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Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#51

Post by ramphastidae »

the_gastropod wrote: post #28
joeax wrote: post #19

I've been reading his blog for a few years, and he does some have some insightful advice on shedding unnecessary expenses and living on a frugal spending diet. I've been able to get down to one car that is almost paid off, and double my savings and investment portfolio. My favorite article from him is living close enough to work to bike (although working from home is most ideal). However, his blog comes with a bit of…

> but good luck trying to retire as a welder or car mechanic making $50k Retiring at 30 while earning $50k would be difficult. But retiring at 40 or even 50 is still relatively easy on such a salary.

That's an exaggeration, even for frugal people. Retiring at 50 means ~30 years of working life finished and ~30 years of retirement remaining. At $50k per year * 30, that's $1.5m. Spread out over 60 years that's $25k per year before tax. I wouldn't say it's "relatively easy" to save for retirement, pay for healthcare, live somewhere safe, have children, etc. on that, even with investment returns over that time frame.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#52

Post by _jal »

Allow me to just throw out that I love the transcript. I know it is a lot of work, but I wish more podcasters would publish them.

I watch/listen to very few podcasts; don't drive regularly, which is where I would normally consume them, and otherwise tend to skip them because so many are a tedious waste of time. Plus, I just prefer text to video.

So, thank you!

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#53

Post by joeax »

hammock wrote: post #46
joeax wrote: post #19

I've been reading his blog for a few years, and he does some have some insightful advice on shedding unnecessary expenses and living on a frugal spending diet. I've been able to get down to one car that is almost paid off, and double my savings and investment portfolio. My favorite article from him is living close enough to work to bike (although working from home is most ideal). However, his blog comes with a bit of…

To apply MMM's ideas, on a 50K salary assuming monthly expenses of 1,250 (that's the hard part), if you put away 50% every year you can retire on a 375K nest egg (4% safe annual draw) after 15 years, or age 37. Roughly.

In a perfect universe. But along the way unintended expenses happen, hospital bills, car accident, getting sued, or just drifting away from your original goals. Bottom line though is just keep saving, and don't worry so much about a hard date.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#54

Post by ahelwer »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #36
ashark wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things that made me stop reading him was when it became clear his "I'm totally retired and you can be too!" thing was BS. At the time he had like 3 part-time jobs (the blog, landlord, handyman, IIRC), with his savings being large enough that he could make a stupid "hey, you should stop paying so much for health insurance you idiots! Turns our if you have a lot of money in the bank and the skills to land a…

Exactly. Seems totally stupid. Like why is it better to have 3 jobs ( blog, handyman, landlord ) than one normal job ? to me retired is a person who specifically lives strictly off the money they have. I mean sure, if you prefer to work as a handyman or run a successful blog, by all means do that, but calling yourself retired seems inaccurate. I am retired but I have 3 jobs. ooook.

Ha. The MMM community calls people espousing this sort of view "the retirement police". I have no idea what this complaint intends to accomplish beyond adherence to some kind of radical linguistic prescriptivism.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/13/mr-money-mustache-...

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#55

Post by phaemon »

jacquesm wrote: post #29
dsacco wrote: post #4

Something I’m curious about regarding Mr. Money Mustache - is he actually retired, in the sense that he doesn’t do anything to bring in income (except through passive index investing)? It seems like he has a brand that is pretty lucrative, so it’s unclear to me if he: 1. has enough money to be functionally retired at his current lifestyle, but chooses to continue his brand anyway, 2. has enough money to be functional…

It depends on how you define retired. Most people define being retired as living a life without obligations required to bring home the bacon and by that definition MMM is now retired (at his expense levels), but when he made the claim at first I felt he was overselling it. But the blog ads bring in much more than he is spending + passive investments ditto so if he would stop working / bringing in other money besides…

>when he made the claim at first I felt he was overselling it.

In what way? His passive investments were bringing in far more than his spending, so in what sense was he "overselling" it?

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#56

Post by the_gastropod »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #31
the_gastropod wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but good luck trying to retire as a welder or car mechanic making $50k Retiring at 30 while earning $50k would be difficult. But retiring at 40 or even 50 is still relatively easy on such a salary.

Really? In the U.S.? Case study? Without kids and if you don't really spend any money on recreation or vacations (before or after retirement), maybe. Or if you somehow have a job that will give you a pension (with health insurance?) at 50, sure!

I suggest just reading MMM. It's all about savings rate. As an example, I live in Brooklyn, NY (one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S.) In 2016, I spent $32k ($24k was rent!) Assuming a $50k income, that'd be a ~36% savings rate, which requires a 23 year career.

Assume someone making $50k lives in not NYC, I imagine this scenario could be a lot better.

For a more extreme version of MMM, read http://earlyretirementextreme.com/. This guy (Jacob, who MMM mentioned in this interview) never earned much money (never over $50k prior to becoming financially independent), and retired after working 5 years. With a little creativity, most people can retire far sooner than standard retirement age.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#57

Post by hammock »

froindt wrote: post #15
AVTizzle wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robert - what would you recommend as a getting started guide to MMM? And how would you describe your personal philosophy?

Not Robert, but I would start here. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim... Start reading more from there and remember it's your expenses more than your income that matter most. Also remember he turned the dial quite far. And this page is also quite good. You don't have to go as extreme as MMM, and doing so would burn out a lot of people. https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments…

Seconding this. That MMM article is what got me started into reading more of that blog.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#58

Post by wojt_eu »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #25

Does anyone else think it's a bit funny to see an MMM interview on YC? Through their investments, YC seems quite pro-consumerism. Consumerism is the antithesis of being mustachian. It's always kind of bothered me that HN (and YC) seems to encourage conspicuous consumption.

I don't see that much of consumerism advocacy here. Quite the contrary - being frugal to extend runway, achieving ramen profitability etc.

Also with rampant ageism in tech you do need to retire before 40 /s

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#59

Post by gerbilly »

joeax wrote: post #19

I've been reading his blog for a few years, and he does some have some insightful advice on shedding unnecessary expenses and living on a frugal spending diet. I've been able to get down to one car that is almost paid off, and double my savings and investment portfolio. My favorite article from him is living close enough to work to bike (although working from home is most ideal). However, his blog comes with a bit of…

>good luck trying to retire as a welder or car mechanic making $50k.

Maybe you don't feel the need to retire at 30 when you are a car mechanic.

I've worked in car shops (not as a licensed mechanic) and the mechanics I worked with seemed to have a lot more fun and more free time than us office jockeys despite our 'better jobs.'

And the pay wasn't half bad either.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#60

Post by [deleted] »

avenoir wrote: post #37

How much money do you have to have in index funds to live comfortably off dividends? Isn't it an astronomical amount? I have ~$100K in index funds and i'm making about $100 (if even that)/month right now which just gets reinvested. You'd have to have at least half a mil to get any kind of serious money out of this.

[deleted]
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