Revisiting A FIRE Classic | Early Retirement Extreme Audiobook

To say I am a fan of Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme (ERE)is an understatement. While I’m not one to gush, I deeply revere his book, Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence. And when I heard an audiobook version was available a decade after his book’s original release, I had to revisit this old friend.

I discovered this book five or six years ago when I found myself stuck under a mountain of debt and living beyond my means with a lifestyle that was wasteful and consumer-driven. And, considering I was raking in a six-figure salary, that’s saying something. Every friend, sitcom, internet article, and movie that I listened to confirmed that I should be happy and living the high life. Instead, I felt stuck, tired, and defeated. Every aspect of my life was suffering.

Although I was only in my early thirties, my physical health was at an all-time low. I was obese, got in less than 2,000 steps on most days, never exercised, consumed prepackaged and heavy foods, and rarely enjoyed sunlight and fresh air. Mentally, I was stressed, scattered, and bored all at the same time. My mind was usually focused on several mundane tasks and rarely tackled engaging, meaningful and challenging problems. In spite of my background in statistics and data science, management of my personal finances was tenuous, at best. Instead, I spent my days mildly engaged in the workings of financial and customer behavior patterns at the IT company where I worked.

After losing my dad, I reevaluated the priorities in my life and found myself going down an online rabbit hole, trying to find a way out of my self-made mental prison. There were only a handful of books that resonated with me as I investigated wealth accumulation, real estate investment, healthy living, and early retirement.

But no book bent my perceptions the way Early Retirement Extreme did. On a recent #bookchallange, I was asked to list seven books that most influenced my life. Early Retirement Extreme easily made the cut.

This is not a how-to manual about the pursuit of early retirement. It’s a philosophical analysis, which is intimidating to many. I would not call ERE a light read. But that’s the point. Embracing financial independence and, more importantly, a Renaissance-man lifestyle, requires more than a list of top action items. It requires an in-depth and sometimes harsh critique of what we’ve become accustomed to as normal. We can easily walk through life on autopilot, taking our everyday behaviors and responses for granted. But ERE challenges every single behavior and response. Not directly. Rather, Jacob encourages you to understand the fundamental concepts behind financial independence, becoming a Renaissance man, and early retirement. As you fully embrace and embody these concepts, adapting them to your own life, your behaviors and responses will alter and course-correct accordingly.

Learn to Ask Why | Making a Living vs. Living

Early Retirement Extreme starts off asking you to question the institutions you’ve likely taken granted for your entire life. From daycare to public school to university, then from corporate job to nursing home. This questioning had the biggest impact for me when I first flirted with financial independence.

I had never really questioned the course of my life. After graduating high school, I went to college because that’s what we’re supposed to do. More importantly, that’s how you get a job. Before I had graduated from high school, I had already been indoctrinated into the idea that a “good job” was the ultimate goal… the true definition of success. So, of course, I went to college to continue my institutionalization. I excelled – I am a quick learner and keen test taker. But very little stuck. I remember hearing someone say, “Five years after you graduate college, you only remember five percent of what you learned in college.” I have no idea if that statement is accurate – and think that would be a tricky data point to collect – but it does indirectly prove a point: the goal of college is not to learn. Some say the goal is to learn how to learn. Others say the goal is to learn how to work in teams, complete mundane assignments on a deadline, follow directions, and display the patience to attend your scheduled classes during the allotted time to obtain your degree. All skills that will help you make it to the next, all-important institutional stage: the good job. Otherwise known as the career.

Which is exactly what my peers and I sought so desperately after college. The race was on to get that job, then get the new car, then the nice apartment and eventually the nice suburban house.

But why?

Over a decade into a corporate, promotion-heavy career, I wondered why, exactly, I worked every day. I lived for the weekends, only to be out of energy when they came. Reading ERE during this time put everything I had done on its head. It was uncomfortable, and at first blush, seemed ridiculous. Of course we work hard for more money, Jacob; money buys nice things. I deserve that five-star hotel at the most expensive vacation destinations… because I work so hard. And I work hard so I can have fun… you know, work hard, play hard. And the cycle continues.

Realizing that the “typical lifestyle” programming you’ve grown accustomed to is not necessary and, honestly, not healthy, is unnerving. It was for me. After reading ERE for the first time, I tried to talk myself out of many of the ideas. Thinking maybe I was just tired from work and needed a vacation. Or maybe I just needed a new job, a change of pace. But I had already done those things, and they just delayed the inevitable feeling that I was wasting my life away.

I had already gone through several institutions, and trapped myself with several assumptions without questioning the why. Rather than working hard for a future set of golden years that is not certain, especially since I was not taking care of my physical body nor cultivating my mind, I decided to question assumptions and build a life that needed less income and was focused on investing income.

This seemingly simple mindset shift had an enormous impact on my life trajectory. Without thinking much about it, I had blindly fallen into the American Dream trap: go to college, earn a degree, find a corporate job, buy a car, and finance a new house. Every couple of years, get a more expensive car, an even more expensive house, and take more expensive vacations. Work most of your waking hours, get promotions that sound impressive in the corporate world, but mean little in the real world, to support your ever-inflating lifestyle expenses. Wonder why you always seem to spend most, all or more money than you earn. Rinse and repeat.

I was finally ready to end the cycle. Because, when I was honest with myself, my why was lame. I clung to my career and lifestyle because of fear. Working a corporate job and supporting the consumer-driven lifestyle is what everyone else was doing, and there is comfort in going with the crowd. But when I took a step back, critically looking at this life I had built, I realized it was the furthest thing from “safe.”

While I made a lot of money, I spent almost all of it every month, and had almost no savings. My cost of living was ridiculous, and if I lost my job, I would not be able to sustain my necessity expenses for more than two months. And while my job was fairly in-demand, it was also in a competitive field. With no savings or other source of income, I was a slave to my wage. Accepting this began a series of changes that altered my life in the best way possible. I realized the trap of the “salary man” was putting me in a vulnerable financial spot, and that passive income and other income streams were needed. Analyzing my spending habits, I also realized my consumer-driven lifestyle was frivolous and, frankly, did not make me happy. What was the point of wasting all of this money if I wasn’t even happy!? Thus, budgets were built and every dollar spent was questioned. And I started building a new life.

Severing the cycle led me to house hacking, real estate investment, creating and tightening my budget, and enjoying free and cheap hobbies and pastimes. Before I knew it, I grew accustomed to living off a small fraction of my income. And was frankly happier living on a leaner budget. I used savings to invest in income-producing assets that eventually produced enough cash flow to pay for my expenses. Thus, financial independence was achieved.

A Post Financial Independence Perspective

Listening to ERE several years after my first read, and over a year after achieving my financial independence, I walked away with an entirely different message. It was the kick in the ass I needed…in a good way.

Embracing a Renaissance mentality is the cornerstone of the ERE’s philosophy. The Renaissance man avoids narrow-minded specialization, and instead embraces learning a wide range of skills. Sure, he will specialize in a few areas, but will have a working knowledge of many things in life. This desire to learn and self-serve has the practical effect of not needing to outsource many daily tasks. A highly specialized individual, like a director at a corporate IT office, might choose to outsource meal prep, cleaning, cooking, home repairs, home renovation, vehicle maintenance, etc. Of course he has the money to pay for these conveniences, but only when he is employed. So, if his W2 income is his only source of income, losing his job becomes a costly and high-stress event.

Compare that to the Renaissance man who is more inclined to clean his own home, cook his own meals, learn how to resolve minor home and vehicle repairs, and enjoy renovating his own home. Another mindset shift that can drastically reduce your expenses while building your knowledge, and making you an all-around more interesting person.

When Jacob started listing off areas where the Renaissance Man should strive to have a working knowledge, I felt I had to step up my game. For the past month, I’d gotten into a couple of ruts. While my fitness level has dramatically improved since my financial independence, and especially in the last 12 months since I prioritized it, I’ve gotten comfortable at a plateau that is not moving me toward my goals to improve my running speed and increase my swimming distance. Also, my partner and I have been discussing projects around the house, like establishing sustainable landscaping, planting a garden, and making minor and major renovations in the kitchen and utility rooms. But the motivation to follow through with those plans has been lacking. 

After listening to Jacob discuss the Renaissance ideals and lifestyle, I realized it wasn’t just motivation we lacked, it was education. We had not educated ourselves enough to feel confident about moving forward with those goals. We still needed to learn things like how to plant a garden or how to take down a wall to switch out a bedroom closet and a kitchen pantry.

When I mulled over this “web of goals,” I realized I had many overlapping interests that fed into each other. Therefore, with minimal effort, I could increase my knowledge and proficiency in several areas.

For example, improving fitness has been, and continues to be, a goal of mine. One of my favorite ways to exercise is hiking in state parks. I enjoy the beauty of nature while exercising and try to learn about the plants and animals around me, which has opened up the door to understanding more about local plants that are sustainable in our area. This knowledge will be applied to my yard at home so that, rather than battling with the maintenance of lawn grass that is not meant to live in Central Texas, we will landscape with plants that are native to the area. Hiking has also inspired me to master basic survival techniques. I’ve built a “bug-out-bag” and have learned basic knife skills, how to make a fire with a bow drill, and how to make a primitive shelter.

These are loose examples, and I could continue to build on them, but they illustrate how knowledge in one domain can translate and build onto knowledge in other domains. This web of knowledge and goals lends itself to a more self-sustaining life. And a more interesting life at that!

A Financial Independence Classic

I have recommended Early Retirement Extreme to anyone who will listen. While I have very few friends who pursue financial independence (we are, unfortunately, a rare breed), those who do find ERE intimidating. One friend jokingly told me his wife almost divorced him while he was reading this book – something about an argument over the air conditioning settings…

While this book is, as it self-proclaims, extreme, that is entirely the point. It does not insist you live off of a $7,000 annual budget. But it does suggest it’s possible, and helps show you how it can be done. More importantly, it helps you learn how to read the map of lifestyle finance so you can navigate to your own level of comfort, which will dictate how much money you need in a year, which will then dictate how much money you need to save and how much longer you need to work. Jacob exposes the levers under the hood that can adjust this financial independence timeframe based on what you’re willing to sacrifice.

This book and his blog continue to guide me towards and contribute to my personal mission – to live a life that’s just one percent better everyday. If you get a chance, check it out. But go easy on the air conditioning with your significant other. 😉