Author Topic: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?  (Read 14038 times)

mikefixac

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Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« on: April 08, 2013, 11:33:12 AM »
I'm almost 60 and when I first came across MMM, I thought he was a little bit out there, if you know what I mean. But as I gave myself time to fully read his posts, I realized MMM makes a hell of a lot of sense.

Here's an article MMM wrote for MSN: http://money.msn.com/retirement-plan/article.aspx?post=dd544488-f716-496b-b314-8e25b69e7aa9. Notice the vitriol from a few of the comments. The comments are a classic case of: "Nobody knows who I am, I can say whatever kind of bullshit I want, and I don't really want to know if there's another way of living my life".

What I find fascinating though is those of you in your 20's and 30's who've already realized the way of mustachianism is a good way to live life.

Please take a few minutes how you came to embrace this way of thinking/living.

Russ

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2013, 11:59:26 AM »
I grew up walking to the grocery store with my parents, riding my bike everywhere I could (even after learning how to drive), and DIYing so the non-consumerist lifestyle is pretty natural to me. My parents gave me a great financial education as well, so saving a large portion of my income and investing was already bouncing around in my head, although I wouldn't have known what to do with the money after I had invested it. I suppose I would have eventually figured out I had enough to retire on, but that hadn't occurred to me yet.

Mustachianism itself was introduced to me by Grantmeaname, after he found it surfing the tubes one day or something (he can elaborate if he wants). Everything clicked and here we are. It helps that, still being in college, everyone here is pretty open-minded and generally tight on cash. By now most of our friends are converts as well.

matchewed

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2013, 12:10:44 PM »
For me it was through ERE. And that was through Get Rich Slowly I think. Either way mostly what lead me down that path was my first "real job." I was paid more than I needed to live and I had no clue what to do with the money. Get Rich Slowly got me into the idea of putting my money to use for myself. ERE was a bit more of an eye opener in that I've never really jived with living my life like everyone else but I never really thought about how I could apply my own thoughts to my life and life choices. ERE lead me to MMM.

All these things and a desire to teach myself the options out there as a whole and then realize that I as an adult get to pick and choose which aspects of this large grand puzzle of life I get to interact with and which I have to and which I can ignore. Just that rambling statement alone may demonstrate how "little bit out there" I am as well. So it just may have been a bit of birds of a feather sort of thing.

It is mostly driven by a realization that the life that is sold and marketed to you by standard channels is just one of many types of life out there. You have the intelligence, ability, and will to say yes or no to any or all aspects of it. One can just live life on their own terms and if someone else doesn't like it (as long as one is not willfully hurting another person), well tough for them. Their thoughts on how I live my life doesn't factor into my life.

The living simply, saving money, drive towards freedom, and a further ability to live my life on my terms has always been there as a seed. This and other things have proven to be good fertilizer (read into that last part as much as you want :P).

Starstuff

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2013, 12:12:13 PM »
My first job out of college was straight commission at a car dealership, which led to car and credit card debt (no excuse- it was just hard to get a "real life" grasp on money with such sporadic income). After I moved to more stable income, and got a second job, I couldn't figure out why I never had money in my account. I started searching for a good budget tracking software, found YouNeedABudget.com, and was astounded by the amount of waste and debt in my life. I started reading personal finance blogs voraciously, and finally found Mr. MM. My spending has been steadily dropping and my debt getting smaller, and Mr. MM's way of living has been a huge boost to my (still negative) net worth.

arebelspy

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2013, 12:14:05 PM »
Found it through ERE in May 2011, about a month after the site was started.

This poll shows how most users found it (though, of course, it counts only forum users, and not just ones in their 20s, like you're asking).

Happy Birthday Russ!
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.

ace1224

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2013, 12:19:40 PM »
through tyler's comments on GRS

Cecil

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2013, 12:21:16 PM »
I've always been a saver. My parents taught me the value of saving money by opening me a bank account when I was 5 or 6. I'd put my allowance in there, then withdraw it for big things like spending money on trips or new toys. When I was 12 and wanted a new video game system, I had to save up for it myself by working odd jobs. I've always had the mindset of delaying gratification for later benefit.

When I got my first job they helped me set up mutual funds and I started reading and learning about investing, which led me to an interest in personal finance. At some point around 2008 I stumbled upon ERE and a few Canadian-oriented finance blogs like Million Dollar Journey, and the concept immediately clicked for me.

Most people still look at me like I've sprouted a second head when I tell them I'd like to retire by 40 though.

snshijuptr

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2013, 12:24:31 PM »
I wanted to learn more about handling money as my husband and I got married and started saving so like many 20 somethings, I turned to the internet. I have been on the saving advice forums for a while. There I found the Early Retirment forums. From ne of those two I eventually found ERE and MMM.

NumberCruncher

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2013, 12:27:07 PM »
I think it was through a Google search regarding real estate...can't really recall, though.

Always been fairly frugal, but didn't really think about retiring early before I found MMM -- just assumed I'd need several million to retire comfortably, even though I don't live a very lavish lifestyle now (understatement. Sharing a pretty crap 300 sqft basement apartment with my husband...but we're moving to a cheaper area closer to work soon. Man, it'd be nice to have a desk again.)

MtnGal

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2013, 01:04:56 PM »
I found it by googling "Where to put money for early retirement?" I had the realization in talking with my fiance one night that I had not thought about where to put money for the pre-59-1/2 part of retirement. Then I found MMM.

YoungAndWise

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2013, 01:16:52 PM »
Even thought I am not a 20 something (late teens) I found MMM through ERE, when Jacob passed on the torch.

anastrophe

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2013, 01:23:00 PM »
I found MMM through ERE, when Jacob passed on the torch.

This. I was/am a member of the ERE community and found MMM through them.

My original motivations for being there were due to a) shock at how unpleasant the "real world" was post-college and b) shock at how unpleasant the reality of paying off student loans is. Now I just like it around here.

DebtDerp

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2013, 01:39:55 PM »
I found MMM through No More Harvard Debt. I was in search of ways to try and get out from under my Student Loans more quickly and stumbled upon No More Harvard Debt, I think through Forbes or Huffington Post.  About six months later I decided to click through the blogroll links on his sight and that's when I discovered MMM (last December). I am extremely grateful that I did, since December I've paid close to $13k off of my student loans. :)

the fixer

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2013, 02:04:14 PM »
I've got a frugal Dad that taught me well. I also learned early on that being car-dependent is for chumps so I tried to always live close to work and bike commute (not nearly as often as I should have, in retrospect). Then in October 2011, just after turning 28, I saw a lifehacker guest post on The True Cost of Commuting talking about how stupid it is to drive a car to work all the time; it was all stuff I already knew but it made for a fun read. Then I saw a line about biking leading the author to retire at 30... what????

I clicked on that link, shoved a few thousand into VFINX, and went on to read every single post.

JohnGalt

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2013, 02:15:30 PM »
ERE here as well.  Pretty sure I came across ERE while searching for ways to retire on low budgets in foreign countries that I started searching for when I realized that I was already on pace to hit (by my late 20's) a similar net worth to the average retirement aged person.  I figured if they were going to find some way to stop working - I could probably do it too, just much younger.  I was already fairly frugal - but I still thought it would require developing country expenses to do it until I read about what Jacob (and then MMM) was doing and realized it could be done without moving across the world. 

clarkai

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2013, 02:23:42 PM »
Ere. While I was in college, I became interested in happiness and health, and what factors contributed to creating and maintaining said conditions. Surprisingly, a huge house and a big tv weren't on the list. But having time for friends and family, having time for play and relaxation were. Since then, I've been trying to align my life with those ideas. Early retirement and finical independence are merely logical extensions.

KatieSSS

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #16 on: April 08, 2013, 02:59:34 PM »
Through a family member, actually. I was talking about how I am on a mission to pay off my student loan debt and mentioned books I have read (Dave Ramsey and YMOYL) and the blogs I've read (the first ones were The Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly). I seriously started reading up on debt repayment/living the frugal life about a year ago and in all of that time I never came across MMM. But then last Christmas a family member showed me the website. I'm thankful she did!

marty998

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #17 on: April 08, 2013, 03:41:07 PM »
I was on an stockmarket forum which had a discussion thread on Property. That lead me to a property forum where there was a post from someone who earned bucketloads but said "I'm poor and can't keep my all my investment properties". The first reply was a link to MMM.

I spend way more time here than either of those forums now.

plantingourpennies

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #18 on: April 08, 2013, 04:21:28 PM »
ERE.

If you are in your 20's, you've taken the brunt of both the financiapocalypse and student debt.

It'll be interesting to see how this generation responds over the years to having a disaster during their formative adulthood.

Best,
Mr. PoP

Apocalyptica602

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #19 on: April 08, 2013, 04:47:35 PM »
I found it through Get Rich Slowly, if I recall correctly it was in one of the comments on one of the articles a long while back. (Before JD sold the site and the blog lost its voice)

Crash87

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #20 on: April 08, 2013, 04:49:58 PM »
My parents were very young when I was born, so we were quite poor during my early years. As time went on my parents' financial situation improved dramatically, but mild frugality stuck around. I suppose my comfort with what I think of as mild frugality comes from them.

As far as finding this website specifically, I have a friend/co-worker who cruises financial blogs that sent me a link after we discussed that I appear to make more money than I spend. I told him I'd just always have a really nice car or something since my plan was to work until retirement age. Before MMM it never occured to me that I could use that money to retire early instead of buying a car I didn't car a whole lot about. So... just lucky I had the right friend in my early 20s.

This blog also reaffirmed my belief that being health and living frugally brings far more happiness than being unhealthy.

Zikoris

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #21 on: April 08, 2013, 05:05:17 PM »
I used to read ERE from time to time  and got a kick out of it, but was making really crappy money and had other priorities. Shortly before I turned 25, I started thinking how much working sucked, and how nice it would be to not have to, so I somehow paid off my $7000 student loan in 3 months(on a $12/hr warehouse worker salary, still not quite sure how that happened), then started gradually building up some savings, nothing too crazy.

The I got a temporary job at an investment firm, where part of my job was reception relief for an hour a day. It was usually pretty quiet and I wasn't expected to do anything other than answer calls, so to entertain myself I started reading money blogs for an hour a day - everything basically, GRS, MMM, ERE, and a bunch of smaller ones. By the time my contract ended, I was an unstoppable early retirement fiend.

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #22 on: April 08, 2013, 05:26:08 PM »
I was on an army training exercise, and a few of us were talking about how really, all you need to live for an extended time can be packed around in a backpack (rucksack).  I went to the TOC later (a big tent with computers) and googled something about minimalism, which led me to ERE's passing the torch post.  I also read a story about Nords in the Army Times some time around then too, which peaked my interest in learning about finances.

Fletch

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #23 on: April 08, 2013, 06:19:04 PM »
I feel like I saw the true cost of commuting article close to the time it came out, but it wasn't until early this year I the whole blog and the wheels started turning. I honestly couldn't tell you where, maybe through the simple dollar or the huffington post article on his house?

It was really lucky timing though, I managed to make it through college debt free but I could have easily gotten into some bad habits of spending everything I make on clothes, bars, and eating out. I'm not sure early retirement is my goal, but a simpler, financially independent life seems like a great deal to me.

Nudelkopf

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #24 on: April 08, 2013, 07:06:42 PM »
I think I was googling stuff related to having minimal possessions. Mainly because I wanted to find someone on the Internet on the to agree to my aversion to owning crap.

Also, I now totally have a great excuse for not learning to drive... MMM says I don't have to! :P

Adventine

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #25 on: April 08, 2013, 07:12:02 PM »
I remember browsing the RSS feed "What's Hot in Google Reader" and clicking through the Lifehacker post on The True Cost of Commuting. That was late 2011, I think. And it really resonated with me because at the time I was wasting 3 to 4 hours a day taking taxis to work and buying fattening Starbucks crap to make myself feel better about it.

Still, I was relatively frugal, because even at my consumerist worst, I was still saving 50% of my monthly salary.

MMM helped me make the mental connection between savings and independence. Freedom. Flexibility. Self-confidence. All those things I felt were slowly being stolen by the daily grind. So I negotiated a new job with a higher salary, moved closer to work and the train network, starting bringing lunch to work... The list goes on. I feel in control of my life now. I don't feel any more like I am at the mercy of the work-work-work-retire-die system.

Kitty

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #26 on: April 08, 2013, 08:57:04 PM »
I also stumbled onto MMM through ERE and The Simple Dollar.

I was reading around the internet about minimalism and personal finance. I was raised in a "less stuff but high quality" household- not mustashian exactly but a bit unusual around here. My husband likes the idea of self sufficiency (so I've enjoyed reading in Erica's blog, which I found here). We were both PhD students that got a "late" start earning "real" money. Fortunately, that means we are used to living like students but now have a (relatively) great dual income. I don't want to waste it!


hoyahoyasaxa

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #27 on: April 08, 2013, 09:34:14 PM »
I'm 27.  After working a terrible job in Manhattan for a year and a half where I was treated terribly, paid little for the crazy hours I worked and rarely saw my wife, we both decided enough was enough.  I talked to a career counselor who helped me understand that I viewed success much differently than my parents (my parents worked a ton, made a ton of money - six figures each for 15-20 years, and are now in financial distress).  She recommended the book Your Money Or Your Life, which I read - I believe after that I started adding blogs like Brave New Life, JL Collins and ERE to my Google Reader, and finally came across Mr. Money Mustache.

catmustache

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #28 on: April 08, 2013, 10:06:15 PM »
I found MMM through No More Harvard Debt. I was in search of ways to try and get out from under my Student Loans more quickly and stumbled upon No More Harvard Debt, I think through Forbes or Huffington Post.  About six months later I decided to click through the blogroll links on his sight and that's when I discovered MMM (last December). I am extremely grateful that I did, since December I've paid close to $13k off of my student loans. :)

This, except for the paying off loans and stumbled on NMHD because of a CNN interview.

martynthewolf

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #29 on: April 09, 2013, 12:47:13 AM »
I remember first finding an article on hacker news at the start of 2012, I found it interesting but dismissed it as a bit crazy. Then at the start of this year I saw a link from hacker news again and at this point I'd had a pay rise I was in debt and I wanted to sort my financial life out and start getting a safety net and saving for the future.

It turns our I was in a very receptive place. I've cut down on car costs, I ride a bike most places now, I've got rid of about a third of my debt and it comes down even more every month. I've never been happier not buying things :)

mpbaker22

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #30 on: April 09, 2013, 06:54:55 AM »
I found MMM and ERE around the same time.  I was doing a lot of frugal things, my savings rate was 30+% and I was  searching the google machine to kind of see what to do with it and how to do better.  I don't remember which I found first, but have read both MMM and ERE.

23 and was working about a year when I found them.  Found them on 'free-time' at work.

smalllife

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #31 on: April 09, 2013, 07:50:45 AM »
I think I found my way here from minimalist blogs and/or some basic financial blogs.  I was looking for low paying non-profit jobs at the time and trying to figure out how low I could go to be happy at my workplace.  I think I'm on track for 40-45ish (assuming no pay raises or a relationship which would cut down on basic costs) with conservative growth estimates.

The Bearded Bank Builder

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #32 on: April 09, 2013, 01:16:11 PM »
I came across MMM by reading one of his guest postings on MSN Money just like the one you posted. I read through all of it in a hurry and started talking about it to my (now) wife. Next thing I know, I come home and she is on the site reading articles too. Woohoo! We're both 24 and found the site about a 7 months ago

tuyop

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #33 on: April 09, 2013, 01:53:29 PM »
I have a thread on another internet forum where I've been tracking my quest to destroy my own ridiculous debt ($20 000 paid off so far), people who give me advice there dropped a couple of links and I was hooked.

Edit: Just turned 25 and my spouse and I have been dedicating 60% of our income to debt repayment with no drop in happiness and no plans of turning back!
« Last Edit: April 09, 2013, 02:01:55 PM by tuyop »

Reepekg

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #34 on: April 09, 2013, 03:40:15 PM »
I'm 28 and spent my early adult years in Denmark where riding a bike and not having a car (because of 180% tax) is normal. When I moved back to the States on an engineer's salary, I moved close to the job and a big city's public transport because I had gotten used to and enjoyed that lifestyle. Like MMM, I ended up saving a ton of money by accident and had that itching feeling that "I should be doing something with all those savings earning <1%." A bit of internet, a bit of GRS, and a link to MMM showed me someone who has clearly articulated a path I was already wandering down (albeit, less efficiently.)

GreenGuava

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #35 on: April 09, 2013, 09:01:30 PM »
Eh, I've generally been fairly frugal.  When I was in graduate school, the thought of going into debt for my graduate degree didn't cross my mind, since at some level I knew it would really mean going into debt to finance a lifestyle while in graduate school.  Heck, I played golf for recreation throughout graduate school and still put a good number into savings each month.

I think it was a Liz Weston article on early retirement folks that got my attention, and that's probably what brought me to MMM.

marz1982

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #36 on: April 10, 2013, 02:49:56 AM »
Just hit 30 this year :)  Found MMM via ERE, but have no idea how I stumbled upon ERE.  It was one of those "Wow, this guy seems a bit out there" growing rapidly towards "Wow, this guy really has some great ideas", to "*Does some calculations* You mean I can actually retire early and don't have to follow my parent's example of working until 70??"

MMM's blog seemed more mellow than ERE and vastly entertaining so I stuck around!

rvanmanen

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #37 on: April 10, 2013, 03:09:18 PM »
Havent seen it listed yet, and at an age of 41 dont quite fit your initial parameters, but I found MMM through the FatWallet Finance Forums.  I was already on the frugal but not cheap path, but I find MMM helps put my philosophy into words.

Expecting to be FI before 50, possibly even 45!

Vahla

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #38 on: April 10, 2013, 03:36:06 PM »
I saw a lifehacker guest post on The True Cost of Commuting talking about how stupid it is to drive a car to work all the time; it was all stuff I already knew but it made for a fun read. Then I saw a line about biking leading the author to retire at 30... what????

This is pretty much what happened to me as well.  Except I had no idea about the True Cost of Commuting at the time.

LightTripper

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #39 on: April 10, 2013, 04:55:57 PM »
Well, I'm a 30 something but I think you said we count!

I also came via ERE.  I have always lived below my means due to a great income and not too expensive habits (and very fortunately an other half with even better income and more frugal tendencies than me).  I had been tracking my net worth for a few years, and checking figures like 2pc of total assets or 4pc of fluid assets (I.e. excluding house and pension).  It was starting to get to numbers that looked like incomes (albeit less than I live on now) so the oossibility of retirement started to dawn...

But I think what really concentrated my mind was thinking about trying to start a family.  My job is in many ways great, but there is always a price to pay for a high income and I simply don't know if it would be possible to combine the occasionally intense hours required with motherhood.  So while I don't know for sure that I want to retire (from paid work) early, I want to have as many options as possible open and did various internet searches on early retirement that landed me on ERE. 

HOWEVER, ERE, while inspirational, felt too extreme to me to be achievable or indeed a life I aspired to.  MMM is also a challenging standard to aspire to, but I like the fun and feisty style and the forum is a great way to surround myself virtually with "like minded" folks.  They seem pretty hard to find in real life, I guess partly because it's not really a very socially acceptable topic (certainly not in the UK, where we'll happily talk sex, politics or religion before turning to the dread subject of money!!)

clutchy

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #40 on: April 10, 2013, 09:55:31 PM »
I'm 32 and I've been somewhat mustachian in the things I have to have and less mustachian in the things that I want.  I've enjoyed personal finance and educated myself accordingly.
For my peer group I'm way ahead financially, but for people who care and focus on their finances I'm behind.


I finally got over Reddit's interface and was surfing wicked_edge after getting introduced to DE shaving and then gravitated toward personal finance... where I heard someone mention the Mrmoneymustache name.  I said to myself that name is ridiculous but I can grow a pretty mean 'stache so I went and checked it out.

I have to say it's swayed me more than I thought it would.  I've now been selling off a lot of my toys and hobbies that I would pick up for half a year and then drop.  I've been converting them all back into cash to invest in our future.

Getting my CPA license and having a 1 year old daughter have brought focus to my life and I now focus on enjoying the great things I have and have worked for as well as spending time with my family and friends.  I recently realized that my parents were in their mid sixties and I want more of a relationship with them.  We all live in a smaller town in socal and it's pretty nice.

Stoicism has really been a blessing for me but at the same time it has caused some severe stress with my wife who is the earn it/spend it type.  Luckily I have her saving for retirement as well as myself but it's a constant struggle to build capital for rentals etc...  which has also made me come to the conclusion that I may just be forced to slowly build up a portfolio of stocks outside our other retirement accounts.

we'll see how it goes but I respect the message and I'm glad I found it.  Honestly it's making me more politically liberal too which I didn't expect but I'm exploring those feeling as well.  Feels like a mid-life crisis almost...


oh yeah and I had a "punched in the face" list over on another forum years ago... so you know, this is home for me.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2013, 10:05:53 PM by clutchy »

Nancy

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #41 on: April 11, 2013, 07:20:50 AM »
I'm 28. I came to the way of the mustache through a wide variety of random circumstances and choices, but I'd have to pin it down to two major contributing factors: 1.) my parents placed a high emphasis on material possessions and were always in debt/miserable, and I didn't want to be like them 2.) through reading James Joyce and realizing that many of our collective ideas about how one ought to live are just nets.

DanBrewMan

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #42 on: April 15, 2013, 12:07:53 PM »
My parents were Dave Ramsey fans and were desperately trying to turn their financial lives around.  As I went through college, they tried to pass on those principles to me.  I read his book and thought "meh".  I found my way to getrichslowly and then found a front page posting about MMM.  That has since led me to other pages such as ERE.

higginst

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #43 on: April 15, 2013, 01:56:06 PM »
Google search for "should I buy an investment property" or something of the kind last December.  Brought me in when MMM was doing his first income property bit.  I then went and read all the way from the beginning.

nuclear85

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #44 on: April 16, 2013, 01:44:58 AM »
Originally, my fiancee and I started listening to Dave Ramsey... we pretty much got on board with everything he said (minus the religion) and after we got married, quickly paid off the little debt we had (student loans). In DR language, we got 'gazelle intense', and after paying off the debt, it seemed like saving only the 15% of your income that Dave suggests was really small and too easy -- we could be doing better. So I got into financial blogs, first Get Rich Slowly (before it was sold), which led to ERE, and then here. I know a lot of people knock DR, and I agree -- he is financial advice for dummies. But it's a good place to start and to get excited about saving. My parents were never terribly great with money, so I didn't know a lot growing up.

RaveOregon

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Re: Curious--How did you 20 somethings stumble upon MMM?
« Reply #45 on: April 16, 2013, 06:22:06 AM »
I was investigating peer to peer lending and Googled "Lending Club Horror Stories" and this was the top result

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!