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Retirement Discussions / Retire Early CampFIRE


Subject:  Re: Your Money or Your Life Date:  7/26/2000  1:51 AM
Author:  hairyfoot Number:  13763 of 757824


I read YMOYL shortly after it came out but really didn't apply any of it until I began to think about early retirement.

I've done most of the exercises to one degree or another at one time or another. One spring, I happened to run across several large boxes stuffed with old pay stubs and tax returns while cleaning out an attic so figuring approx. what I'd earned was fairly quick. Later, had to provide an inventory of our valuble items for insurance purposes so while I was going room-by-room anyway, video taped and cataloged all the contents. That took the time (done over two weeks) as we had lots of stuff (neatly) packed into every nook of the house, garage, and barn. It was all so neat and tidy, though, that I probably wouldn't have realized just how much stuff was there if I hadn't done the inventory. It was quite an eye-opener to see how much money we had tied up in stuff (quite nice, most of it) that we didn't even see from one year to the next, much less use. I'd say that was the most beneficial exercise, personally, than figuring out how much money had passed through my hands.

I'd always tracked broad categories of expenses but I've never tracked expenses in the kind of detail that Domingues and Robin suggest. Might be useful. Just too fiddley for me.
