by The Investor
on April 16, 2010
This article on living frugally is the second part in a three-part series on radical early retirement written by Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme.
In this post, Jacob reveals key ways of living frugally that enabled him to retire early on his investments.
It’s actually really hard for me to list the ways I am frugal. I often come across such lists in the blogosphere and I’m thinking to myself: “Isn’t this stuff obvious?!”
Once one grasps the main principles of living frugally – which is mainly to look at optimizing efficiency and utility – one will become frugal, rather than just do frugal things.
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by The Investor
on April 14, 2010
There’s a long, ongoing battle between so-called Keynesian economists, who follow the writings of John Maynard Keynes, and those of the Austrian school, which was exemplified by Friedrich von Hayek.
- Keynes believed Governments and central banks can and should intervene to stave off the worst excesses of the economic cycle in capitalist societies
- Hayek wasn’t Keynes alter-ego exactly, but he was a full-on proponent of free markets and liberalism. Essentially he believed that meddling made things worse.
Over the past two years, what was a nerdy debate has taken center-stage, as Keynes and Hayek’s different theories have been put forward as the best guide to the financial crisis.
Overwhelmingly, the Keynesians have won the day – partly because his interventionist stance fits with a politician’s desire to be seen ‘doing something’.
But as this amusing Keynes Vs Hayek rap shows, there’s two sides to the story.
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by The Investor
on April 12, 2010
As of April 6th 2010, income tax in the UK has effectively gone up. But a straw poll of my friends over the weekend suggests most people haven’t noticed.
It’s easy to see why:
So where’s the tax rise?
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by The Investor
on April 10, 2010
My weekly roundup of the week’s posts and links.
With the first sunny spell here in the UK since, oh, 2008, I don’t expect many of my British readers to tune into this installment of Weekend Reading until Monday morning.
If you’re reading this at your desk after a great 48 hours (or even your Easter holidays), my commiserations. Hey: you’ll always have the sunburn!
Anyway, there’s no doubt many of us are spoiled with our modern burdens, whereby a hard day at the office means slumping in a meeting with a bunch of clueless bosses, eating digestive biscuits and being simultaneously annoyed at not being able to speak, yet dreading being held accountable in a system where we have no control (or was that just me? 😉 ).
My article of the week brought this home very strongly.
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