Author Topic: Intro to Mustachianism for the regular retiree?  (Read 1684 times)

isabella

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Intro to Mustachianism for the regular retiree?
« on: August 13, 2014, 08:46:48 PM »
Hello all,

My parents are about to not-early-retire at the age of 67. Now first off let me say they are quite responsible with money and don't spend beyond their means. They got me started on the right path and, other than their mortgage, none of us carry any debt. They've saved up enough money that they should have a fairly comfortable retirement. I recently convinced them to switch off of Verizon and onto a prepaid phone plan taking the bill from $120 without data to $25 with. It sounds like the satellite TV will be gone soon too.

However, I was talking with my mom and she estimates that they'll be going through $80,000 (!!!) a year. We live in Texas where the cost of living is low. Where's that $80k going to? Well, their garage is filled with crap. There's a wood chipper which has been used a grand total of one time, a riding mower that gets used once a month. There's the near-daily trips to the grocery store which burn up so much gas. Dad's truck and the SUV that my mom drives because she NEEDS to be able to see over people. You know the drill. Actully now that I think of it, if they could just let go of their attachment to all the crap in the garage, I probably wouldn't need to post this.

I'd really love for them to be able to cut back on the waste and spend some of that money on something more fulfilling like creative hobbies or travel, and in case any of their retirement income dries up.

So I'm looking for recommended reading that would be targeted specifically at convincing the comfortably retired to be more frugal. I'll definitely be forwarding them some Mr. Money Mustache articles but I worry that the early retirement language will cause their brain to shut down before anything gets through. But if you have any resources on or off this site I would love to hear about them!