Fuck You.
Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
61–70 of 252 posts
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#62I think the point is being missed here, to some degree. This is not necessarily the best way to live. But it's worth considering: what would you do if you weren't tied to a corporation for 8 hours a day in order to feed and house your family? My immediate instinct is not quite "Let's commute for an hour a day and grind out code for some project I don't really care about." Your life may vary, but while he's at an extr…
I think he'd agree that the particulars of his situation are hardly prescriptive. 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 tha…
Your plan needs the nest egg + house paid off. I will have 150k USD(100k GBP) by the time I'm 26 but no house. so i doubt I could survive a decade on it.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#63early retirement doesn’t only happen to Powerball winners and those who luck into a big inheritance.
Right. It also happens to those who get lucky in the stock market, and chose the right job at the right time.
http://money.msn.com/retirement/article.aspx?post=dd544488-f...
I was able to save more: $5,000 into the retirement account, $3,000 into an employee stock purchase plan, and $10,000 in cash. Year 2 'stash: $23,000 ($13k cash/shares, $10k retirement).
Year 3: This was late 1999, and both the job and stock markets were on fire. I cashed out the stock purchase plan shares from Year 2, which were now worth $10k
The investment gains on stocks started accumulating, adding about $10k to our earnings this year. So we still ended up increasing the savings by close to $100k after tax. Year 5 'stash: $250k.
Investment gains on the existing savings contributed another $20k. It is complicated to remember what portion of income was taxable salary, and what was nontaxable gains inside of retirement accounts and such. But a reasonable estimate of the total is Year 6 'stash: $365k.
Year 7: No increases in salary, but similar amazing earnings and moderate spending, combined with $30k of investment gains. Year 7 'stash: $490k.
I wonder why more people don't do this.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
A modest HMO that covers a family cannot be had for less than $1k/month sticker price. If you don't want co-insurance it's at least $1200. At least in Massachusetts. Family of 3, no pre-existings. Good plans with a $25 co-pay on popular corporate providers (tufts/Harvard pilgrim) are nearly $1500/month, blue cross is close to $1800. Expensive. No way around it.
His family's insurance cost comes to $237/month. It seems low, but not that low, at least relative to how much I pay as a 20-something guy scaled to three people.
Because it features $10,000 per person deductibles (and then you still have to pay a portion up to $3k). If his kid breaks his leg riding his bike to school in the snow the family income could be cut nearly in half. Better than nothing, but definitely not great. That's a symptom of the US more than it is his lifestyle though.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#65I always recommend the following two posts to anyone who has discovered MMM, as I think they best sum up his context, history, mindset, goals and living situation - all of which are good to understand before you start taking what he writes as guidance:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/15/a-brief-history-of...
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/01/raising-a-family-o...
It's important to keep in mind that his goal was to end his reliance on a full time job for income as quickly as possible, full stop. He did pretty much everything in his power to reach that goal, and it's clear that he's very dedicated.
For anyone who glances at this interview or at his blog and thinks, "I'd like to do that," make sure you read the two posts above first. If your idea of retirement is fuck-you money, a yacht and a summer home in the Hamptons, his advice isn't going to work for you - although his blog provides a good opportunity to gain some perspective on how people not like yourself treat money and what they consider the ideal retirement to be.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#66While I do think there is value in aggressively saving and reducing unnecessary expenses (avoiding excessive 'lifestyle inflation'), I can't help but feel that MMM has taken it too far to the extreme. There are tons of interesting and worthwhile experiences out there that you're going to miss out on if you intentionally constrain your budget to $25k/year for the entirety of your life.[1] There are folks here who have…
It all depends on where you live. I doubt where he lives (Longmont CO) is that expensive. There are plenty of places in the USA where 25k will go a long way. Remember he has no mortgage and other debts. If he has relatively low property taxes and doesn't care about having a new car every 5 years etc., then 25k a year is more than enough. It certainly isn't poverty level or anything.
I don't get why people on here are so negative about it. Don't be bitter because you live in the valley and spend 2k+ a month just for a crappy apartment. It just sounds like this guy values his time more than money. He might not be spoiling his kids with tons of toys or free college, but at least he is there for them. I'll warrant many of the entrepreneurs hackernewsers look up to don't spend nearly as much time with their family as this guy. Their too busy making money as a way to keep score in their "life." This guys just living his life.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#67I don't like how judgmental he is about lifestyle choices alternative to the ones he's made. I, personally, enjoy going out to eat, I enjoy the "$100 happy hours," I'm in Turks and Caicos right now on a stretch of the most beautiful beach I've ever seen and I enjoy that, too. Oh, and I don't particularly dislike working. I'm a well paid highly skilled engineer building cool things for a fantastic .com that takes care of its people.
I get it, he has options and choices and that is an ideal. If I wanted to retire right this very second, I couldn't. But you know if my wife wanted to give birth right this second she couldn't. It requires about 11 months of planning and prep work and the fact she hasn't put that time in already is in no way a bad thing or a disadvantage for her. She LIKES splitting a bottle of wine with me at dinner and eating seared tuna and ice cream desserts and coffee and dirty martinis. So, not yet, for us.
I just wish he could be a better advocate for his extreme frugality and savings lifestyle without building it on criticizing the alternative with every other breath. (And even if some things aren't strictly criticism they are de facto criticism by painting them in a less then gracious light.)
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
He owns and runs a VERY popular blog. He is probably making at least $10k/month from advertisements on the blog alone.
If this is the case, then the figures mentioned in the article are incomplete and misleading.
Shocking that someone giving financial advice online is not entirely upfront... (Though it is interesting in this case because the sales pitch is pretty universally unappealing.)
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lets be fair, I'm 28 y/o, and fairly rich, I love to work, and I live to work, and maybe it's the only thing I may do ever in my life. I could sell all of my bussiness, I could lease the buildings, and retire. But doing nothing is the hardest work I've ever do. I took a sabatic year after I graduated from college, traveled around the world, fucked some really beautiful girls, and after livining a dream-life, my life…
Hey mate - not everyone has to be like you you know.... 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.
Ok, I didn't love the GPs attitude but what you're criticizing him for is basically exactly what MMM did throughout this bio.
Re: Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30
#70Retired? He is a hard working self-promoting blogger, and also does handyman work. By his tortured definition, most middle class people are retired, as they could survive without work if they have to.