Best products from r/leanfire

We found 22 comments on r/leanfire discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 55 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

1. Smarter Investing (Financial Times)

    Features:
  • PULL UP BAR FOR DOORWAY: Plan your home workout regime with Iron Gym Pull up bars, turn any doorway into a personal gym and get the strong, lean body you always wanted, right at home. It instantly attaches to or removes from your door frame and the heavy-duty steel construction supports up to 300 pounds
  • IDEAL FOR UPPER BODY WORKOUT: Iron Gym Pull Up Bars is an ideal upper body exercise equipment with three grip positions, narrow, wide, and neutral. It offers wide grip push- ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, sit-ups, dips, arm and shoulder exercises – every exercise you need to build a powerful upper body
  • HEAVY-DUTY: Constructed with heavy-duty steel, the metal chin-up bar ensures sturdiness and reliability, while the bar handgrip has professional-grade comfort foam for comfortable ergonomic gripping. The indoor gym bar is finished with shiny platinum to give your interiors an exotic match
  • FITS MOST DOORWAYS: Comes in a unit packaging dimensions of 20x3.25x8 inches, it fits up to 35.4-inch-wide door frames. It can be used for an indoor workout, please keep in mind that the doorway should be 24 – 32 inches wide to accommodate the bar
  • EASY INSTALLATION: Our doorframe pullup bar comes with come with safety brackets, a safety manual and assembly tools, making it easy to install and remove in seconds. It uses leverage to hold against the doorway so there are no screws and no damage to the door
Smarter Investing (Financial Times)
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2. Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple

    Features:
  • NEWER VERSION, BETTER EXPERIENCE - This flexible tongue scraper with wider flat scraping head can clean all the corners of your tongue completely. The silicone handle is antiskid and easy to grip in the shower. Don't miss this great personal care essential, which is recommended by over 100 dental professionals!
  • CHOOSE ONCE, BENEFIT FOREVER - Whether you are trying to clear out the white, coated layer on your tongue or maintain better oral hygiene, this professional tongue scraper has got all you covered. The fresher mouth breath and improved sense of taste are the immdediate benefits you can see and feel. And the following benefits include the better gut health and improved confidence. You will be proud to use this great product for years to come!
  • SIMPLE TO USE - Stand in front of a mirror, open you mouth and stick out your tongue. Then scrape your tongue for about 5~8 times for complete cleaning. (*Please wash it with hot water before & after using. *Start at the middle of your tongue until you have get used to scraping. *Use after toothbrushing and flossing in the morning and evening.)
  • PROFESSIONAL DESIGN, BETTER THAN PURE STAINLESS & PLASTIC - The flexible "U" shaped flat curve is easy to twist, turn and choose a most comfortable radian for your tongue. Work well for all ages from kids to adults. It is made from medical-grade stainless steel, making it sturdy, non-toxic and tongue-friendly. Morever, the antiskid silicone handle rests you from worry of dropping it in the shower.
  • TOP PICK FOR A NEW ROUTINE OF DENTAL CARE - The 2 piece tongue scrapers have individual cases, making it easy to keep clean and carry around. The silicone handle with different color is a practical & helpful design to avoid confusing. The new year is coming, it is time to say goodbye to the past and start a new routine to care your dental hygience.
Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple
▼ Read Reddit mentions

Top comments mentioning products on r/leanfire:

u/strolls · 2 pointsr/leanfire

I'm British, so most of the financial discussion I do is on /r/UKPersonalFinance - if you were British I would say to read Tim Hale's book and to read that subreddit every day.

Most of the people on /r/UKPersonalFinance and the financial subreddits I read don't advocate buying individual stocks, but buy index funds instead.

A stockmarket index, like the FTSE 100 or S&P 500, is a "basket" composed of the stock prices of many individual companies, weighted by their size. The FTSE 100 contains the UK's largest 100 companies, the S&P 500 contains the USA's 500 largest companies.

Originally, these indexes were constructed as benchmarks - investors could use them to assess whether Walmart is a good investment by comparing it to the index. If a company performs better than the index, then it's performing better than the average for companies of comparable size (and company size is relevant to risk).

However there is a large body of evidence that the majority of people who buy stocks in individual companies achieve lower-than-average returns (costs of trading are a factor in this).

Hence financial manager Jack Bogle invented a financial product called the "index fund", whereby an investment company buys stocks in all the companies in a stockmarket index, and you buy shares in the fund. Because they don't have to trade so often, and for other reasons, these funds have much lower costs and, on average, achieve better returns.

You must diversify to reduce your risk. If you buy shares only in Apple, then your returns will be less than average, compared to the sector, if Android is more successful; maybe the tech sector will perform more poorly than hotels, construction or retail. Likewise if you buy a house to rent out, you expose yourself to the economic fortunes of the town and state it's located in; maybe the local factory will close, and lots of people will lose their jobs, suppressing rental yields in the area; maybe your tenants will trash the place, or your neighbour's sewage will leak on to your property, and your returns will be affected.

If you had enough money to buy 100 or 1000 houses to rent out, you could mitigate your risk by buying them in different areas of the country, by buying a mix of apartments and family homes and so on - in that case, I'd say you could get good returns from property.

The great thing about equities is that it's cheaper to spread your investment around - you can do so as an ordinary person, and don't need to be a billionaire. With only $1000 or $10,000 you can invest in hundreds or thousands of companies, you don't need to manage them, and the returns are comparable to property (possibly even better).

This is advocated by the majority of people in the financial subreddits I use, but there are some details and nuance to this approach that you really need to understand. The only book I can recommend from personal experience is Tim Hale's Smarter Investing - it provides evidence to support this approach, showing numbers and graphs based on research by financial academics. I suspect the Bogleheads books (named after Jack Bogle) are about as good, but based on the US markets.

You need to understand your country's taxation regime. American books will talk about 401k's, which give tax relief to small US investors; the UK has a similar thing with company pensions and SIPPs. You may be liable for capital gains tax if stockmarket gains increase the value of your portfolio too much, and dividends may be taxed at a different rate. So it may be better for you to have a fund which reinvests the dividends for you automatically (an "accumulator"), or it may be tax advantageous (I think) if the fund is structured to be sold like stockmarket shares. A company like Vanguard will offer the same fund in more than one variety.

I learned recently that funds domiciled in Ireland are amongst the best for Belgian investors - both countries being in the EU, this presumably allows them to take advantage of the best of both counties' tax systems.

u/ON_F_I_R_E · 9 pointsr/leanfire

Mmmm feel your pain.


People will always mock what they can't understand. I am sure some of those same people wish they had better control over their own finances. Now that said I think there is such a thing as overboard. If your job is terrible, no social life, or enjoyment etc, reaching FIRE will not magically fix that. I think achieving some balance between chasing FIRE and enjoying the ride is in order. E.g., a vacation does not have to be expensive if going with friends, using airline points, booking way in advance etc. I think waiting to be happy once reaching FI is a trap. You will have forgotten how to have fun if you never have any along the way! : )


If we think of FIRE as a triangle involving (1) increasing income (2) saving more (3) getting greater ROI on investments then you are prob doing a great job at 2 and 3 (assuming you are investing aggressively in the 401K and Roth. I think what needs work is the earning potential. A degree helps but even then now a days its not necessary to spend 40,000 on a degree. If you could for example teach yourself to code in Python, Java Ruby on Rails etc plenty of companies would pay 100K+ for that skill regardless of whether you had a college degree, or not. In programing all that matters is the raw skills. Not saying its easy to learn, just saying there are many low cost ways to get into a higher paying field. I guess tho if Early FI is really your goal I might also suggest:


-Shifting much more of your investments into taxable brokerage accounts
free matching dollars in 401K is great but its money that locked up until you're 60! (and yes you can use some complicated 72 T rules to get at it early but it is time consuming accident prone). Investing in a taxable acct will allow you to access that money at will despite not having some of the tax benefits of the 401K.


-Investing 70-80% of your current checking acct balance

Is there a reason that checking acct balance is so high like unstable income or you are saving for a major purchase? If you really are only spending 5K a year shopping which is pretty damn amazing / unbelievable then you should be fine with keeping a pretty lean emergency fund and investing the rest in brokerage acct. or other real estate.


-Buy more cash flowing real estate!
Great job on the quadplex! Real estate is a much faster way to FI than stock market investing. If you could buy more rentals at a cheaper price then that sounds like it would bring in more money than your day job in short order. That may require investing out of town or looking for more off market deals that dont cost 217K but its possible with hard work. I know there are quadplexes in Cincy, Cleveland, and plenty other midwest LCOL cities for under 100K. I would look into getting a similar minded investment partner or leveraging the BRRRR method to get more properties quicker.


I think you are off to an amazing start!


G luck

u/mmoyborgen · 1 pointr/leanfire

That's impressive the low rent, expenses, etc.

Still, at best you're able to fund 2-3 years expenses and that's being optimistic and assuming nothing goes awry. With that low budget you don't have much wiggle room. Even if you cut it down you're gonna need a source of income if it's around $200-300/month even that still would only get you at best 5 years and again that's being super optimistic and assuming you really are able to survive on the low end.

Daniel Suelo has a blog and a book about how he lived without money, but he had a lot of family and friend support and even still barely made it and struggled a bit here and there because of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Quit-Money/dp/1594485690

Maybe check out possum living too. https://www.amazon.com/Possum-Living-Without-Almost-Revised/dp/0982053932 they were able to live on only $700/year but it was in the 70s and they had their family helping with work as well as a home.

While again super impressed, it seemed like it probably wasn't worth emulating to me personally. A lot could go wrong, they were lucky it went as well as it did.

Also as a renter with roommates you're susceptible to increases over time, sure you can move and find a new place, but on that low level it'll be a challenge and moving is a hassle even if you don't have much belongings.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for living an unconventional life and checking out early and/or often, but you're really going to need a source of income or drastically cut costs and even still unless you're able to cut it by like 10x I'm pretty sure you're going to need to do some sort of work or earn an income,

u/sonicsnare · 6 pointsr/leanfire

Radical suggestion: no bad snack foods. They don't sate you and are typically more expensive per-pound than something home-cooked. Replace with things like roasted potatoes, hummus and veggies, fruit, or a portion of a real meal. Plus, you'll get to work on your cooking! Opening a bag or a box does nothing for cooking skills.

Use meat as a condiment instead of a foundation of a meal, like an exception instead of a norm. Use rice and beans to bulk up the rest. Stir fry is a great way to add veggies, rice, and beans while reducing/removing meat. Try going vegetarian once a week; you'll be surprised with what solutions you come up with! Then up the frequency.

I typically have meat once a day, if at all. Plain oatmeal for breakfast. Rice, beans, veg, onion, garlic, and whatever meat (if any) I prepped for lunch this week. Eggs, potatoes, fish, fruit, veg, protein shakes, spaghetti, and peanut butter for the evening.

Full disclosure: I keep my grocery budget under $110 per month for myself shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and Giant Eagle for anything else (fresh ginger, tofu, frozen veggies typically). This does not include alcohol ($60 budgeted per month for bars, state stores, and wine shows; not always social) and restaurants ($50 budgeted per month, once or twice a week; always social).

How is your comfort in the kitchen? $5000 saved * 2 (current expenses) / 12 months = ~$833 per month. I hope you're feeding a family. In that case, implementing vegetarianism will be slower and harder but not impossible.

Links to explore:

  • How to Cook Everything: I consult this each week and am trying to cook my way through it via my own odds and ends cross-referenced with the comprehensive index. Many, many recipes use the same ingredients and I typically buy one or two missing ingredients each week to complete the meal. Last week was eggplant curry with potatoes. There is also a vegetarian version that I plan to purchase when I'm done, but I can't speak to its quality.
  • Budget Bytes: what I used before "How to Cook Everything". Similar deal: Beth is great about staples and taste, giving a price breakdown on each meal.
  • /r/MealPrepSunday: I cook all lunches and portion them out so I don't have to worry about going out to lunch when I forget to prepare a meal.
  • /r/slowcooking: I used a rice cooker with a slow-cooking function at the start of my frugal journey. I only use it to prepare rice now because I love using the range to cook. :)
  • Frugalwoods' Rice, Bean, Mushroom, and Chili Lunch: I use Sriracha with red pepper flakes and yellow onion instead. Surprisingly tasty for how bland it seems.
  • ERE Wiki Cookbook. Never used, but seems solid in practice.
u/wkrick · 2 pointsr/leanfire

You should check out A Random Walk Down Wallstreet

As I said in my other reply, if it were a profitable strategy, then there would be actively managed funds that took advantage of it and consistently beat the market. The transaction costs should be small for a mutual fund manager compared to the average investor. Even if it was a small profit, the fund would trade in large volumes such that a very small percentage becomes a large and worthwhile profit. Just look at high-frequency trading to see systems that exploit very small arbitrage opportunities to turn a profit.

There's lots of strategies that you could back-test against historical market data that look like winners. But just because you found a seemingly profitable pattern in the past (i.e. 5 down/up days in a row) doesn't mean that it will be true for future markets.

u/enfier · 7 pointsr/leanfire

Don't be upset with the people here. Many find your situation laughably easy because they are already living for much less than it costs you. However I'm sure you are earnest - you are looking over the edge of a cliff and need to know if it's safe to jump.

The house value is meaningless unless you plan on moving so you can just ignore the whole thing in your calculations. With your invested net worth, you can safely spend $22k per year for the rest of your life (well ~99% probability). If you used the 4% rule for a 95% success rate, you could spend $29k per year.

I wouldn't hold onto the 2.8% loan. Sure it's a good interest rate, but you don't need the leverage. This article should help you visualize the effect of leverage. Making it your last action of work to pay it off would probably smooth out the road a bit. I'd have a talk with your father and tell him that you are getting ready for retirement and you'd like to pay it before you finish.

I'd say that you can't FIRE quite yet unless you are willing to cut expenses. Can you reliably live off of $1800 a month in your budget? That's not a spending level that's objectively difficult, but it may take some getting used to.

What you can do right now is to start bringing your expenses down and practice living off of the amount you would have if you were FIRE. If you need to burn some vacation to have some free time to simulate the cost savings from being home, do it. Doing the trial run right now will tell you more than years of playing with calculators.

You should go ahead and start working on kids. 35 is already pretty old for having children. The chances of conceiving go down, the chances of birth defects go way up. It may take a while for your wife to get pregnant. The reason why I suggest this is that you'll be able to take FMLA leave when your child is born, which will help with the next step.

After you've got the trial run handled, you go ahead and jump in the pool by taking a leave of absence. If it's paternity leave, your work can't legally stop you from taking 6 weeks. Otherwise, you should be able to negotiate some type of leave (perhaps 4 months?) while you take a "sabbatical." You'll know that this is your retirement, but they won't. If the first try at retirement doesn't go well, you can just go back to work when your sabbatical or paternity leave is done.

I'd recommend you read the book Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well. It covers a lot of subjects you wouldn't really think about going into retirement.

u/SilverLillyFarms · 28 pointsr/leanfire

One of my favorite books is on the subject is

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603421386/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_6-gGyb3BECDHB

It is at our local library and I love reading it.

I'm not homesteading now but it's in my plan. I do have an agriculture background which will make it easier. My suggestion is to read read read. Talk to your local extension office for help on your local area. They offer classes and events that are often free or low cost. Master Gardner classes run a $100 or more for your certification but are definitely worth it!

Another thought is determine which crops and things are the most cost efficient. For example I live in a farming community that one of the crops produced is edible beans. I can go to our local coop and get a 100 lb sack for $30. Is it worth my time to grow the black or pinto beans? Nope, unlikely.

u/CaliBrian · 4 pointsr/leanfire

Vampire Power

like @totally_rocks talked about, vampire power is a thing. Stuff like microwaves, TVs, subwoofers, printers etc all use power while doing nothing. It's smart to measure both stand-by power and full on power usage.

https://smile.amazon.com/Belkin-8-Outlet-Conserve-Protector-F7C01008q/dp/B003P2UMNK/
Although mine has a 10 hour button that automatically turns back off, but basically the same. We have the DVR connected to one of the "always on" outlets so it will still record shows. But TV, receiver, subwoofer, roku, blu-ray all switched.

Or if you have appliances in, say, the kitchen, you can use a single outlet one like this:
https://smile.amazon.com/Belkin-Conserve-Socket-Energy-F7C009q/dp/B003P2UMS0

If you're techie, look into Z-wave or like Kasa Smart Home stuff. They have all kinds of home automation things, including power outlet triggers that you can turn on and off based on any number of criteria (time, just got home, motion detected, etc).

I have a Kasa wifi bulb on my front porch and have it set to turn on at Sunset at full power until like 11pm, then dim to 1% all night to save energy, but not at the expense of a security deterrent. Then turn off at sunrise.

u/BrittonGregory · 5 pointsr/leanfire

Other posters have given out tons of good tips & resources. A couple more for the list.

​

Resource: The Investment Answer. Relatively short read, solid information.

Resource: Die Broke. A little out of date, but he makes a persuasive argument as to why you should spend your money while you're alive, rather than focusing on building up net worth for future generations. (I mean, I love seeing the numbers go up as much as anyone, but...)

Inspiration: I went FI without the RE at 39, quitting my fulfilling-but-stressful job as an engineering manager to start a financial planning business. If I'd had any idea how awesome it would be, I'd have done it ten years sooner. That said, make sure you've got strong boundaries and self-identity before you decide to go that route!

u/belligeren · 2 pointsr/leanfire

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

Listened to it in an afternoon and it inspired me to reflect on what actually makes me happy- warm spaces, quality time with friends, a good chair. Could incorporate many of these for very cheap or for nothing at all. (In fact, showing how much money you spend and/or spending a lot is frowned upon!)

I listened via OverDrive, making it free. However, I would probably even buy this if I found a good used deal.

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Hygge-Danish-Secrets/dp/0062658808

u/Secret_Work_Account · 1 pointr/leanfire

I Will Teach You To Be Rich - It has an awful cheesy salesman title, but has the best practicable and action focused steps to become financially sound. I reference it all the time, 10 years later, and recommend this first.

If you want to be leanfire, follow the steps included and just increase your savings and investing rates with what you feel comfortable.

u/FweeSpeech · 3 pointsr/leanfire

> I'm not saying your wrong (you probably are not if it's reasonable), but there would be some point where you bought too much, even at a discount. The money tied up in food is now idle. It could be working for you, earning interest or buying something you need more immediately. There's an optimal frequency and inventory level for every consumable item we buy and it's based on more than the bulk discount.

To function as you'd suggest, it would cost me more in time spent in stores than it would in the cash value of the food at the level of waste I have IRL. Just fyi.

I value my free time at $20/hr. Two trips a week instead of two trips a month is ~$80 in added time costs a month or ~$960/year.

I don't waste $960/year in food due to bulk buying. Most of my food waste comes from either:

A) Experimenting with food recipes and not liking the results. (aka learning)

B) The unexpected.

Similarly, $1000 for a freezer is o.O. A chest freezer with 7 cubic feet of capacity is like $250, new on Amazon, or like $50 on Craigslist (used).

https://www.amazon.com/Cubic-Foot-Chest-Freezer-Black/dp/B019ZGH26O/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1484073215&sr=1-1&keywords=chest+freezer&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A7253983011

That thing can hold ~100 lbs of frozen meat / vegetables easily. A few bags of rice that last months. And that is all the bulk buying you really do that isn't like soda or beer or whatever.

I'm honestly not sure where you get your numbers from but the "discount" for bulk frozen purchases is frequently as high as 33-50% the smaller units and the electricity costs are negligible. (~$130 a year, including purchase/replacement cost every 5 years)

Not bulk buying would cost me ~$1-2k a year. Even if my food waste is 25%, $1k on a $4k food budget is $1k vs. ~$1-2k. That doesn't even factor in the fact the cost in my time is higher than the cost of food waste cost so I'd simply break even and save time.

The chest freezer takes up a corner of the garage that wouldn't be used except to store more crap anyway and has a negligible footprint.

u/TazDreams · 1 pointr/leanfire

I like to help out. I learned through the school of hard knocks and had to find out for myself how to get ahead. I'm retired early 50s. Just lived frugally, saved, was creative, had roommates (on another floor with a separate kitchen and living space).

You sound like you are on your way living below your means.

A couple of good books by Eric Tyson that I found useful:
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=home+buying+for+dummies+2017&sprefix=home+buying+for%2Cstripbooks%2C194&crid=IAOQ9V6DU20Y

u/teaandtalk · 9 pointsr/leanfire

Yes. I enjoy the challenge, and the slower pace. I enjoy looking around my living room and thinking 'this was all furnished for less than $200, and looks much, much better than many furnished for 20 times that.' I enjoy being able to splurge on other things (does that count?) while still being frugal on average.


Also,plug for my favourite book on the topic: the art of frugal hedonism.