machines, etc."

It tends to amaze me how people can come completely unprepared day after day in the same way. I already like this guy, will read on...
I used to buy organic farm fresh produce in a farm state/area and it was $350/mo or so. A lot of that was actually not the produce but the fact that I was on a 3.5K cal diet and buying a decent amount of prepared food. I'm guessing it's a bit more expensive where you live, though.

---
Talking more specifics, if we were to stay in the US, where's the best place to live cheaply but happily?

You must have a very different definition of comfortably than normal people.

1) Does comfortably include having a place to live without roommates that is not a dump? If so how much do you believe such a place costs?

2) Does comfortably include owning an automobile? If so how much do you believe that costs?

3) Does comfortably include leaving the house and having social connections with people? If so how many times a week? How much do you think that costs?

4) Does comfortably include having clothing that while not designer or anything fancy at least are such that it is not automatically obvious that you are a poverty case? If so how much do you think that costs?

5) Does comfortably include health and dental insurance? If so how much does that cost?

It is not that people don't realize that if I'm going to be out all day at some point I'm going to need a beverage and likely something to eat. It is that normal people don't want to walk around with backbacks full of crap. This is a quality of life issue. Paying $1.25 is worth not having to carry a water bottle around all day.

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I also think we've glossed over dating way too fast.

25 and single -- how do you attract and court a girl when your budget for a date is the value menu at McDs?

Casual sex is out of the question. A condom is 10-12% of your daily budget.