I have two aspects to my life that seem very un-Mustachian at first:
- I commute a total of three hours a day, four days a week.
- Our house has a mortgage, and we're not paying it off as fast as possible.
Weirdly, I think that they both are quite Mustachian.
My wife and I have two small children. She stays at home with them, since she loves doing so and burned out on her career and has yet to feel any impulse to pick it up again.
So, that commute. I live on an island near Seattle. I bike about a mile from my house to the ferry dock, relax on the ferry to Seattle, then bike about two miles uphill to my office. It takes about 90 minutes. The reverse takes around 80 minutes, since it's downhill. It costs me $55/month, after my employer reimburses part of my ferry fees. In the morning I spend the ferry crossing mostly visiting with friends. In the afternoon I usually curl up in a corner and read.
I could get a job that is entirely remote, and not commute, but my current job, with salary, stock, and perks like the company giving us $3k/year to cover expenses for our kids brings in between $225k/year and $250k/year. The remote jobs that I have found will generally have a total compensation closer to $150k/year to $190k/year.
We could also perhaps move back into the city, but when we bought, property on our island was running $200k to $300k cheaper for comparable walkability than in the city.
And the mortgage. My parents hold it. We pay them, take the mortgage interest deduction, and they put the money into various accounts. Our interest rate is fixed at a rate below the expected 4% return on capital. Because there is a non-trivial interest rate, the purchase doesn't get taxed as a gift, and they only pay taxes on the payments. They hold my sister's mortgage, doing the same thing. They're already financially independent, so this is basically a way of shuffling money around in the family. My father jokingly refers to it as "la cosa nostra."
