MMM Survey

[CPA CB]

Hi Everyone,

I'll begin this post by saying it is not a 'recommended' read in a traditional sense - however, I'm looking for insight for a book that I'm currently writing from the MMM community. Ultimately, your feedback will help shape the ideas that turn into the book in a few months from now. If this is the wrong category (which it very well may be) I apologize in advance.

The theme of my book surrounds Success. This is a malleable and open ended word, in that it means different things to different people, but presently I'm writing about financial success (which is certainly a key element of overall success).

My question is - what is it about the MMM blog that turned you on to saving money? What was the important theme that changed your perspective on saving?

From personal experience, as a MMM convert, the concept of saving for the sake of saving never really resonated with me. However, the thing I find most insightful and inspiring about the blog and community is the conversion of money into two things - Freedom and Independence. It turned numbers into a tangible idea and goal.

What about you? I'd love to hear your thoughts, insights, and discussion. It goes without saying that this isn't meant to copy MMM (frankly, I couldn't even begin to try) but I'm curious as to what the triggers were for the community at large.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to hearing from you

[mxt0133]

I have always saved and never spent more than I made, after I started my working that is.  What the MMM blog did show me was fallacy of outsourcing tasks thinking I would save more money.  For example, eating out.  I thought because I made X dollars an hour and this meal cost 1/X and it would have taken me an hour to make plus the cost of ingredients then i should just buy the meal instead of making it myself.  What MMM taught me was that yes initially it would more expensive to make the meal than to just buy it prepared, but overtime you will get learn to make it faster and buy ingredients in bulk to lower the cost.  Also since I was working as salary and not hourly then the cost benefit analysis was incorrect.  I couldn't just work an extra hour to afford the meal.

Another thing that the MMM blog inspired me to do was to expand my skill set and be less dependent on other people's skills.  I don't claim to know or even want to know how to do everything to maintain my current lifestyle but, for things like childcare, cooking, transportation, and financial planning which are the big line items in my monthly expenses.  Doing these things myself usually save me more time than having to work and pay someone to do them for me.

Which is pretty much one of the fundamental principles of the MMM blog, to efficiently use our limited time to be able to do the things that we really want to do.