4 ms·
MMM has an excellent philosophy, however following his methods and working toward early retirement does require a salary level that is a considerable amount abo
by simonbarker87 14y ago
MMM has an excellent philosophy, however following his methods and working toward early retirement does require a salary level that is a considerable amount above the minimum basic cost of living for where you are.
By minimum cost of living I'm not talking about the average cost of a restaurant meal in one area/country vs another or the average cost of a cable tv package in one country vs another (if you consider those essentials then you should spent some more time reading the MMM blog).
I'm talking about the cost of a pint of milk, a loaf of bread, a chicken (dead for eating, not as pet), public transport when you can't cycle, car insurance (if you can't avoid owning a car - some people can't), rent (in the UK this is pretty consistent, except in London), mortgage, TV License (don't even try to tell them you don't have a TV, they won't believe you and you'll be fined), gas and electric bills etc.
There is a minimum cost to live in a country and you need to earn a reasonable amount above before you even get to the point of choosing between buying a starbucks or putting that money into savings.
- d4rti 14y agoTV licensing have a page for declaring you have no TV. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/no-licence-needed/ https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/no-licence-needed/ I've never had (or needed) a TV license, and I've never been fined.
- hudibras 14y agoI love the juxtaposition of using a computer to declare that you don't have a TV.
- WickyNilliams 14y agoI've not had or needed a TV licence for the last 4 or so years. Initially the tv licencing people were chasing me up constantly, sending letters to which i just had to respond to say "I still don't need a licence", a few visits to the house etc (all this is kind of tantamount to harassment really), but eventually they backed off. As for needing a tv licence at all, I don't see why anybody does in the era of broadband. Streaming videos is allowed without a TV licence, provided the stream is not live, so you can even watch video on BBC iPlayer, legitimately. Combined with every other terrestrial channel's free online offerings and more recently netflix, there is no need to pay a tithe to the BBC. It really is a simple adjustment but it gives decent savings.