Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30

Enjoy your own successes and whatever makes you happy, but don't take the success of others away just because they take joy in different things to yourself.

I pay ~600$/month to have a 4 1/2 apartment close to a big-chain supermarket and all necessary amenities. This includes the Hydro bill, the fridge and oven-stove. I have an interior pool. Yes, at that price. Food is about 500$ a month. Internet a further 60$, for a 30/8 Cable pipe.

I'm about 200km from Montreal, close to a university.

I am nomadic. I have no dependents, and a severe case of wanderlust. My impression, after many conversations on the matter, is that this is a mild form of insanity. I think that I have my lifestyle more or less sorted out at the moment, but I have in the past been more or less willing to trade stability and an income above the poverty line for the freedom to search for a place that perhaps I want to live. I'm from Alaska originally, and don't particularly enjoy or identify with the rest of the US, so hopefully this is at least somewhat understandable.

I digress. I know exactly the kind of perspective from which $25k per annum is considered wealth. I also know the freedom that comes from not being owned by possessions -- and I hope that MMM does as well. You can still practice accumulation on a budget, but it's hard to see that as a healthy motivation. Being rich is not dying with the most toys. Although I don't believe the majority the HN community would agree with that sentiment.

To be a nomad, you are forced to make a very deliberate choice about every possession. Each one adds a burden that must be carried to each new place -- quite literally carried, in my income bracket. There is the temptation to transform this practicality into a moral virtue, but there are many other reasons besides.

On the other hand, there are many virtues in accumulation. Besides the advantages conveyed by a visible display of wealth, owning many things serves as a buffer against misfortune. Consumer goods provide pleasure, and capital assets can be themselves a source of profit.

I feel like I should be the most fervent disciple of MMM, and yet I would say instead: neglect not your comforts, nor your consumerism. The trades you may make in pursuit of a purer life, are at the least uncomfortable, and at worst dangerous. Poverty may be virtuous, and while you may yet find that virtue, seek it not for its own sake. If your charity compels you to be poor, accept that with good heart, and do not be miserly no matter how much you own. If, alternately, you are not compelled towards sainthood, at the least enjoy your comforts in the knowledge that you are living a blessed life, which may like as not never come again.

But it's also hard to argue with the reality that, if you eschew stupid expenses and live frugally, you can very rapidly build up a very healthy savings. Given that, it's trivially easy to retire by 50 or even 40 for most people; for a software developer (like MMM), it's quite possible to do it by 30.

Honestly, though, I would argue that his plan gives him a sense of false security: no one knows what the economy will look like in ten years, let alone twenty or thirty, and building his retirement on the assumption nothing drastic will change in it or his personal life is folly.

And he spent the first... seven or so years of his working life in some soul-sucking corporation. That's a shit load of time wasted. So his problem?

I'd say it's that he retired too late.

If you take his definition of retirement as "having enough money that you can do what you want to do," all you probably actually have to do is save up 100k-200k, plus or minus a bit. That's because most people want to have some integration into the economy; they just want it on their terms. And integration into the economy means you're getting paid some amount. Given a fluid nest egg to last you a frugal decade or so really gives you all the financial security you need. (Of course, shit can happen, but any shit that can burn through that kind of nest egg is likely to ruin whatever plans you have anyways.)

If you have $200k saved up at this point and no real commitments but have grand plans for how you'll retire sometime in the next five to ten years and then do what you really want to do--teaching, or open source projects that interest you, or traveling around the world as a photographer/blogger--more likely than not you can do it now, within a year. You should. Money will come to you, and there's no reason to put off your dreams.