Not to mention business expenses for tons of travel.
If you had a vacation you took and categorized it as "business" because you looked at some properties, would you still feel similarly about not including that spending as your personal spending @SwordGuy?
If it was a legitimate business expense (as opposed to a IRS qualified business expense), I wouldn't include the expenses related to just that portion of the trip. Any extra expenses that were purely vacation oriented would be counted under personal spending for FIRE calculations.
Piggy-backing a vacation on a business trip is just being smart with your money.
MMM did lots of travel to spread the word about FIRE, which he did a great job of. His blog funded that. I consider the basic costs of making those trips business expenses. If he brought the family along, those would be personal expenses. If he stayed over an extra week for fun, that would be personal expenses.
If he quit his blog business those business expenses and the need for them would vanish. They aren't an essential part of his post-retirement expenses to live on.
Complaining that he doesn't use some types of insurance because he's backstopped by a stash is the same way. We don't use life insurance anymore. Why? Because at our ages it costs a lot of money and it doesn't really add much value for that cost. We no longer need life insurance to survive on if one of us died. I'm not "cheating" on my FIRE expenses because I don't buy it.
Same thing with not paying a mortgage because I paid off the mortgage early. I've seen people get their knickers in a wad over that issue, too. It's no longer an expense so I don't count it for tracking the answer to the all-important question, "How much income do I need to remain retired?"
Seems very clear to me.
all of those things are barriers to the avg person when they see him proclaim his expenses and they also become excuses for the avg person not to join in the great journey we're on. I think ChooseFI has probably done the best to bring this mainstream recently and declassify the RE stigma from the mantra. They have different motives than MMM though - as he wants people to consume less overall. Where chooseFI promotes just financial literacy and consuming less can and is one of the easier paths to FI in accumulation.
but we're super off topic now - the 4% rule is crazy safe
I get that point, but I also see it as one of the awesome benefits of being financially independent and focusing on just building the life you want.
I agree that continuing to call it a 25K spend is a bit silly, but on the flip side, it's also kind of awesome that this guy retired because he could afford to and then by focusing on just doing what he enjoys, managed to find a way to get other people to pay for all of his luxuries.
I know for me, part of the perks for my work was endless high end dinners, often at private clubs, and galas, and high end conferences, and free luxury sports tickets. But now that I can't do that work, I would never pay for those things out of my own pocket.
Was it disingenuous for me to not claim those dinners and events in my spending? Few of them were absolute requirements of my job.
Should someone who gets free theater tickets because they volunteer there include the cost of tickets in their spending?
What about cc churning?
There's no clear line as to where a perk or business expense should or shouldn't be counted towards someone's spend. Instead, the main focus of Pete's retirement budget should be "holy fuck, this dude found a way to live this remarkable lifestyle where he has more luxury and it costs him negative money!"
I personally have never cared much for Pete's pre FIRE journey, it doesn't interest me. The part that caught my attention was his post-FIRE life. To me, that's where the really appealing story is.
Not "Dude saved a bunch of money in his 20s and never again had to work". I mean, cool story, but not my jam.
But "Dude at 30 pursues a life of following his passions, quits his day job, and stumbles face fucking first into a fantasy dream life where he can do whatever he wants and live like a fucking king"
Now that's a story that turns my head.