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May 25, 2011 11 comments

A Road Trip to Early Retirement Extreme

Today is actually a special occasion – Mr. Money Mustache’s first Guest Posting on another blog.

The wise and benevolent writer of the Early Retirement Extreme blog, a guy named Jacob who also retired in his early 30s and has been running that site for several years, allowed me to write a “hello” to his own club of  financial freedom enthusiasts.

By the look of today’s readership stats, there are thousands of us. Maybe we can change the world!

Here’s the post: The quest of financial bloggers to Save the World

many thanks again to Jacob!

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  • Ryan May 25, 2011, 8:36 am

    I saw the article over on ERE and headed over to your blog to check it out – great blog – you have yourself a new subscriber :)

    I particularly enjoyed your post on getting rich with Rental Income – keep up the great posts!

    Thanks,
    Ryan

    Reply

  • Rowan May 25, 2011, 11:01 am

    Hi Mr. `stash,
    I am very glad to have found your blog through ERE. I too live in CO and will become a woman of leisure in about three years. I have a question. I often struggle with my friends who always want to get out of town on the weekends. I love the outdoors the mountains, and sports but not all the hassle, stress and expense that comes with being an endless weekend warrior. Camping is close to free but eating, drinking, transportation and sports gear isn’t.
    I appreciated your prior post where you mentioned that you would rather make a day trip to a nearby mountain biking spot than haul junk 100 miles up in to the mountains for a few days and then back. I’ve already been to all of the nearby hot spots, probably several times as I have hardly been home a weekend in several years. How do I convince my friends and especially my boyfriend to stop doing so much or do I just opt out hope they catch on?
    Thanks

    Reply

    • MMM May 25, 2011, 9:29 pm

      That is a tricky one! I am much more of a homebody than you – I spend most of my weekends right here in the city. But being a Dad is the main factor causing that.

      I like your idea of opting out occasionally – just check some good books out of the library and send off the man and friends and curl up for Lady Leisure at home. Perhaps he will cut back on trips in response as well. As for the friends – I’m not sure how to influence a pack of wild spenders. Host movie nights at your place? Turn them all into MMM readers motivated for early retirement?

      Reply

  • Joan May 25, 2011, 11:11 am

    I am glad we to see someone else doing early retirement – with a kid and in relative “luxury”. My family is doing the same, with a 4 and 6 yr olds. Our friends are always scratching their heads trying to figure out what we are doing differently. I came through ERE and I enjoyed your blog very much. Keep up the great work!

    Reply

  • J.D. Pohlman May 25, 2011, 12:40 pm

    I just came across your blog from the Early Retirement Extreme, and I want to say that I’m impressed! I love your commentary. It’s very entertaining to read. I write about once a week on personal finance, but it’s nowhere near as entertaining as yours. Keep up the good posts! I’m now a subscriber :)

    Reply

    • MMM May 25, 2011, 9:11 pm

      Hey John, thanks for reading! Just checked out your blog and it looks very interesting to me – I like the personal stories, since it lets me the reader spy on the financial lives of other people. Very fun.

      Reply

  • herbert salisbury May 25, 2011, 6:20 pm

    Dear MMM,

    Have you seen the Hateful Pinko Commie Propaganda film series entitled Zeitgeist? According to these films, debt is the source of all money and interest is the source of all evil, and our governments will all be bankrupt in no time since they borrow money from scary groups that secretly control the universe. How can we best protect our mustaches against this pending apocalypse?

    I believe you have good advice- but a thrifty utopia is also perilous. If everyone grows beautiful flowing mustaches, no one will buy stupid shit that they don’t need, our stocks will fail, and we will have to go back to work. Or take up pot farming or something. Thank goodness that human nature will not change, laziness and greed will persevere, keeping our secret mustaches safe.

    I shout: Buy videogames you will never play with your credit card! Drive your Escalade to the grocery store to purchase the latest swiffer attachment! Yes, you need new pants! Two pairs! Make all of the dinosaurs into plastic bags! Each and every one of them so we can stop worrying about it! Collect expensive cheeses! Burn the coal all up! Piss right into the ocean! Throw things away without using them! Then buy newer things! Consume everything! Spend it all!

    Reply

    • MMM May 25, 2011, 10:15 pm

      Very interesting points, Mr. Crazy man!

      There are actually some serious points in there I may someday write about. One is Pessimism and Stupid Conspiracy Theories. I find that at the default level of financial knowledge, people know very little and happily drink the kool-aid and consume. At a slightly higher level of knowledge, like watching some Fox News and reading a few blog postings, some people branch off into fucking stupid misguided crap about “Gold is the only thing worth anything in the world!”, or “The [insert ethnic group or industry group here] bosses control everything in the world including the government!”.

      Then, when you read a few hundred more economics and history books, you become more of an ultimate Mustachian Master. Now you understand both the basis of all the conspiracy theories, and the reason they are stupid and wrong. So you become an optimist again and realize that the world economy – which is actually just the human race – is actually quite a robust and productive thing. And you can use this knowledge and lack of blind fear for your own profit. It is at this level that Mr. Money Mustache sits, in a little Junior chair next to the desk of Warren Buffett Himself.

      And the other good topic is “What would happen if everyone grew a money mustache?” – If they did it all at once, there would be quite a dramatic depression. But if US consumers gradually increased their savings rate and eliminated debt, it would actually be great for the economy. For one thing, the financial sector – that unproductive fake-money-mixer component of our economy – would shrink, and we’d be forced to invest our savings and clever workforce into more productive businesses instead. With a higher national savings rate, we’d end up advancing our own manufacturing, medicine, and energy inventions, and education, and the ever-growing profits would go to us. The Mustachian Nation.

      Reply

  • herbert salisbury May 26, 2011, 3:06 pm

    Dear MMM,
    You are correct. That was a roar of nonsense. But damn, it was fun. And your response was on point as usual.

    h s

    Reply

  • BK April 11, 2014, 9:27 am

    MMM – Not sure if you get notified of comments from years-old articles… but I’m a relatively new MMM reader, going back through all the old posts. Your post on Early Retirement Extreme is EXACTLY why I love your site, and I felt compelled to comment.

    Your stuff has resonated with me, and in a month I’ve made big changes: I’ve driven less than 50 miles in 4 weeks; learned to change my own oil; switched to a pre-paid phone plan, saving $60/month; cut my grocery bill by ~$100 a month; lowered my car insurance bill by $50/month; sold over $500 worth of stuff; moved quite a few investments into lower cost index funds; frequented the public library; and am making plans to build a few simple furniture pieces when i move into a new apartment in a few months. My savings rate is now above 50% (from about 0%….). I’m drinking the cool-aid and am happier than ever. I’m now hoping to retire by 35 as a stretch goal, by 40 at the latest, hands down.

    I’ve also started to secretly laugh at the Escalade-driving, Starbucks-slurping, cable-tv-watching pretend rich….. but at the same time, want to scream at them, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! A couple of close friends owns a fleet of TWELVE expensive road, mountain, and cross bikes, but drives everywhere in our small town (almost everything is less than 2 miles away). My town is less than 5 square miles, but the two main streets are clogged with huge cars in the morning, when school lets out, and in the evening. It’s absolutely absurd. Someone needs to let America know that there’s a better way.

    BUT Early Retirement Extreme doesn’t resonate with me, and a lot of other people, I imagine. I just simply haven’t found it a lot of fun, and often TOO extreme (I almost hate admitting that).

    And for all of that, I’m glad you’re here, and hope you stay on the scene for a while longer.

    Reply

  • IAmNotABartender October 30, 2014, 9:41 pm

    First off, @BK – I am very impressed!
    I found the blog through an article that mentioned you, MMM, and I decided to stop by – and I’m glad I did, because I’ve been reading nonstop for the past few weeks. (I’m a slow reader, which is why I just got to this point.) I just wanted to stop in to say that you have inspired DW and I to make many changes! I’m not even close to a Junior Mustachian yet, but we’ve already started using the AC less (after buying a fan – we’re in Hawaii and the electricity rates are RIDICULOUS), and I’ve rearranged my entire 401K to the Vanguard Institutional Index Fund (for which advice I am very grateful, because I had been investing fairly randomly until now).
    AND, because our water is super chlorine-y here in Hawaii, we had bought a water purifier – but I am very much not a plumber, so it had been sitting around. I finally tried to install it yesterday and failed miserably. However, following the Mustachian principles, today we enlisted the help of our downstairs neighbor, and we got it installed for $20 instead of the $250 it would have cost if we had to call a plumber.
    So, just wanted to say thanks! Hopefully we’ll be making many more changes in our quest for Financial Independence.

    Reply

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