Its weird what sorts of stories catch our eye.

Sometimes, Ill read something that I just cant shake. Ill learn about a trend or a statistic, and then Ill keep wondering about what that information means for the future of higher education.

The latest trend that I think must somehow illuminate the future world of colleges and universities has to do with laundromats. A recent article in The Atlantic called The Decline of the American Laundromat related the following statistics:

"According to data from the Census Bureau, the number of laundry facilities in the U.S. has declined by almost 20 percent since 2005, with especially precipitous drops in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles (17 percent) and Chicago (23 percent)."

The reasons that the author of The Atlantic piece gives for the decline in laundromats is the increasing value of the buildings in which they are located. In densely populated areas with rising property prices, such as San Francisco or Boston or New York (what Richard Florida calls superstar cities), coin operated laundromats simply cant generate enough revenues. They are being replaced by either upscale housing or retail businesses with high per-square foot sales. This is leaving city residents who depend on laundromats with few options to get their sheets, towels, and clothing cleaned.

So, is there anything that we can extract from the laundromat story about where higher ed might be going? Any weak signals that we can amplify?

The decline of laundromats makes me think of the disappearance of physical places where people once gathered. On campuses, the best example is probably computer labs. Many colleges once had game rooms, but like arcades everywhere they now gone.

When I was in college we used to go each week to watch movies chosen by the university film society - called the Filmboard. I never hear about my older daughter going to campus movie screenings, as she and her friends seem to gather around laptops to watch video.

Of course, there is the whole question of the long-term viability of much of our physical spaces. Who is not fascinated by dead malls - and deadmalls.com?

Who amongst us has wondered if the future of online education and physical classrooms will one-day mimic that of online shopping and bricks-and-mortar retail?

What about Moore's Law? (Or whatever the equivalent law that exists for durable appliances).Could one reason for the decline in laundromats be the drop in real prices for home washing machines and dryers?

A washer and dryer in 1953 cost an average of $495 dollars. In today's dollars that amount would be $4,541 dollars.

Could laundromats be following the trajectory of computer labs, disappearing because the real cost of owning the technology (as opposed to renting or using it) is going down?

Not all coin operated laundry machines are going away. They remain a fixture of residence halls, even if most are now moving from coin payments to being able to pay with your student ID.

What the decline of American laundromats really tells us about the future of higher education is a story that we dont like to talk about. That is the story of increasing inequality. Of the gap between those who can afford an ever-increasing bounty of amenities, and of others in our society who are increasingly excluded from these advantages.

For those that can afford higher education, the experiences that they will have in college are improving. Everything is better at my college today than when I was an undergraduate from 1987 to 1991. The teaching is better. The classrooms are better. The dorms are nicer. The food is much much better.

My expectation is that the quality of higher education will continue to improve, but these improvements will be enjoyed by an ever fewer numbers of the very most privileged of students.

The decline of the American laundromat story, I fear, another indication of the concentration of privilege. This story, I suspect, will be the master trend that will shape the contours of U.S. postsecondary education over the next few decades.

How would you build a narrative around the history of the laundromat, and the future of higher education?

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The Decline of the Laundromat and the Future of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

PALOS HILLS, IL -- Moraine Valley Community College offers a variety of options for adults wishing to earn class credits to transfer to four-year schools, earn certificates, prepared for their GED, or get extra training to further their careers. The community college also offers non-credit classes for students wishing to enrich their lives by learning new skills, tap into their creativity or expand their horizons.

Daytime, evening and weekend classes are offered throughout the Moraine Valley system.A complete listing of all the classes being offered at MVCCs main Palos Hills campus and the Blue Island and Southwest Education Center in Tinley Park, online and weekend classes can be found in the fall 2017 class schedule or online at morainevalley.edu. Registration is ongoing.

General registration is underway now at the Palos Hills campus for the fall semester which begins Aug. 21. Classes at the Moraine Valleys other locations are set to start Aug. 28 and later, as well as weekend and online class options.

Tuition is $122 per credit hour plus fees and books. Students who have applied to the college can register in the Registration Office, located on campus in the Student Services Center (Building S), 9000 W. College Parkway, in Palos Hills; by phone at (708) 974-2110 (TTY 711); or online at morainevalley.edu/register.

Classes at the Moraine Valley Community College Education Center at Blue Island are scheduled to start Aug. 28 and later. The college is offering more than 60 classes at its Blue Island location, 12940 S. Western Ave. Some credit classes at Blue Island include American Sign Language I, Art Appreciation, Composition I and II, Speech Fundamentals, Western Humanities I, Medical Terminology, Introduction to American Music, General Sociology, Spanish I, and Intermediate Algebra. One noncredit class being offered is Remodeling: Residential.

Residents in the Orland Park, Tinley Park and surrounding communities can take classes a little closer to home at Moraine Valley Community Colleges Southwest Education Center (SWEC), 17900 S. 94th Ave., in Tinley Park. SWEC offers more than 50 classes beginning Aug. 28 and later. Some credit classes include Composition I and II, Art Appreciation, Principles of Macroeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Business Law, Introduction to Psychology, Medical Terminology, General Sociology, and Music Appreciation. Noncredit classes include 50 Plus Computer Basics, Medicare Workshop, Tai Chi I/Qi Gong I, Yoga I, Fit for Life, Motivation for Life, Positive Thinking for Life, Beginning Conversational Italian, Beginning Conversational Spanish, and Intro to Mindful Meditation.

Students who prefer to take classes from home can enroll in Moraine Valley Community Colleges online and internet hybrid courses. More than 100 online classes are offered during the 2017 fall semester. Online classes are taught over the internet, while internet hybrid courses are taught through a combination of classroom and web-based instruction. Both types allow for students to attend all or part of their class online with the ability to access the instructor, classmates and course materials. Access to a web-equipped computer is required. Some of the online and web-assisted classes this fall include Arabic, Introductory Microbiology, Composition I and II, Introduction to Computer Science, Medical Terminology, Western Humanities I: Foundations, Network Essentials, Intermediate Algebra, Music Appreciation, American National Government, Abnormal Psychology, and Marriage and Family, among others.

Students with an already hectic schedule can still fit classes in by enrolling in a Moraine Valley Community College weekend class for the fall 2017 semester. Available classes include:

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Over 200 Courses Offered At Moraine Valley's Education Centers, Online and Weekends - Patch.com

Photo: Mint

Leverage Edu, an online platform for higher education services, has raised seed funding from a clutch of investors, the New Delhi-based start-up said Tuesday. It did not disclose the size of investment.

Angel investors include Kashyap Deorah, founder of HyperTrack; VRL Logistics managing director Anand Sankeshwar; Sadashiva NT, former chief financial officer of Babajobs; and Arjun Mehta, former CFO at American Express India, among others.

Leverage was founded in April 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi and Rajiv Ganjoo. Chaturvedi, an alumnus of Indian School of Business, was earlier a senior executive at recruitments portal Babajobs.

Leverage offers college admissions and finance services to students, including help in creating profiles for universities, writing research papers and dedicated counselling through experts. To universities, Leverage offers UnivGateway, a Saas-based (software-as-a service) tool to help them admit the right students.

The company said it will use the funds to grow its nine-member team and invest in product development.

Original post:
India: Online education startup Leverage Edu raises seed funding - DEALSTREETASIA

This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.

There is something both revelatory and startling about hearing the devotional music of Alice Coltrane. Having dwelt in obscurity for so long, heard only in musty corners of the internet or passed from hand to hand on cassette, the recordings Coltrane made at her Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura, California after she'd turned away from the secular world and her jazz career are like opening a portal to another time/space dimension. Music nerds and new age collectors knew about them in the 1990s, circulating the worship tapes and CDs privately pressed by the ashram's in house label, Avatar Book Institute. Their plainspoken titles: Turiya Sings (1982), Divine Songs (1987), Infinite Chants (1990), Glorious Chants (1995) and unpretentious word-processed artwork barely hinting at the extraordinary music they contained traditional Hindu devotional chants, swirled through the vortex of Coltrane's musical incarnations, from the lush harp glissandos and Indian percussion she'd brought to spiritual jazz, to her earlier classical music studies and the Detroit gospel blues she'd grown up singing in church.

As Alice Coltrane's monumental influence as a spiritual jazz pioneer began to be felt after her death in 2007, so did awareness of the cosmic sounds she'd made as Alice Turiyasangitananda Coltrane, or Swamini to her avid students. Her great-nephew, Flying Lotus, who grew up attending her Sunday services on the ashram, began to champion her music and bring it into the realms of hip-hop and electronic music. Once belittled by custodians of jazz history, who'd scorned her as a handmaiden to her late husband John Coltrane's genius, an imitator at best; the story of Alice Coltrane's own genius began to be written, with first a trickle, then a flood of praise for her extraordinary, exultant, almost impossibly beautiful music. Her towering albums from the early 1970s Journey in Satchidananda, Ptah, the El Daoud and Universal Consciousness have been recognised as spiritual jazz masterpieces, whose mastery and vision are delivered with a purity of intention which leaves no doubt as to the deep connectedness between Alice Coltrane and her source.

To listen to these ecstatic chants is to open a window onto a private world of a community under the gentle sway of a guru without ego; a humble teacher who literally gave herself and her manifest musical gifts over to a higher power.

And slowly, a cultural awareness has grown of her devotional music which was never intended for audiences outside the community of her ashram. Made with the sole intention of accessing the divine, of elevating herself and her community into a sublime state, this music is the purest manifestation of the higher consciousness into which she'd ascended. Neither hushed nor monastic, this is music that sounds incredibly alive a joyous cacophony of blissed out chanting and gospel-like shouts of praise amidst the dizzying swoop of Alice's synthesiser, at once ancient and futuristic, like the sound of exploding stars. To listen to these ecstatic chants is to open a window onto a private world of a community under the gentle sway of a guru without ego; a humble teacher who literally gave herself and her manifest musical gifts over to a higher power. And with the first major reissue of the ashram tapes, via Luaka Bop's World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, and a new iteration of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers soon to perform one of only a handful of concerts worldwide at Melbourne's Supersense Festival -- Alice's radiant cosmos is expanding into mainstream consciousness.

To those of us on the outside listening in, this music may sound otherworldly; but to Surya Botofasina, who grew up on the ashram and is now Music Director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, it sounds like home.

"This music has shaped me," Botofasina affirms, "in the sense that it's what my soul feels as home; and even physically, it's where I feel home."

As a child, Botofasina soaked up the music taught by Swamini, as he calls Alice Coltrane; his mother, Rada, can be heard singing in all the choral sections on the World Spirituality Classics recordings, and provided many of the archival photos documented in the Luaka Bop liner notes. And the mantras which vibrated through his childhood on the ashram have carried him into his adult life as a musician living in New York City.

"This music has helped me tremendously, when I was going through times that I didn't know how to navigate", Botofasina recalls. "As a young man growing up in the city, when I moved here in New York, or just trying to figure out different reasons and seasons, and why I feel certain ways. And this music helped me celebrate, and really be grateful for, the most precious moments in my life, like the birth of my children, or marrying my wife. This music was very much part of every single one of those days. So in that sense, this music has always been the soundtrack of my life."

Reminiscing about the music Coltrane conjured on the ashram, Botofasina notes that she was "very old school. There weren't handbooks or choir sheets; she would sing the note in front of someone, and then they would reproduce it back." In the Vedic chanting traditions, Coltrane would sing a call-and-response with her choir. "Everybody followed her. There was no better leader to follow," Botofasina enthuses. "It was truly like it was from a higher source."

The journey to the heart of the ashram recordings was a more circuitous one for Yale Evelev, the president of Luaka Bop Records who oversaw the World Spirituality Classics project. A jazz aficionado whose musicology runs deep, Evelev had been an Alice Coltrane fan since the 1970s, but had dismissed her devotional music. "I thought about Alice's ashram performances as something that wasn't going to be that interesting, you know?", Evelev remembers with a chuckle. "I didn't go that deeply into it, until I ran into a DJ friend on the street, and I asked him what he'd been listening to, and he said 'Well, to be frank, I just listen to Alice Coltrane tapes every day'. And I said I'd heard a little bit of them, but they didn't really affect me. And he said 'You really should listen to all of them'. And once I listened to everything, I was just blown away.

"I hadn't really realised what an inventive music it was, and how special it was. I wasn't really ready for it when I first heard it," Evelev reflects. "But at this time that the world is in right now, it just feels like this is the perfect time for this sort of music to be more available to people. We all need something super positive, you know? I think right now because of the state of the world, people are responding who might not have been quite so open to it before. It really just has an incredible power."

Botofasina sees the power of Coltrane's music as an expression of her spiritual commitment. "I think the power of the music comes from her absolute devotion to living in a higher state of consciousness," he states. "Just to connect with the divine, and to transmit that to all of us. The true power for me, in growing up with it, was just the sheer connection that one really felt to a divine higher power, and the positivity you could feel in that kind of space."

Chanting in a group, as heard on Coltrane's ashram tapes, can transform an individual's consciousness. "Everybody has different reasons for why they want to invoke something through chanting", Botofasina explains. "There's a term in Hinduism japa which means the repetition of the names, reciting a name to invoke some specific good. Like if somebody is repeating the name of Ganesh, the Hindu god depicted as an elephant, it is to remove an obstacle, usually an ego-based obstacle.

"We might be trying to work on various aspects of our self, or to express our pure devotion, or just our ability to feel like we have enough strength to get through the next day. Just like human life is a personal experience, so is the experience that one has when they truly invest themselves in chanting."

Botofasina sees something of this personal experience in Evelev's confession of how slow he'd been to appreciate Coltrane's devotional music. "I think Yale touched on something very interesting about chanting, in that it's a really personal experience", he reflects. "Something that's profound doesn't hit everybody at the same time with the same impact. You might feel it a week from then, a month from then... years from then. As Yale mentioned in his experience, maybe he wasn't ready for it in the 1980s or 1990s.

"But now here we are, close to 2020", Botofasina marvels, "and this music feels almost brand new, to our emotional landscape... and our political landscape. And I feel an incredible amount of dedication, of loyalty and more than anything, just gratitude, for being able to be so close to this music for so long."

'World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda' is out now on Luaka Bop via Inertia. The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda will be performed by the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers at Supersense Festival in Melbourne on August 19.

Sophie Miles is the co-founder of independent music label Mistletone

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Alice Coltrane's Devotional Spirit Lives on Through the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers - Noisey

A SHOW taking place between 9pm and 9am the following morning may sound a bit of a slog, but what if you got a sleep? What if sleep was a key part of the deal? Helmed by Glasgow kosmische pop duo Happy Meals, Full Ashram Sleep Garden for which you are asked to bring your own sleeping bag and pillows aims to be a 12-hour communal immersion involving live music, visual art, food, sleep and yoga curated to encourage the forming of a quantum community consciousness through shared experience.

So far, so far-out. Held at Kinning Park Complex, it features a cast of similarly inquisitive DJs, musicians and artist-performers such as Sofay, synth polymaths Helena Celle and Sue Zuki, and one-offs such as gentle chanteuse Wenonoah (left), Optimo Musics Taoist-influenced instrumentalist Iona Fortune and Alex Macarte (right), drummer with industrial crew Gnod, who will perform in his droney, loopy solo guise Ahrkh.

The guidance given to musicians is that the 12 hours will be split into seven phases, each of which is linked to the alchemical stages of transformation, explains Suzanne Rodden, one half of Happy Meals with Lewis Cook.

For example, midnight to 1am is separation which will involve guided meditation and will be consciously bringing the music into a more minimal sphere.

Phase four is fermentation 3am to 6.30am and is the deep sleep phase, she continues. This part of the night may only be drones, tones and very low frequencies of sound, for example. The idea is that the music and visuals will gradually and naturally allow people to relax into deep sleep and back again.

In the morning, theres an optional all-abilities yoga class and breakfast provided by the Milk Cafe. Like the artists, the Glasgow social enterprise is volunteering their time for the event, which will donate all profits to CalAid, a humanitarian aid charity working with displaced people.

It was really important to us that inward reflection leads to outward reaction and in a way we wanted to embody that sentiment, says Rodden.

The idea of a continuous performance and a collaboration between a community of artists is a concept weve been thinking about for a long time, she says. The night is centred on the idea of complete immersion. We arent looking for there to be a distinction between artists and audience, but rather, everyone involved is a participant over the 12 hours.

We also hope that by taking away traditional expectations of what would normally be part of a performance, like clapping and conversation between sets, everyone involved will be able to drop themselves into a deep state of relaxation and eventually sleep.

Its going to be a night of incredible sounds, visuals and deep vibrations.

August 12/13, Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, 9pm to 9am, 20 +bf.Tickets: bit.ly/SleepGardenHappy Meals Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony Vol IV-V is out now on So Low http://www.facebook.com/hahahappymeals

Excerpt from:

Music: Full Ashram Sleep Garden wants to provide a 'quantum community' concert experience - The National

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reached the Ashram of Sant Ravidas at Maihar and after visiting the temple offered flowers at the Samadhi of Guru Parameshwar Prakashji. Chouhan also reviewed the construction work of the huge temple of Sant Shiromani Ravidasji at the Ashram premises. The construction of the temple is being undertaken as per CMs instructions at a cost of Rs 2 crore. Minister in-charge Om Prakash Durve, MP Ganesh Singh, MLA Narayan Tripathi, Ramesh Pandey Bam Bam Maharaj, peoples representatives and senior officials were present on the occasion. Chouhan said on the occasion that he had come to bow down at the feet of Sant Shiromani Ravidasji. He said a huge temple of Santji would be built and its construction work will be completed on time. He said that Sant Ravidas Mahakumbh would be organized in the state this year also like every year. The venue for the Mahakumbh will be decided after discussion. The Chief Minister planted a Pipal sapling at Sant Ravidas Ashram.

The Chief Minister, Chouhan was accorded a warm welcome on his arrival in Satna at the local airstrip by AYUSH and Minister of State for Water Resources Harsh Singh, MP Ganesh Singh, Mayor Mamta Pandey, Narendra Tripathi, public representatives, workers and local persons.

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Chouhan pays tribute at Sant Ravidas ashram - Daily Pioneer

The Supreme Court today refused to allow a woman, who claimed to be a victim of sexual assault, to be a party in a pending case regarding alleged sexual harassment of some inmates at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry.

"We cannot allow you to intervene in the pending case at this stage," a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said.

The former inmate had moved the court seeking its nod to be made a party and alleged that the girls and women were being sexually assaulted in recent times as well.

The court is hearing the petition filed by another former inmate, who has sought a judicial probe into the ashram's affairs.

The row dates back to around one-and-a-half decades when a female member and four of her sisters were expelled from the ashram for violation of rules following which they levelled the allegations.

They challenged their expulsion upto the apex court, which in 2014 ruled that they be evicted.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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Aurobindo Ashram case: SC rejects woman's plea for being made - Daily News & Analysis

August 2, 2017 - By Dolores Ford

Shares of ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD. (BOM:526187) closed at 1.18INR yesterday. ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD. currently has a total float of shares and on average sees shares exchange hands each day. The stock now has a 52-week low of 1.18INR and high of 2.6INR.

The Indian stock market is one of the fastest growing equity markets in the world today. While it currently makes up only 12% to 14% of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) far from the 70% corporate sector making up the entire GDP of the US, Indias corporate sector is rampantly thriving to become one of Asias leaders.

As of this month, nearly 8,000 companies are listed on the Indian equity market. More than half of these are listed on the two main stock exchanges in India combined the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), representing about 4% of the countrys GDP.

Regular session on both the BSE and the MSE starts at 9:15 a.m. and concludes at 3:30 p.m.

The BSE, having been established in 1875, is the first stock exchange in Asia. It is also the first to acquire a permanent recognition under Indias Securities Contract Regulation Act of 1956.

Presently, the BSE is the 11th biggest stock exchange in the world with a total market capitalization of $1.70 trillion as of January 23, 2015. Moreover, it is also considered as one of the fastest stock exchanges in the world with a speed of six microseconds.

The BSE first touched its four-digit figure on July 25, 1990; the 5,000 mark on October 11, 1999; the 10,000 mark on February 6, 2006; the 20,000 mark on December 11, 2007; and the 30,000 mark on March 4, 2015, an event that was driven by the efforts of the Reserve Bank of India. ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD. is a stock traded on the Indian stock exchange.

The biggest declines on the BSE happened during the onslaught of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and when the Chinese central bank had suddenly moved to devalue the yuan. On January 21 and 22, 2008, the BSE has lost more than 2,000 points while on August 24, 2015, it has dropped over 1,700 points.

The SENSEX 30 is the free-float index that measures the 30 most active stocks on the BSE. It weighs stocks based on liquidity, market capitalization, floating-stock-adjustment depth, and other factors.

The NSE was founded in 1992 as the 1st demutualized electronic stock exchange in the country. Presently, it supports about 230,000 terminals throughout India. The NSE is owned and operated by the Indian Index Services and Products (IISP).

The NIFTY is the index that measures the 50 most active stocks across 24 industries on the NSE. Consequently, it covers a broader portion of Indias corporate sector than the SENSEX 30. ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD. has relatively good liquidity.

The NIFTY has a base value of 1,000 and its base date is 1995. Like the SENSEX 30, it comprehensively weighs stocks based on liquidity, market capitalization, among others.

Investing in BSE and NSE stocks is strongly recommended for investors today. As the Indian economy continues to grow and become one of Asias biggest, it only makes sense to start betting on its equity market as early as now. Professional analysts might be interested how this will affect ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD..

Receive News & Ratings Via Email - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings with our FREE daily email newsletter.

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ASHRAM ONLINE.COM LTD. (526187) Is Yet to See Trading Action on Aug 2 - HuronReport

by Anna Bahney @annabahney August 2, 2017: 11:38 AM ET

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 29-year-old J.P. Livingston sat at an outdoor cafe in New York's West Village, wrapped in a cozy sweater, sipping tea and talking about her current project: retirement.

Livingston says she quit the workforce last year with $2.25 million after working in finance for only 7 years.

Let the Baby Boomers have their "retirement," with its delayed gratification and uncertain benefits, say an increasing number of young people like Livingston. Instead, they are gaming their income, saving rates and investments to become financially independent and retire early -- a process known as FIRE.

While Americans commonly spend most of what they earn and fall short on traditional retirement savings, today's young people are the first generation to plan for financial freedom: 63% of affluent Millennials prefer financial freedom over retirement, while 37% are saving to leave the workforce altogether, according to a study from Merrill Edge.

Anyone can achieve financial independence simply by saving a lot. Most people who are able to quit the workforce at a very young age do it by saving at least half their income.

And Livingston sets the bar pretty high. She saved at least 70% of everything she made for 7 years. And she chose a career -- and a city -- that would help her do that by maximizing her income, despite the high cost of living.

She had a mission. What else would you call it, when you start planning your retirement as a teen?

"I've wanted to be financially independent and retire early for years," Livingston said, recalling wandering around bookstores as a tween and being drawn to books on early retirement.

Related: How to become financially independent in 5 years

Sure, she had a few things going for her -- more than most: She managed to graduate from Harvard University in three years with no debt and some savings. She also landed a very high-paying job in finance that came with a six-figure income that increased exponentially over time. And she had a plan that made it possible for her to reach financial independence before she and her husband started a family and expenses inevitably grew. (A new project for her retirement: having a baby. She recently learned she's pregnant.)

But her nest egg is self-made. Even though her husband still works, Livingston's own savings are enough to cover both their living expenses -- around $67,000 per year -- for the rest of their lives.

"I came from a family that grew up really poor," said Livingston, who now writes under that pen-name on her blog about retiring early, TheMoneyHabit.org. "My family constantly reminded me that it was important to focus on providing for yourself." She prefers to remain anonymous to protect her privacy in revealing sensitive financial information. (CNNMoney has independently confirmed her identity.)

Livingston's fast-track to financial freedom was strategic, with each stage building on the next. First, she focused on her income, then on building her savings, followed by investment growth. Now that she's reached retirement, she's focused on tax optimization.

Here's how she did it.

Super-charge your income

Instead of moving to an area with a low cost of living (an easy way to slash expenses) Livingston doubled down on New York City.

"You can find the best job opportunities here," Livingston said. "I couldn't have found my job in Omaha, Nebraska. Maybe in Chicago, but I'd be paid less. I was paid the most here."

She worked hard to continually boost her income, which came through salary, raises, bonuses and commissions. When she first started working she was earning six-figures right out of the gate. Her starting salary was $60,000, plus incentives, which could easily double her yearly pay. But it only went up from there. Over the years, she increased her salary significantly, earning promotions with raises upwards of 30% along the way. By the time she quit her job, her paycheck was in the mid-six-figures.

Related: This couple is on track to retire -- before they turn 40

A major feather in her cap was not having any debt, especially student loans.

"I was very aware of how expensive Harvard was," said Livingston. "I decided I should just get out early." She paid for school through scholarships and her family's savings. Graduating early allowed her to avoid paying additional expenses and move directly into earning an income.

Even if you go to a less expensive school, she says, if you can get it together to graduate a year early, you can avoid taking a loan for that year or, if you have the savings, "you can park that $20,000 in the market and start earning."

Crank the savings rate sky-high

Livingston's hard-core formula to reach a 70%-plus savings rate: income minus expenses equals savings.

When friends called her to go out, she'd steer them toward the most affordable social engagements: "I'd love to see you! Can I join you for drinks after? Or are you free for brunch?"

In addition to offering her a high income, New York's higher density offered her ways to save. She was able to live car-free and found that higher earning people getting rid of great stuff led to super deals on Craigslist or curbside.

"We had a gorgeous, pristine storage bench my roommate found on the street with a 'free' sign on it," she said. "It was one of the nicest pieces of furniture in the whole apartment."

She also had a broad choice of living situations. She opted for a third-floor walk-up where she had a mattress on the floor and paid $1,100 a month, her first year out of college. After that she moved to a 325-square-foot fifth-floor walk-up where she still lives with her husband and dog.

While building up her savings she started out living on $25,000. Even as her salary grew, her spending only went up to $30,000 a year.

"Incremental improvements that you build into your routine will pay out not just once, but it will pay off multifold," says Livingston. Lowering your rent by adding another roommate, saying you'll only meet friends for brunch, coffee or drinks (as opposed to more expensive dinners), "that will keep paying off for you year after year."

Grow the money

But you're not going to get to $2.25 million just by skipping a few dinners. About 60% of Livingston's net worth came from savings, and about 40% came from investing, primarily in a combination of low-cost index funds, options and municipal bonds, depending on the market.

Her expertise in the financial industry certainly helped juice her investment returns.

Once your savings are substantial, she says, the tweaks you make to your investments will have much more impact than any changes to your spending or saving habits.

For example, if you earn $70,000 a year and have regularly saved a significant portion for a few years, you may have between $120,000 to $150,000 in savings. If you can get a 10% return on your investments, you'll add $12,000 to $15,000 to your savings.

Among the proponents of FIRE, who support each other on various spaces on-line, Livingston's accomplishment is called "Fat FIRE," which is like FIRE, but with much bigger monthly budgets, and therefore much larger nest eggs.

She and her husband now live on $67,000 a year, an annual budget others on the path to FIRE may balk at as very high.

"That buys us a lot of cushy luxuries which include maid service and sending laundry out," she said. "We skimp on a lot of things, but those actually end up being quite affordable in Manhattan because of the density, and are offset by the cheap rent we pay." Plus: they don't have a washing machine.

While her expenses are completely covered by her savings, her husband still works, but by choice.

These days Livingston is working on growing her money and helping others to do the same through her blog.

"The you that is intentional with your money and constantly looking for improvement will be that much wealthier than the one that isn't, whatever your starting circumstances may be."

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 2, 2017: 11:38 AM ET

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She retired at 28 with $2.25 million - CNNMoney

"Participation in retirement savings plans is highly unequal across income groups," the EPI reports. "In 2013, nearly nine in 10 families in the top income fifth had retirement account savings, compared with fewer than one in 10 families in the bottom income fifth."

While retirement inequality is growing, the EPI notes, the good news is, you don't need a lot of money to start investing and building your nest egg. A simple starting point is to contribute to your 401(k) plan, if your employer offers one. Regardless of whether you have a retirement savings plan at work, you can contribute to other tax-advantaged accounts designed for retirement, such as a traditional IRA or Roth IRA.

Even if you're only comfortable with setting aside one percent of your paycheck, it's better to start there than to not get started at all.

After all, that's what self-made millionaire and author of "The Automatic Millionaire" David Bach did.

"I was in my mid-20s, and I wanted to make sure it didn't hurt," he writes of the first time he started paying himself first. "Within three months, I realized that 1 percent was easy, so I increased the amount to 3 percent."

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How much the richest Americans have saved for retirement - CNBC