Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30 • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by dnr » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:47 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #64

scarmig wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, the point is he has $600K+ in the bank as self-insurance. If he has to pay $10K in one year for medical expenses, he would do something like reduce the amount that his family draws by $1K a year for the next ten years, not cut the draw rate in half for one year. The self-insurance bet is that he won't have to do that more than once every ten years on average. Given their healthy lifestyle, he's probably going to win that bet.

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

#82

Post by smm2000 » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:47 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #31

I have a hard time seeing the appeal of intentionally living long term with a near poverty level income. I could never be content watching my son bike to school in 20 degrees because I don't want to work. Let alone spend years bragging about it.

I biked to work in Seattle every day including freezing 35 degree rain in winter and enjoyed it. Half an hour biking in such a weather made me feel like I achieved something before work day starts. And biking was totally optional - I had a car.

But people are different and I get what you want to say.

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

#83

Post by Evbn » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:48 AM UTC

doorhammer wrote: post #14

obilgic wrote: post #7

Why does MMM have ads on his blog?

"More recently, even my hobby of writing the blog has started producing some cash, which I hope to reinvest and snowball into a big charitable operation as well as funding interesting projects related to the blog."

I am retired, and I code on the side, for which I get money, which I use to finance charitable giving and interesting related projects.

I am glad that about half of HN doesn't fall for this guy's Rich Dad Poor Dad schtick. The other half, though...

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

#84

Post by carbocation » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:48 AM UTC

sebastianavina wrote: post #18

palebluedot wrote: post #15

Interesting article, and it would do well for most people to consider increasing wealth through investments. From the article: Our bread-and-butter living expenses are paid for by a single rental house we own, which generates about $25,000 per year after expenses. One nit, perhaps, on that - is the rental house completely managed by someone else? If not, I assume there is at least some minimal amount of work associat…

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…

> fucked some really beautiful girls

I downvoted you for this crass sexist drivel that drags down the level of discourse.

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

#85

Post by azatris » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:49 AM UTC

sethrin wrote: post #48

On the one hand, I agree with most everything MMM says. On the other hand, a life of consumerism is its own reward -- and who is to say it is not earned? 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 m…

You described everything very well what I am like and what I think of the subject. It is nice to know that I am not alone.

I am also nomadic, although yet a university student, still making it eventually possible working in an industry capable of earning over $100k per annum. Nothing would change if it was not as prosper.

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

#86

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:49 AM UTC

pfisch wrote: post #21

meistro wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but I'd say %99.99.. of those on welfare don't own their own house.

Yeah but I think it is silly to suggest he has retired on a 25k a year pension. I mean have homeless people retired? Have people on food stamps retired?

One of his themes is to maximize frugality/stinginess. He claims to have no debt. He has some assets, has some income. Still, I doubt it's as easy as he makes it sound. But OTOH, there are a lot of optimizations I know I could make, yet have tended to ignore.

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

#87

Post by chadcf » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 2:58 AM UTC

Taylorious wrote: post #66

stevenwei wrote: post #47

While 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…

I agree he sounds happy, but it's important to remember that happy means different things to different people. Life is short and you only get one shot at it, so if you get a lot of enjoyment out of a new car every 5 years, hell, go for it. Be smart about it, make sure it's something you really enjoy and not just a temporary distraction, but do it if it brings you lasting enjoyment.

Some people, in my experience, really enjoy being frugal. Having a wad of cash in the bank is what makes them feel secure and happy. Others, not so much. To each their own.

One nice thing, being able to live reasonably happily on $25k is nice to see if nothing else than that's probably what a lot of today's middle classers are likely to get in SS benefits down the road. And given the dismal savings rates, that's a fine thing. The trick is to pull it off you need to have a paid for home and live in a relatively affordable location.

Of course that's another thought, retiring at 30 means your SS benefits are going to be small or non-existent. If this guys rental properly burned down and his investments tanked, that could turn into a pretty bad situation someday. As much as I hate to rely on SS for retirement it's the closest thing to a guaranteed income many of us are going to get, and retiring early means opting out of that.

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

#88

Post by bittercynic » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 3:00 AM UTC

Love it when two sites I love, like MMM and HN cross paths.

I'm disappointed, but not surprised, by the animosity here. Too many HN posters seem to be obsessed by hitting it big monetarily, instead of developing exciting projects. Is it that mysterious to value freedom from monetary worries so you can focus completely on the projects you think are important, for whatever reason? Seems to me that is exactly what MMM is doing.

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

#89

Post by secabeen » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 3:02 AM UTC

Evbn wrote: post #71

encoderer wrote: post #67

I 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…

GetRichSlowly, IIRC correctly is a much saner and more meaningful blog about personal finance for smart middle class people.

It was. Since JD left, its been much less personal and more corporate. Few of the writers resonate with me, and many of them come across as "here's the standard personal finance solution to X, described plainly".

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

#90

Post by chadcf » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 3:03 AM UTC

georgecmu wrote: post #63

early 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…

I've read his analysis before and I had the same issue. It's quite easy to retire early if you have a high income and live frugally. Unfortunately a lot of people have to live frugally just to get by. Your average middle class family couldn't even dream of putting away $490k in 7 years even if they lived frugally and got lucky on stocks.

I read another blog, I think it was a different guy, who talked about how he did this by living on 30% of his income and putting away the other 70% and then went on and on about how anyone could do this. Of course, he made about $300k a year. He talked about how even if you make way less than this you can still do it, you just have to be willing to live on 30% of your income. That's easy to say when 30% of your income is more than 100% of most people's income...