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

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

#221

Post by jabits »

jasonkester wrote: post #153
Swizec wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a counterexample, here is a list of things you should do before you turn 30: http://www.policymic.com/articles/7704/29-amazing-things-you... While many of the examples are silly, I agree very much with all the advice to travel a lot . That takes money. Actually most of the things on that list go way beyond "live cheaply", and I agree with that. Anyway, as my economics professor said in college. There are those peo…

> travel a lot. That takes money. Not at all. If you talk to a few dozen people who "traveled a lot" before they turned 30 (including me, the person to whom you're replying), the single most common thread in all those stories will be how cheaply they did it. Life on the road costs ~$500/month. Life in an apartment costs ~$2000/month. One of the simplest ways to save money when you're not working is to ditch all your…

We like to travel (most widely in Central America)and always have, over the last three decades. And we do not generally go out of our way to stay in resorts or spend money wastefully. One way too common problem with coming across "shoe-string" and "Lonely Planet" travelers is how insanely boring they are, where every experience boils down to how cheaply they pulled it off.

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

#222

Post by PKop »

sanderjd wrote: post #119
PKop wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? Seriously, why can't he come to his own conclusion about said lifestyle choices? You don't have to agree with him, but why can't he judge certain lifestyle choices as better or worse? Just as you have done for yourself. I think if he doesn't clearly define what he thinks is better and why, then what advice is he really providing? People can choose to agree or not, without taking it as a personal insult.

Your parent is judging that his lifestyle choices are better for him while the subject of the interview is judging that his lifestyle choices are better for everyone . I'm not saying who is right or wrong, but let's not conflate the two different points being made.

You're definitely right there is a distinction. I accept that, but still would argue why is it bad to make prescriptive suggestions for others lifestyles? He feels strongly that his choices are the right way (and is fighting against the notion that happiness and lower consumption, materialism, consumerism are mutually exclusive). Perhaps it is right for many people, and by making his judgements public, it will provide helpful information for others to be exposed to. Why is upsetting certain people by telling them that he disagrees with their lifestyle choices a bad thing, such that he should refrain from making these judgements public? OP seems to be saying, your judgements of my lifestyle hurt my feelings, and made me self conscious of my choices and that's bad... regardless of the positive effects of strongly and clearly stating his value judgements so as to cause people to critically examine their assumptions and choices. I think the OP's reaction is just the effect MMM would like to cause people to have, if it results in positive changes. If it rubs some people the wrong way, that's a side effect that's worth it. If people are confident in their choices they shouldn't care what this guy or anyone else says about them.

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

#223

Post by Evbn »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #215
kragen wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poverty isn't a consumption level; poverty is when you're on the edge of losing everything.

I appreciate that you have your own personal definition. Mine is the one the US government uses.

The govt definition is income, not spending.

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

#224

Post by swinnipeg »

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…

You are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Even if he had $0 in investment gains he would of been able to do this at 33-35 instead of 30.

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

#225

Post by stevenwei »

jasonkester wrote: post #185
Swizec wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$500/month? But a simple train ticket that takes you 600km away will set you back $100. Here in Europe at least. And I probably spend $500/month just on food and caffeine. Hell, the basic government fees (insurance, pension etc.) to keep my sole proprietorship running costs me 300 euro/month. I really don't see how you could live on the road on $500/month, you're making stuff up.

Sure, but how much are trains and coffee in Thailand? China? India? Malawi? There's a lot of world out there beyond Europe. For the vast majority of it, $500 goes a long way. Try to keep in mind that there are lots of things that are possible that you don't yet know how to do. It sounds like you're just now learning that you can travel cheaply on the road (from people who have actually done so, no foolin'). Rather th…

It's fairly self-evident that some places are cheaper to travel (SE Asia, South America) than others (Western Europe, Japan).

Most 20-something backpackers choose to travel to places like SE Asia precisely because it is cheaper.

It's nice to be able to do a mix of both though, there are definitely interesting and worthwhile places to visit that are also unfortunately more expensive (Japan comes to mind!).

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

#227

Post by tunesmith »

rscale wrote: post #188
tunesmith wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a good point - first time I ran the numbers I realized I was missing them, but now my numbers use the "adjusted close" from yahoo which take dividends into account. As of today, my all-time APY would be 6.02% - lower if you take inflation into account. And it's worth noting that almost all of the time before now would have had a lower APY than that.

Using the adjusted close assumes that you put your dividend receipts into a mattress so it's still slightly low, but I doubt that's more than .1% or .2% for a typical portfolio over a moderate timeframe. I wholeheartedly agree with you that it's dangerous to bet your retirement on a level of return that many won't achieve.

Actually, can you explain that more? Since yahoo adjusted close says it takes dividends into account, I took that to be the same as immediately reinvesting your dividends in the same holding. You're saying that instead, it's the same as issuing the dividends as cash and then forgetting about it?

If so, then how do people actually backtest long term holdings to assume reinvested dividends? As far as free historical data sources, I thought it was basically yahoo or nothing.

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

#228

Post by goatforce5 »

jawngee wrote: post #189
jasonkester wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but how much are trains and coffee in Thailand? China? India? Malawi? There's a lot of world out there beyond Europe. For the vast majority of it, $500 goes a long way. Try to keep in mind that there are lots of things that are possible that you don't yet know how to do. It sounds like you're just now learning that you can travel cheaply on the road (from people who have actually done so, no foolin'). Rather th…

I live half the year in Vietnam, half the year in NYC. I'm mildly frugal, but Vietnam still runs me about $2K a month, $1.2k if I don't leave my apartment. NYC, a frugal month costs me $3.5k. SE Asia is cheap, but its not as cheap as people think it is.

I knew a guy that would spend half the year living in Bali. He's a trippy-hippy dude who makes his money doing astrology readings.

Even though it didn't really fit in to how he wanted to live his life, he ended up getting a local housekeeper. She'd basically just do all of his shopping (groceries, clothing, whatever) and pay the local price, rather than the tourist price. With the money he saved, he paid her above market rates and still managed to save money on the whole deal.

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

#229

Post by mscarborough »

timedoctor wrote: post #152

The idea of borrowing to buy a car is a ridiculously bad financial decision that most car buyers make. There are some exceptions (such as if you absolutely need the car for your business), however in most cases people would be way better off in buying a cheaper second hand car. There are countless other examples. It annoys me greatly when people in the US state how the "cannot live on less than $100k per year". And t…

Financing a car isn't a decision that is solely based on the amount of money you have saved.

I have a healthy rate of savings, but still decided to buy a new car and finance part of it. I'm happier and safer than I was in my old car, and the rates are pretty good. My V8 gets the same mileage my old 4-cylinder did, and hopefully I helped create some work by buying a model designed & built in Detroit.

So, stop conflating living month to month with having debt. There is a happiness component that doesn't show up in your spreadsheet.

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

#230

Post by jasonhanley »

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…

Yeah, he's definitely not "retired" if he's managing even one rental property.

It's not full time work, but it can take up quite a bit of time in spurts -- especially if you do maintenance and repair work yourself.

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