Hello Mustachians, first post here.
I'm a new reader of MMM, and I've been binge reading my way through the posts from post #1 the past few days. For the most part, I like the idea of financial independence and early retirement, but I struggle to wrap my head around 10 year plans. All my life I have managed 1-3 year plans and it is difficult for me to see beyond that. Maybe the more experienced Mustachians can help guide me?
A little about myself: I'm 32, married with 2 kids and make a good living in a cheaper part of the country. I have all debts but my mortgage paid off and a strong income. I do have face-punchingly expensive cars, but because they are already paid off (and getting old @ 2008, 2009), I have no plans to sell these... yet. There might be fuel cost advantages and what not, but it's hard for me to get past the fact that I like my cars (hooray for emotional attachments!). After reading MMM a bit, I've gotten my act together enough to open up a vanguard index fund and looked at all of my monthly spend (wife keeps a *very* detailed spreadsheet of our spending).
After looking at expenses, it's crazy to think we save so little when we take home so much. The major expenses are daycare for 2 kids, the mortgage, and groceries. The minor expenses don't seem so bad with me being fairly Mustachian looking back on certain things (pack lunch to work, DIY type of guy, home gym, etc). But we've definitely splurged in incredibly non-Mustachian ways on many things that we shouldn't have including our used but still expensive cars (~$25k/ea) a new deck (DIY, but with composite so still $$$), my home gym wasn't from craigslist (new), fancy computer, etc. This is a clear area where we need to cut back and probably sell certain things (putting my pool table on craigs list this week). Hell, I'm pretty sure MMM would tell me I could retire in 2-3 years if I really wanted to.
But overall, there are so many areas of our lives that can be improved and it feels overwhelming. It feels like a monumental task to stop the flood gates. How did you go about it? I am debating doing a full out case study post but it feels borderline asinine when I compare my issues to other's issues.