I finished reading all of the blog posts from one of the first financial independence blogs, called early retirement extreme. Jacob, the author, does a fairly decent job of pointing out one way to get financial independence, which is to slowly adjust your lifestyle expenses downward so that your investments can support your life.
While he never really gets into the meat and potatoes of his investments, he does state that they are all financial and from earned income, rather than inherited or heavily real estate based, which I appreciate. He speaks a lot about his journey, with his wife, as they move from an expensive apartment into an RV, which I appreciate.
And then things go sideways. He gets a lot comments from people that he is not really retired because he does things that he wants to do that also earn money, like editing specialized scientific texts and writing online for cash. Then the posts slow down, and Jacob sells the website. He later writes to sat that he and his wife have moved into a real house and he found an amazing dream job.
So all the posts have a happy ending, whether true or half true.
I have no doubt that all the wussipants naysayers on the internet cajoled Jacob into retreating from writing, sadly. Or perhaps he came to the end of his inner content, which, if true, is fine. I would like to read his book sometime when I get the chance.
That being said, this website is about one man's journey with financial independence. It does not really talk about investing other than to stay heavily stock invested.
One thing Jacob doesn't talk about much is that he retires from working but his wife still works. She splits all the bills with him and does half of the shopping and cooking. While I think that is admirable and something we should all aspire to, it decreases his cost of living by half. Or it increases his cost of living due to needing to be near her job. It's unclear what the case is with them during the time of the writings, but it is interesting.