Im surprised the poll skews so high in education level. Why do you guys think that is?
I have heard from MMM haters that his practices are not possible without a high level of income (we all know they are just being complainypantsy)...but do you think that his message just resonates more with those who are burnt out, well educated, and looking for a higher purpose in life beyond the 40-90 hour+ workweeks??
What say you, MMM followers?
I know for us (a pair of PhDs), a big part of developing the frugal tendencies WAS being in grad school for 5+ years. You aren't earning a lot of money, but unlike many "real people" in low-income jobs, you have a lot more free time and flexibility, so there's more potential for figuring out lifehacks or the best ways to reduce spending while maintaining a comfortable standard of living (whereas if you are busting your ass earning $20k/yr while working retail or similar, you're probably a bit shorter on the luxury of time). Students also tend to get a bit of a societal free pass in terms of conspicuous consumption. Driving an old car, wearing old clothes, eating rice and beans, delaying kids: you can just chalk it all up to your "student" lifestyle and people won't get onto you as much about how you should just grow up and get an SUV or a fancy phone or whatever. Also, I would say that at the PhD/aspiring academic level, people do tend to place less value on the usual forms of bling (this is not to say that all aspiring academics are frugal, but that the ways they spend money tend to be less mainstream and often quite individual, so there's not as much pressure to fit in with everyone else via your spending).
Of course, there are also the cases where a lot of education = a lot of debt, thus more incentive to seek out resources such as MMM. I'm sure there's a certain amount of that here also....