So far you haven't put a cohesive disagreement with the article. You don't like it, that's fair. But stepping away from your dislike is there anything wrong with the article or are you just dragging some luggage into it? You've articulated that you think he's not being honest with his reasons for monetizing the blog, fine. But do you have something to actually say about the article?
To be specific, it's the claim that the life he claims to live for 25k/yr while doing things like buying a house, rehabbing it significantly, buying his Mom a roof, flying to South America (and lots of other travel), and who knows what else... I just think there's a lot of hypocrisy in the post. I'd estimate that his family spending is more like 100k/yr (running the site, buying stuff to test, his home rehab, travel, etc.), and that is why his life looks so desirable. I think he has even said it himself, if they just biked to the library and lived a 25k/yr life, that nobody would pay attention.
Interesting points, but I don't think he's being disingenuous.
Yes, he bought and rehabbed a house...but he did it by selling a more-expensive paid-off house....he bought a less-expensive house, renovated it, and still made money on the deal. It didn't "cost" him anything because he'd already put in the work to pay off his old house.
He also didn't pay for a trip to South America. Just like I didn't pay for the work-trips to Germany and France, or the work-conferences I attended in Hawaii (twice!) and Prague. Were they cool trips? Totally! Were they vacations? No- I was working, and work paid for them. He wasn't taking fancy trips to South America when he first started the blog- he's taking fancy trips to South America BECAUSE he has a successful blog. The trip happened BECAUSE of his blog. Nobody is paying me to take a fancy trip to South America, because I don't have millions of people reading my articles every day. But if I get my act together and write a paper this winter, I might get a free trip to Vail next year for a conference.
Go back and read the first few months of posts. He was posting daily, or nearly, to build readership- putting in a lot of work. He was writing exactly the kind of posts you're asking for- biking to the library and living off of $25K/year. And people DID read it. I love those early posts, in fact. The blog has had to morph a bit, cause how many times can you write a compelling article about biking to the library? Now he's branching out to electric bikes, hydroponics, etc because he can, because if he's going to keep writing he needs to write about SOMETHING. He has the opportunity to try out e-bikes BECAUSE he has a successful blog. The blog pays for itself. It didn't start out like this!
And to address a comment above:
So I also continue to work at a job that I enjoy that brings in a healthy income. MMM can have this, why can't I?
This comment I don't understand. Who's saying you can't have a job you enjoy? The point of MMM's blogs is not "RETIRE NOW!" it's "quit wasting, and then you can choose what you do". It seems pretty apparent that he's the kind of guy that gets bored sitting around, hence the side-jobs. But clearly he doesn't NEED that income, right? You say you've made life-choices based on this blog (MMM is part of the reason you're not retired) but you seem to resent what he has to say- that seems like a contradiction? If you don't need the income either, but also like working, then keep working! MMM even made a fancy little acronym (swami) for that situation in one of his articles.
I think....it's a blog. He's a guy. It's one guy's opinion. Take it with a grain of salt.