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



## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

It's amazing how little you need to retire if you are willing to cut all the waste.

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


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I love this guys blog and feel like he's my long lost brother or something.. kind or weird, but I agree and do almost everything he writes, before he even wrote it. His attitude, spending and habits are very close to mine. Difference is, he's a better writer than me and probably a stronger will to make big changes like moving to a cheaper country to live, etc.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

He is very fortunate that he and his wife have the same attitude towards spending. :encouragement:


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I would agree with that. I think that is a HUGE part of making his story successful. 
But you can say that with money in any relationship.. you should both be on the same page. (approx)
I just wish my wife would ride her bike to the transit! lol Not a big deal since we have accomplished so much already and our habits tend to follow..


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

He 'earns' quite a lot of money in retirement.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

He def doesn't ''seem'' retired.Runs a blog/rental/markets/side construction jobs............More like the man @ 30 that doesn't have ''traditional'' employment?


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

A lot have pointed that out, but he has "own" definition of Retirement. He claims to be financially independent and his time is used for construction renos and blogging which also earns money. A guess different from a traditional retirement definition.

I guess when someone asked "what do you do?", you could say I do renovations/construction and blogging.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Another Derek Foster?


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

I like this guy, although the comparison to Derek Foster is fair. Both are still working, although it seems like on their terms and not 9-5.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I kind of disagree with the definition that if you're retired, you can't earn money by working. Maybe we need a new definition or title for this.

I think when I retire, I will do small stuff to stay busy. But It will be the stuff I enjoy and not need the money.


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## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

I would call him financially free. His passive income is enough to cover his expenses so he doesn't "need" to work if he doesn't want to.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Jungle said:


> I kind of disagree with the definition that if you're retired, you can't earn money by working. Maybe we need a new definition or title for this.
> 
> I think when I retire, I will do small stuff to stay busy. But It will be the stuff I enjoy and not need the money.


It would seem that if the definition is "needing" the money - then Mr Money Mustache is not retired as he clearly says that his living expenses are coming from the house rental.

Personally, I favour a definition that factors in the amount of time required for the "needed" money. If the house rental is taking most of his week to manage - then yes he is working. I suspect it doesn't which would mean he's retired.

After all - consider those "retired" that are living off investments but are spending four days a week taking care of the investments. Are they retired or are they working?


Cheers


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

My husband retired about 4 years ago but he went back to work one day a week just to have a change from being around the house.He did a full basement of 1600 sq ft in our house plus did 1100 sq ft basement in an investment property we had but he didn't make any money for that.He loves working with his hands and although we were going to hire a contractor to paint our home as we have 17 ft ceilings on main floor , he built a scaffold from the main stair case to the bulk head walls and insisted on painting it himself to save the $7000 the contractor wanted.I think he clocked less hours working his full time job than he does now but the bonus is every night we get a gourmet meal he prepares for us .
I think to be retired means you no longer have to work to make money ,if you elect to take a part time job does not void your retirement.We own multiple rental properties that contribute to our monthly income that we plan to live off down the road but been lucky that we had to change one set of taps and last year a tree came down on a roof but we hired roofer for that .


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

It's worth reading his response to people who say he's not really "retired."

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/13/mr-money-mustache-vs-the-internet-retirement-police/

Key excerpt:

At issue right now, is the definition of “Retirement”.

“You’re not retired if you work on houses”. If I can somehow suppress my urge to build things and sit inside, THEN will I be retired? What about if I work only on my own house? Retired, or no?

“You’re not retired if you have a rental house”. If the tenants never call me for any reason (as has been the case for the past two years), THEN am I retired?”.. or if I sell my rental house and transfer the money to a REIT which offers equal yield, can I be retired then? What if this is less fun? What if I subsequently do a bunch of research on REIT funds and allocate my investment across several, rebalancing occasionally?

“You’re not retired if you have a blog that makes money – even if it’s about early retirement”. If I take down the remaining ads, THEN can I be retired? Or is the work involved the issue? Would I be retired if I had a robot that wrote the blog for me, but I collected the revenue?

What if I still did the writing, but I did it only while sitting on the beach while being fed intravenously. Would I be more retired than if I wrote it from my couch at home as I do now?

“It’s a shame we don’t have a better name for all this stuff we’re doing as Mustachians. Retirement doesn’t sound right. Financial independence comes closer. Can we invent a new word for it? How about Removed?”

News Flash: the perfect word has already been invented. Are you ready to hear it? Here it is:

Retired.
It’s perfect just as it is. It’s just like “Financially Independent”, but it sounds more amazing and it uses 75% fewer syllables."


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

I post over at the MMM forum every now and then.

Every thing I've read over there suggests I really don't need to work much longer.

My net worth is significantly larger than the Mustached One, we have no kids, no debts, and here's the kicker - my wife intends to work another ten years. Sometimes I wonder what I'm waiting for.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Jon 
When you retire I will send you some recipes , wife won't even complain about working if she comes home to a nice home cooked meal !


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

marina628 said:


> Jon
> When you retire I will send you some recipes , wife won't even complain about working if she comes home to a nice home cooked meal !


Marina, I would have absolutely no problem having dinner made for my wife every night when she got home. In fact, learning to cook proficiently (right now, I'm a bit of a hack in the kitchen) is something I want to do very much. The recipe offer is appreciated.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

marina628 said:


> Jon
> When you retire I will send you some recipes , wife won't even complain about working if she comes home to a nice home cooked meal !


ha! If only I could get that in writing!


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

First thing my husband did when he gave up working was take some cooking classes then he discovered the internet.He goes to one site where you type in ingredients and it spits out a bunch of things you can make with that stuff.We got him all the upgrades you can imagine in the kitchen and it has paid off .Now that I am a diabetic he even makes BBQ sauce from scratch and salad dressings .


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

marina628 said:


> First thing my husband did when he gave up working was take some cooking classes then he discovered the internet.


Cooking classes are great - it really helps to learn from someone in person who can answer questions.

That said, with youtube, you can probably do pretty well without any actual classes.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Cooking and planning meals at home is a big part of being smart with money and is also good for your health. We all know people who eat way too much fast food and it's also a very, very expensive habit over time. 

I took cooking classes for school and basically prepare meals 5-6 days a week. We just get some good cook books and have a library. We also have a list of cheap and easy meals, but they are healthy. My wife is spoiled. (so she should be) The girls at work want to trade! lol


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I do dinners, husband does lunches and breakfasts (lunch = leftovers from dinners, but he packs up and prepares)


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Jungle said:


> Cooking and planning meals at home is a big part of being smart with money and is also good for your health. We all know people who eat way too much fast food and it's also a very, very expensive habit over time.


While I agree with this and we cook nearly all our meals (we go out to eat for 2-3 meals a month), in some places you can actually spend less by eating out than cooking at home, especially if you have a small household (one or two people). When my brother lived in California he kept no food in the house because he tends to overeat; he ate all his meals out, mostly salads, and actually spent less per year on food than he did once he started cooking for himself. The main reason was that when he cooked for himself a lot of ingredients went to waste (for example in most grocery stores you can't buy sticks of celery individually, you buy a whole stalk, which then sits in your fridge and eventually goes bad if you don't use it up quickly enough; herbs in particular get expensive this way because you generally have to buy more than you need and if you're not good at planning meals to use them up, they go bad). He ate at Whole Foods or takeout places so didn't have to tip servers, brought his own water to drink. He tracked his expenses and spent nearly twice as much on food annually once he started cooking his own meals.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Yes cooking for one is actually hard. Because you cook meals and recipes and are kinda meant for 2-4 people.. you find having left overs for 5 days and food goes crappy, like you said, ingredients that are way too much get thrown out. Before I was married, this was the case it was much better cooking for 2 or family.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

My daughter lives alone so she eats a mixture of Dad's freezer foods and take out , rarely cooks herself.She is vegetarian and seems quite content with throwing on a stir fry or getting sushi.


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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

'food in mustache' thread. :sour:


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