Mr. Money Mustache

A few years ago, I was at a party eating some amazing food at the potluck buffet. In my area, there seems to be a friendly competition among the 25-40 crowd of trying to out-chef each other. It’s a contest I heartily approve of and I am happy to be both an underdog competitor and [...]

In the first post of this series, we laid the groundwork for tempting a spendy spouse into a more frugal future. It was my attempt at combining the necessary logic and psychology that are required to slowly but surely allow someone to change their mind about the connection between spending and lifetime happiness. In this [...]

Wow, this special month of ours is really zooming past. By the time you read this, the Money Mustache Family will be deep in the high desert of Southern Colorado, camping out at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. But I thought it would be handy to share some thoughts on the hardcore savings challenge [...]

Dear Mr. Money Mustache, I’ve done it! I have lit the fire of Mustachianism in my own heart, and can suddenly see what should have been obvious from the start: the entire basis for most of the modern US lifestyle is complete bullshit, we are all wasting almost all of our money every day, and [...]

This is a special bonus follow-up to yesterday’s article on Cash-Efficient Cars. There seems to be widespread confusion about the value of hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius. Are they worth the extra cost? Are they reliable? Do they explode when they crash or actually have a higher environmental footprint than a Hummer? In the [...]

Many new readers have been asking me for car advice recently, and there have also been some useful discussions on the matter in the Money Mustache Forum. I find myself typing out the same list of recommendations over and over again, so I thought the best strategy would be to dig in, do some up-to-date [...]

A couple of Januarys ago, I spent a nice sunny day in my outdoor workshop doing some carpentry. I was helping a friend build a fancy Adirondack chair for her own patio. After we finished our work, she insisted on paying me with a huge pan of some delicious homemade dinner, and a box of [...]

Well, there goes another million. Sometime last week, this blog reached the “two million page views” milestone. It took less than three months to get that second million, compared to nine months for the first one, which I wrote about on December 10th. I remember we all thought we were pretty big business back then, [...]

Mustachians are a tech-savvy bunch. From what I’ve heard, engineers and other professionals are way over-represented in the audience compared to the general population. We may think we’re pretty smart, but we are actually some of the biggest suckers out there when it comes to the unfortunate condition known as gadget addiction. I’m right there [...]

I’ve only got 59 minutes left to finish this article for you. But I’m glad to have this time limitation, because it will keep me from going into my usual random sidetracks and wasteful web surfing that can easily end up burning half a day and leaving me with a stiff neck and a guilty [...]

Back in November, I read an article in the Economist with the tagline “House of Horrors: the bursting of the global housing bubble is only halfway through”. I usually pay close attention when the Economist calls a bubble, because unlike the daily rollercoaster of stock cheerleading and fear you read in most US newspapers, the [...]

I grew up in a pretty low-key family, financially speaking. We always had plenty of money for groceries and my parents never went into debt, but if you were one of the Joneses* living down the street from us, you’d be hard-pressed to notice any flashy spending. This upbringing occurred in a pretty small town [...]

One of the easier rules of Mustachianism is that you should shoot for using about 60-75% less power than the average US household (as described in this earlier article about electricity). By accomplishing this, you’ll end up about $13,000 richer every ten years. A big part of the savings comes from angrily smashing up any [...]

Keeping our tradition of occasional words of wisdom from readers on the weekends, I thought I’d share this educational article my Dad sent me some time ago on the topic of shaving. I covered my own take on the issue long ago when introducing what I like to call the Universal Men’s Grooming Device. But [...]

Many of our reader case studies have profiled people who are earning an average income, and looking for ways to make the most of it. They want to pay off debts, support a family, and save for eventual financial independence. Today’s story comes from another side of the spectrum: a recent Harvard Law School graduate [...]

It has been a while since we ran an MMM challenge here at Mr. Money Mustache. The last one, where I instructed you to start getting your groceries with a bike trailer, was way back on October 20th. And even that one was a bit of a cheat for me, since I didn’t have to [...]

In a recent article, I shared my enthusiasm for some of the confidence and hacking-the-system approaches covered in the Tim Ferris book. In the reader comments that followed, there was lots of agreement but also some Tim-bashing, suggesting that he advocates taking unethical shortcuts and shunning real work. They had a good point, and it [...]

There’s a thoughtful debate going on right now over in the Money Mustache Forum, where people are comparing different strategies for investing in rental houses. Some people prefer to save up the full purchase price of a house before plunging in and making the move. Others will make the buy using a mortgage but then [...]

The other week while enjoying a day of catching giant fish on Lake Tahoe, I got another interesting question from a reader. I think this one is worth answering online, because the situation probably sounds familiar to many people. Hey MMM, I have a situation that only your level of badassery can cut through. Let’s get [...]

“Who is this Tim Ferriss guy?” If find yourself asking that question, then congratulations, you get five extra Mustache Points for not tuning into US mainstream media for the last several years. In fact, I myself was blissfully unaware of his existence until I started this blog last year and noticed everyone either worshiping or criticizing him. [...]

What’s your style of investing: Stocks, or Bonds? And if you say “Stocks”, are you fond of Small Cap or Large Cap, and would those be in the categories of Value or Growth, and in US, European, Asian, or Emerging Markets? I’ve learned that readers of Mr. Money Mustache vary widely in their response to [...]

HVUXHJGMMJ5U Oh hi there. It seems you have snuck onto the blog right as I was doing some minor maintenance. The code above is a “technorati claim code”, which is something I need to put into the MMM RSS feed so that the obscure “technorati” service will recognize this blog as belonging to me. Why [...]

Mrs. M and I recently learned that this is the week that the department stores like us to celebrate “Valentine’s Day”. I approve of this special day, because hey, love and romance are good things. So are little paper hearts that you and your kids create and draw pictures on. But as usual, there are [...]

Hey! What’s that new link on the menu above? FORUM?? YEAH! The Mr. Money Mustache blog now has its very own FORUM!! Technical Wizard Mrs. Money Mustache has set it up, and I have pre-configured it with a variety of exciting topics that should spark discussion. Check it out at http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/forum/ As with most online forums, [...]