Author Topic: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself  (Read 3315964 times)

Dutch

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1950 on: February 20, 2015, 07:16:42 AM »
Hi all,

i'm Jan early 30s and living in The Netherlands. on my way to retire early mid 40s.
Just started reading the forums and wanting to reply so here my first post and introduction.

Jan

Gray Peachfuzz

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1951 on: February 20, 2015, 09:13:24 AM »
I am new to the Ways of Mustache, came across the blog from a link that started in DailyKos, talking about going for very low utility bills via high-efficiency. It's actually the 2nd time I was linked here, the first one was related to the debt snowball, but this time it stuck. More on that later, after I recover from punching myself in the face continuously. For me, "early" retirement is already off the table because of my age, but it's not too late to work on a better retirement.

Consumerism: Buying things you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people that don't care about you.

jlajr

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« Reply #1952 on: February 21, 2015, 05:08:37 AM »
Hello.

I'm Jay, I'm 44, single, never married, no children. I was born in the US and grew up there. In early 1997, I moved to Israel, which used to be much more mustachian but has become a woefully unmustachian place in general, but with remnants of mustachianism and encouraging patches of new growth.

Without even knowing it, I've always been somewhat of a financial badass regarding expenses. Unfortunately, I wasn't a financial badass regarding saving until a little over a year ago, when I started reading about FIRE and discovered MMM. Now, THAT was a sucker punch to the face.

Instead of blowing 30% of my base salary on fun but ultimately less-than-worthwhile bullshit, I started saving it instead, and, just like that, my potential FIRE date became 10 years down the road instead of 35.

If you're interested in reading more about me and my Israeli badassity, I just wrote the following introductory Journal entry: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/israeli-badassity/.

Mrs. MM, if you're still reading these posts, you and MMM have my sincere and heartfelt appreciation for all things mustachian.

ShaneD

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1953 on: February 21, 2015, 11:16:25 AM »
Hi. Long-time lurker and recent poster who forgot to introduce herself.

40, recently left difficult full-time job to go independent and continue working toward FIRE in a much more life-friendly manner. Married (also self-employed), no kids, currently living in NYC/NJ area but working on a short-term move to a lower COL area (PA), then a longer-term move to eventual FIRE home (TBD).

Appreciate all the ideas and wisdoms you all have provided!

ShortStuff

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1954 on: February 21, 2015, 07:28:56 PM »
Hi Folks. Been reading posts for over a year, and finally have joined the forum.

Currently in Boston area, 30 something. Husband and I are trying to improve our savings and mustachian ways.

RE: lower COL. Looking to hopefully move to the Central Florida area this year.  If he can find a software developer/computer programmer job down there, we will pack it up. I work for the gov't now and so would have a better chance finding a job once we move. 

seattleite

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1955 on: February 21, 2015, 08:32:19 PM »
Howdy! I'm 37 years old and married with two children. I had initial thoughts in college that I was going to continue living like a college student after getting my first real job but I made too many friends that liked spending money so that didn't work out so well. Fortunately was able to max out my 401k for almost every year work of my working career when I worked for a company that had it. So did my wife. It wasn't until recently that I realized how much money we had saved. I'm now trying to figure out the end game to early retirement. I know it could have been earlier if I had put some effort into it, but I'm excited about making it happen soon.

anon-e-mouse

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1956 on: February 22, 2015, 11:22:55 AM »
Hello Mustachians!
I'm very glad to have found this site (link from an interview MMM did for some money site).
We're a family of 5 in Southern California living the dream.

I've decided to start a blog on this site to keep track of our progress because we have a LONG ways to go.
We have been very lucky in our lives and now is the time to actually set goals.

The Beacon

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1957 on: February 22, 2015, 03:44:53 PM »
I am from NC and have a wife and 2 kids. We live in a small home in a good community.  I was a long time lurker here until today. So here I am.

I was frugal by nature. But I have been more frugal under the influence of MMM. I like to FIRE. But my job has a lot of good things, good pay, good benefits, short commute and relative flexible work hours. However, a job is a job. It comes with a lot of annoyances. So the idea of working a day job like that until you are 65 is very depressing.

I am not too far from FI, maybe a year or 2.  But I am not sure if I want to walk away from this job yet :).. 
« Last Edit: February 22, 2015, 03:52:42 PM by Sharpy »

G-dog

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1958 on: February 22, 2015, 03:46:10 PM »
I’m Karen and I am from Iowa.  I have only discovered MMM and mustachianism in the last few weeks, but I couldn’t resist the name of MustachIowan, since I haven’t seen anyone else from my state.  I’ve been interested in personal finance since I was in grade school, though, when I was nerdy enough to track the money my mom gave me for doing chores.

I’m a 41-year-old mother of two boys and about to be divorced from my husband of twelve years.  It’s a mutual decision, and the more I read on this blog, the more I see more examples of just how opposite we are in our approach to money, saving, spending and living life.

I work from home as a financial analyst for a software company that is based on California, which is some pretty great geographical arbitrage.  I’ve used that to stash as much as possible in various savings accounts, and am focusing on the likelihood of early retirement to get me through this limbo time of not-married but not-yet-divorced.

There's definitely quite a few of us Iowan's here :)

Enough for a meet up yet? I am in central iowa.

MG7

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1959 on: February 22, 2015, 08:07:17 PM »
Hi All,

Started doing ER reading about 6 months ago, and stumbled onto MMM through YouTube videos.

Like the MMM's, I'm Canadian, a former Ontarian, an engineer, and have since moved down to the states for work.  Although never in any type of serious debt problem, from my college years on I have to admit to be a consumerist sucka who (aside from what I thought was generous contributions to 401K + house downpayment savings) spent as much as my salary would allow without going into debt.

I'm glad to have seen the light ... and like many introducing themselves on the forum, am kicking myself for not having known about this stuff sooner.  Had I maxed out my 401K and roth accounts from the start of my career, I'd pretty much be done saving for retirement in my tax advantaged accounts right now!!!

But we can't go back, only forward, right?    After getting a Mint account and tracking my spending, I've been amazed to see how easy and painless it has been to cut a full third off of my spending in roughly 2 or 3 months time!  I'd like to ER at 45, and my plan is as follows:

-Max out 401K and roth contributions until the tax advantaged accounts reach a point where they will mature to what I need at 60+ ... dump the rest into taxable index funds
-Purchase and pay off a home as quickly as possible ... dump the rest into taxable index funds
-Once the house is paid off, super-dump everything into taxable index funds until I reach a point where my index funds will carry me from that age till 60, + work I should choose to do.
-After 60, live off of tax advantaged savings, pension, SS, and anything left over in the taxable accounts

Cheers!

MG7

ADKMike

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1960 on: February 23, 2015, 11:34:06 AM »
Hey, I’m Mike. I'm married with a 1-year old son and another on the way.  I  live in a small town in upstate NY.  I’m a registered nurse and my wife is a psychiatric social worker. 

My wife and I have always been what we consider responsible with our money (never having CC debt, paying down loans early) however it wasn’t until recently that we really started to focus on investing for retirement. We always looked at the fact that we could live off of our pensions when we retired, but after reading MMM the concept of ER has us looking at things differently.

I’ve been reading MMM for over a few months now but just recently starting reading through the forum topics. I’ve been soaking everything up and am excited to apply what I’ve learned.

Juliekay

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1961 on: February 23, 2015, 03:38:06 PM »
Hi I"m Julie. I'm a 46 year old single mom of 1.  I have been out of the workforce for 10 years basically and now find I don't really have any marketable skills.  I am gigging out with a cooking staffing agency, working as an actress for pay, and relying on child support and alimony for now.  I live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the best school district in town, but I'm homeschooling my daughter until this fall when I send her to school.

My financial switch:
No CC debt.
No car payment, should get one in settlement
Apartment 450
Natural Gas 75 (estimate)
Electric 50 (estimate)
Internet 35
Iphone 65
Laundry 10
Food 300 (high quality meat and veggies, we have a paleo diet)
Toiletries/household $50 (includes makeup tp dish soap, cleaning supplies, office)
Gas 100 -120 (OKC is spread out)
Health Insurance 89
Car Maintenance 200 (this has been a rough year, with 100k maintenance due)
Clothes $20 (mostly thrift when I actually need something, or do swaps)

Income: 1500 child support & alimony
Savings: Inheritance and putting any extra earned money $16K this is house downpayment money
401k: $150K
Various other monies: 10K

Almost no debt
There you go.  Trying to be FI before too old HA HA.

arunmarella

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1962 on: February 24, 2015, 04:04:08 AM »
Hi Everyone,

This is Arun. Working hard towards my FI. I love every bit personal finance readings and MMM is the best! See you all on the flip side :)


Wennnz

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1963 on: February 24, 2015, 07:25:46 PM »
Hello all!

Matt here. I'm trying to be a frugal badass in arguably the least frugal city in the country- New York, New York.

Just paid off my credit card debt and now I'm looking to start saving and working toward early retirement. Looking forward to the challenge!


Paultaylor

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Hi Everyone,
« Reply #1964 on: February 25, 2015, 05:07:56 AM »

I am newbie in this community. Feeling glad to be a part of this forum. Here I wanna share my ideas and views about Retirement Calculators.

tia

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1965 on: February 25, 2015, 06:25:47 PM »
Hi I am Tia from Canada and have been lurking for a while now and decided I should contribute if I can. I have learned so much and working hard towards saving for retirement.

laurenfromsydney

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1966 on: February 25, 2015, 06:40:50 PM »
Hi I'm Lauren ! 26 & from Australia, only recently discovered MMM but LOVE his way of thinking 

Guess you could say i'm a reformed spender & i'm now trying to set myself up for FI
I have a fiance (getting married in Oct.) we have a villa we live in & an IP at the snow that we lease out through the winter via Airbnb
Our only debt is our mortages & small amount of HECS (or student loans)

Not really sure where to go next from here, just trying to be responsible with money & save whilst living my best life :)

Mrs. D.

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1967 on: February 25, 2015, 08:56:19 PM »
Hi all. I'm Kylie in Texas. My brother-in-law introduced me to MMM back in November. I've been poking around on the blog ever since, but I think I like the forum even better. There are so many great ideas and stories.

I'm a teacher and my husband is in grad school. We are currently living on one income and paying for his full-time school. We're not in a great position to save, but we're not going into debt either! Our NW topped $100K last year which was a great milestone. My husband has been pretty mustachian his whole life. I began making a transition in my early 20's and would call myself 98% reformed at this point. Glad to be here.

NZAlbion

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1968 on: February 25, 2015, 09:34:46 PM »
Hi everyone,

I'm 25, living in NZ and found MMM last November. I was always a natural saver and have no debt but MMM has opened my eyes to whole new levels. Since then I've cut my car use in half - including walking to work instead of driving whenever possible. Thinking back to that first walk to work and now, I can definitely see my fitness has improved too!

I'm excited to start the path to early retirement - first step is investing my bank acc savings and also planning to move to cheaper rental soon. I'll be hitting up the forums for NZ-specific advice about where and how to invest, and advice about if/when to buy a house, as those two subjects have wildly different circumstances here compared to the US.

~NZAlbion

Minimali

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1969 on: February 26, 2015, 07:26:02 AM »
Just popping by to be polite and say hi.

I'm a 27yr old civil servant living in Edinburgh, making a smidge over £15K as my take home (seeking promotion and pay rise as we speak. or write.) with a savings rate of 35%. MMM has me thinking of ways to increase that percentage, although I share a flat and am somewhat limited by my flatmate. I would happily live without a tv, thus saving electricity and licence fee, but she is less inclined. Thankfully, she doesn't want cable.

No debts beyond student ones and I'd be a fool to pay them off more than what is compulsory through my salary at the moment (the Scottish system is like that.)

I've always saved. It's just what I do. I'm not a big spender, I have no expensive hobbies and I walk almost everywhere in what is a pretty small city. I stumbled on MMM and FIRE after having a conversation with my friend about what I'm saving for because I apparently should be enjoying my money and buying stuff. And, honestly, I'm still not sure. FI definitely, less sure over the RE part of it.

I'm just along for the ride really.

StockBeard

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1970 on: February 26, 2015, 05:37:25 PM »
Hey everyone,
been lurking here for a while but never really introduced myself.

I'm an Engineer, 33 and married with 2 young kids. My wife has been proactively frugal her entire life (looking for grocery deals all the time, etc...), while I have been frugal as a result of my hobbies and interests being reasonably cheap.

Recently I decided I was tired of being an employee and taking orders, but also realized I'm a bit too scared (mostly because I'm the bread-earner in the family) to jump into my own business "full time". So I'm still employed, running a tiny business (closer to a hobby at this point, but generates income) on the side, and trying to accumulate as much as I can so I don't feel the "need" to show up at work anymore.

Wish me luck

Pwning the Rat Race

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1971 on: February 26, 2015, 05:56:48 PM »
Hi all!

My wife, 3 y.o. daughter, and I are in the middle of a major financial shift.  I've been extremely fortunate to be making really great money in IT, my wife doesn't work.   We've managed to cut our expenses as much as we can renting in Santa Monica, CA after selling our second house to eliminate the commute and capture a nice profit from flipping it.  My first house is a cash positive rental but is still upside down thanks to the 2008 housing crash.  On top of being a landlord, I do consulting on the side and I'm involved with two startups, trying to catch an early windfall.  We used to live a far more lavish lifestyle, 4 cars, including a Tesla Model S, lots of dining out, fancy wine collection, and material accumulation to fill our 4bd/2ba house.

We are down to one car, which is a few months from being completely paid off; I walk to work.  We've given away or sold many things to fit into a 1000sq ft 2 bd/2ba apartment.  Our biggest expense unfortunately has been the apartment which is already far below the city's average.  We are expecting another kid in 4 months as well and will definitely need more room eventually.  Thankfully, my job is becoming 100% telecommute soon and we'll be able to relocate most likely out of state in some community nice and cheap and buy another house with a mortgage half of what our rent is now.

But before that, we're planning on doing a 1-2 year "dreamliner" (see 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferris), traveling the world, selling everything once our next kid is at least 1 and vaccinated.  This shouldn't be overly costly, since I'll still be telecommuting and we'll rent cheap furnished places (airbnb most likely).  We are currently living on about 40% of our income, saving and investing about 30% in stocks and traditional accounts (401k & IRAs), and the remaining 30% has been flagged for one startup which I'm a founder in and am funding with one partner (until we can get some investment capital).  Ideally, we'd like to keep this ratio or even improve the savings part when we travel abroad.

Once we come back, we'll settle down and live even more frugally.  With a contractor and a mechanic for uncles and an electrician for a dad, I've managed to acquire a large set of tools, I do all my own remodeling and repairs, plumbing, electrical, carpentering.  I'm also well versed in traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) car mechanics, though I plan on doing EV conversions as a hobby, I'm definitely interested in cycling more.  My wife is a lawyer and a writer and will likely be homeschooling our kids while we travel abroad and I'll also pitch in when we settle down.

I'd love to build an earthship style home, able to be completely off the grid, but that's not a hard requirement.  Ideally, we'd like to find a community of like minded people and maybe do some collective homeschooling and other fun projects.  I enjoy tinkering with electronics and am interested in home automation and growing heirloom fruits and veggies as well as mushrooms.

So yeah, it's became much longer than I originally intended it to be, if you got this far, feel free to ask me anything.

DNJ

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1972 on: February 27, 2015, 09:35:22 AM »
Hi,

I'm a MMM fan from Dublin, Ireland.  I discovered the site in November 2013 and it was an eye-opener.  I work 80% hours, other half works full time (public sector), we've two kids in elementary school.  We've no childcare costs as I finish work in time to collect them.  We're homeowners, who luckily bought at the bottom nearly 3 years ago, had the cash to do a big renovation and are now enjoying a beautiful home within walking/cycling distance of school, work for other half, loads of grocery, homeware and discount stores, a few parks etc. We recently remortgaged to take advance of a lower Loan to Value rate of 3.75%, with 19 years remaining if we don't overpay.  Our mortgage is currently for less than 50% of the value of the house.

We are limited in our investment options for a few reasons - I am both an Irish and US citizen, but resident in Ireland (most of the offshore options on the mutual funds are domiciled in Ireland and a withholding tax is charged on Irish residents, yet it seems impossible to open a US account when you don't have a US address - if I am wrong on these points, please let me know! I file my US tax return as a non-resident each year), plus I work for a major financial services company and would have to pre-clear any trading with compliance (for both me and other half). However, since finding MMM I've been much more interested in my employer pension and have increased the overall total by 36% in the last 15 months - the majority of which is going into a global equity index linked fund, with relatively low fees.  You can retire from the pension at 50, just over 9 years time for me, so this seems to be my best investment option for now.  But if anyone has any other decent recommendations for an Irish resident, I'm all ears....

When I first started reading MMM, my goal was to retire at 50, mortgage free, with a decent amount of savings - and MMM helped me put a decent plan around that goal. However, now I am starting to explore what my options are to "retire" even earlier (I'm tired of the early working hours and would like to put my energy into the family and things that actually interest me) - we're active YNABrs and are very closely monitoring our expenses.  I believe our current savings rate (as per MMM's recent formula) is around 59%.

Looking forward to finding inspiration and advice on here for how to realise our goals...

D

JonasNC

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1973 on: February 27, 2015, 11:01:52 AM »
Hi everyone,
I've been reading MMM for awhile now and finally decided to join the forum to ask some questions I've been wondering about.  My wife and I are both pretty frugal and if things continue as planned, we hope to be FI in about two years.  Never participated in a forum before, so hopefully I can figure out how this community works.  Looking forward to talking to you all.  JH

tenaciousP

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1974 on: February 28, 2015, 12:20:06 AM »
I'm Phil and I live with my wife and daughter in Denver. We've never fit in with our friends and after reading this blog we now know why -we're Mustachians. FI is around the corner for us. Hoping to meet other Mustachians in Denver with kids that:

...eat paleo
...love going to City Park
...love to hike
...love to play board games like trivial pursuit
...drink beer and listen to 90's music (Depeche Mode FTW!)
...think sarcasm is a higher form of humor (we're from NY originally)
...have children that aren't just a little weird they're A LOT weird
...honor their word (VERY IMPORTANT)

njfleck

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1975 on: March 01, 2015, 04:00:12 PM »
Hello all,

I'm Nate, currently living in Indianapolis with my gf and our dog.

Started reading the site about 6 months ago. I was 5 years out of college, my salary had been steadily rising, yet my savings had not and I had 42K of student debt. MMM helped me realize my hair was on fire. SO far, I got the debt down to 30k, sold my car and bought a bike, stopped spending so much money on booze and dinners, invested my retirement account into index funds, saved an emergency fund  and decreased my overall  spending.

Looking forward to getting my high-interest student loans paid off this year and then saving for a house down payment. I also plan on changing careers (yikes) and moving southeast (GF is from Georgia and hates midwest winters).

Interested in chatting about further optimizing spending, being Mustachian in the midwest or southeast, and more.

NinetyFour

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1976 on: March 01, 2015, 04:32:10 PM »
Wow, Nate--lots of great changes in 6 months!  Welcome!

grace_gratitude

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1977 on: March 02, 2015, 05:07:54 PM »
Hi All!

D here, father of two, husband of one.  I'm 31, wife is 2 years behind me.

Wife raises our kids during the days, I head to the office.  I'm pretty frugal in terms of the general public but not compared to what I've been reading around here!

We recently spend a pretty large lump sum of liquidity to build our dream home (240k) and we only have about 80k in our retirement account.  Liquidity is about 40k.  Didn't realize a new build was going to go so far over budget so we didn't have much of a choice but to finish it out once we had closed on the loan and were realizing the overages. I hated that we put so much of our savings into a home as I saw the cash account dwindling (100k in overages) because I wanted the cash to work for us - its very embarassing to be in the position we are in considering our income.  Meanwhile we have a balance over 550k remaining on our note.

It took a handful of deep conversations with the Mrs (getting through the emotional connection with a home build) but I feel relieved that we just decided that we're going to sell our home to pull our liquidity back out and downsize a bit.  Blessing is the home is appraising 250k over what we built it for, so we should be able to capitalize on it and pull out some 400k net capital gains.  With this we should be in a better place to get on track and get things moving forward.

We do own 10 houses with another couple which we began purchasing in 2007, they all cash flow a decent amount but with the market up we are planning to sell at least half of them and begin paying down principal on the others - plan is to have 3-4 homes paid off 5 years from now which should net ~6k per month.

Current net income savings rate is approximately 55%.  TODAY I opened a Vanguard account and moved 20k into it to start - much more will go in once the house sells!  Pretty excited to finally put some money to work and get ahead the way we should be.

I've enjoyed the conversations and challenges throughout the forums and blog.  Its difficult to speak about finances to anyone especially anyone close to you that could judge you in one way or another so I appreciate that people here are encouraging one another and happy for people when there are successes. 

Best of luck to all and thanks for letting me apart of this forum!

 

EdwardMonroe

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1978 on: March 02, 2015, 08:05:26 PM »
Hi all! I am Edward Jobert Johnson Monroe from Grand Prairie. I signed up here because I want to learn the tricks that Mr. Money Mustache has. Though, I am 30 plus years ahead of him, I know that it is not too late to attain what MMM's goal. Need to understand it swiftly, so I can instill these learnings to my sons.

Hoping for a warm welcome here.

Catastrophysicist

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1979 on: March 03, 2015, 12:05:37 AM »
Greetings,

I've been following the blog since October or so. I've managed to steer my family's household in a number of positive directions since then, and save a lot of money (for us) since then. We have student loan debt, credit card debt, car payment debt, and a handful of other small debts amounting to approx. $65,000. My goal right now is to get $0.00 debt in 2- 3 yrs and to then consider things from there. I am 34 yrs old, and wifey is 37, and we have an 18 month old, and 4 year old (we're in the shit.) We have both made mistakes in our trajectory into adulthood for lack of proper role models and ideas, as well as pure stupidity. We don't realistically envision full-on early retirement unless something goes unbelievably right. However, we do envision leaving behind 'the grind' and doing part-time work that we enjoy in order to live comfortably. My wife oscillates between loving and hating this Mustachian philosophy depending on how unbendable I become at any given moment of transaction-- but chicken wings help. I was ostensibly waiting for a 'debt victory' before I signed up for this forum, and started asking for help, and contributing. But lately I've found myself in a semi-hopeless mind-state (which I know violates the MMM Outrageous Optimism requirement) because I have gone to some lengths to get my act together, and I still feel like I am merely treading water. I fear that I have ventured deep, deep into Extreme Frugality (with the purist of motivations in mind) and I'm not loving it right now. I just so desperately want to be out from underneath the burden of debt, and to live my life. It's just a hard rope to walk. I wonder if this sentiment resonates with anyone else out there?

Best,
Phil

kvaruni

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1980 on: March 03, 2015, 03:22:36 AM »
Hi all,

I'm 30, married, no kids yet, living in Northern Ireland, UK at the moment. I was born with a 'stache and have no debt to show for it. Unlike MMM, I am a budgeting guru, and strongly believe in the "pay yourself first" principle. We are in the final stages of buying a house (all cash) and still have plenty in savings/investment accounts all over the world (talk about diversification!). Number-wise, we are talking about a £75,000 property with an extra £7,500 renovation budget, 15,000 CAD cash and 65,000 EUR investments. Saving percentage isn't exactly high for a mustachian, at about 55%, but we are in the odd situation of living separately in two different countries. This means twice the rent, twice the utilities, and ten times the holiday budget to keep our sanity. Luckily, I believe that every mustachian can splurge in one given area of life and travel is ours.

Being a life-long mustachian does mean I have come to balance off frugality with cheapskate quite nicely. You will see me run around with one of the latest iPhones (but I won't tell you I'm averaging £2 a month in cellphone bills, nor that I will be able to sell it for over 50% of its original value after 2 years). I will pay top dollar (or pound) for a TV per square inch (but I won't tell you I keep it at a mere 27", oh, and it is actually only a screen so I avoid paying for a TV license). No car, but two very expensive bikes (one electric import from The Netherlands, one Brompton). It does fit in with my lifestyle to keep frugality under wraps. I've become accustomed to people reacting very poorly when they find out you have the money but don't want to go for a restaurant dinner with them for [insert some dumb reason here]. The same goes for buying our house. I gladly relate as to how hard it is to get a mortgage. It really is when you live in two different countries with no credit history. I just tend to leave out the details that we only had a listen to see if we could optimise our financial situation using a mortgage and in the end decided on an all-cash purchase. Hanging around these forums at least allows me to be more upfront and meet like-minded people. Hope to be able to give some good advice whenever I think I have something to contribute, support people who need it, and also always looking to further optimise my own finances!


I fear that I have ventured deep, deep into Extreme Frugality (with the purist of motivations in mind) and I'm not loving it right now. I just so desperately want to be out from underneath the burden of debt, and to live my life. It's just a hard rope to walk. I wonder if this sentiment resonates with anyone else out there?

Ouch Phil, that sounds tough. But realising you have a debt problem means you are halfway there! Keep hanging in there and keep paying down that debt. Without more information on your income and costs it is hard to provide specific advise, but realise that frugality will definitely help you after you come out of debt, simply because you'll need less money for day to day expenses. Just be careful that paying down the debt doesn't crush you emotionally or puts you in a position where you need to create new debt to respond to an emergency.

sully1985

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1981 on: March 03, 2015, 07:25:45 PM »
Hi I'm Scott,

Recently emigrated to Sydney from the UK to start a new job/chapter in my life. Stumbled onto Mr Money Mustache whilst looking for ways to maximise my savings (as I was approaching the upper limit on my accounts cash savings rate). Anyway, after reading this blog for the past few months I thought I should join the forum and say hi.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1982 on: March 03, 2015, 07:59:07 PM »
Hi!  I'm 41, female, never married (but in the process of getting certified to adopt 3 teens out of foster care).  I'm living in New Mexico and just found this site.  Loving it!

Dmoneyzzz

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1983 on: March 04, 2015, 02:16:48 AM »
Hello!

I love this forum.  It will be such an awesome tool in the future, I'm glad to be here.

Thanks to everyone who is already making this a great learning community!

ThreadPacifist

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1984 on: March 04, 2015, 03:06:42 AM »
Hey Everyone,

I discovered this website sometime in December and have been reinvigorated by the thought of being able to retire early. I'm 25 and married with a baby on the way. We finished paying off the house and became debt-free last year, so we're aiming to really build our 'stashe this year. Looking to learn a lot from this community about investing and have people to talk to about the journey to FI (None of my friends or co-workers have any interest in discussing finance). I'm hoping to reach my goal of FI in 10 years.

jenpino1189

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1985 on: March 04, 2015, 09:14:28 AM »
Hi, I'm Jen
I'm completely new here, and absolutely blown away by what I've been reading.  So...I'm a single mom of three kids (11, 13 and 14) and the sole provider of this household.  Between a couple of credit cards and school loans, I have 21K in debt.  After taxes and insurance, my take-home is $3,000 a month.  I am hopeful that I can do this by myself...would love to hear from others in the same boat who have, anybody want to mentor me?! 
Thanks for the feedback, and hope to hear from some of you soon!
 

gav

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1986 on: March 04, 2015, 09:22:05 PM »
Hello to every one,

 I am just joined this forum and like to introduce my self, I am a professional content writer, writing content, articles, blogs  for websites. I am here to learn some new tips and techniques for writing.


DrWarbucks

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1987 on: March 06, 2015, 02:55:25 AM »
Hi everybody!
I'm Nathan, 32 years old, recently moved to the UK from Holland, working as a "locum" doctor in A&E/ER. Never bought in to the spend more than you earn culture, but always too cynical/scared to go for finicial independence.
Recently starting to realise that working 80+hours a week is probably not how I would like to or should spend the next 20 years of my life.

Recent MMM inspired changes:

Stopped feeling sorry for myself
Put my money from crappy saving accounts in to funds (just 4k euro)
Reading up on the fiscal laws of my new country

Thank you guys for being awesome!


Melayahm

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1988 on: March 08, 2015, 07:47:30 AM »
Hi

I'm in the UK, so some of the items here may not be relevant to me, but still worth a look. I've been leaning to and from frugality for some years now (part hippy), and it's good to find a fresh site  for ideas and support. I have a partner of nearly 20 years and a coming up to 18 y/o daughter. I work part time in a local indie bookshop, so basically, I'm a kept woman!

Caroline

accolay

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1989 on: March 08, 2015, 10:42:55 AM »
Hi, I'm JV from Minneapolis.

Starting reading the MMM Blog about 3 months ago when I came across it in one of those sidebar article thingies that you click on when wasting time. And it all sounded like an F'ing good idea to me, and why the hell haven't I thought about that before? I've read through all the blog posts now, and find a number of similarities between myself and MMM. Getting married in May, and slowly converting my bride to be. Should be done in 10-15 years or less depending on interest rates, how much we work, how soon we have a kid and a couple other things.

Looking forward to it.

keithstache

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1990 on: March 09, 2015, 05:34:56 PM »
Hi,  I'm Keith.  Have been lurking around the site and the forum for awhile now and finally decided to register.  I am shooting to be FI in 10 years.

jwood83

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1991 on: March 09, 2015, 10:17:40 PM »
Hi everyone, my name is Justin and I live in the Southeastern United States (one of those where the heat and humidity require us to use AC). Finding MMM has really opened up our eyes on our wasteful spending, and I want to change that. I'm married with one child, and really looking forward to FI!

Better Late Than Never

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1992 on: March 10, 2015, 01:16:25 PM »
Hi, I'm Sandy from New England. I'm married with 2 sons, ages 16 and 20. We've always considered ourselves somewhat frugal, but there are many areas in which we were definitely not frugal, and I never learned to properly invest the savings we do have. I'd like to learn more about being frugal and investing, and I want to teach my sons how important it is for them to start building their savings, even at their age.

coachese

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1993 on: March 11, 2015, 11:21:58 AM »
Hey!

I am a US Air Force veteran, 46 yo, single with no kids (that I know of), dog-owning IT administrator/Executive Assistant, born, raised and currently living in Northern California.

For every lazy excuse under the sun (and some that weren't), up until about a year ago I never gave one thought (or penny) to retirement. Nothing. No.thing. That all changed when a good friend of mine (age 58) "retired" and is living comfortably in Mexico.

Having traveled much through Mexico on a budget myself and having a handle on the language, a light bulb went off over my head. I could do this too! Only problem was I was living paycheck to paycheck (even though making north of $3400 net per month + $5K in bonuses). I also had the stupid assumption that one had to make $100K per year in order to save any sizeable retirement fund. Woe is me stood firmly on my shoulder telling me that it'll never work.

Now I know better.

I am in the process of revamping my budget and drafting a retirement plan for the future. I have no debt, very little need for credit and am prepared to put every penny towards my goal of blowing this Popsicle-stand as soon as possible.

I am here to learn and to laugh and chew bubble gum. And kick ass. WTH.

Grimrivet

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1994 on: March 11, 2015, 12:09:09 PM »
Afternoon all,
Found the blog through The Art of Manliness blog last week, married 33 year old neurotic tinkering type, lovely wife, three whipper-snappers under the age of 6.  Looking forward to passing around what i know and learning what you all do. 

Mistah Cash Lion

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1995 on: March 11, 2015, 08:57:54 PM »
Hello everyone.  I stumbled upon this blog a couple weeks ago and I have been reading tons and tons of the articles.  Love it.  The mustachian way of thinking and living is very close to where I was already headed/doing.  I'm super excited to have found this blog, because I hadn't yet realized that early retirement could be attainable in such a short amount of time.

I'm 21 years old and looking to retire before or by 30.  It will be a challenge, but I am very excited to be on this journey with you all!

NinetyFour

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1996 on: March 12, 2015, 07:09:23 AM »
Welcome to another MMMer from the Centennial State!

jacquespluto

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1997 on: March 12, 2015, 05:33:50 PM »
Hello everyone!

32, married with 2 kids (5 month old baby boy + a french bulldog).  Originally from Southern Oregon, currently living near Portland.  Found MMM a few months ago after slowly realizing I just can't do the traditional 9-5 for another 25+ years.  Savings rate is between 55% and 60% depending on whether I include principal mortgage payments.  Target FIRE date is between 8-10 years.

My frugal baby steps over the past year have been..

- Paying off my car loan
- Selling wife's financed car for $11k and buying a much cheaper 2nd vehicle for $3.5k cash which also lowered insurance
- Cutting cable for a net $100/mo savings (had to get sling for some sports)
- Bring lunch to work at least 4 times per week vs twice/week a year ago

Goals for this next year..

- Refinance student loans to much lower rate and begin to attack aggressively (hopefully will pay these off in 3 years)
- Explore options for cheaper housing
- Get a raise! (haha)

Anyway, far from perfect, but looking to continue to make some significant progress.  Excited to be part of this great community!!
« Last Edit: March 12, 2015, 05:36:13 PM by jacquespluto »

jmount24

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1998 on: March 13, 2015, 07:46:46 PM »
Hi, I'm Jeff.  I'm a 32 y.o. husband, father of twins, and Director of Operations for a multi-location self-defense training company here in the Baltimore/DC area..  I'm already into some other aspects of badassery, so I'm thankful to have found the blog.  I'm pretty competitive, so I'm paying down debt pretty quickly just to see how fast I can do it. 

My biggest drawbacks in this process are that I'm pretty bad at household repairs, and having tried it in the past, it didn't work too well and I ended up wasting a lot of time and money making mistakes that apparently were obvious to avoid.  So, I'll be leaning heavy on the DIY part of the forum.

But...I'm very, very thankful to be here.

Merrie

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Re: Say Hi and Introduce Yourself
« Reply #1999 on: March 14, 2015, 01:48:39 AM »
Hello! I am here less because I have an explicit goal to FIRE (although I wouldn't mind it) and more because generally I feel that my family is drowning in debt and I am trying to figure out how to dig my way out. I am 32 years old and the sole breadwinner for myself, my husband, and our two little kids. While I've been used to thinking of myself as frugal, I've made some distinctly un-frugal decisions over the past years. Though I make a comfortable salary and we are in no danger of starving, our savings rate is pretty pathetic because most of our money gets chewed up by our mortgage and student loans. More and more as time goes by I lament what seems to be an abysmally stupid decision to buy a house when we did. Problem is, my husband and I do not see eye to eye on finances, and so for every change I try to make to our current standard of living, he is there fighting me every step of the way and agitating for things that cost more money. It's really frustrating and hard on both of us. I love him very much and he is the father of my children; I don't want to break up our marriage over our different financial priorities, and it is true that he's gotten better over the years, but still, it can be really challenging. I have joined the forum so that I can talk to people who can understand and support where I am coming from with regards to finances, since my husband so does not and since I don't want to complain to my friends, most of whom make a lot less than I do.