Why this is a Retire Extremely Early and Paleo Lifestyle Blog

As you have probably seen in a few posts previously the overwhelming direction of Finance and Fitness Dreams entails two distinct directions,  Retiring Really Early and the Paleo Way of Life.

Many of you might think this is pretty interesting or many might think I'm crazy.  Good news is I'm OK with either one.  I don't want to be normal, I have absolutely no desire to be 45 and working in corporate America waiting for the day I can retire and "enjoy my older years".  One of my favorite quotes is "youth is wasted on the young". Why not retire at 30, 40, or 50?  Think of the things you would be able to do with your free time:  visit family, volunteer at a non-profit, maybe travel.  I'm not sure what your dream is but mine is many of these and more.

I'm on my way to retiring in 7 years. The concept is simple, have a passive income(non 9-5 job) that is greater than your monthly spending.  If you have 2K in income per month, well you better not spend a dime over that, whether you are traveling, buying groceries, or making a payment to the IRS.  Make more than you spend.  Crazy concept I know.  As most in there 30's are figuring out this is the  best income producing time you have had, so this is when you pile up savings and pay down debt.  We are currently on our way and our plan looks something like this in terms of year by year:

• Year 1(the next 7 months for us)-Pay off Half of my Student Loan Debt, pay 33% of our Rental House Off, Pay Regular Payments on our current home, Contribute the Matching portion to our Roth 401K and 401K(Year 1-7), Contribute personal savings to a personal Stock Portfolio(Year 1-7)
• Year 2-Pay off Student Loan Debt, Pay 33% of our Rental House
• Year 3-Pay off our Rental House(creating a Passive Income Stream in Year 4).  At the end of year 3, based on a tight budget we would be able to retire, since the income from the Rental House and our Current Home(paid for with rents coming in) would satisfy our current costs.  But to say it would be tight would be an understatement and I don't think that's my dreams to be living on a tight budget, it would take away some of the very things I want to do with my retirement.
• Year 4-Reevaluate our current situation, time frame, pay off schedule, and goals.  Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
• Year 5-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
• Year 6-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
• Year 7-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home and be Debt and Mortgage Free

So this puts us in a situation where we would have the option to retire.  We would live off what is considered the average household income in America.  We would need to budget for the every day expenses of groceries, utilities, etc while making sure our taxes, insurance, and health care were included in this.  After those few expenses everything else would be used to do the things we find retirement worthy.

                                       

During these 7 years there will be bumps along the road, but I have put our 7 year plan on a very Ronald Reagan conservative(I'm not political, although I do think Ronald Reagan seems pretty cool for an old guy) approach, especially with the fact that I think this can be done in 3 years and the reason for an evaluation to see what we think is best.  Along the way we may beef up our HSA Savings or Retirement Bonus of our 401K.  The strategy in year 4-7 may lean more towards creating an even larger emergency fund of all cash, possibly switching the investments to a larger portion in taxable versus non-taxable income.  This is the journey this is my path, I plan to retire early by using Rental Income.  Along the way I will read everything I can get my hands on from retire early finance blogs, books, and anything else that I think will bring me closer to my desired location, Retire Extremely Early!!!



I have chosen the Paleo lifestyle for many reasons but mostly because it yields results.  Recently I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge and was able to lose some weight and feel healthier, with items such as my Achilles being pain free, which is an amazing feeling from walking around every morning like you are 65.  Since the Paleo challenge I have been for the most part Paleo(minus Christmas, HoHoHo) along the way.  I am good not having Dairy, Legumes, and Pastas back in my diet.  The one exception is cheese, I'm from Wisconsin, that's against the rules.  I do keep the cheese to gluten free so usually Boar's Head or if I can find a cheese that is from Grass Fed Cow's then I'm in business.  So this week I am starting back with my Sprint and Relax Paleo.

I really believe eating right with Paleo and exercising(Walking my dog a couple times a day) is the way to health and feeling great.  So this week will be the week of the Chicken!  I will have a couple obstacles with work, new year's, and college basketball game, but will be a great test early.  My goal as of January 31st is to have less than 7 items that are not Paleo or at least Gluten Free.

I can't suggest enough to read up on eating Paleo.  If I could sum up Paleo I would say it's eating like your Grandma and Grandpa used to eat,  just more natural products, not processed or with a bunch of ingredients you can't pronounce.  Have you tried Paleo or thought about retiring early, let me know with a comment.

Paleo and the 30 Day Challenge-It's Finance and Fitness

I have been away from writing for awhile and due mostly to focusing on other items in my life.  I found it best to use all of my focus on one item in my life to get the most production.   This is what I refer to as Sprint and Relax.  

So what have I been up to for the last 2 months?  Well the most important thing was I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge.  Paleo might be known better to you as the Caveman diet or the hunter-gatherer diet.  Here is a general outline of what I ate for those 30 days, shown below, you can check out  Robb Wolf's What is the Paleo Diet? for more info.

 Ok to Eat                 Avoid

Fruits	Dairy
Vegetables	Grains
Lean Meats	Processed Food & Sugars
Seafood	Legumes
Nuts & Seeds	Starches
Healthy Fats	Alcohol

I really took this seriously, I ate almost to the tee the outline above, I don't eat that much bread anyways besides sandwiches,which is usually the most difficult item for people to give up, but that was easily replaced with lettuce or cabbage.  Cheese or Dairy was probably the most difficult for me and after the 3rd week I ended up adding it back in.  Like many lifestyle changes, you end up taking what you can't live without and  I added cheese back in but went with a common theme in the paleo way of life to eat everything as natural as possible, just like your grandma used to make.  So I added Kerrygold Swiss Cheese which is made from all natural grass-fed cows, I also did the same thing with butter, using the same brand.  

I was able to lose around 15 pounds in those 30 days, which I am really proud of.   My parents came to visit and I knew immediately I would take a little break from my Paleo lifestyle.  Overall I have stuck with Paleo, many of the principals are easy to follow.  If I am ever in doubt for any of the items I choose to eat or need a recipe, I can always check the Internet to confirm or for the most part if it's Gluten Free then it's good to go.

  

Losing weight and being healthy for me starts with Paleo.  I did not go out of my way to exercise with the exception of walking my dog every day, so I think that's what made me feel great about this, I wasn't running 5 miles a day or lifting 3 days a week, I stuck with Paleo and it worked.

I think finance and fitness have so many of the same principals to winning.  You have to eat healthy or be financially fit, no credit cards or ice cream,  eat less than you need or don't spend more than you earn.  So many of these things are exactly the same and exactly the reason why America is Obese and Broke.  So try something different this week and bring all of your lunches or don't put sugar in your coffee this week, I think we all need to start somewhere and today is a good day.