Interview with Mr. Money Mustache

The Etsy shop could fund the family's lifestyle. The family is already funded by investment returns. They could shut the shop down and continue living just as they do. MMM is just using "fund our family's lifestyle" to give an idea of how much the shop is pulling in (about $30k/year).

but one's place in society is not (or at least shouldn't be if the society is healthy) an isolated position. There's that old phrase "no man is an island". I understand I'm probably applying it outside of its original context, but it works just the same. Society is an interactive and interdisciplinary thing and I think we probably have need of more auto mechanics, welders, construction workers, rescue workers, firemen, pilots, etc than we do financial blog writers. Of course, I still appreciate a diversity of opinion and there's nothing stopping a financially-sound fireman write a financial-advice and good-living blog.

Ultimately the whole retiring at 30 thing just reminds me of a Trailer Park Boys beer/plotline: "Freedom 35" (its not great beer, by the way)[0]. They work so hard and so terribly to try and escape the need to do any work, and their lives are so much worse off for it. Of course, they're a poor example of the strategy to be sure. I've worked beside warehouse types who ended up working overtime for 30 years with successful investments and all with the same dream, but they still wound up working an average of 60 hours a week for 30 years...

And I really think there are more blindspots than are even mentioned here in those kinds of ideas, though I appreciate how many people have chimed in to that general aspect already.

[0] http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/trailer-park-boys-freedom-3...

If you're selling consumerism and buying mustachianism, it means you think the former is overpriced.

Basically, learn to be comfortable on a reasonably low income. In the interview, he talks about biking as an example.

I've always been confused by single people struggling on much more than I lived comfortably on, and I recently realized part of it is that the average cost of car ownership in the US is something like $8k/yr[0]. (My first two years in Austin, I was in Americorps, so that would have been over 70% of my income.) That's just one example of a major expense we just treat as a necessity.

Maybe you don't want to live without a car. Maybe you want to go out to eat twice a week. Maybe you want a bigger apartment. Those are all fine--but those are also all choices that will raise your cost of living, which will likely push out your retirement age.

Personally, I don't mind working past age 30, but if you want to retire early, it will probably require arranging your life to live without things that might seem like necessities right now.

Again, totally your choice, and it might not be for you, but let me anecdotally provide that it's very possible to live a great life without a car, an expensive phone and phone plan, etc.

I'd recommend breaking down all your spending and looking at what you want to live without and what you don't. With things you can easily turn on/off (Netflix is easy to cancel for a few months, or biking to work for a couple weeks if you have a bike--car ownership or apartment size/location, not so much), experiment on living without and see how you feel. You might miss it and you might not.

Don't rely on my experiences, but don't rely on your guesses on how much you like the status quo either. (I guess that also means I should try renting a car and driving to work for a few weeks to see if I like it better than biking.)

[0] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/total-cost-owning-car/