Jan 12, 2014
Luxury, luxury, luxury. What a strange and grand country this is, where the necessities are virtually free, so we end up spending most of our income on optional luxuries in the quest for ever-fancier pants. The Money Mustache family is no exception, and 2013 was another tight navigation along the border between “Enough” and “Too Much”.…
I suppose I can’t blame him, because this IS pretty nice. It’s Monday morning, and I just dropped him off at school, rode the mountain bike and trailer back home through the deep and fluffy remnants of the latest snowstorm, and settled in with this laptop and my sunny, empty house to compose my thoughts…
I’m pretty sure we’re all being scammed. I have been collecting evidence on this for over 15 years now, and it’s starting to look pretty compelling. If you’re skeptical, see what you think of these stories: Happily Oblivious In my own life, I’ve rarely had much occasion to think about cleaning. Sure, if a surface…
Part One: Avoiding Pitfalls when Buying Shitloads of Stuff The New Old House project is going very well, thanks for asking. Slowly, if you measure the progress by any sort of professional standard, but very well, if you consider the fact that I am having an absolute blast working through it bit by bit. “What…
Canadian Retirement Investing with Mr. Frugal Toque – Part Deux Previously, on Canadian Retirement Investing with Mr. Frugal Toque (see Part 1), we discussed the two major investment vehicles that are available for private individuals who do not have company or government pensions available to them. Those were the RRSP and the TFSA. The key…
Imagine for a moment that you are a warrior. Everything you own is on your back or strapped to your body, and you move effortlessly through the jungle. You’re on a mission of critical importance. Your success determines the fate of many people, who will be grateful if you succeed. But you are not worried…
Today we bring back the ever-popular reader case study series with an interesting twist. First of all, our subject is a new reader, with sizable financial baggage from earlier decades, but plenty of potential for improvement. Equally notable is the fact that I have enlisted some outside help for the research and analysis. During a…
The season of magic is upon us. Right around now, most consumers are laying plans to intensify their spending frenzy for the final month of the year. After all, what better way to celebrate the holidays and the accompanying temporary freedom from work, with additional financial bondage to that very job? Since you and I…
As an Economic Unit in a Capitalist Economy, you probably spend most of your time scurrying about Maximizing your Utility. Right? You buy things which give you pleasure, or sell them when the cash you’d receive is greater than the pleasure of keeping them. You choose the job that offers the best tradeoff between things…
A few weeks ago, the MMM family lost about $12,000. While this might sound like quite a bummer, the event wasn’t upsetting in the least. In fact, the days between that fateful event and today have been some of the most joyful and free days of our lives so far. As you know, Mrs. Money Mustache…
I’ve had the chance to go to lunch with quite a few visiting Mustachians of late, and a theme has been popping up in the conversations. Like my own family, many of these readers have been leading slightly-less-ridiculous-than-average lives for years, which has led to a considerable surplus of money. But amassing money is just…
It has now been a whole year since the MMM family made the jump to a low cost / high-deductible health insurance plan, so I figured it would be useful to provide an update on how the year has gone. The one we ended up with was called the “Saver80”, a barebones but useful plan…
