Meet Mr. Money Mustache
“What do you mean you retired at 30?”
This is a blog about money. We’re going to cover a lot of ground and make plenty of amusing side trips into lifestyle and culture issues, but when it boils down to it, we are talking about money, and the freedom it can give you. Freedom from worry, and freedom from most forms of bullshit. And the best way to illustrate such freedom is to have an opinionated but wise role model guide you through your daily life from this point onwards. That role model is ME, Mr. Money Mustache.
I’m going to teach you a radical new way to think about and enjoy money that will get you off of your current debt-powered treadmill and into a lifestyle that is completely unimaginable to most people where I live, which happens to be in the United States, ground zero for self-imposed treadmills.
Once you are off the mill, you’ll feel like Neo did when he unplugged the suction cups from his pale naked body in The Matrix and looked around at the other imprisoned humans. “Holy Shit!”, you will say. “I’ve been living in this ridiculous slave world and never noticed.. and everyone else still is! WAKE UP DRONE PEOPLE!!!“.
You will suddenly be able to fly freely through the world, free from having to work for a living, able to start living life as you choose, doing exotic things like spending time raising your young children, taking a 3-week vacation each month, or just enjoying understated shows of leisure like sweeping your driveway in pajamas at 11am on a sunny Thursday morning.
Let’s talk about YOU first. If you are one of the 99% of working people I hear and read about every day, you are in a bad place right now. Young folks today seem to live somewhere on a Spectrum of Financial Idiocy.
” I am…
- Retired, and my money situation is perfect
- Still working, saving max in 401k, no loans on cars or credit cards, paying regular mortgage payments
- Same as above but add one or more car loans
- Same as above but not quite able to max out 401k plans due to life’s little expenses
- Same as above but have a few credit cards that I’m making payments on
- Can’t always make all my payments, got some bad marks on my credit score.. I’d be screwed if I lose my job now
- Everything has collapsed – losing my house and possessions, can’t find work, debt is more than I can pay off in a lifetime, why is the world so cruel to me!?
So your goal is to move up this spectrum. Everyone can do it. But most people think they can’t because they’re still stuck in the Matrix. They blame “the economy” or other bullshit external factors, when really the only problem is they aren’t listening hard enough to Mr. Money Mustache. Become a regular reader of this blog and you’ll move up fast. See you at #1.
Article: How To Start a Blog
Where to next? Check out a Random Article
|
Stay in Touch: Subscribe to posts by e-mail, RSS Feed, or follow MMM on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the Conversation: Learn from Like-Minded Mustachians in The Money Mustache Community |
Mr. Money Mustache is a family man living in the United States who retired from work, relatively wealthy, at about age 30. After several years of retirement, he noticed that his still-working peers were envious of his lifestyle. They were making more money than he ever had, yet they were somehow still broke. So he decided to write this blog to educate the world on how it is done.
Hey Mister MM,Turned on to your site through EER.at 0300am this mourning an like what Im reading,will be stoping by every day,Im a over the road trucker that’s living in my truck by choice,no bill’s saving ton’s of money;just invested 10 grand in vanguard 500 index,hope I made right choice,27 thousand in e.fund,10% of pay to 401k,just drped from 20% 10 grand in it,should I drp.even more an invest the difference myself?45 years old,would like to have enough saves an out of this ratrace by 50,any ideas? thx.
Hi Scott, thanks for the comment. Sounds like you are on a great road already, saving so much.
If you’re only 5 years away from a nice early retirement, you might want to keep at least some of your money in non-stock investments, since while the stock market has provided great returns over the long run, you never know when it will turn around and give you the shaft with a short-term crash or a 10-year period of moving sideways, like we’ve just experienced. Like bond funds, or a mixed stock-bond fund such as Vanguard’s VBINX. That way, your plan at retirement will be to cash out just a year or less worth of living expenses at a time, and leave the rest invested to compound.
Another good strategy that protects you against an unpredictable market is this: leaving the door open to more work in the future if you need it. If your investments do well, fine, no need to do extra work. If there is a bear market and you don’t want to sell stocks while they’re low, go a bit frugal for the year and take on a little side work to boost income temporarily. Of course, if you have enough of a safety margin you have saved up in advance, you can guarantee that you never have to work, but I like to feel empowered by working occasionally even if I don’t need the money.
So I’ve been a 2 on your scale for the last several years but now I’m headed to a top business school with a big six-figure price tag. I’ll drop at least one rung because I won’t be working full time any more but I’m trying to minimize slippage and graduate without debt. Cool stuff, I love your writing style and funny pictures. GW would have been a lot cooler had he sported a ‘stache.
I guess I’m at a 2, heading towards a 1.5 (no mortgage) within the next year and a bit, then aiming for a 1. Nice way to set out the progression!
There’s a big hole between 1 and 2 – being debt and mortgage-free is still a long way from being retired!
I guess there could be a few years between those two steps. But not for me – I retired BEFORE finishing paying off my mortgage. Finally got around to that last step earlier this month ;-)
Great site Mr Mustache…I suppose we’re at #2 and working to get to #1 ;)
2 – except … after some quick calculations at below market returns for indexes, etc, I am contributing not the max to my 401k. I AM contributing to get my full match, and I am contributing more than 16500 to retirement total, but if I want to retire early I need to access my money before my 401k timer goes off.
Yeah, great point – if your 401K is already conservatively projected to be more than you’ll need from age 59.5 onwards (which happens pretty early for savers who start in their 20s or early 30s), you can slow or stop your contributions to that and work on the Early Retirement fund instead. I need to do an article called “Are you contributing too much to your 401(k)?”
Update! I ended up writing that article a few months later, and here it is: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/11/how-much-is-too-much-in-your-401k/
You can always roll over you 401k to an IRA and convert to a roth IRA at which point it’s easy to withdraw after 5 years. Similarly you can contribute to a roth 401k instead of a traditional 401k if your workplace offers it.
Good point! You can withdraw principal only from a Roth Ira with no penalty after it has been open 5 years. However, at what point do you pay income tax on the 401k when converting it to Roth?
You’d pay income tax in the year you convert from a traditional rollover IRA to a Roth IRA. So ideally this would be after you’d retired since your income, and thus the taxes you would pay, would be lower.
You’d probably convert about a year’s worth of expenses (after tax) each year for several years to minimize the tax penalties and to line up income for five years down the road.
I’m at 4, quite a way to go to get to #1 but I am only 26 so middle sounds fine for me, But I have no car loans just student loans.
I really like your vision of working outside in pajamas at 11AM on a Thursday.
When I recently switched jobs I took a month and a half off to relax and practice my early retirement. I loved going out and doing exactly that, and I’d see guys come home for lunch and just look at me thinking “poor guy, he must have been laid off – but WHY is he smiling?!?”
I also loved going to the park with my kids for hours during the day, and getting the same looks and questions from all the stay at home moms.
we’re between 5 & 6. i managed to find a job after 5 months being unemployed. (i wasn’t even “on unemployment” because i’ve only had intermittent jobs, and they needed to do research. got the job a week before i was approved for unemployment compensation.
we have a ridiculous amount of debt ($70,000 on credit cards alone, and more on student loans) that last month before i was hired, we almost didn’t make our mortgage, but we sold as many savings bonds as we could find (husband was buying them a few years ago because his work encouraged him to buy them, and he didn’t realise they made no sense to someone with so much debt to hold on to something with such a small APR when credit cards are 1000%+ higher)
so other than that one close call with the mortgage, we’ve managed to make the payments (but i don’t think my husband is paying all that much into his 401k. i could be mistaken, but doesn’t it not make much sense to put away for retirement when the money could be better put toward reducing the credit card debt?)
i knew i didn’t want to commute very far (and that was one of the factors that caused me to take so long in finding a job.) i commute 3 miles each way 4 days a week for a 5-hour a day job. not too shabby, eh? :-) (back in 2007, i was commuting via train for 1.5 hours round-trip to a job that paid slightly less, and was a 4-hour a day shift. i definitely moved up in all aspects with this new gig. saving myself an entire day of commuting/working, staying in the same state. now i just need to condition myself to be able to bike 6 miles a day in slightly hilly terrain, and i’ll be set.)
i’m definitely going to subscribe. thanks!
How refreshing! There’s more of us early retirees out there than one might imagine. I checked out of the rat race at 33. My parents warned me that biking and skiing all the time might get boring but so far, so good. LOL’ed at the “sweeping your driveway in pajamas at 11am on a sunny Thursday morning” vignette
I’m @ 7. Yay me.
#6 for me. cruising along with a wife and young kid. perpetually worried about losing the unsatisfying yet well-paying job. not whining, just sayin’.
Use to be around #2, but now I’m off the scale. No debt/mortgage payments, money in the bank, no job (by choice). Cheap person all around, works at best a few months a year and travels the rest in low cost of living countries. And happy.
27 years old.
Thanks for posting your monetary underwear out in the sphere. I appreciate your candor and love your speech.
I’m not where I want to be, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. I love that you have a lot of money but it appears? not a lot of stuff? I want to declutter/refresh and hit renew.
New year, new possibilities. Not the same ole me, just a me that’s learning and growing.
Thanks for your voice.
Carri
Just found your blog today and it’s been like discovering I’m not the last member of an unknown tribe. I’m at #2 on your scale, and have had desires to get to #1, but as you said, not a lot of people share that view. I also share your view that humans had much more varied lives in the past and our programmed lives now are not normal to us. In my line of work, I sometimes spend long amounts of time in very remote places, where I am essentially “self employed.” Like you, I find that I work hard, sometimes with very odd hours, but overall it’s extremely satisfying. Now I just need to get to #1 and enjoy that all the time. Not so easy with a wife and three growing kids, but I’m hoping to pick up some more pointers from your site. Thanks for your efforts.
I’m sort of a wierd mix of a number 2 and number 5. i’m self employed as a fine artist, so i love what i do and will never completely retire. i make abou 45-50k a year. truck’s paid off as are ol student loans.
my Bf of 17 years and I just paid off our house in Sept.(16 years early).
I seem to need to keep one credit card for the irregular income/biz expenses that come up. but no other debt. we don’t have kids and travel 4 weeks out of the year. i have a sep ira, that i rolled from a 401k from my last job 8 years ago, but can’t seem to have enough cash flow to add more to it. it weathered the storm and has increased a wee bit. any advice?
Thank you so much for doing this blog. I am a teacher and totally at a loss with everything. I thought that working so hard for my education would benefit me. Instead I feel stuck like a slave. I love my job and have lots of time off but I want to be like you. I am going to try all these things. I have had to file for b/k this year so I can only go up. Right???? We don’t know what to do with our house that we can’t afford. I guess our last stop will be to foreclosure and then to a rental to save money. I hope the best for you. Thanks for giving me something to look forward to….retirement. At this point I never thought I would ever be able to say that I could retire someday before I am 80!!! ;)
Interesting scale. I had been at 2 but recently dropped to 3. When I bought my new car, rather than pay all cash, I decided to finance a portion at 2.14% and throw the balance at my 5% mortgage. So it actually was a better move to take out an auto loan than not, which strangely enough, pushes me down your scale. I look forward to following your blog. (I came here from GRS.)
Welcome Sara! That’s an interesting point – your move was definitely wiser than paying cash for the new car. But if you read further through the blog, you might eventually become convinced not to buy a new car at all, and then you can move back up the scale :-).
I just found your site today after torturing myself for a few hours with retirement calculators. I got so frustrated and searched “retirement calculator bullshit”, and that lead me to you :) I am 53 and recently divorced from a spouse who made just over 100K per year, the best health insurance, and a quickly growing 401K. I had been a massage therapist when we met, then gave up working so we could take a position in Bolivia for a while. I did not attend high school (mom took me out NOT my choice) but got a GED, so I always wanted to go back to school. I did at 41. I ended up getting a masters degree (loved school). In the divorce I got 1/2 the 401K, now at 170K, and the house and mortgage. I knew a divorce suspected a divorce was on the horizon, so I paid extra for years towards the mortgage. The house is worth about 200K, and I still over 104K. I had a job making about 40K. Subsequently I have moved out of the house and now rent it. I have a new job making about 80K. But I bought a new car, better gas milage though. I thought I was doing pretty well. But I am not where I want to be, which is where you are! Thanks so much for challenging us! One of my favorite comedian acts is Bill Hicks telling people in advertising to kill themselves, check it out! I am a behaviorist, and I see how the principals of behavior are used to get us to consume more. But with you and people like you getting the word out, I feel hopeful :) Thanks!!!
Well I just stumbled across this site and have been loving the writing and ideas. I’m working my way through the posts starting at this first one and felt like I had to comment. Already doing pretty well, but the site has been inspirational, and stopped me from buying some crap. We are probably at #2 on your scale, or maybe #1.5 if you can count one of us being a grad student as partially retired :)
Ahh….the post that started it all. I like to come back from time to time and read this one :D
Thanks, this is a great blog, been following it for a while now – it endorses most that I believe in. I’m between #1 and 2 – have a perfect money situation without mortgage and could have retired years ago as a result of the typical tings: hard work & well-paying jobs, rigorous saving & investment habits, accumulation of income-generating assets, hate of debt plus marrying a guy with similar values.
But haven’t just mustered the courage to (semi)retire – yet. Somewhat nervous about leaving work, and particularly of the potental effect (of being retired/semi-retired) on our four kids (i.e., turning lazy) but simultanaeously dreaming about retirement… However, in a couple of years (I’m 43 now) will semi-retire, likely move to the countryside and work/keep myself active with homestead gardening, lots of exercise, volunteer work, managing the investments, and occasional consultancy. Could consider a small business as well.
I found you thru Mark Sisson’s Blog. Please notify me when you have new posts. I’m starting from the first and reading them all.
thanks
Hey Ed, Glad to have you here!
While I can’t send you a personal email every time I write something, you can get the next best thing right here: an email subscription! http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=MrMoneyMustache
Or an RSS subscription if you are fancy:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MrMoneyMustache
I’m new here.
What are some good resources for a middle school aged person who is interested in investing and dreams of great wealth?
Have you ever experienced any life situations that created an unexpected hole in your plan? Big medical bills, being fired when you still needed the money? Or, has your life been on the relatively smooth and comfortable path? I did read that you have, and use, an O.Gun, but there are some events in life where that is just not going to be enough. I’d like to know how you got out of sticky situations…..or did your OG keep you out of them? You are not like those folks with all the perfect parenting advice who are childless, are you?
I’m sincere in my questions, I hope you’ll answer them. Your latest post is a gem for life, not just financial matters. Everyone should have a loaded OG!
My friend turned me on to this site and I must say, with my current housing, job, financial, relationship, and family situation, I am already intrigued. I will read more!
Wake up Drone people, ha ha. I feel the same way, everytime I talk to somebody they are full of excuses why they want this and that but can not save 3 grand or more a year for retirement. Come on you sad excuses for spine strong, mind smart people. I want to retire soon and I have made it a plan to achieve it.
Dear Mr. MMM-
Thank you for all the useful info on your site. I am a single professional girl who just started living on half her paycheck at age 35, is this too late? I’m also torn between renting and buying with a relative small mortgage as i am gifted a substantial down payment. Would appreciate your advise. Thank you kindly.
Howdy CV. It’s never too late to get the finances in order, so congratulations!
As for buy vs. rent, that all depends on the numbers – price of house, property tax rate, rental rate, etc. Also, on your feelings about home ownership – I am a committed homebody myself, so owning and being able to work on my own place is a top priority for me. Others feel quite differently.
Hallo Mr. M,
Yesterday I somehow stumbled upon your website and am loving what I have read so far.
Two years ago my husband and I moved to Austria ( from S.Africa ). We live in a tiny village and love it. The upshot is that when you live away from the hype, life in all forms is cheaper.
We had enough capital to buy a house and second hand ( 9 yrs) car outright. ( It sounds extravagant, but property is really inexpensive here, and ours was run down )
Which is the point I want to make. When you don’t owe anything, suddenly you can survive on much much less.
Like any immigrants, starting afresh takes a bit of time and money is still sporadic in its appearance. BUT that’s okay. Living the simple life is a revelation and the future is exiting…
I look forward to perusing your blog.
Thank you for having it in the first place.
Birgit
I think I fall somewhere between 5 and 6. I can make my payments on everything, but our savings is abysmal right now. If my husband and I both lost our jobs tomorrow we would be SOL. Though it is disheartening to think that it could all crumble tomorrow, I am going to remind myself that this will change. Thankfully, I have youth on my side and hope to turn that around sooner rather than later.
We’re currently at #2. Just the mortgage left and should be paid off in ~3yrs. We max out his RRSP contribution limit 18% which he puts into my spousal RRSP. It gets him down one tax bracket to the one I’m in, and it’s gradually increasing my account to match his which got a giant boost ~5yrs ago from a layoff severance package. We both max out our new TFSA (tax free savings accounts) each year, and then all the rest of the excess goes to wacking down the mortgage as fast as possible.
I agree with one of the posters above that there really needs to be a category between 1 and 2. Once the mortgage is paid off we’ll continue with the savings for a few more years to finish building our savings – basically putting in the years indicated on your early retirement savings % vs yrs to retirement chart. In addition to our regular savings that will fund our normal daily living, we’ building a totally separate $100k travel fund. There’s no way I want the annual fluctuations in investment returns or inflation to determine if/where we travel. If returns on our investments are temporarily down, we’ll adjust something on our regular budget, but the travel budget remains sacred.
Hey MMM,
this just looks like an amazing community you built here! I feel right at home and it’s such a great feeling to know there are like-minded people around! I am somewhere between a 3 and 5, sort of. I have been hustling to pay back my student loans for the past 4 years – and only 9.5 months left until I am FINALLY free of bad debt! Can’t wait! :)
I am currently throwing around 50% of my income towards my student loans (at 4% interest) and around another 5% towards a Rainy Day Fund to avoid (new) credit card debt and have some flexibility.
I am 30, am in a committed relationship, have no kids yet, no car, no mortgage (because we still rent), and also very little employer-matched retirement fund. I am in Germany, so as far as I know, all the money that goes into an employee-fund will be strictly off-limits until sometime in my 60s. I don’t plan on waiting that long :)
Any thoughts on what to tackle first once I pay that final debt installment in April 2014? Max out the employer match? Start investing in stocks / funds? Buy a small house to rent out? I saw that some other people from Europe are commenting, so any ideas are welcome :)
I am very much looking forward to reading my way up through the posts! Thanks MMM!!