We need to understand the problem first. I’d use whatever makes it easier 
The problem is apparently hard to solve. Check ABBYY online. Sounds like it will take more than a couple of people on their free time to solve it.
1 Like
For anyone interested, here’s an interesting e-book from FEE.org on joining libertarian moral principles with self-improvement and personal development:
https://info.fee.org/hubfs/Books%20and%20Guides/Sanchez%20-%20YourWorkYourLifeFreeYourselfFirst.pdf (epub version here)
Another good inspirational list:
21 Suggestions for Success by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
- Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
- Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
- Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
- Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
- Be forgiving of yourself and others.
- Be generous.
- Have a grateful heart.
- Persistence, persistence, persistence.
- Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
- Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
- Commit yourself to constant improvement.
- Commit yourself to quality.
- Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
- Be loyal.
- Be honest.
- Be a self-starter.
- Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
- Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
- Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
- Take good care of those you love.
- Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.
4 Likes
Woah! Excellent great list, thanks so much for putting this up!!!
1 Like
I’m reading at the moment Jordans Petersons 12 rules for life.
Jordan Peterson also has a very popular youtube channel where you can find a lot of material about his thinking. If you wonder if the book is worth it, go to his youtube channel and there you can hear one of his talks that are part of the tour he is doing at the moment. You could try this one. (His channel has a lot of material that is really interesting but not directly related to the book).
Jordans thinking is not directly related to frugality and FIRE but I really liked it and you can learn a lot from him!
1 Like
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve read his book and I’m huge fan of it and his youtube channel as well. It’s really one of the best self-help books out there and he’s definitely one of the best critics of the modern leftist ideologies and the irresponsible culture they produce. In short: lots of good philosophical and life-practical content.
PS. In fact, I recently recommended this book on this forum:
1 Like
Sorry, I have not managed yet to read all the threads 
Awesome book indeed! I’m not through jet – unfortunately I am a quite slow-reader…
Another insanely interesting project I’ve found some time ago:
It’s an organization that advises on career options to improve the world. It’s generally inspired by the Effective Altruism movement.
They have also a very interesting blog that writes about these concepts. One of the last posts summarizes research about how quitting job or relationship (that we’re unsure about) on average improves happiness:
“The causal effect of quitting a job is estimated to be a gain of 5.2 happiness points out of 10, and breaking up as a gain of 2.7 out of 10! This is the kind of welfare jump you might expect if you moved from one of the least happiness countries in the world to one of the happiest, though presumably these effects would fade over time.”
Yet another reason to (eventually) quit my career.
1 Like
My new favorite podcasts: Joe Rogan Experience. The guy makes excellent interviews mostly about nutrition and exercise, and a bunch of other topics. I’ve stumbled upon one of his interviews about motivation (with motivational music in background) and it might look silly, but I find it really powerful stuff.
2 Likes
Excellent article about happiness from the minimalists:
- Make little changes in your daily routine, such as getting more sleep, exercising, getting out into nature, and meditating.
- Read more books. Read books to learn—research suggests that lifelong learners remain healthy and engaged, and live long lives. Read books as an escape from your everyday life, Read books—it will make you happy.
- Find your right fit or match, both personally and professionally. If you love what you do and who you are with, you’ll position yourself for personal happiness and professional success.
- Be grateful. Sanderson suggested two specific activities to help foster a greater sense of gratitude. First, keep a daily gratitude journal. Second, pay a “gratitude visit” to someone from your past who has had a significant impact on your life, and let them know how you feel.
- Smile more—even if you don’t feel like it. Research shows that the simple act of smiling can trick your brain into a happier state.
- Relish simple, everyday moments. Appreciating life’s small moments, such as a beautiful, sunny day, green shoots sprouting from the ground, and skipping rocks at the beach, teaches you to be more grateful for what you have, especially during moments of stress and angst.
- Perform random acts of kindness. Do good deeds. Volunteer. Be charitable. Shop (for someone else!). Numerous studies have shown that you can help yourself by doing good for others.
- Spend money on experiences versus things. Studies have shown that buying an object—a car, handbag, or kitchen gadget—can quickly lead to buyer’s remorse. On the other hand, investing in experiences—a concert, a camping trip, music lessons—leads to greater happiness. Experiences create “happiness residue,” and our perceptions of them often get better over time.
- Avoid comparisons. Whatever you may think of someone else’s life, particularly as viewed through the phony, filtered lens of social media, it’s almost certainly messier than you imagine. It’s easier to embrace, and learn to love, your own imperfections, if you don’t conjure up myths about how perfect everyone else’s lives seem.
- Build and maintain close relationships. According to Sanderson, having a small number of tight, meaningful relationships is one of the highest predictor of happiness.
3 Likes
Not quite my taste of motivational video, for me something between Saw and Predator, but OK… wait I mean good of course, GOOD!
Attached is my inspiration:
1 Like
Hello Ladies & Gents,
Time to update my budget. A typical month these days for my family (a couple with a one-year-old baby) is like that:
Total Expenses 3901.05
Living 1550
- Rent 1480 – This will go to about 2300-2500 next year, as I’ll have to change my apartment
- Electricity / Gas / Water 35
- Internet 35
Household 1018.7
- Groceries 745 – this includes food for guests + non-groceries that I was too lazy to split the bills
- Cosmetics 0 – Already in groceries
- Household articles 101.9 – I think we stuffed up the cleaning stuff
- Equipment / Furnitures 0
- Baby stuff 159.75 – this grows with age
(+ some stuff is already in groceries)
- Household Miscellaneous 12.05
Personal 382.2
- Clothing 73 – I usually buy clothes second-hand and on sales in Poland
- Snacks & Drinks 76.4 – my goal is to get this one to zero (for sake of money and health)
- Restaurants / Bars 61 – my goal is to get this one to zero (except when I have guests)
- Gifts 51.3
- Mobile (wife) 0 – my wife has a Lyca prepaid and rarely is using it
- Mobile (me) 30 – I have CoopMobile prepaid and this is top-up for about 2-3 months
- Education 85.5 – German learning on Skype - normally, this one is bigger (~150-200 CHF)
Vacation 132
- Vacation/Trips 132 – I normally try to visit some new place at least once a month
Health 484.65
- Health Insurance 478.45 – for me, my wife and my son (at CSS)
- Drugs 6.2
Traffic 323.5
- Public transport tickets 117.8 – I started commuting twice a week to work by train
- Car/Insurance/Taxes/Maintaince 0
- Traffic fines 0
- Fuel 85.7 – I did ~800 km with that
- Other Parking 12 – this is what I pay on parking houses when visit Luzern/Zurich
- Home Parking 108 – this is the cheapest parking lot I have found in Zug (ridiculous)
Leisure, sport & hobby 0 (Thank you libgen.io)
Taxes 0 (Thank you Zug!)
Additionally to this list, I have few annual costs:
- Car insurance ~500
- Household insurance ~500
- PostFinance credit card 40
- Vacations ~1000
- Christmas/Easter trip to Poland (including gifts) ~1000 (2 * 500)
- Winter sports trips ~300 (2 * 150)
- Non-planned expenses ~1000
=== So this translates into average 362 CHF/month
I’ll sum up the entire 2018 at the end of the year with monthly + annual expenses. I think it will be about 3900-4200 CHF/month (46800-50400 CHF/year). My target is < 4000 CHF/month (< 48000 CHF/year)
Please let me know if you can spot some space for optimisations or if you have any recommendations.
1 Like
I’m curious about “clothing”. do you really spend that much every single month?
No, not really, I don’t like buying clothes. I only buy when my wife is threatening that she will kill me if I won’t buy new stuff. So I prefer to buy a bulk of them once per few months.
1 Like
You could avoid this cost either with a Cumulus credit card or with the alternative of Coop, the Supercard credit card.
Overall, you did a great job with reducing costs, that is a pretty frugal budget, congrats! 
1 Like
I tried this, but they sent me back some letter in German and I was too lazy to translate it. I’ll give it another shot next weekend. 
Thanks! It cost me a lot of work on my habits. I used to spend much more just on myself when I was single than now when I support my family.
1 Like
Since man doesn’t live only with savings and investing, I’m trying to share interesting life improvement and personal developments bits and pieces that align nicely with Mustachian personal philosophy here. One of my new discovery is how nutrition, sports, and meditation is important for health and well-being. For the first one, I cut out all sugar in my life; for the second I started using Freeletics app and for the third one, I’ve just discovered a pure gold - Headspace.
I already wrote about how ultimate solution to whatever problem you’re facing is turning action into a habit. So this one applies also to the diet, sport, and meditation I started practicing. Sports is definitely the hardest one - I’m struggling a lot with it.
The fight continues though.
2 Likes
I love the Diet Doctor website. It has such cool pictures of foods and everything is explained plainly. I’ve already seen some videos of dr Jason Fung on YouTube. Did you really manage to cut all carbs, or only sugar? Did you achieve ketosis? Do you have the blood meter?
What I find fishy about the keto diet is that you’re not allowed to eat many fruit. Fruit is treated almost on par with candy bars. I always thought bananas are healthy and nutritious, and then they tell you that bananas have 15-20 grams of fructose per 100g!
I really wonder how they make the Diet Doctor business profitable. The website is really professional and the team is big. All advice there is provided free of charge. How do they make money?
Regarding diet, I don’t have any problem with obesity. I rather have some stomach (repeating heartburn) and colon problems. I have no idea what is causing these problems, and doctors only gave me pills which didn’t help. Also, I don’t like being addicted to sugar.
I really liked the presentation of an Australian dr Paul Mason about the science behind low carb diet. I strongly recommend it. If you know most of these things, then as a refreshment.
His other presentation I found more controversial. He advocates cutting out fiber from your diet in order to break the diarrhoea/constipation cycle. He says that fiber causes inflammatory state in your gut.
@1000000CHF did you read anywhere about this recommendation? Because it’s contrary to popular belief, that you should have a fiber-rich diet for proper functioning of the colon…