Author Topic: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!  (Read 5348 times)

Khao

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 185
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Montreal - Canada
An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« on: January 18, 2013, 08:20:31 AM »
I was surprised this morning when I went to see tech/hacking/startup news-related website called Hacker News and saw that the top news was MMM's article "The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement"

The readers seem to like the article a lot from the little comments it has gathered so far : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5078702

We can keep saying that MMM's philosophy rings true with software engineers and developers!

Paul der Krake

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5854
  • Age: 16
  • Location: UTC-10:00
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2013, 08:38:57 AM »
I'd be curious to see the numbers for forum signups at the end of the week. Maybe arbelspy or another mod has access to those?

arebelspy

  • Administrator
  • Senior Mustachian
  • *****
  • Posts: 28444
  • Age: -997
  • Location: Seattle, WA
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2013, 09:07:21 AM »
I'd be curious to see the numbers for forum signups at the end of the week. Maybe arbelspy or another mod has access to those?

I don't have that data exactly, but we can figure it out starting from now.

Hit members>view the member list.   It says there are currently 2530.

Check at the end of the week and see how it's grown.  Of course, we won't have anything to compare to.  ;)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

COguy

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Location: Longmont, Colorado
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2013, 10:02:40 AM »
A lot of complainypants in the comments you linked talking about how it cannot be done.  It seems to me when people get introduced to MMM/ERE they focus on the math.  Some scenario like:

-Save 25 to 33 times your annual salary then never work again.

Then this elicits responses like:  What if everyone does this?  It won't work. 

I think this is how most people see the FIRE lifestyle, but there is an equally important other side to the Mustachian coin which encompasses in sourcing things and learning to disconnect yourself from the consumerist machine (or whatever you want to call the standard western lifestyle).  Personally, I didn't fully understand this side of the mustachian coin until I read Early Retirement Extreme and it was laid out for my analytical mind.  Now I have gone whole hog on riding my bike, shopping for sales and then cooking with what If I found, learning how to do almost everything for myself, etc...

I now believe I could live off of $7,000/year if I set my mind to it.

Of course one can skip this side of the coin and just focus on the math and save a shit load and pay everyone else.  But, I consider that sort of missing the point and very dangerous to boot. 

Anyone have a similar journey?

DebtDerp

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 155
  • Age: 35
  • Location: Seattle
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2013, 11:42:34 AM »
Quote
You've now got this guy constantly worrying about the $20 a week he spends on coffee. Then, when he inevitably heads to starbucks he thinks he's failed. "Man, I can't even stop paying $4 a day for coffee..."

Someone needs to also forward this guy an article on hedonistic adaptation. Once the guy realizes he doesn't need the coffee and can live just as happily without it how likely is he to constantly worry about it?

I used to be this guy! I would buy a $2.50 coffee every morning! Now I don't. I don't miss it and I never worry about it.

Nords

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3421
  • Age: 63
  • Location: Oahu
    • Military Retirement & Financial Independence blog
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2013, 01:33:30 PM »
We can keep saying that MMM's philosophy rings true with software engineers and developers!
Unlike lawyers, doctors, and professors, those two occupations haven't been around very long.  They're just beginning to achieve the critical mass necessary for large numbers of their members to express feelings of burnout, frustration, fatigue, and the rest of the workplace issues.

I wonder if hackers ever have a reason to retire.  Maybe the only thing these guys (and they're almost all guys) care about is developing a smartphone app that will pay a five-figure passive income for several decades.

BPA

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1202
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2013, 09:52:44 AM »
Are we to believe that these people haven't already asked for their 5% raises? 

As for those who believe the sky would fall if we all stopped consuming at the current average rates, I remember a wonderful blog post by a blogger whose name escapes me, "Thanks for taking one for the team."  So, while they complain and consume, the rest of us can just benefit from the increase in their taxes to support their lifestyles and buy their stuff second hand once they upgrade because they think they are too cool not to have the latest stuff.  We can do it while sleeping in and doing whatever we like while they can go ask for another 5% raise.

PolarBeer

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 54
  • Location: Europe
Re: An old MMM article on top of Hacker News!
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2013, 05:08:36 PM »
Quote
You've now got this guy constantly worrying about the $20 a week he spends on coffee. Then, when he inevitably heads to starbucks he thinks he's failed. "Man, I can't even stop paying $4 a day for coffee..."

Someone needs to also forward this guy an article on hedonistic adaptation. Once the guy realizes he doesn't need the coffee and can live just as happily without it how likely is he to constantly worry about it?

I used to be this guy! I would buy a $2.50 coffee every morning! Now I don't. I don't miss it and I never worry about it.

Gaaahh...

Ok, well... He does have a point. Its just that he doesn't get it himself. If he had at least been a bit less defeatist and assumed that lots of people can improve if just motivated correctly, then I'd have been ok with what he's writing as a realistic/pessimistic world view. But he's just completely given up and want people to "automate" more savings and just "earn more". How is that supposed to make things better, or rather how is that supposed to make anyone learn or improve?