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Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#91

Post by arethuza »

jacquesm wrote: post #71
arethuza wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, that's a good point - I've known quite a few people who lived carefully off of investments/property. Fairly common in some (usually rather posh) circles in the UK.

When I sold ww.com the first thing I did was pay taxes (rather a lot), the second to dump the remainder into property to rent out. It doesn't bring a whole lot but far more than the bank or even index funds would bring, and that's at friendly rates rather than market rates.

Similar story probably - money from a minor exit into property which did very well, although that was accidental. We just bought places we really wanted to live and they turned out to be very good investments - certainly much better than our pension funds.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#92

Post by lovich »

robertcorey wrote: post #18
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?

I would recommend reading through the entire blog archive, all together it's about the same length as a book. You can skip over articles on things that aren't interesting to you, for example I don't care about real estate. My personal philosophy is a combination of all the different sources I have been exposed too. My main influences would be the mustachian thought sphere (MMM, The Magic of Thinking Big, Stoicism), s…

How do you go from atheist to creating your own deities that you add and remove at will?

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#93

Post by jacquesm »

ForRealsies wrote: post #81
jacquesm wrote: post #26

The MMM way is more about locking in your luck than anything else. Be frugal, when lady luck smiles and you have a lot of income make sure you do not waste the proceeds and avoid living above your means at all costs. Having skills is a plus and in his particular case it helps if you are good at building a personal brand so you can ride the self help bandwagon. Very useful information compared to most other self help…

Being frugal is the biggest baloney to wealth. People like you and I obsess over it because $COST_OF_LIVING is the one variable of the Income Wealth Equation we can control. You want to become wealthy? Affect millions.

Well, change frugal to 'don't be wasteful' then if that makes more sense to you. A friend of mine has four holidays per year, lives in an 800K euro house, has a whole pile of other interesting expenses and wonders out loud to me why he has no money left over. And that's with both him and his wife pulling in six figure salaries...

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#94

Post by jacquesm »

ahelwer wrote: post #80
jacquesm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's another thing that I don't particularly like about MMM: the incessant shouting down and name calling of anything and anybody that dares to question him and his statements.

This would be a meaningful comment if your critique weren't appallingly mundane.

I don't follow you but that probably makes me a complainypants.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#95

Post by stefantheard »

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…

What avenue is there to retire at 30 if you make 200k by 25? I must be missing something massive.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#96

Post by brndnmtthws »

jacquesm wrote: post #38
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.

Where do HN and YC encourage conspicuous consumption? Does ramen profitable somehow equate conspicuous consumption?

A significant number of YC's alumnus look like Juiceros to me. Building products nobody needs because they think there's enough stupid people to create a market. Slap together some glossy marketing materials, and now you've got a premium product ready to change the world.

Frankly, most people don't need to be constantly buying new things. They should be buying less, fixing what they've got, saving more, going outside and getting exercise.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#97

Post by sidlls »

CodeCube wrote: post #79
branchless wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has several rentals and lives off other families. We can't all do that. It's not a real, scalable solution. It's not genuine.

Personally, I find rent-seeking landlords to be an unethical pursuit. I know that's not a mainstream thought, and is the underpinning of many people's income strategy ... but I can't support the idea of letting a family live in a property for decades, and then something happening, and they're on the street with nothing to show for the tens of thousands of dollars they have given in rent.

There are plenty of families who have no interest in buying even if they can afford it easily. One doesn't have to prey on the impoverished to have rental income.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#98

Post by no_wave »

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.

He had more than enough money in the bank to do nothing given his expenditures. Turns out he likes making money on his own time.

Re: Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

#99

Post by jacquesm »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #96
jacquesm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do HN and YC encourage conspicuous consumption? Does ramen profitable somehow equate conspicuous consumption?

A significant number of YC's alumnus look like Juiceros to me. Building products nobody needs because they think there's enough stupid people to create a market. Slap together some glossy marketing materials, and now you've got a premium product ready to change the world. Frankly, most people don't need to be constantly buying new things. They should be buying less, fixing what they've got, saving more, going outside…

YC alumnus != YC. Huge difference there.

Agreed on the 'changing the world' bs, though there are some that genuinely seem to have that goal (Watsi, for instance).

And yes, people usually do not need all that they are buying but then again, it keeps the economy going, I'm having a hard time imagining a world where everybody behaves like MMM does, it would not scale.

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