What sense does it make to work for the "man" until you're eligible for government assistance? What's the retirement age for now? Like 62?
They just keep raising the age limit as the government keeps spending money that was originally an insurance plan. Yeah, that's right, it was social security insurance. They dropped the "I" and stopped referring to it as insurance entitlement, because they didn't want the payers to wake up and say, "Hey, where did all the money go that I paid into my own future welfare?"
The drunken sailors in government will be like, "uh, sorry. We didn't know that was your money. Shouldn't you be dead by now?"
The perfect government scenario is to have the total populace working, earning, paying into the coffers, and then dying before anything is taken out. In reality, we can't get everybody to work and pay, so we have a class of payers and a class of takers. The whole thing gets out of balance and you end up with more takers than payers.
So how can the government increase the amount of payers? How can they create a happy, long term workforce of tax payers? Well, an educated populace has a greater earning potential, so the government sponsors education. Corporations are great at creating taxable income, so they subsidize some of that. But, we really need something to motivate the bulk of the population in the middle class.
What does the middle class work for? What do they spend their money on? Consumables. The latest, greatest shiny example. There are scores of marketers, studying human psychology, watching trends, and gathering scientific data. The middle class is constantly inundated with suggestive news that the latest, greatest shiny consumable will finally satisfy your insatiable desire. Desire can drive the economy.
Many people happily spend their whole life maintaining their updated desire. "Here lies Jane Doe, she always wore the latest fashion." It becomes their life purpose. All of their friends are trendy and fashionable. They all fit, it's natural and they're happy.
There's always an exception to the rule. We have some people that are not gratified with the pursuit of the latest, greatest consumable. People with a different calling and a different purpose in life.
People who are mortified by the idea of working for somebody else until the day they die. To them, this sounds remarkably familiar to slavery. It's voluntary slavery. Or brainwashed slavery?
During these peoples' lifetime, they come to the realization that they have little control over their own time. They fall into the routine of servitude. They find comfort and security in the familiarity. They get paid for time.
Then, something happens as a catalyst for change. An awakening. They wonder what is this futile drive for the evolving object of desire? Isn't there more to life than this ever repeating quest for things? My whole existence to benefit the "man"?
When was the last time that I did something fulfilling for my being? I have a need to create and participate in a life. I can't do that while I'm on the timeclock! Or preparing to be on the timeclock! Is there a way to freedom?
Then the arithmetic starts. If you add more than you subtract, you won't run out of money. It's a simple concept, but a little more complex in application.
The first thing that I learned was the difference between a liability and an asset. A liability takes money and an asset puts it back. Liabilities are easy to come by and outnumber assets in the world by at least 1000:1. There are literally armies of people who will help you spend money, but only a few who will help you make money. Somewhere between liabilities and assets you have grey area called investments.
Investments are time based gambles. The shorter your time base, the greater your gamble. Long term investments are less risky. A very popular investment is a security - a share of a company (stock). If the company is successful, the share that you own will eventually gain in value. That's about as fundamental as it gets. The stock market is driven by people trading. People are fickle and unpredictable. The fundamentals of good business are predictable, but it takes time for fundamentals to trump emotions.
If acquiring assets and good investments is difficult, it is also difficult to keep your earnings. If you consider taxes and expenses to do business, you have to make two dollars in order to keep one dollar! That realization concludes the importance of controlling spending. A dollar saved is actually two dollars earned.
What does it take to control spending? In simplest terms, it takes self discipline. Don't give in to the armies of marketers. Ignore the psychology at work and recognize things for what they are. Separate your needs from your desires. Learn the difference between form and function. If you can only remember three things to get ahead in life: save, save, save. An hour spent saving money is worth four hours earning it.
No matter how large your income, controlling your spending is important! Look at the tabloids that love to publicize the fall of the rich and famous. Easy made millions are even easier to spend, leaving celebrities in dire straits.
A funny thing happens during your efforts to control spending. You start to hate liabilities because they are working against you. Naturally, you start weeding out liabilities from your life. The payback is fast and you start to realize that you need very little. We've all been programmed to accept corruption and spending. We accept that life is insanely expensive, but it's a lie.
Once you have come to realize the actual cost of your legitimate needs, it becomes a little more realistic to determine what your income should be in order to outpace your expenses. Financial independence or retiring early is a realistic and achievable goal.
What if I do realize this goal? What will I do with all my spare time? What will become of my work ethic? Many people continue to work after achieving financial independence, but the work is better. It's so much more fulfilling when you have the choice and are not bound to the same reasons for suffering the toil. Freedom!
I did a lot of studying toward my goal of freedom. I've read a lot of books on finance and investing, and I attended online forums to learn from like minded people. I've read books on business and accounting. All the while, I was working my plan and obtaining assets and selling liabilities.
Country life was also a long term goal. In agriculture, there is ranching and then there is farming. I grew up around ranching and had a little fear of the unknown with farming. But the more that I learned about farming, the better I saw how I could apply some of my talents. I quickly lost interest in my original plan of starting a cattle ranch.
Farmers don't generally know much about securities and investing. Early retired folks don't have much interest in farm work. Urban money ideas don't always work in a rural environment. Ranchers don't know too much about farming. There's been many a time that I felt like a pioneer.
Small scale farmers are typically organic vegetable growers. Hay and grain farmers are usually big time operators. I wanted to grow hay and grain on the small scale. The first problem with that was the cost of all the conventional equipment needed.
Equipment capital for the average farm is over a million dollars! It takes a lot of land to cover that expense. So I have to find a way to make old and obsolete equipment work on a small scale. I can't afford to do things conventionally like the big timers, so I've made a concerted effort to lean more about unconventional methods.
Naturally, the re-newed trend of no-till farming has great appeal for me. Conventional tilling is expensive. Start with the multitude of equipment needed for the various tasks, and the cost of operating and maintaining all that. It's metal against dirt and dirt always wins in the long run. It's the hardest work to do on a farm. If you can find a way around tilling, you stand to reduce your expense by a wide margin.
The first problem with no-till is the difficulty in irrigating it. Sprinklers can be cost justified for that reason. The other thing of challenge is controlling weeds. It will require more learning about chemical applications since the weeds won't be plowed under.
The right region, climate, and crop rotations have shown huge successes for no-till. It's complicated to put it mildly, but the benefits of sustainability, lower cost, soil health, and erosion control appear to be worth all the effort. There's always a risk in trying something new. I've tried to manage that risk by implementing no-till techniques incrementally.
"There is a certain way of doing things. If there was a better way, don't you think I'm smart enough to be doing it?" And that is how somebody with a new idea is shunned. The pioneer has to go alone, explore new territory. The traditionalists expect him to fail, they wish it upon him. They don't want to question their time proven paradigm.
So I have plodded along carefully. Trying to limit the risk so that the failure will just be a learning experience. Live to play another day and fail better next time. Applying the mind first to each problem. Using creative thinking to come up with new solutions. Often a solution can be found with zero monetary expenditure. If it doesn't work, don't automatically scrap the whole plan. Examine the details.
So that's my recipe for country fried early retirement. Most country folk learn to love their work too much to ever retire in the sense of city folk. Maybe it's because life in the country is a participant sport as long as we live?
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