Found Furniture, and Other Free Stuff

This could be me on an early morning scavenging walk.

When I was in college, I coined the phrase "Free equals baller." If you're scientifically minded, the formula looks something like this:  $0 = :)
If you're still confused, I was basically saying if you don't have to pay for it, anything is a good value.
In this post I will discuss where to get free stuff and list some of the things we've gotten for free.

How We Saved $11,000 on Various Purchases

I very rarely pay full price for anything. It’s pretty easy to get a small discount by shopping around, but when I’m making larger purchases, I usually find a way to save a substantial amount, and it isn’t hard.

Retirement Planning Step 5: Consider Generating Income in Retirement

Image courtesy of WSJ.

The final step in planning your retirement is thinking about whether or not you will generate any income during your retirement. The impact on your retirement date of even a small stream of income can be significant.

Retirement Planning Step 4: Recalculate Retirement Date with Reduced Spending

My last post covered reducing your spending in retirement and I calculated my family’s spending could pretty easily be dramatically reduced from $108,000 per year now to under $30,000 when I retire. In this post we will discover how this reduction in spending will impact our retirement date.

Retirement Planning Step 3: Determine How to Radically Reduce Spending

In my last post I demonstrated how to calculate when you can retire if you maintain your current spending. Using my own family as an example I determined I won’t be able to retire until 2035 if we keep our current spending habits. I don’t want to work that long, so in this post I will describe Step Three of my retirement planning process, which is determining how to reduce spending in general. I will then see how much I can reduce my family's spending in retirement.

Retirement Planning Step 2: Calculate Retirement Date with Current Spending

Image courtesy of Tapped Out Wiki.

In my last post I analyzed my family’s current spending. In this post, I will do some calculations to determine when we could retire if we maintain those spending patterns.

Retirement Planning Step 1: Review Current Spending

So far I’ve written mostly about how to save money in everyday life, which is helpful for retirement, but isn’t the hardcore retirement planning advice some people want. That changes now.