In the summer of 2014, when I turned 41, I set myself the goal of retiring from paid-work by the age of 52. This blog charts my own strategy and progress, and explores different theories of financial independence and 'extreme early retirement'. It also provides the odd tip on how you might also retire early!
17 Nov 2020 2 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
When I first set off on my path to Early Retirement in 2014, I calculated that my housing costs were the single biggest barrier to my retiring early. And based on figures I took from the UK expenditure survey at that time, I wasn't alone: Housing e...
12 Nov 2020 3 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
My house in the UK has now had tenants in it for a week, and so far I've had no hassle at all! This is as expected, because I opted for a fully managed service with a reputable local lettings agency, and my main point of contact wears clothes that fi...
10 Nov 2020 5 minute read 2 comments RealSociology
Welcome to Paradise' That's how I was welcomed to the country a few days ago over dinner by one of the guests as soon as they learned I'd just moved to this part of Portugal. She may have been slightly crazy, in a good way (she thinks the FED are sat...
6 Nov 2020 4 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
I estimated a couple of weeks ago (here) that moving to Portugal would enable me to reduce my total monthly expenditure by around 40%, and now I've got the data, I'm very pleased to announce that my estimate was spot on! I've just used a 1-1 EU to £...
2 Nov 2020 2 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
The main reason for my moving to Portugal was to cut my cost of living expenses by at least 30%, and having been here for only two weeks, I’m going to declare 100% success. At least in terms of my basic cost of living expenses - shelter and utilities...
27 Oct 2020 1 minute read 3 comments RealSociology
I'm pretty much set to leave the UK for Portugal now, with the intention of having an explore, finding some land to buy there and then living on said land. The whole idea behind this move is to reduce my day to day cost of living expenses, ideally ha...
25 Oct 2020 2 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
This week's Splinterlands Challenge of the Week was to showcase the wonderful Rusty Android. I have a real soft spot for Rusty, so much so that he's my only maxed gold card, or maybe that's because he's so cheap come to think of it?!? There's always...
11 Sep 2020 3 minute read 2 comments RealSociology
I’ve been thinking through a few shelter 1.0 options for when I get my land in Portugal. The plan is to put up a small scale budget option, enough to live in comfortably for a few months or even a year while I do land-things. The main reason I’m inte...
27 Aug 2020 4 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
The normal life-financial strategy in the UK is to focus initially on developing one particular skill which one then employs to earn money, in the form of an ‘income’. Later on in one's career, one might go on to either refine or diversify into relat...
25 Aug 2020 3 minute read 0 comments RealSociology
I've paid, on average, around £30 a month for my electricity usage for the last decade, so I've never thought of it as a particularly significant expenditure - £30 a month is about the same as I spend on my broad band connection, about 50% less than...
