Here is a cool calculator I found at Bankrate.com. It helps you calculate your savings over time by packing a lunch instead of buying a lunch. I’d rather have a sack lunch and retire early any day. Besides it is probably healthier anyway so you might actually be around to enjoy the time off you worked so hard to earn.

-T!

Recently I watched a TV program about the Japanese working class. The reporter was interviewing a person who lives in a rented apartment and asked why he rented instead of buying. The person said that he doesn’t have enough money to make the initial payment for a mortgage. Later in the interview the reporter discovered that this person spends most of his income on apartment rent, TV rent, fridge rent, washing machine rent, and cooked food from convenient store (one lunch box 5-7USD)!

-O.