Feb 19, 2013
It was about 9:30 last Friday morning and I was just firing up the compressor for a round of framing on the master bedroom addition I’m building at a friend’s house. Well, trying to fire it up, anyway. When I plugged in the beefy machine and braced myself for some noisy chugging, I was greeted with…
Wow, that post about the Internet Retirement Police really stirred up some controversy! We had a wide variety of comments, ranging from those egging on Mr. Money Mustache, to those shooting him down for overstepping his reach by suggesting that we change the dictionary. “Sure, if we call you ‘Retired’ as you insist, will you…
“He’s not really Retired.” “It says right in the blog that he does construction work. Also he manages his own rental houses. And has a blog. That doesn’t sound like retirement to me.” “That Brief History of the ‘Stash stuff doesn’t add up to me. I think he’s making it all up.” “Yes, he has…
Man, that sure was a fun trip. With regular life here in Colorado having resumed so seamlessly, it is sometimes easy to forget that I spent seven weeks of the winter in Hawaii. I’m back to wearing clothes and living in a house with windows, and having ready access to old friends and breathtakingly cheap…
Although the dead of winter is safely behind us, it is still looking pretty cold out on that North American weather map. Austin, Texas recently came close to freezing at night, although that temperature would have seemed warm to people from North Dakota, where it was -30C(-21F). My part of Colorado is going to reach…
At the beginning of your financial life, there are plenty of traps laid out to bite you. In all probability, you were raised by financially unskilled parents, meaning you picked up deadly habits like buying automatic-transmission trucks on credit and commuting enormous distances in them. All while thinking you are living a perfectly reasonable life…
Hey, Happy New Year, by the way. From our vantage point here at the top of 2013, it’s pretty neat to look out over the year ahead and imagine what changes it might bring. Many of us use the January as a time to plan some life improvements, which is a healthy thing to do.…
Wow, has it been a year already? Every year, the Money Mustache family is forced to drop its drawers and reveal everything we spent money on, in as much detail as possible, to you the readers. It’s a fine annual tradition that is meant to set the stage for both learning and friendly competition. If…
What an interesting hobby this has become. I started this “just typing some shit into the computer” hobby almost two years ago, and it has totally shaken things up in the Mustache household (which is only even called the Mustache household because of this blog). I’ve had the privilege of meeting many new people, surfing on…
Well, the Mustache Family is home at last. We touched down in Colorado yesterday morning after an uneventful flight. I learned that United Airlines now makes their attendants shriek a brief advertisement or two into the cabin microphone before letting people settle in – this time was an encouragement to do some shopping in…
The Mustache family is in final sightseeing mode this week before heading back to the mainland on January 13th to brave the rest of winter in Colorado. We’ve got a rental car and everything now, so we are squeezing in all the distant destinations of Oahu throughout the week (it’s a whole 2-hour drive from…
“Honey! Wake Up!” “MMpph?” “I heard my phone ringing a bunch so I got up and checked my voicemail. Luke says the pipes burst in our house and it flooded.. you probably have to go back.” These are the words with which Mrs. Money Mustache awakened me from my otherwise-beautiful Hawaiian sleep this morning. She…
In my ongoing and painstaking research on what separates Wealthy Mustachians who feel life is full of abundance, from Consumer Suckas who can’t seem to get ahead because of life’s many expenses, I notice many patterns. Certain behavioral habits tend to make people wealthier, and others provide a grinding pull towards the gutter. Complainypants disease, an…
So the Mustache family is now happily living in the little vacation suite I built for us with the indispensable help of my friend and host Johnny Aloha. There are still some finishing touches to add (including paint), but for the most part everything works now. The nicest part of this place is the shower,…
Want to hear something really weird? All this time, I’ve been writing this blog about financial independence, a term and movement that is often credited to the 1993 book “Your Money or Your Life”. I had been assuming that Mr. Money Mustache himself was at least partly motivated by a long-ago reading of that book…
This Hawaii place has quite a reputation to outsiders. You can’t get halfway through the word without people’s eyes fogging up as they start to dream about beaches and scenery and sunshine. And much of it is true – even on my third visit, the magic of this place remains. For me it’s the temperature,…
