Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@ego We share a common ancestor with cows around 160 million years ago. The components of eutherian mammal milk are largely identical between species, but with varying proportions of fat/protein/carbohydrates. Larger species generally having more fat. Almost all mammals are lactose intolerant as adu...

"Pathological in my frugality" very likely describes me. This thread reads like a lot of wise, well-adjusted people reassuring each other that its okay to stop obsessing about money. My perspective on whether "Money Consciousness" is good or bad feels very different than what's b...

@Jacob- I like to envision myself homesteading in a Mad Max type world, with steampunk/Robinson Crusoe -like homebuilt technology. That seems unlikely to come to pass for a number of reasons. But its this fantasy that motivates my interest in homegrown food, homebuilding, DIY projects, solar thermal...

Milk is probably the best possible post workout nutrition. Every mammal survives on nothing but milk during the time in its life when every single body tissue is growing at its highest lifetime rate. Which means it contains literally everything you need to grow new muscle. Also, its got plenty of po...

Tim Ferris asked this question once. It turns out that the origin of the idea that olive oil is good for you is based on research comparing it to cooking with butter. Butter has more saturated fat than vegetable oil, but there are other sources of fat that have less or even no saturated fat. So, yes...

sky, its true that it would be more economical to buy the cheap staples and grow the expensive exotic stuff to sell to others. I suppose the progression of my thought on this topic has lead me to some conflicting requirements. This forum leans heavily on the idea of self sufficiency, and small scale...

The question of "what is being optimized" is an appropriate one, because I'm essentially overthinking multiple parameters. I started with the assertion that food costs can be reduced significantly by buying bulk supplies of storable staples. I considered that the cost of a protein source i...

@JasonR I may have to consider changing my username to "combat-lentils." The traditional diet of the highest-longevity populations on earth is probably worth looking at. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet Sweet Potatoes have much better vitamin content than rice, so that's a win fo...

Ok, "sex for steak" and "worm-eating" are now to be moved to the "Worst Case Scenario" thread.
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Touche

I'm flabbergasted how much this forum resembles a race to reach bottom a la Project Mayhem. Its like a competition to escape civilization. I'm not sure what answer I was expecting to get, but I admit to being surprised that the conversation has quickly moved toward eating composting earthworms. Brav...

@Spartan_Warrior All nutritional research is full of inconsistencies and conflicts, but this review of phytoestrogens was pretty comprehensive and even-handed. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074428/ And you're right that there is no evidence that ingesting a xenoestrogen lowers serum t...

When trying to significantly reduce food costs, the two highest yield strategies I can think of are 1) growing your own or 2) buying large, bulk quantities of nutrient dense foods that store easily. It seems to me that both strategies result in eating the same groups of foods. Specifically, staples ...

Tyler, I absolutely adore portfoliocharts.com and I spend an unhealthy amount of time comparing different allocations. So the new tool is excellent. I have a few hopefully constructive criticisms: 1)For the new comparison tool, there should be an easier way to change the start year than keying it in...

@Dragline The Vanguard representative I spoke to stated that the 0.56% ER was included in the ER of any selected fund, not on top of the expense for the fund. I am also planning on adding a SPIA at some point, as per Wade Pfau's research showing annuities can replace bonds and are superior after ret...

But what if you do NOT annuitize, though? Then the funds work more like a 401k or IRA, with the exception that you cannot do a Roth conversion. You can withdraw the funds at income tax rates without using them to purchase an annuity product.

I know the general feeling on annuities in this community is against, but I am hoping some more math-inclined folks here could help me figure out why the Vanguard Deferred Variable Annuity isn't awesome. Here's the deal as I understand it. For an expense ratio of 0.56, you can invest in mutual funds...