Compared to many case studies on here, my situation was not bad i.e. no debt, no second home, no boats, etc. But I've gone from a mid-40s FI age, to a late 20s FI age. And besides the strictly financial improvements to my life, I have gained so much from the more philosophical articles such as ways to embrace discomfort and ways to seek happiness. This blog and forum has had a tremendous impact on my life and I look forward to contributing to this community for a long time!
Amazing, way to crush it!
I read (almost) all of the articles and comments a few years ago, in reverse order for efficiency reasons. The more recent posts on the same topics would contain the best, most updated information. If I then encountered something from two years earlier on Betterment or something, I could skip it. I largely skipped the car stuff, since I don't have em and I don't want em.
Once I ran out of articles, I realized there was a forum I could join to continue and deepen my obsession.
Changes in the last few years:
-Upped my savings rate, which was already high, from 70% to 85-90%.
-Went from a possible never-FI future with ever-increasing expenses to FI at 30.
-Learned about HSA's and now max out.
-Took control of my investments back from my dad, reducing a lot of stress in the process.
-Changed everything to buy-and-hold index funds and outperformed his stock-picking/index-switching strategy.
-Stopped drinking alcohol and cut waaay back on restaurants. Cut $700-800 a month here. (These changes started with YMOYL, pre-MMM.)
-Cut cable. (Again, probably YMOYL.)
-Learned how to cook.
-Cut my rent by $900.
-Stopped buying clothes and "stuff" pretty much entirely. Got rid of a lot of unnecessary belongings, too.
-Upped charitable giving.
-Made, like, twenty bucks writing romance novels.
-Made a crap-load of friends all across the world.